THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG

The Key to Catching (and Passing) Your Market Leader

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:14:35 +0000

If there is one thing nearly universal among small company owners and managers, it is the need—and sometimes the outright obsession—to do what the market leader is doing. Whether copying a piece of their business model, matching their prices, advertising in the same places or hiring their ex-employees, the fact is most small companies spend a great deal of time trying to emulate companies they are chasing. And from experience, I can tell you there are three primary (and dangerous) assumptions at work here:

Assumption #1: Every decision the market leader makes is backed by good data.
Assumption #2: Every product the market leader releases will be a success.
Assumption #3: Every initiative the market leader undertakes will increased their revenue and market share.

But just as you cannot pass the car in front of you by driving the same speed, you cannot pass a market leader by doing what they do. Yet small company owners and managers continue to spend portions of every single day monitoring websites, reading newsletters, and scanning press releases for their competitors’ next move. Although keeping close tabs on a market leader is perfectly acceptable as far as most MBA programs are concerned, in the real world we need to set aside our textbooks for a moment and realize something:

In most industries, companies closest to the top of the food chain are the least likely to do anything innovative, creative, or even remotely interesting.

Understanding there are exceptions to this rule, the fact is market-leading companies have no choice but to pursue low-risk strategies designed to help them keep what they already have, with growth being a secondary focus. Recent history is littered with examples of market leaders who played it safe while companies in second place (or worse) gained ground uncontested. Apple Computer spent over a year stealing market share from Microsoft with its Vista-bashing “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” campaign before Microsoft was finally goaded into responding. In May of 2008, every Starbucks in the world was shut down for an entire morning to retrain employees how to make good coffee and provide better service—something local coffee shops had never forgotten how to do. And it might surprise you to know that McDonald’s was NOT the first fast-food chain to offer healthy alternatives to French fries OR the “value menu.” The Wendy’s chain began offering both in the mid-1980s—back when it wasn’t anywhere near the Top 10 List of fast-food franchises.

The point to be made here is that keeping a close eye on the market leader can be extremely valuable . . . as long as you have no intention of doing what they do. If the time used to monitor a leading competitor is to be spent wisely, it should be spent looking for opportunities to do the opposite of what they’re doing; i.e. finding weaknesses in their product, service or business model which you can exploit to grow your own business. Market leaders understand that one botched product release, one high-profile customer complaint or one bad marketing campaign can give a competitor the opportunity to leapfrog them. This makes market leaders conservative, predictable and risk averse—all of the characteristics growing companies cannot adopt if they wish to reach the top some day.

So what is my point? That the tendency to give market leaders too much credit can become a problem that eventually stifles internal creativity, and (ironically) neutralizes a small company’s ability to step out of the shadows and claim the leadership position for themselves. Companies who are chasing the market leader need to push forward with new products and services, out-of-the-box marketing initiatives, and bleeding-edge technology investments designed to acquire massive amounts of market share in very short periods of time. With this in mind, a key piece of any small company’s strategy should definitely be to watch the industry leader for opportunities. And when it comes to finding the next great industry innovation, the companies who deserve the most attention are very likely the ones who are chasing you.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise a Retweet or Facebook Share (buttons at the beginning of the article), Stumble or Digg (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

9 Ways to Increase Your Small Company Website Traffic

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:51:06 +0000

Regardless of industry, website traffic is almost always a leading indicator of small company success. More often than not, website traffic directly correlates with sales—meaning slow months on the website can translate to slow months at the cash register. And while large companies view 100 visitors per week as nothing more than a rounding error, at smaller firms these web hits could mean the difference between drawing a paycheck and moonlighting as a restaurant server.

With the above in mind, this article will focus on nine primarily ‘non-technical’ ways for small companies to increase web traffic—ways that any small company owner or manager can implement, regardless of background or technical ability. If you would like to add your own to the list, please feel free to use the comment field at the bottom of this page. Otherwise, enjoy!

Traffic Tip #1: Write Your Pages with Web Searchers in Mind

If the goal of traditional writing is to communicate an idea or theme, the goal of writing for the web is to communicate an idea or theme using specific sets of keywords and key phrases. Before developing content for each of your web pages, identify not only what the page is about, but also the words and phrases people will use to search for it. Then, logically and contextually use the identified words and phrases within the body copy, being careful not to OVER use them and risk a search engine penalty.

Traffic Tip #2: Form a Purpose-Driven Social Networking Group

As businesses continue to implement social networking strategies, marketers are finally realizing the goal of social networking should not be to drive revenue, but to develop a community that will EVENTUALLY drive revenue. Are you an IT consultant? Start a group for people struggling with ERP implementations. Do you own a mail order wine store? Start a group for people who collect rare vintages. Helping people without expectation of profit is a great way to not only build credibility, but drive web traffic in the future—when members of your social group are finally ready to make a purchase.

Traffic Tip #3: Provide and Market Educational Content

In the day-to-day scramble to keep small businesses afloat, it is easy to let making money dominate your marketing strategy. But developing and promoting educational articles, white papers and free templates is still great way to increase interest in a small company website. In terms of general website traffic, “free knowledge” marketing campaigns regularly drive up to 7 times more traffic than sales-related campaigns. And because most people like to share, educational content has a high likelihood of being passed along to other people . . . who will visit your site down the road.

Traffic Tip #4: Start a Blog, Because It’s Not Too Late (Really)

As a blogger rapidly approaching the end of his second full year, I will be the first to admit the most opportune time to start a blog was probably a year before I did it. That said, the benefits of hosting a company-related blog are still significant, and the sheer volume of tools available these days means it’s never been easier to get started. At the risk of repeating a bunch of things I already wrote, I will simply direct you to one of my other articles, The Importance of Blogs for Small Company Web Traffic.

Traffic Tip #5: Find Sites that Will Link Back to You

Search engines like Google, Bing and YaHoo understand that high-value websites have lots of outbound AND inbound channels. Translation? Websites that lack inbound links will rarely show up high in searches. Making sure your website is listed in industry directories and on industry portals is a good first step, and finding sites to repost your free educational content (see #3 above) can help as well. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for link exchanges with related, non-competitive websites and blogs in your industry. The first linkbacks will be the hardest ones to get, but if you work hard and get creative, good things will happen.

Traffic Tip #6: Become a Regular Contributor to the Industry Rags

At the risk of stating the painfully obvious, I will say this: people with deadlines are always busy. And nowhere is this concept more applicable to your situation than with the editors, writers and reporters who support your industry. Making yourself readily available to trade publications—most of which are published electronically—can gain your company timely exposure whenever a last-minute quote, opinion or sound bite is needed. And if your company appears consistently, organizations and publications outside the trade will begin to see your company as an ‘expert’ in the field, which can lead to more exposure on a much larger scale. Example: Earlier this week Harvard Business Services recommended my blog as a small business resource to its readers. This recommendation TRIPLED my web traffic for the week. And yes, I said TRIPLED.

Traffic Tip #7: Ask People for Their Input

If there is one thing in this world more frequently given than birthday presents, it is advice. Offering focus group participation, free product samples and beta testing opportunities is a GREAT way to interest people in your company and your website. And when your initiative is over, your company will be left not only with improved products and services, but with a group of dedicated and highly motivated people who regularly check your website for updates and information.

Traffic Tip #8: Use Social Bookmarks on Your Most Valuable Website Content

No matter what kind of website you operate, there are always a few pages that focus on educating customers without the obligatory sales pitch—articles, white papers, free tips, company histories, and so on. If these pages truly provide value, why not ask visitors to recommend them to others? Social bookmarks drive millions of visitors to websites every single day, and the four most popular bookmarks (Retweet, Facebook Share, Stumble and Digg) take minutes to install. For more information on Social Bookmarking, be sure to spend a few minutes reading one of our most popular articles of all-time, Social Bookmarking Dos and Don’ts.

Traffic Tip #9: Encourage People to Tell Others About Your Company

Nearly six years ago when I met the entrepreneur I work for today, one of the first marketing-related statements she made to me was ” If you want someone to pass on your marketing, why don’t you just ask them?” At the time I had a good laugh to myself at the naivety of her comment. But as embarrassed as I am to admit it now, she was right. Simply asking people (in writing or verbally) to tell others about your company actually works. In fact, I have personally seen an increase in campaign response of between 15 and 50 percent, simply by putting the words “Please pass along to a friend!” in emails, newsletters, catalogs and print advertisements. And of course, an increase in general marketing responses means more clicks to your website.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise a Retweet or Facebook Share (buttons above), Digg or Stumble (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

5 Unique Traits of Great Small Company Employees

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:00:52 +0000

As many of you who regularly visit this blog know, my life mission is relatively straightforward: to stop small company owners and managers from running their companies like big ones. And nowhere is it more tempting for entrepreneurs to emulate their larger counterparts than during the hiring process, where they compete directly with Fortune 1000 firms for the world’s best, brightest, and most upwardly-mobile talent. For weeks at a time things like resumes, grade point averages, personality assessments, letters of reference and “skills inventory surveys” are reviewed over and over again, until the best candidate for the position is eventually uncovered.

Sometimes.

You see, while large firms go out of their way to minimize risk and variation among staff (big company managers: don’t even attempt to deny this) small company managers looking to post significant growth need to dig deeper than a resume or assessment can take them, and find high-impact employees who don’t fit the traditional ‘big company’ mold. If you are a small company owner or manager in the process of hiring your next employee, be sure to keep an eye open for these five traits of great small company employees.

Trait #1: Street Smarts

At most big companies, Educational Background and Grade Point Average are often used to separate candidates early in the hiring process. Although the implied prestige of a University and the candidate’s GPA can tell some of the story, neither of these criteria is an accurate measurement of what matters most: common sense. The world is littered with straight-A students who can’t critically think their way out of a wet paper bag—and small companies need employees who can think on their feet, adapt to constant change, and succeed where a competitor’s big company employees regularly fail.

Trait #2: Passion for the Job

One of the most difficult things to do in a job interview is separate candidates who are looking for any open position from candidates who are looking for YOUR open position. In today’s economy, most job seekers have been trained to automatically tell hiring managers how much they want the job. But more often than not, the candidate is merely communicating how much they need it. Employees who are passionate about what they do—marketing, sales, human resources, accounting, or whatever—will carry those feelings over to the company they work for. And there is no more valuable employee than one who truly cares about the well-being of your organization.

Trait #3: A Non-Standard Personality

When you think back to your formative years (whenever they happened to occur) which friends made the biggest positive impact on your life: the ones who were very much like you, or the ones who were nothing like you? When used the wrong way, tools like personality assessments and strength-finders do nothing more than allow companies to hire ‘cookie-cutter’ employees who act and think alike. Sure, people with non-standard personalities can at times be more difficult to manage and communicate with. But they also push boundaries, challenge traditional thinking, and generate ideas used long after they move on to the next opportunity. And I can offer Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison as three examples of world-changing people who wouldn’t have a chance in hell of passing your company’s personality assessment.

Trait #4: Something to Prove

When I look back on the half-dozen small companies I worked for over the past 18 years, something interesting occurs to me. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, the most valuable employees I ever hired were not the smartest, most educated, or most charismatic—they were the ones with the biggest chips on their shoulders. As a general rule, people who are repeatedly told they can’t accomplish something will accept the bad news and move on. But small companies need to load the employee roster with the few who refuse to give up, and spend the next three decades of their lives trying to prove everyone who doubted them wrong.

Trait #5: A Firmly Implanted Backbone

If I had a dollar for every time an entrepreneur said “I don’t want to be surrounded by ‘yes’ people” I could a) walk away from this blog, b) pay off my bills in cash, and c) pursue my dream of doing absolutely nothing for a living. But surprisingly, most business owners don’t follow their own advice. The more entrepreneurial a small company is, the more valuable employees with backbones become. In fact, employees who are well-trained in politics and ‘neutralism’ actually HURT small companies. Why? Because they refuse to challenge management, question ideas, or stand up to ownership when critical mistakes are about to be made.

If you have an employee trait you would like to add to our list, please submit it in the Comment Field below. Otherwise a Retweet, Facebook Share (buttons at the beginning of the article), Digg or Stumble (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

5 Secret Resume Killers Every Hiring Manager Looks For

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:04:24 +0000

At one point or another, it has happened to all of us. An exciting job opportunity that matched our background, experience and education finally came along. And not only was the job well within our salary range, but it was a PERFECT fit for our resume—to the point we convinced ourselves “They actually wrote this job posting for ME!” So we dusted off our resumes, wrote a quick cover letter, and sent our information directly to the hiring manager . . . and never hear back. Yet another job opportunity passed us by, and we were, quite inexplicably, NOT included in the process. Which forced us to repeatedly ask ourselves the same burning question.

“What the hell happened?”

Those of you who are currently unemployed, or actively looking for a job-related change of scenery, have no doubt realized things are finally starting to loosen up a bit. And now that the employment market is turning positive, it is a great time to dust off your resume, make a few updates, and start selling yourself to the world. But before you start mass emailing your information, there is something you need to know. In addition to the obvious resume mistakes every savvy job seeker on the planet avoids (hard to read layout, mis-spellings, too many pages, etc.) there are a few not-so-well-known red flags experienced hiring mangers look for—red flags that can put your resume on the fast track to an industrial-sized paper shredder.

If you’ve ever missed out on the interview process for a job that seemed like a perfect fit for your resume, chances are good you’ve made one of these five resume mistakes.

Resume Killer #1: Listing Religious, Political or Controversial Causes as Volunteer Work

In my 18+ years in business, I’ve seen hundreds of candidates make the mistake of padding their resumes with activities that put their belief systems on full display. Sure, acting as the Chair of your neighborhood “Christian Democrats for the Fair Use of Water” meetings shows both commitment to a cause and a willingness to unselfishly donate your time. But what if the hiring manager who looks at your resume is an Atheist Republican Anti-Conservationist? The fact is, you NEVER know the political, religious or moral views of the person vetting your resume. Understanding it isn’t ethical for a hiring manager to eliminate a candidate because of their political or religious views, don’t fool yourself by being naive—it happens every single day, and there is no point in taking the risk.

Resume Killer #2: Communicating Personal Drama in Your Cover Letter

If you are an experienced hiring manager, odds are good you’re nodding your head right now. As adults, we all understand things like car accidents, divorces, serious medical conditions and family deaths are an unfortunate part of life. That said, as heartbreaking as these things may be, they have absolutely nothing to do with your qualifications as a potential employee. Look at it from the standpoint of the hiring manager: if a candidate is willing to share ultra-person details in a cover letter, how many hours per day might they spend venting to fellow employees—or their boss—once they actually have the job? The best hiring managers look for low-maintenance employees who are smart, care about their work, and come with minimal baggage. Before you apply for your next position, re-review your resume and cover letter and ask yourself, “Do I sound high-maintenance?”

Resume Killer #3: Pointing Out Your Own Flaws

One of the most common impulses among job searchers who aren’t technically ‘perfect’ candidates for a position (especially in the Midwest) is to be honest about their shortcomings up front. This high degree of ethics might allow you to sleep more peacefully at night, but it will NEVER help you gain an interview. In fact, admitting your previous position was in a different industry, or that you’re two full years short of the experience requirement, will only get you one thing: eliminated from the hiring process. The fact is, there are very few ‘perfect’ candidates who apply for open positions, and hiring managers will often overlook missing requirements in exchange for something else they happen to like. Don’t be tempted to do the hiring manager’s job for him or her. If you’re not a perfect fit, let them figure it out on their own.

Resume Killer #4: Listing Yourself as the CEO of Your Own Company

To most hiring managers, starting and successfully running a business (even for a short period of time) shows ambition, entrepreneurial spirit, and an ability to handle a variety of responsibilities. That said, C-level titles on a resume rarely work in an applicant’s favor. If you’re applying for a VP or Director position, claiming a CEO stint on your resume says “I’m used to calling all of the shots.” And if you’re applying for a middle-management position, listing a CEO position screams “I’m overqualified, and probably want too much money.“ Here’s a tip: if you ran your own business in the past, focus on what you did to make the company successful —Marketing Consultant, Flash Developer or Project Manager, for example—not on what your business card said.

Resume Killer #5: Overlapping Timelines in Your Work Experience

For those of us who had to work our way through college, a certain sense of pride comes with being able to claim we juggled two (or in some cases three) jobs at one time. Back when we were young, balancing multiple jobs made us look like ‘entrepreneurs’ and ‘go-getters.’ But in the real world, working two or more jobs at one time is a sign to hiring managers that we will be distracted and chronically tired employees, whose minds are usually somewhere else. As an applicant, you need to keep in mind that every employer wants his or her job to be the ONLY focus in your working life. Giving a potential supervisor any reason to think otherwise will significantly decrease your chances of even getting an interview—much less actually landing a job.

And to wrap it up, I would like to point out that my goal for this article is to create a living, breathing, extraordinarily helpful document for job seekers. Therefore, if you are a hiring manager and would like to add your own “Resume Killer” to the list, PLEASE use the comment field at the end of the article to share your knowledge and experience with job seekers around the world. Thank you for your help!

Also . . . if you’re a member of Twitter, Retweeting this article using the button at the beginning of the article would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Myron Mixon: Business Secrets from a BBQ Entrepreneur

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:03:13 +0000

Being a full-time Marketing guy, part-time blogger and perpetual Historical house renovator doesn’t leave a great deal of room in my life for hobbies. That said, I always manage to set aside at least a few hours each weekend to pursue one of my favorite passions: barbecue. And not the “throw a few hotdogs and burgers on the grill” barbecue I grew up with here in the Midwest, but the type of cooking that requires low heat, lots of wood, and a cast iron cooker capable of surviving a nuclear explosion.

So when I had the opportunity to attend a hands-on, immersive cooking school led by the star of TLC’s latest reality TV endeavor BBQ Pitmasters, I jumped at the chance. During my time in class, 3-time World BBQ Champ Myron Mixon from Jack’s Old South taught me a heck of a lot about barbecue . . . and unexpectedly, a little about being an entrepreneur. In this one-of-a-kind article, I will share a few of Myron’s not-so-subtle small business secrets—but none of his secrets about BBQ. If you want those, you can take the class on your own dime.

Small Business Secret #1: It’s OK to Have an Opinion.

As those of you who have watched five minutes of his show already know, Myron Mixon is a remarkably honest individual. To him, there is no point in sugar coating the truth, regardless of who is within earshot. In Myron’s world, bad ideas are not “good ideas that need work,” lies are not “slight mis-statements of fact,” and his food isn’t “award-winning”—it’s the best there is. Period. Unlike entrepreneurs struggling to find an identity and pay their bills each month, Myron figured out customers don’t pay him to ride the fence, spend his life being politically correct, or say what they want to hear. They pay him for his knowledge, and for displaying it with confidence and conviction.

Small Business Secret #2: Don’t Be Afraid to Stay in Your Niche.

Over the past 20 years, people who prepare meat for a living have had plenty of opportunities to put their skills to other uses. But instead of applying his talents to the smoking of vegetables or cheeses or turkeys made out of tofu, Myron stuck to the carnivore path—even as popular diets, lifestyles and organizations looked down their noses at him. And because of the dedication to his niche, today his following is as loyal and passionate as any cooking show star on network or cable TV.

Small Business Secret #3: Don’t Involve Your Family . . . Unless They WANT to Be Involved.

During my 18 years working with small organizations, I’ve seen plenty of entrepreneurs put their companies at risk by taking on relatives who don’t want to, or shouldn’t, be involved. That said, there are times when involving relatives can make a small business stronger, and Jack’s Old South (Myron’s company) is a prime example. Over the course of my weekend at the Mixon home I had the pleasure of meeting Myron’s wife, daughter, and one of his sons—and each of them was thrilled to be involved, and immensely proud of Myron and his accomplishments. Family unity on this level is something most entrepreneurs want, but very few will ever have.

Small Business Secret #4: If You Offer Something Unique and Valuable, People will Find It—No Matter Where it Is.

Does anyone reading this article know where Unadilla, Georgia is? If so, consider yourself one of only a handful of people who do. From where I live the outbound half of the journey covered nearly 10 hours end-to-end, and included one long airplane ride and two different cars. Did I mind spending all of this time and money to attend a 3-day cooking class? Not for one second. Why? Because Myron Mixon and Jack’s Old South offered me something I couldn’t get anywhere else—a chance to see a World Champion do what he does best. The point is, today’s entrepreneurs are so busy making sure they’re represented on Twitter and Facebook and Linked In and Google, they completely forget the key tenant of running a successful small business: offering something uniquely valuable.

Small Business Secret #5: Don’t Forget . . . It’s ALWAYS About the Money.

After all of the world titles, grand championships and hand-carved awards Jack’s Old South has hauled in over the years, Myron Mixon has never lost focus on the goal of running a small business: to earn a living. While small companies across the globe waste months of time and effort applying for awards like “Fastest-Growing,” “Hottest Executive” and “Best Place to Work,” Myron understands that accolades simply don’t pay the bills. During the very first day of class, Myron drove that point home loud and clear with the best piece of small business advice I’ve heard so far this year: “I ain’t seen a bank yet that will let you cash a trophy.”

Small Business Secret #6: Be Gracious with Your Time.

Of equal importance to achieving success is how you act one you actually have it. While many successful entrepreneurs convince themselves they are “too experienced” to waste their time working with beginners and amateurs, Myron embraces every opportunity to pass on his knowledge, his experience and his secrets to people who know less than he does. And not only does Myron demand that students in his class learn something, he will continue to teach and answer questions on breaks, and long after class has concluded. Being a successful entrepreneur involves not only being a professional, but being a passionate advocate for what you do—to anyone who will listen.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise a Retweet (button at the beginning of the article), Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (button bar below) would be greatly appreciated. And for the foodies who are reading this article, I have included a picture of Myron’s award-winning beef brisket, which I made this past weekend using his secret recipe–easily the best thing that’s ever come come out of my backyard.

Also, if you have any questions or would like some information regarding the Jack’s Old South Cooking School run by Myron Mixon, please feel free to either email me directly at eric@thesmallcompanyblog.com, or post your question here. I look forward to hearing from you!

The Most Alarming Trend in Small Business

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:37:45 +0000

As regular visitors to my blog know, I typically don’t give lectures or tell small company owners what to do. Most of my articles are written under the assumption that a) good or bad, adults can make their own decisions, and b) small business people will almost always do what is best for their organizations. But as of late, I have been witness to a trend among entrepreneurs—a trend so alarming, I have no choice but to grab them by the collars and scream directly into their greedy, oblivious little faces. And what is the trend in question?

Successful small company owners “moonlighting” for
personal profit, at the expense of their existing businesses.

Now obviously this is going to require some explaining, so please allow me to clarify. I’m not talking about the struggling coffee shop owner who does landscaping on the weekends, or the upstart web designer who works as a Realtor for extra income. The person I am referring to here is the entrepreneur who uses the resources, employees and reputation of their existing and profitable business to start a second venture “just for themselves.”

For example, in my industry alone (training and professional development) no less than three owners of privately-held competitors have all but abandoned their once-profitable firms to pursue individual careers as authors, speakers and consultants. I also have a very good friend who now gives more time to her multiple Board of Directors appointments than her growing IT services business. And just last month, I spoke to the owner of a thriving marketing services firm who is working over 20 hours per week assembling a Social Media Marketing strategy for a friend’s company . . . at an hourly rate that would make an attorney jealous. In each case, the small company owner in question is essentially “moonlighting” for personal profit—at the expense of their existing business.

For those of you still looking for reasons why taking a second job or starting a side business might negatively affect an existing business venture, I would like to offer the following six:

Reason #1: An owner losing focus on his or her core business is NEVER a good thing.

Reason #2: Spending time on a new business shows employees of the original firm that you are no longer interested.

Reason #3: Whether or not it is intentional, starting a new business venture will ALWAYS rob your existing business of investment capital—and less capital equals less long-term growth.

Reason #4: Key employees in your existing business will feel left out, left behind, or both.

Reason #5: It sets a bad example for employees, who will eventually come to the conclusion that it is OK to give less than 100%. Because you are.

Reason #6: No one REALLY does it alone. More often than not, the people you are leaving behind are the ones who made you successful in the first place.

After almost 20 years of working with small business owners, I have a relatively good understanding of how their minds work. I realize entrepreneurs are some of the most driven, creative, and innovative people on the planet. But that said, these same characteristics can often allow them to turn even the most profitable business into just another statistic on the “8 out of 10 small businesses fail” list. Above all else, growing a company over time requires one thing: focus. And without it, ANY entrepreneur—regardless of talent level—is dooming ALL of his or her businesses to failure.

Do you work for a business owner who is distracted by other ventures? Are you one? Please feel free to share your story below. Otherwise a Retweet (button at beginning of article) Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

5 Free Twitter Tools for the Busy Small Company Marketer

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:06:32 +0000

As I have mentioned several times in previous posts, there are few things in business more challenging, more stressful, and more frustrating than being asked to market your company’s products and services on a shoestring budget. Those of us who have carved a career out of small company (and small budget) marketing know the secret to success lies not in the methods we choose, but rather in the effective and creative use of our time. For the small company marketer, the phrase “work smarter, not faster” is not just a cheesy motivational poster—it’s also a pen, a coffee mug, a desk calendar, and a horribly ill-fitting trade show shirt.

With the above in mind, the emergence of social marketing sites like Twitter has opened up an entire realm of new and low-cost marketing channels—channels that (in most cases) cost the small company marketer nothing but their time. Although Twitter is perfectly capable of burning hours of otherwise productive marketing effort, a handful of creative developers have put together some great tools to minimize the time we as marketers spend in our chairs each day. And I am happy to say I could not survive without any of them.

Twitter Tool #1: The “Follow Everyone in a Twitter List” Button (by TweepML)

After performing this function by hand for months when Twitter first released its “Lists” feature, our good friends at TweepML finally gave marketers the opportunity to follow every person in a Twitter List with a single click. Sound easy? It is. The process is frighteningly simple: you paste the name of a Twitter list you wish to follow into a form field (TSCB/smallbiz-tweeters, for example) hit the “Follow” button (wait a few minutes for the list to appear), login with your Twitter account, tell TweepML to follow them for you, then grab some lunch. When you come back, each individual in the targeted Twitter List (up to 500 people) will be in your “Following” group—and hopefully many will have chosen to follow you back as well.

Tool #2: The Friend Flusher (by Buzzom)

For those who have been struggling with Twitter Karma’s painfully slow and often unreliable “Whack Your Followers” feature, there is a new tool in town: the Buzzom Friend Flusher. In fact, unfollowing people on Twitter who refuse to follow you back has never been easier: simply visit the Buzzom home page, click the “Login with Twitter” badge (center-right, near the top) then hit the “Flush” button in the top left-hand corner after logging in. Within seconds, Buzzom will return a list of people you follow who haven’t returned the favor, and you get to choose whether to keep or “flush” each one individually.

Tool #3: The 6-Day Free Trial (by SocialOomph)

Those of you who haven’t tried SocialOomph have surely heard about it for good reason: it’s one of the most feature-rich social marketing tools there is. But did you know SocialOomph offers small company marketers free use of their Professional Edition for almost a week? In addition to a highly configurable Friend Finder and bulk Tweet uploads, SocialOomph specifically caters to overworked marketers with features like drip feeds, URL shortening, parameter tracking, full blog integration, and clickthru analytics. Registering for the Free Trial requires no credit card—and if you set up your Friend Finder right away, your six days of free use will also include 300 new, highly qualified Friends.

Tool #4: The Automatic #FollowFriday Generator (by The Twitter Tag Project)

If I had to rank automated Twitter tools based on how much time they save me each week, Twitter Tag’s automated #FollowFriday generator would be right at the top. By definition, a big part of any social marketing program includes showing appreciation to people who support you. And there is no better way to say “Thanks” on Twitter than by offering a #FollowFriday recommendation. The system takes seconds to use: you simply enter your Twitter user name into a field, and the system returns about 20 properly formatted #FollowFriday shout-outs to your 200 most active followers—minus duplicates, of course. Once the Tweets are generated you can either click a button on the Twitter Tag website to send them immediately, or copy and paste them into a scheduled Tweet-sending system like SocialOomph. Did I mention I LOVE this tool?

Twitter Tool #5: The Time-Waster, Spammer and Bot Finder (by TwitCleaner)

For those of you who truly believe your company only follows the best, brightest, and most valuable Tweeters in the industry, I have a challenge for you: run TwitCleaner on your account. I dare you. TwitCleaner is specifically designed to find and unfollow various Twitter undesirables, and I can say first-hand it does a remarkable job finding all of the bots, spammers, quote-of-the-dayers, serial Retweeters and dead accounts hiding among your follower base. If your company Twitter account follows less than 1,000 people (as most do) TwitCleaner even throws in the cleaning itself for free. But regardless of account size, the comprehensive TwitCleaner Report—automatically sent to you via Twitter Direct Message—is always run at no charge.

Do you use a free automated Twitter tool or applet you would like to promote? Please feel free to comment on this post. Otherwise a Retweet (button at the beginning of the article), Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (button bar below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

5 Ways to Immediately Improve Your Small Company Operation

Robert_Rogers — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:39:25 +0000

Regardless of why it was initially founded, the goal of any small company is to generate more money. But once our businesses are off and running, most of us become too preoccupied with running them to make the constant improvements necessary for increased efficiency, increased sales, and ultimately more money in our pockets. But there are some operational ways we can make an immediate impact on our companies’ bottom lines—if we take a few minutes to actually implement them.

Improvement #1: Research the Rest of the Industry

I understand most of you already have a pretty good handle on what your company is doing . . . but do you know what your competitors are up to? What are they doing to be successful under current business conditions? Why are they doing it? And most importantly, is it working? Also, be sure to take a good hard look at businesses in your industry that have recently failed. Do you understand why failure occurred? Were there any red flags or strategic moves that lead to failure? Does what the company did prior to failure match in any way what your company is doing now? A little strategic introspection can go a very long way.

Improvement #2: Re-evaluate Your Original Intentions

Back when you first started your small company, there were very likely a few things you wanted to accomplish. Looking back now, are those goals still in place, or has your motivation or reason for running this business changed? Taking the time to revisit your original business plan can be extremely helpful in trying to figure out which circumstances have changed, what you can do to improve, what is working, and what parts of your original plan need to be discontinued. Being willing to make adjustments and improve your business on the fly is the sign of a real entrepreneur—as long as the changes you make have a legitimate reason behind them The fact is, after a period as short as six months, small businesses can look markedly different than what you intended . . . and this can be a good thing.

Improvement #3: Delegate the Things You’re Not Good At

One of the biggest mistakes small company owners make is believing they are good at EVERYTHING the company does—even though this is never the case. As much as it is practical within your business, always work to make sure the person assigned to each important task is also the best resource for the job. Managing in this way requires a strong knowledge of the individual talents of your employees, as well as the vision to (on occasion) give an employee a task or role he or she might not know they’re good at. The point is this: the more you can maximize everyone’s efforts by matching strengths with roles, the better your operation will be for it.

Improvement #4: Establish a Plan—in Writing

Once you perform the first three tasks, the key to actually making any any sort of real and measurable improvement is to lay out a plan—the kind of plan that a) is in writing, and b) clearly spells out the improvements you wish to make. A plan can be as short as one page or as long as an entire magazine, but the point is you need to have SOMETHING to look at for guidance.

Improvement #5: Measure Everything You Do

For any plan to truly be deemed “successful,” there must be a way to measure success. With this in mind, step #4 above cannot really be complete without also including information on EXACTLY how you plan to measure success. Which metrics are most important for tracking progress? How will these metrics be collected? Who will be collecting them? What will be done if certain metrics are hit or missed? Any plan that does not include a method of measurement is not a plan—it’s an idea.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise a Retweet (button at beginning of article), Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (button bar below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

5 Job-Related Lies You Might Be Telling Yourself (Guest Post)

Teressa_Moore_Griffin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:58:44 +0000

A 2010 report released by The Conference Board says that American employees are increasingly unhappy—which they say is “a long-term trend that should be a red flag to employers.” But is it also a wake-up call for employees who are experiencing increased workloads, ramped up stress and a lack of purpose?

The kind of stress people experience working extended hours in a place they dislike has a ripple effect on both physical and mental health. Addressing this issue starts with two things: 1) dispelling the lies people tell themselves that keep them in their jobs, and 2) uncovering the truths that will set them free.

Lie #1: “I’m Trapped in This Job.”

The Truth: If you THINK you’re trapped, then you ARE trapped.

Start challenging this belief by asking yourself, “How do I know I can’t find a better job?” If the only answer you give yourself is “I just know I can’t,” then you are simply making excuses for not trying. To build up some self-confidence, start by taking inventory of the skills in your toolbox by asking the following questions:

What skills do I possess through my current job, past jobs, volunteer experiences, and educational training? Make a list. Then, begin to think about the kinds of jobs these skills can help you do. Look beyond the direct link of a specific skill set to a traditional job, and think about how to transfer your strengths to areas where you’ll find more fulfillment.
Do I have any skills or resources I might be wasting? Whether it’s talent, time, money or relationships, everyone can do a better job of putting their resources to better use.
Do I really have the desire to continue working here? Self-honesty is always the best policy: if you don’t have the desire, and you know you don’t have it, this is a good thing! If you clearly do not have the desire, find a different way to be satisfied.

Lie #2: “I’m Too Old to Make a Change.”

The Truth: You CAN challenge this belief, you CAN switch jobs or careers, and you CAN learning something new—if you put your full energy and creativity into it.

To begin, seek help and advice for your job-hunt. Things have changed, so you’ll need to update your knowledge about the search process and the interview process. One of the reasons people think they’re too old to switch jobs or change careers is because they don’t stay current. Knowing more about today’s world will help you to feel and act like you’re a part of it. Also consider taking a course in something new, to stretch your mind. If you go in with a commitment to learn and a willingness to put in the effort that learning requires, you can learn whatever you decide to learn—and age will not matter.

Lie #3: “No Job Will Allow Me to Do What I Enjoy.”

The Truth: This is only true if you think it is. But how do you know for sure?

Instead of looking for an existing job, why not invent one and try to sell the idea to a person or a company? If you ask around, read the paper, look online and check out company websites, you might be surprised at the variety and diversity of jobs that exist today. Believe me, if you like doing it, there is almost always someone out there that wants (or needs) it to be done. Don’t limit yourself with this lie—give it a try, and don’t quit on yourself!

Lie #4: “No One is Hiring, So I’m Not Going to Look.”

The Truth: Even in The Great Depression, people found work.

“No one is hiring” is the ultimate lazy person’s excuse. Today, people can look in more places and use more job search mediums than they ever had access to before. Once you can learn about the different ways people conduct job searches, and get current on all the ways to look and network for jobs, there are no more excuses. Excuses are like band-aids . . . they cover the wound, but don’t heal it.

Lie #5: “I Don’t Have the Discipline to Be My Own Boss.”

The Truth: Anyone can challenge who they are and what they’re capable of doing—including YOU.

The fact is, discipline comes naturally to some people, while others have to learn it. But you CAN learn to be more disciplined if you choose to be so. Setting up a system and following it might take more energy and focused attention for you than ever before, but you CAN do it. If you need to, get a buddy to support you—or hire a coach if you are in a position to do so. Support people can help you set goals, organize your schedule, and review your progress milestones. But at the same time, if you’re simply not willing to do the work involved in overcoming a lack of self-discipline, don’t lie to yourself (or anyone else, for that matter).

Final Thoughts

One thing everyone can control is their own frame of mind and approach to how we learn and earn. There might be nothing tangible in your way, but the beliefs you hold, the things you say to yourself, and the limits you set can slow you down. Emotional desire is the greatest motivation, and if you truly desire something, you WILL figure how to make it happen. That’s the way it works: when your heart and head are aligned, you are unstoppable.

The career-related lies above can (and will) influence how you think and how you feel, every single day. They will define every decision you make, and will eventually shape your life if unchallenged. So what is your real job right now? Get busy uncovering and challenging each assumption that is keeping you stuck in exactly the place you don’t want to be—and make some changes!

Questions? Comments? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise, a Retweet (button at the beginning of the article), Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

15 Signs You Might Lose Your Small Company Job

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:09:02 +0000

Over the course of my 18-year career, I have spent a great deal of time on both sides of some messy employment situations. In addition to terminations, corporate reorganizations, company mergers and hostile acquisitions, I have been part of several multi-round company-wide layoffs . . . one of which resulted in me exiting the building with my personal belongings in a cardboard box.

Although these experiences have all been stressful in their own way, I learned a great deal during each—not only about myself, but about the numerous (and often obvious) signs that present themselves when termination is about to occur. If you suspect your small company job might be in jeopardy, take a moment to review the following 15 signs of a pending termination—and please feel free to add your own to the list!

Scenario A: Signs Your Company is In Financial Trouble (or possibly for sale)

For those who work in industries where market instability is the norm versus the exception (technology, for example) you need to be aware of something: your small company is never more than one bad month away from being in trouble, and it’s ALWAYS for sale. And because financial problems and changes in ownership often come with sweeping changes in employment, be sure to watch for these five termination warning signs.

1. Your CFO or Head Accountant is Replaced – When it comes to turning around a company in trouble, Step 1 always involves putting a financial wizard in place—someone with previous experience doing the exact same thing somewhere else. Why? Because this process takes a skill, an experience level, and a sheer ruthlessness that your regular CFO doesn’t have.

2. The End-of-Year Revenue Push is More Intense than Usual – If you ask a financial expert what attributes make a successful small company, you’ll no doubt be forced to endure an extended conversation full of math, analytics, and financial acronyms. But the simple fact is, successful companies are identified by one thing: year-over-year increases in revenue. If your Marketing and Sales people are suddenly putting in 70-hour weeks, start paying attention.

3. Key Executive Positions Are Filled with Internal Candidates – When small companies are in financial trouble, their focus (after increasing corporate revenues) is on lowering expenses. One way to save money is by replacing high-paid executives with less-qualified middle managers. Not only does this lower overhead, but it manufactures instant loyalty among those being promoted—loyalty that will be critical when it comes time to make some REALLY tough decisions down the road.

4. Your Board of Directors Suddenly Includes Ex Competitors – In addition to a good product and a great business model, the key to turning around a small company is . . . insider information. No one has a better perspective on what your company needs to improve than the former Execs who spent decades trying to steal your customers. If the longtime CEO of an arch competitor shows up at the next all-company meeting, don’t fool yourself. Something is happening.

5. Salary Increases Are Frozen – Earlier this decade, I managed a Marketing Department at a small company that grew from $18 million to $40 million in three years’ time. In lieu of an annual raise, I was offered stock options and one additional week of vacation. Within 10 months, my company was owned by a member of the Fortune 100, and I was working somewhere else. The lesson? When a company is struggling, salary freezes are common. But when companies are growing, they can be a death sentence.

Scenario B: Signs Your Small Company Will Begin to Lay People Off

Unlike corporate mergers and acquisitions which can sometimes play out in your favor, company layoffs are never good for anybody. For those of you who are worried your job might be on the line, be sure to watch for these five warning signs.

6. Management Stops Caring About Your Role – If you suddenly find your status reports are going unread, and your manager would rather text message his teenage daughter than listen to you speak, there may be trouble ahead. As a general rule, Management indifference is rarely a good thing.

7. People Around You Disappear Without Warning – Is turnover common at companies of all sizes? Sure. But people never quit their jobs without telling at least one co-worker first. A sudden and unexpected office disappearance is usually a clear sign of more doom to come.

8. Owners and Execs at Your Company Become Extra Encouraging – Unless your company is going completely out of business, a significant number of people will be retained . . . so they can be ridden like rented mules until the economy turns around. Owners and Execs know this, and will do their best to put on a smiling face for the people who are left to clean up the mess.

9. You Receive at Least One Copy of a Book on Organizational Change – A true story: between 1999 and 2004 I receive not one, but two (2) copies of the book Who Moved My Cheese?. Three weeks after receiving my first copy, I was laid off. Less than four months after receiving my second, the company I worked for was sold. I believe no further elaboration is required.

10. Everyone Talks About Layoffs – No matter how cunning your HR Department might be, when it comes to layoffs NO ONE can keep a secret at a small company. At a small company there are too many leaks, political relationships and information back-channels to keep something like layoffs under wraps. This, by the way, is a great reason to eat in the company lunch room once in awhile.

Scenario C: Signs Your Small Company is Planning on Terminating YOU Specifically

Even if your small company isn’t in financial trouble and has no plans to pursue a round of layoffs, your job could still be in jeopardy. Going for a third Martini at the company party was risky, and the two-hour lunch you take to run errands every Thursday doesn’t always go unnoticed. If you fear you might be walking around with a target on your back, be sure to watch for these unsettling signs.

11. You are asked to document pieces of your job “‘In case you get hit by a bus.”

12. The due date for every project you are working on becomes “Yesterday.”

13. You are asked to transition pieces of your job to other people and receive no additional work in exchange, to the point where you run out of things to do.

14. Your boss starts avoiding one-on-one contact with you, and/or insists on having all communication in writing.

15. Other managers begin to treat you differently as well (because they know what’s going on).

Do you know of a sure-fire sign you might be losing your job, small company or otherwise? Please reply to this post! Otherwise a Retweet of this article (button above), Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated!

An Interview with Buzzom CEO Bhupendra Khanal (Part 2)

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:15:19 +0000

Below is Part 2 of a recent interview with Bhupendra Khanal, the architect behind Buzzom—a leading social marketing and Twitter account management tool. Mr. Khanal offered to share his time with Eric Rudolf, a career Internet Marketing professional and owner of THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG.

Please follow this link to access Part 1 of this Interview.

THE INTERVIEW: QUESTIONS 6 THRU 10

Eric: For marketing analytics “nerds” like me, the graphical reporting functions offered in your Buzzom Premium Subscription are really what make your system an attractive option for me. What prompted you to put so much time and effort into the analytics side of your system?

Bhupendra: Like you, I am also a “numbers” person, as well as a Marketing Analyst. I served Fair Isaac (now FICO) as a Consultant for Marketing Analytics early in my career, and have deep roots playing with numbers, charts and figures. Also, my colleague Sweta is a statistician and an analytics reporting specialist.

The point is, we both believe strongly in Analytics and proper reporting, and have built the Buzzom system for people like us. But you have not seen the best from us yet. To date, we have implemented only about 10% of the analytics functionality that we believe needs to be offered in Buzzom. You will see some wonderful work going ahead!

Eric: It seems like every time I log in, Twitter is trying to offer users another new feature or function. Is there any overlap between these features and what Buzzom offers? And if so, do you see the developers at Twitter as direct competitors?

Bhupendra: Twitter is definitely a competitor. They are constantly pushing to make sure their ecosystem flourishes, and this works in our favor. However, they also work very hard to make sure people stay on their site . . . which is obviously not as good for us. This is a race we are both running, but there is a paradox: sometimes, we help each other out!

Most people don’t realize this, but the concept of “Lists” was first introduced in Buzzom Desktop. At the time we allowed people to create groups to follow, without actually following the people within the group. But eventually, this feature was copied by TweetDeck, and ultimately by Twitter.

If Twitter eventually emulates one of our features, we have two choices: Buzzom can either develop a new feature (i.e. innovate), or introduce a feature for competing social network (i.e. hit back). It’s actually a great deal of fun to compete with such a big player, and it is definitely not new for us. In terms of direct competitors, Buzzom competes with Twitter, TweetDeck and Hootsuite. Our URL shortener competes with Bit.ly, Google (goo.gl), and Facebook (fb.me). Innovation and hard work keeps us moving, and our aim is to make it hard for the developers at Twitter to catch us.

Eric: From a marketing perspective, how does Buzzom plan to win the battle against other social networking tools that make outrageous claims like “get 10,000 followers per week” and “make $5,000 per month on Twitter?”

Bhupendra: I see Buzzom competing with Hootsuite, Objective Marketer, SocialOomph, TweetDeck, Seismic, and so on. But we do not compete, nor do we attempt to compete, with tools that sell followers for money.

Buzzom does not promote spam of any kind, and we are completely against this kind of aggressive, “mass follow” behaviour. Our clients and Twitter’s public timeline need to be healthy, and all follows should be meaningful and targeted. Buzzom is a highly specialized tool that focuses on being three things: clean, useful and productive.

Eric: Are there any upcoming features or functions you would like to give our readers a sneak preview of?

Bhupendra: We plan to release a large number of features targeted at normal users—both marketers and non-marketers who are more along the lines of “pure” Twitter users. Our goal is to make Twitter a fun place, and we will eventually be using our expertise in building social games to bring some really exciting features. But your readers will need to wait a few more weeks to find out what those features are! And as I mentioned previously, Buzzom Premium Edition will regularly be enhanced with improved reporting and analytics, as well as multi-account support.

Eric: What is the best way for people to get a feel for what Buzzom offers?

Bhupendra: If your readers register for Buzzom Premium for just one month, I am positive they won’t go anywhere else. For professional marketers, our feature set simply cannot be beat—and Buzzom’s account and tweet tracking is among the best in the market. And there are, of course, a LOT more features to choose from. The fact is, Buzzom Premium is a complete Twitter solution for business-related users, at a fraction of the cost of other systems.

Retweets of this article using the button at the beginning of the post are very much appreciated, and any questions regarding this interview may be directed to eric@thesmallcompanyblog.com. Also, no part of this article may be reproduced, reposted or republished for any reason, with written permission from Eric Rudolf at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG. To request written permission, please email Eric directly.

Social Marketing Automation: Interview with the CEO of Buzzom

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:13:44 +0000

Below is Part I of a two-part interview with Bhupendra Khanal, Founder and CEO of InRev—developers of Buzzom. Buzzom is one of the fastest-growing Twitter Account Management tools in the industry, and was recently featured in PC World’s list of Top 5 Twitter Ranking applications, as well as in a recent article in Forbes Magazine. Although he runs a company in one of the most dynamic industries in the world, Bhupendra was kind enough to share his time with Eric Rudolf, a career Internet Marketing professional and owner of THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG.

Retweets of this article using the button above are very much appreciated, and any questions regarding this interview may be directed to eric@thesmallcompanyblog.com.

THE INTERVIEW: QUESTIONS 1 THRU 5

Eric: Many of my readers are looking for inspiration and guidance as they manage their own small companies. How did Buzzom grow from just an idea, to one of more popular social marketing tools in use today? Was it hard work, luck, or a little bit of both?

Bhupendra: Actually, it was a mix of several factors. Of course hard work and luck were necessary, but our main strengths as a company are continuous innovation and an iterative building process. I think it is also important to note that Buzzom was first to introduce several new concepts to the Twitter world—including Twitter Lists, Cross-Following functionality, and a search-based “Grow Your Followers” feature.

Also, at Buzzom we never worry about competition copying our idea. We simply release new features every 2 to 3 weeks, test them in the marketplace, then built on them.

Eric: With all of the changes occurring in the Social Networking industry, managing a company “right in the middle of it all” must get chaotic at times. How do you keep up with this market and its constantly changing demands?

Bhupendra: Social Media is all about listening, and at Buzzom we listen with an open mind. This allows us to always be on top of the market when it comes to changing demands. Our employees are power users in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut, StumbleUpon and Digg. And, we are always on the lookout for new networks as well.

Buzzom originally started as a Twitter Account Manager, and is now a complete suite with both corporate and general versions. Feed Management in Buzzom also allows posting to Facebook, and we are exploring the integration with other social media and bookmarking sites.

Eric: Of the dozens of features your software offers, which ones do you believe distinguish your system from other social automation tools on the market?

Bhupendra: Buzzom is an analytics-powered system, which allows us to optimize a number of our features. For example, our “Grow Your Followers” feature provides users with people who are statistically likely to follow back, using a proprietary business rules engine. If I have to name one feature, I believe our Feed Management is absolutely market-leading. No other system offers the ability to cover more than one time zone, and we also provide better tracking than any of our competitors by using the personalized URL tracking of NXY, our URL shortener.

Eric: As a small company blogger, I interact with people every day who still manage their corporate social networking efforts by hand. Why do you believe there is still resistance among marketers to leverage automated social networking tools?

Bhupendra: As surprising as this may sound, I believe it is ALWAYS best to manage your social networking by hand, if you can. I don’t suggest anyone to use a tool for something they can do themselves. But that said, there are certain human limitations which we obviously can’t ignore, and time is one of them. I like to compare the use of Buzzom for Twitter to using a bicycle—you can always run if you have to, but sometimes it’s just smarter and more efficient to use a bike.

Eric: Which Buzzom features do you believe could make the most significant positive impact in a small company’s social marketing efforts?

Bhupendra: Definitely People Search. People Search is a function small companies can use to find others who are talking about their brand. Unlike Twitter Search that simply feeds you the tweets that mention a defined keyword, Buzzom’s People Search actually provides the entire list of people who have mentioned the word. Our system also allows you to filter the People Search by Bio, Name and Location using content matching.

And our proprietary Intelligent Match Table allows us to generate search results that other systems can’t, using data that isn’t necessarily there—for example, determining from the bio or location what state or country someone belongs to (San Diego would mean California, US). We have put a huge amount of internal effort into People Search, and into our Buzzom Premium application as a whole, and I am happy to say that our users love it.

Retweets of this article using the button at the beginning of the post are very much appreciated. Also, no part of this article may be reproduced, reposted or republished for any reason, with written permission from Eric Rudolf at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG. To request written permission, please email Eric directly. To Read Part 2 of this Interview, Please Follow this Link.

5 Ethical Ways to Grow Your Corporate Email Database

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:47:20 +0000

When it comes to marketing, one of the most essential ingredients for success is time. Over my 18 years as a marketer, I have never heard the words “Quick . . . market this!” nor have I uttered them to someone else. People who market for a living understand the concept of time, and realize things like web hits, social networking followers, and article mentions are earned through months (if not years) of hard work and dedication—not some secret technique or automated tool that can be purchased for $9.99 a month.

Building a high-quality direct email database is no different. Regardless of what many fly-by-night list vendors and list appending companies claim, there is no substitute for time when it comes to growing an internal email list. High-quality email addresses are earned (not purchased) through three things: good planning, great execution, and the elimination of critical mistakes. If your company is interested in steadily increasing both the size and quality of its corporate email database over time, below are five proven strategies for doing so.

List-Building Tip #1: Trade Knowledge for Contact Information

As e-commerce sites become easier to set up and operate, marketing people are getting increasingly more greedy. Five years ago, it was rare to see a marketing initiative drive people directly to a shopping cart. But these days, the majority of marketing campaigns end up with the recipient staring straight into the face of an “Add to Cart” button. These types of campaigns might generate a few quick sales, but they do nothing for an internal email database. Instead of exclusively running direct-to-sale initiatives, try offering a free article, white paper or template once in awhile. If the topic is relevant and timely, people will gladly trade their contact information for your knowledge. And the best part? In terms of general clickthroughs, “free knowledge” campaigns regularly outperform direct-to-sale initiatives by as much as 7 to 1. Yes, really.

List-Building Tip #2: Encourage Pass-Alongs

Nearly six years ago when I met the entrepreneur I work for today, one of the first marketing-related statements she made to me was ” If you want someone to pass on your marketing, why don’t you just ask them?” At the time I had a good laugh to myself at the naivety of her marketing ‘perspective.’ But as embarrassed as I am to admit it now, she was right. Simply asking people (in writing or verbally) to pass your marketing information to a friend, colleague or co-worker actually works. In fact, I have personally seen an increase in campaign response of between 15 and 50 percent, simply by putting the words “Please pass along to a friend!” in emails, newsletters, catalogs and print advertisements. And of course, an increase in general marketing responses means more clicks, more reads, more downloads, and ultimately more qualified email addresses in your database.

List-Building Tip #3: Ask People for Their Input

One of the best and fastest ways to fill your email database with qualified and loyal contacts is also one of the simplest: ask people what they think. Developing a new technology product? Put out a request for beta testers. Writing a new book? Recruit some reviewers. Trying out a new marketing angle? Assemble an online focus group. Although I’ve done these things hundreds of times, it still amazes me how much effort people are willing to give companies in exchange for a few free products or complimentary services—or something as simple as a public “Thank You.” And when your initiative is over, your company will be left not only with improved products and services, but with a group of dedicated and highly motivated email contacts who actually look forward to receiving updates from you.

List-Building Tip #4: Find Good Lists . . . and Rent Them

As counter-intuitive as this may sound, using high quality, industry-specific email lists is a great way to build your own internal database. Is there a popular magazine, newsletter or educational portal in your industry? If so, consider allocating a portion of your marketing budget to renting their contact list once in awhile. With a good list and the right offer (see #1 above for more details) I have seen companies effectively ‘transfer’ up to 10% of the contacts in a rented, industry-specific rented list to their own database with as few as one email blast.

One Word of Caution: depending upon what your company actually sells, renting an email list for $350 to $500 per thousand names can be a bit on the expensive side. Let’s do the math: if an average blast of 5,000 names costs your company between $1,750 and $2,500, the 500 new contacts your company might acquire will cost $3.50 to $5 each. If you’re selling coffee by the cup, paying $5 for one email address might not be reasonable. However, if your company sells enterprise-wide software solutions at $10 million apiece, handing over $5 per qualified industry contact is something your marketing department should be willing to do with a smile.

List-Building Tip #5: Assign an Email Traffic Cop

A friend of mine recently passed along this horrifying story: a new marketing person at her company sent an e-newsletter to 3,000 people in the company’s internal list. Realizing he had provided some inaccurate information, he fixed the newsletter and resent it 30 minutes later. Then, while testing some functions within the company’s email software, the employee accidentally sent the entire blast a third time . . . all on the same day. Thinking they were being spammed, 490 of the 3,000 contacts opted out of the corporation’s email list. The moral of the story? Holding onto your existing email contacts is just as important as finding new ones. The most effective way to avoid miscues like this is to assign an internal “owner” of your company’s email database—someone whose job it is to know who has been emailed, when they were emailed, and exactly what they were sent. This person should also be assigned the job of processing opt-outs in a timely manner, maintaining an up-to-date “Removes” list, and making sure each email communication is unique, valuable, and expected.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise a Retweet (button at beginning of article), Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

NOTE: This article was written as a companion piece to Eric’s article The New Rules for Direct Email Marketing, which was published in the The RainMaker Report newsletter in February of 2010.

Article Marketing on Twitter: The Art of the Retweet

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:35:47 +0000

By now, most of my regular readers have a pretty good handle on the ‘business model’ of this blog. In a nutshell, my strategy is simple: I write one article per week, post it, then spend the next six days trying to get people to actually read it. This recurring series of events can be a grind for an article marketer, but there is good news: it is definitely possible to significantly increase the distribution of your posts, articles and white papers WITHOUT spending every minute of your free time in front of a Netbook at Starbucks.

Now before I get too far into this, I need to make two very important points:

This strategy will take some time to implement.
If you stick with it, your results WILL improve every single month.

Translation: if you are lazy or impatient, you may stop reading immediately.

Regardless of what the sales rep at your local SEO company says, there is nothing quick, easy, or foolproof when it comes to capturing Internet traffic. It took me nearly 9 months to reach my 1,000th article Retweet (feel free to count them) and almost one-third were acquired in months 8 and 9. The sooner you realize actual effort will be required on your part, the more successful you will be in the long-term.

With the above in mind, here is an easy-to-follow, Twitter-based Article Marketing strategy involving our good friend, the Retweet.

Step #1: Use Your Existing Content to Fish for Retweets. If you’re a decent writer with a reasonable amount of real-world experience, chances are your blog already offers some pretty valuable content. Using your existing articles to generate a few Retweets will allow you to not only hit the ground running, but build a Retweet base for future articles (discussed in Step #3).

Because most serious article readers use hashtags to filter content, adding one to each of your Tweets is a no-brainer. If you write articles about gardening, end each Tweet with #gardening. If you write about coffee, use #coffee. Depending upon the nature of your articles, consider Tweeting an article several times during the course of a week, rotating between a handful of hashtags. Spending some quality time at Hashtags.org will generate plenty of great options to choose from.

To further boost your chances of a Retweet, many experts (OK, mostly me) believe labeling your Tweets with the word “Article” at the beginning can increase RT frequency from article readers. So can putting the words “RTs Welcome!” at the end. In addition, be sure to avoid the mistake of leaving too little room at the end of each article-related Tweet. Remember: most RT buttons add “RT @YourTwitterName” at the beginning of a Retweet, and serial Retweeters typically add comments like “Good read!” or “Nice article” to the end. Be sure to leave room for both.

Step #2: Show Your Retweeters Some Love. Once you acquire your first few Retweeters, the next step is to hang onto them. Like regular customers at a restaurant, Retweeters will return time and time again—as long as they are treated well. Every time someone Retweets a link to one of your articles, is it critical that you both acknowledge their effort and return the favor by:

@Replying them a “Thank You.”
Adding them to a special Retweeter Twitter List.
Retweeting something of theirs.
Giving them at least one #FollowFriday recommendation.

In an effort to lead by example, this past week I sent over 80 Thank You messages and recommended nearly 150 people with a #FollowFriday mention. Sure, 95% of Twitter users don’t bother doing ANY of these things, but we are article marketers. And the world expects more from us.

It is also important to note that some (but not all) of this process can be automated. Although I used to complete Step #2 manually, today I use a tool called SocialOomph (now offering a Free 6-Day Trial). SocialOomph not only handles much of this for me, but manages to find me nearly 50 targeted followers per day. To date, it’s the most valuable $29 per month I spend on article Marketing. I am also quickly becoming a fan of a new social marketing automation tool called Buzzom Premium, which offers the same features as SocialOomph—plus a ridiculous amount of social analytics—for just 10 bucks per month. To me, you can’t go wrong using either or both tools.

Step #3: Ask Your List Members to Help Distribute New Articles. Effective article marketing involves elements of both “giving” and “receiving.” Here in Step 3 the receiving finally begins, and all of your hard work will begin to pay off . . . if you have been following the rules. Remember that Retweeter List I asked you to start building is Step 2? If you send each of these people a quick Direct Message on days when you release something new, odds are they will be more than willing to Retweet it to their followers. Be sure to ask nicely, and provide a shortened version of the URL using a service like TinyURL or bit.ly (otherwise tools like SocialOomph and Buzzom will automatically do this for you).

Also note that Retweets often generate more Retweets, so be sure to use a good dashboard tool to filter and monitor @mentions and DMs. People who Retweet a Retweet (does your head hurt yet?) are just as valuable as the members of your List, and should be shown the same courtesy outlined in Step #2—a Thank You, a List, an RT, and a #FollowFriday mention.

If you want to build a community around your content, there is going to be some work involved in developing an active and loyal follower base. But a system like this can get you going in no time. I know this not because I’m guessing, but because this is exactly what I do every single week.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to post a reply. Otherwise a Retweet (button at the beginning of the article) Stumble or Digg (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Inexpensive SEO for Small Company Websites: Part 4

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:22:01 +0000

Given the current state of the economy, the days of being able to afford professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) help are gone. As website traffic struggles with the economic downturn, small companies need the services of market-leading firms like Bruce Clay, SEO Inc. and HighRankings.com now more than ever. Unfortunately, we have no hope of affording their five-figure start up fees, much less the $4,000 per month it costs to actually get these overpriced and often arrogant firms to do something productive.

But the good news is, there are plenty of things small companies can do to make a positive impact on both search engine rankings and organic search engine traffic. And the best part is, most of these things are easy to accomplish and absolutely free.

This posting is Part4 in a multi-part series called Inexpensive SEO Strategies for Small Company Websites. Each post covers 3 SEO tips small companies can implement on their own and with very few resources. Part 1 covered the concepts of using keyword themes to create web content, utilizing text-based navigation elements, and maximizing title tags. Part 2 of this series discussed minimizing the use of Flash and graphics, using Meta Description tags, and submitting a search engine sitemap. Part 3 reviewed adding a blog, actively looking for linkbacks, and starting a business-related social networking presence. Part 4 is presented below.

SEO Tip #10: Use Social Bookmarks on Educational Content

No matter what kind of website you operate, there are always a few pages that focus on educating customers without the obligatory sales pitch—industry articles, white papers, free tips, company histories, and so on. If these pages truly provide value, why not ask visitors to recommend your educational content to others with a small social networking block like the one below? Not only do social bookmarks drive millions (if not tens of millions) of visitors to websites every single day, but they also increase your number of backlinks AND in some cases provide additional search engine listings.

In terms of getting started with social bookmarking, the strategy is simple: figure out which social bookmarks your site visitors will use, and offer them. Checking out websites and blogs of companies in your industry can provide much of this information, but those of you who are short on time (or lazy) should know that most small companies will at LEAST include a Retweet button on educational content, as well as support for Diggs, Stumbles and Facebook mentions. Above and beyond that, your choices are literally unlimited—so choose wisely. For more information on Social Bookmarking, be sure to spend a few minutes reading one of our most popular articles of all-time, Social Bookmarking Dos and Don’ts.

SEO Tip #11: Sign Up for a (Free) Google Webmaster Tools Account

Because all entrepreneurs are good at finding free or low-cost tools to help grow their businesses, it surprises me whenever a small company owner tells me he or she doesn’t have a free Google Webmaster Tools Account. Sure, this tool (like many others) is capable of providing website owners with too much information. But on the flip side, you don’t actually have to look at it all—and the stuff you REALLY need is nicely presented on the same dashboard interface. On a single screen, the uber-geeks at Google will allow site owners to view most popular search terms, number of links back to their site (and where they come from), the top 5 most important key terms within their content, which pages are officially indexed by Google, and any dead links the site might have. Logging into Google Webmaster Tools for five minutes per day, three times per week is a great way for even the most inexperienced site owner to quickly and easily spot any changes—positive or negative—in SEO performance.

SEO Tip #12: Protect the SEO Results You’ve Already Earned

At some point around the age of 5, I noticed my dad had a bedtime routine. Every night he would turn off the TV, grab a quick snack, then walk to the back of the house and wiggle the doorknob. I remember asking him about this routine, and his reply was “Never go to sleep until you know the back door is locked.” Although these words were meaningless to me back then, their value was brought to light earlier this past year, when I literally lost every bit of SEO work I had ever done. Over the course of about a month I was banned from search engines, kicked out of multiple social networking programs, and lost my best performing links . . . all because I stopped checking the back door.

In my mad rush to build a high-traffic website, I got sloppy and let my computer become infected with a virus—a virus which eventually made its way onto the server where my website was hosted. For about six weeks, visitors to my website were redirected to any number of shady and semi-legal offshore websites (gambling, porn, pyramid schemes, whatever), which caused my site to be banned from enough places where it eventually ceased to exist. During the recovery process I became a member of a website security blog, and received a great 2-part recommendation from one of its primary contributors: 1) spend a few bucks on a two REALLY good virus checkers, and 2) run them BOTH in Safe Mode once per week on the computer you use to manage your website. Today, I use Malware Bytes and SuperAntiSpyware every Friday night, and thankfully have been able to recapture at least some of my former SEO glory.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise, a Retweet (button at the very beginning of this article), Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

6 Blogging Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:42:13 +0000

When I wrote my very first post in October of 2008, I knew there would be a few things to learn about blogging. Back then, I figured my 16 years of small company marketing experience could take me most of the way, and I would simply fill in the gaps with a handful of articles and one good book from Amazon.com. Little did I know how much time I would waste, how many mistakes I would make, and how many roadblocks I would encounter between then and now.

As many of my regular readers know, I have a habit of being introspective about my blogging (see 7 Reasons Why I Suck at Blogging, and What I’m Going to Do About It for more information) and would like to continue this theme by sharing a few more lessons I learned . . . the hard way.

Lesson #1: In Order to Keep Going, I Need to Believe More in What I’m Doing. After almost a year and a half as a blogger, I have come to a conclusion: writing good content is easy. That said, writing good content when no one is reading it is the equivalent of getting kicked in the stomach. To date, some of my best and most heart-felt articles have zero comments, no search engine rankings, and no measurable traffic. Does this tend to de-motivate me? Almost every single day. But whether or not it’s true, I have convinced myself that people WANT to read what I write. If I didn’t believe this, I would be spending my 30+ hours of free time each week doing other things. Like sleeping, for example.

Lesson #2: I Can Either Produce Good Content, or Make Money—But Not Both. As a part-time blogger with a full-time day job, I have a pretty good handle on what I can accomplish over the course of a week. During any seven-day period I usually have enough time to write a new article, maintain my Twitter account, comment on a few blog postings, and make a design change or two on my blog. But all of the search engine work, back linking, social networking and keyword optimization necessary to make a few bucks on my pay-per-click and affiliate ads often detracts from the quality of my writing. And because I care more about content than I do about a quarterly $100 check from Google, I have chosen to concentrate on my writing . . . until I go broke or lose my day job.

Lesson #3: I Will Never Run Out of Ideas for Articles. Thinking back to when I first started this blog, I can’t help but laugh at how worried I was about running out of content. Truth be told, I was so afraid of ‘going dark’ that I wrote seventeen complete articles (about 20,000 words) before I made my blog live. Because my 4-month case of writer’s block never actually materialized, today I am sitting on enough drafts, research and backup articles to start selling term papers to MBA students ( hmm. . . ). Was running out of ideas really ever a problem? Nope. But running out of time to write them all down is a daily challenge.

Lesson #4: There are Ten Times More A-Holes in the World than I Ever Imagined. When it comes to blogging, one of the most common misconceptions is that bloggers hide behind a website and write, with no consequences and very little stress. This may be the case for some, but in my case owning and hosting a blog has put me out there for literally anyone on the planet to find . . . and screw with. Since starting my blog in October of 2008 I have had to completely rebuild it from the ground up—three times—because of hackers. I have also been banned from Google, kicked out of Technorati, and lost my best performing links to something called ‘open URl redirection.’ Being a blogger is not the stress-free experience most people believe it is, and I have hundreds of tech support emails to Google, Technorati and Network Solutions to prove it.

Lesson #5: Sometimes, I Have to Ask for Things—No Matter How Uncomfortable It Might for Me. As a guy who grew up with very little, I’ve always been hesitant to ask people for things. My parents were staunch advocates of the “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” motto, which espoused things like pride and independence and self-sufficiency. Although these were great core values as a child, in my adult years they resulted in a lonely and un-successful blogger. It took me almost a year to realize I couldn’t build a successful blog by myself, and have since started asking for help. When I need Retweets, I contact my Twitter followers directly. When I’m short on article comments, I email my site members. And when I believe an article is good enough to be published, I send it to all of the Editors I’ve come to know over the last few months. Although asking doesn’t work every time, it’s worked well enough to generate dozens of comments, hundreds of Retweets, and four syndicated articles. By the way . . . any chance you could push the “Retweet” button at the beginning of the article?

Lesson #6: The Only Way to Get Something From My Social Network is to Give Something First. Forging relationships has never been easy for me in person. And surprisingly, it has been difficult online as well. In retrospect, I now realize I spent too much social networking time selfishly trying to make the Internet work for me. For example, I am embarrassed to admit that during my first year as a blogger I managed to get over 200 article Retweets . . . and never issued a single “Thank You.” During that same period over 300 people took the time to comment on my articles—and again, I was non-responsive. I also never posted comments for other bloggers, never Retweeted anything unless it was mine, and never signed up for a single RSS feed. This overt selfishness stunted my blog’s early growth, but since making a few changes I have watched my blog post triple-digit increases in web traffic, site registrations and Twitter followers over the last few months.

Comments? Questions? Please feel free to reply to this post, and don’t forget to include a link to your website or blog—backlinks are the equivalent of SEO gold. Otherwise a Retweet (beginning of article), Digg or Stumble (buttons below) would be very much appreciated. Thank you for your help!

4 Ridiculous Myths About Small Company Webinars

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:19:20 +0000

A few weeks ago I was catching up on my industry reading, when I came across a consultant-generated white paper called 9 Management Practices for Exceptional Webinars. For someone who conducts a marketing-related Webinar at least twice per month within my own small company, I thought this article would be a quick way to pick up a few pointers. But as I browsed the Table of Contents, I realized the report’s 31 thesis-equivalent pages were not written for small companies like mine, but for “Best in Class” firms who were being advised to do things like:

Assemble cross-functional Webinar teams;
Invest in Webinar project plans;
Involve third party vendors;
Purchase Pay-per-Click advertising; and
Involve telemarketing firms to follow up with attendees.

And almost immediately, something occurred to me. With big company consultants scaring the hell out of people, it’s no wonder more small companies don’t use Webinars in their Marketing strategy.

The fact is, for a few hundred dollars and four hours worth of time, any company—regardless of size—can run a successful Webinar. And as a first step in getting you to believe me, I would like to start by dispelling a few myths about the small company Webinar process.

Myth #1: You Have to Spend a Ton of Money.

Sure, there are a handful of massive Webinar providers who require year-long contracts and $30,000 down payments. But for every industry giant there is a smaller provider waiting in the wings, offering the exact same features and service for a fraction of the cost and commitment. One in particular that comes to mind is iLinc Web and Video Conferencing, where my company gets the same bells and whistles as the big guys offer—automated registration, reminder emails, free recording, unlimited events, and so on—for about $400 per month.

Myth #2: You Need an Entire ‘Team’ of People.

Contrary to the white paper I mentioned previously, participation from Marketing, Management, Sales, Customer Service and Finance (huh?) is not required to host a successful Webinar. In fact, to host a Webinar you really only need two things: a presenter, and a coordinator. And the division of work? Simple. The presenter creates the slides and delivers the presentation, while the coordinator works behind the scenes to set up the Webinar software, monitor the Webinar when it’s running, and handle the recorded version once it’s done. It sounds easy . . . because it IS easy.

Myth #3: You Need to Sell Something During Your Webinar.

One of the most frequent objections I hear from small company managers who avoid using Webinars is “I’m just not good at selling things.” However, the real question when deciding whether to host a Webinar should be “Am I good at TEACHING things?” Due to their ridiculously low cost, Webinars shouldn’t be viewed as sales presentations, but as opportunities to collect names of people who are interested in what you have to offer.

For Example: if your company sells popsicles, the title of your Webinar shouldn’t be 10 Reasons to Buy Popsicles from My Company. A much better approach would be to present something like The History of the Grapesickle or How to Eat a Popsicle Before it Melts All Over Your Hand. When it comes to Webinars, educational presentations should always be chosen over dog-and-pony shows.

The point is this: if you offer some clever and interesting education in exchange for a bit of contact information, you can always follow up later.

Myth #4: A Webinar is Considered a Failure if a Large Number of People Don’t Show Up.

If there is one aspect of planning and delivering Webinars that executives have the most trouble with, it is this: about 40% of registrants will make absolutely no effort to actually attend the event. But the good news is, other than denting the ego of the speaker, these absentee registrants are completely irrelevant when it comes to evaluating the success (or failure) of a Webinar event. Sure, a massive live audience can increase the amount of feedback and questions. But the fact is, whether or not they actually show up, you still have their contact information—and contact information is THE most valuable piece of this entire equation. Plus, if you are truly concerned about educating the 40% who didn’t show up, you can simply record the Webinar event (a free service provided by most Webinar platforms) and send them a link to the recorded version later.

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to reply to this post, and be sure to include a link back to your own website or blog . . . because linkbacks are SEO gold, people.

Otherwise, Social Bookmarks are as good as currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so a Retweet (button at the top of the article), Stumble or Digg (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

33 Changes for the Small Company Manager

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:41:12 +0000

Looking back on this past year as a manager in a small company, I see a mix of both good and bad. Sure, my company was one of the few in its industry to NOT lose ground over the last 12 months (as my buddy Mike says, ”Flat is the new hypergrowth—right?”), but my performance, my decision-making and my execution were definitely far from perfect.

In an effort to help my company continue the double-digit annual revenue growth it became accustomed to earlier in the century, I need to make some fundamental changes in the way I act, the way I work, and the way I manage. With this in mind, during the upcoming year I resolve to do as many of the following as I possibly can:

Not worry about what my competitors are doing.
Hire smart people who care.
Measure everything I do.
Look for new customers for my products and services.
Regularly share my goals with my team.
Reward employees who deserve it.
Take a multi-vitamin.
Become an industry expert.
Lead by example.
Take advantage of mobile technology.
Get more out of people who work for me.
Attend fewer trade shows.
Come up withe new product and service ideas.
Buy a more versatile cell phone.
Stop accepting mediocre work from my peers.
Work smarter.
Use more vacation days.
Try a few things that seem impossible.
Use fewer curse words.
Run a leaner department.
Talk to more customers.
Get up from my desk once in awhile.
Diversify my marketing dollars.
Take walks over lunch.
Attend fewer meetings.
Schedule fewer meetings.
Say what I think, exactly when I think it.
Buy a nicer pen . . . and hang onto it.
Waste less time arguing with people who are wrong.
Keep a tidier desk.
Maintain a list of good ideas.
Bring more functions in-house.
Think bigger.

Would you like to add your own change or resolution? Please feel free to reply to this post, and be sure to include a link back to your own website or blog (linkbacks are SEO gold, people).

When Customer Input Doesn’t Matter: The Myth of Measuring Customer Satisfaction

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:28:14 +0000

Over the years I have worked for several small companies that were firm believers in customer surveys. In the eyes of these particular businesses, there was nothing a company could not ask a customer. Whether it was an idea for a new product, an improvement to an existing product, a search for marketing advice or a simple customer satisfaction exercise, these firms would not hesitate to commission a survey to dozens—or in some cases thousands—of people.

Although I happily complied with each and every request, I was always conflicted as to whether or not the process truly provided any value. Obviously any feedback you can get from someone qualified to give it is valuable. But does this feedback come with a price? And are there caveats to look out for—caveats that could call into question the validity and value of the data you receive? The answer in this situation is ‘Yes’ in both cases. The fact is, customer satisfaction surveys often result in few major changes to the way a company does business, for the three critical reasons:

1) Writing Good Survey Questions is Not as Easy As it Looks – Because there are entire books and semester-long MBA courses dedicated to the topic, I will mention only at a high level that it takes a trained and experienced marketing professional to write a valuable, properly structured and non-leading customer survey. Most small companies grossly under-estimate the effect a few poorly written questions can have on the outcome of a survey, and pass off question-writing duties to marketing people who do not have the training or the experience to handle it. The result? Wasting both time and money reacting to problems that don’t really exist.

2) These Days, Nobody Goes Out of their Way to Tell You They’re Happy – Excluding any pre-arranged incentive for participation (i.e. free or discounted products, special coupons, and so on) the primary motivator for people who actually complete customer satisfaction surveys is, ironically, dis-satisfaction. No matter how much work a researcher puts in trying to make surveys fun, shorter and easier to complete, the fact remains that a customer who is satisfied will rarely tell you as much, for one simple reason: customers do not feel obligated to offer feedback when your product, service or company does exactly what they expected it to do.

Let’s take a simple example from Sales. When a sales person is delivering his or her sales pitch, there are three emotional states a prospect can be in: 1) impressed and receptive, 2) unimpressed and confrontational, or 3) indifferent. The emotional state most conducive to closing the deal is impressed and receptive, but every great sales person knows the worst-case scenario is actually . . . indifferent. Why? Because a sale cannot be made to someone who genuinely does not care. In many ways, the same principle applies to return rates for customer satisfaction surveys: people who have no emotional response one way or the other (those who are truly ‘satisfied’) will simply not participate.

3) People are Smart Enough to Know You Will Use Their Feedback to Make More Money – Although you might tell customers that completing your survey is in their best interest through things like ‘increased quality’ and ‘improved service,’ today’s customer is savvy enough to know your only objective is to increase the profitability of your company. No matter how you spin it, most customers understand that what you are asking them to do is donate their time so you can earn a bigger paycheck.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few paragraphs explaining all of the reasons why customer satisfaction surveys do not work or are not completed. But despite the title of this post, I do believe there are some things you can do as a marketer to improve your results:

Get Professional Help – To avoid collecting bad information or the wrong information, give serious consideration to either hiring a consultant to assist, or contracting out the customer satisfaction surveys to a professional market research firm. Most small companies can’t afford to have a full-time Marketing Researcher on staff, and hiring outside help is an acceptable alternative.
Offer Tangible Incentives for Completion – To increase your completion rate, offer participants something they actually want—free services or merchandise, discounts on their next purchase, access to a special package, or something similar. No one is going to get excited about being entered into a drawing with thousands of other people for yet another iPod Nano or a $50 gift card to your company store (see the definition of ‘Expected Value’ for more information), but a double-digit discount percentage off of their next order? Much more tangible . . . and easier to calculate.
Know Who Your Respondents will Be . . . and Embrace Them – As mentioned above, it is likely with any Customer Satisfaction Survey that most of your responses will come from people who are on either side of the emotional pendulum—either extremely happy or extremely angry. Why not use this emotion to your advantage? Actively seek feedback from these groups by writing questions that spur them to respond. Cater to dissatisfied customers by admitting your company or product’s faults, and opening the door for them to help you address specific issues. For happy customers, encourage them to explain exactly why their experience with your company has been so positive, and ask for advice on how to communicate their story to others. Admitting to yourself who your real respondents will be is the first step in getting data that you can actually use.

Being an amateur Economist, I have always been a firm believer that the largest measure of customer satisfaction—and the only one that really matters—is bottom-line Revenue. If the market is pleased with what you are doing and how you are doing it, they will purchase more of what you offer. Conversely, if the market is unhappy with your product, your service or your approach, they will purchase less of what you offer. The point is, when you’re running a for-profit business there is no vote or opinion that matters more than that of the economy.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise, a Retweet (handy button provided at the beginning of the post), Digg or Stumble (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Strategic Self-Promotion: 8 Rules for Marketing Yourself Internally at Your Company

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:23:33 +0000

On occasion, the workplace can be a confusing and frustrating place for a small company manager. Have you ever volunteered to lead an upcoming high-profile initiative, only to see someone else be selected for no apparent reason? Have you ever interviewed for an internal position higher on the organizational chart, then not been selected even though you meet 100% of the requirements? Have you ever added a big number to the company’s bottom line and not received any credit for your efforts—even though it was YOUR hard work and innovative thought process that made it happen? When these situations arise it is easy to assume that your work is not appreciated, or that something (or someone) internally is working against you. But more often than not, the answer is much simpler: small company owners and CEOs are notoriously bad at saying “Thank You” and giving outward credit to people who work hard for them.

So exactly what does marketing yourself and your accomplishments entail? Should you openly brag about yourself to your co-workers, point out every good thing you’ve ever done to your boss, and hand the owner or CEO of your small company an up-to-date resume? Not exactly. But I am hoping you understand that a little periodic self-promotion—done in a subtle way—can help you get where you want to be from a career standpoint. With that in mind, I have assembled a few of my most valuable ruls for marketing yourself and your accomplishments within your organization; no matter what you happen to do for a living.

Rule #1: Understand Your Audience. Whether you manage a marketing department, a product development department, the Accounting function or the entire operation, there is a principle for marketing yourself that is more valuable than the rest: know who you’re speaking to. Does your boss prefer to communicate via e-mail or verbally? Does she respond better to statistics or written reports? Does he get more excited to know that the company has saved money or made money? What time of day is your boss most open to a quick note or conversation? Knowing this information can do nothing but help you in the long run.

Rule #2: Establish a Regular Pattern for Your Communication. Instead of surprising your boss with a positive report when she least expects it—and is most likely to forget—establish a regular pattern of positive communication. Early afternoon on Friday is typically a good time to send a positive report, because your boss might actually have time to read and absorb it. But whatever time you choose, be consistent from week to week. In time, your supervisor will not only come to expect your “Friday Good News,” she will actually look forward to it.

Rule #3: Paint Only the Big Picture. When you finally decide to approach your manager with some positive news, be careful to not inundate him with details. Statements like “our most recent product was released 3 months early” or “employee turnover in my departments has been cut in half over the last two years” are about as detailed as you should get when it comes to your personal accomplishments. You can always offer to provide your manager with more information at a later time if requested. And there’s one more advantage to leaving out the details—it gives your boss an excuse to stop by your office for a POSITIVE conversation about your performance, which of course we all need more of these days.

Rule #4: Present the Good, but Resist the Temptation to Embellish. Once you become comfortable communicating your accomplishments to your boss on a regular basis, it actually becomes fun. But at the same time, it can be tempting to push the boundaries and blur the line between what is expected in your role and what is considered an extraordinary accomplishment. Resist the temptation to point out that you met your revenue goal for the year, or that you completed a major project on time, or that a planning document you have been working on for several months is now complete. As difficult as these activities can be, do not forget they are an expected part of your job.

Rule #5: If You Can’t Back it Up or Don’t Believe it 100%, Don’t Report It. I can’t explain why, but it has been my experience that small company owners and CEOs are inherently suspicious of good news. Maybe it’s because they’ve been burned so many times in the past. Or maybe it’s because managing by exception (only communicating with employees when there’s a problem) is a more comfortable style of management. Either way, you can be 100 percent certain that the receiver of your positive report will, from time to time, question you about it—extensively. If you’re not comfortable walking through your report step-by-step with the person who signs your paychecks, don’t bother.

Rule #6: Use Charts and Graphs—In Color. If you actually want your boss to read what you’re making available to her, try to avoid lengthy written reports, documents with paragraphs, and even reports with long sentences. Wherever possible, presenting information in a succinct, graphical-based format makes your news easy to review, understand and absorb. And in the absence of charts and graphs, don’t discount the value of a quick e-mail with a handful of short bullets. We all have a person in our lives who sends e-mail that we immediately delete or archive, because the message is usually too long to read. Don’t become that person! And using a splash of color once in awhile in your charts and graphs (don’t push it) immediately indicates to your boss that your information is important, and that you put some time and effort into assembling it.

Rule #7: Take the Opportunity to Make Your Boss Look Good. Are you looking for a sure-fire way to make your boss excited to receive your regular positive updates? Focus on providing timely, succinct and well-formatted reports she can use to enhance her reputation with HER boss or peers. As you create your reports, ask yourself this question: “Based on the content and format of this report, could my boss pass this on to the owner of my company, or to an executive from another small company?” If the answer is no, spend a little more time working on it. A good manager can obviously complete his job at a high level . . . but a good employee figures out ways to make his boss look good in the process.

Rule #8: Market Beyond Your Own Department. Here is a fact that might surprise you: your direct supervisor is not the only person you should be marketing yourself to. Although formal and written communication to anyone but your direct supervisor could land you in hot water, there is no rule against mentioning you and your departments’ successes to people outside of the department. Today’s peers could be tomorrow’s employees, managers, or even company owners—and the more people who know you’re extremely good at what you do, the better.

As a small company manager there are literally dozens of reports you are expected to maintain and turn in at any given time. But today I need you to add one more report to your regular routine—the one that highlights YOU as a great manager. If you regularly go the extra mile or continually find innovative ways to bring revenue into the company, you have the right—and the obligation—to let someone know about it. If you do something great for your company, don’t be afraid to tell someone!

Also, Social Bookmarks are currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so a Retweet (button provided above), Stumble or Digg (below) would be greatly appreciated. And if you’re looking for a quick and easy backlink to you own site or blog, comments on this post are open as well.

Is it a Lead or Not? A Marketer’s Guide to Communicating with Sales

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:57:56 +0000

Being in charge of filling a Sales pipeline is a tough spot for any Marketing person. Not only are legitimate sales opportunities difficult to find, but when it comes to actually defining what a ‘lead’ looks like, beauty is often in the eye of the beholder. There are literally dozens of ways to classify incoming inquiries generated by outbound marketing efforts, and every marketing and sales person has their favorite; which inevitably leads to two things: 1) Sales accusing Marketing of being incompetent, and 2) Marketing accusing Sales of being lazy.

The definition of the word ‘lead,’ over and above everything else, is the single most common reason Marketing and Sales people don’t mingle at the company picnic. And as a 17+ year marketing professional I can say with some degree of certainty that in most cases, it is our fault. Contrary to what we learned in the 1990s, a trade show attendee who swaps a business card for a blinky pen is not something a good sales person should be interested in. Neither is a name poached from a website, or the spouse of a friend who knows someone in the Purchasing Department at Company X. If we as Marketing people are ever going to regain the confidence of our counterparts in Sales, we need to understand the difference between things that feed a Sales pipeline, and things that should be feeding a paper shredder.

The Name

The first and therefore least significant thing a marketing person can pass along to sales is called a Name, and is defined as follows:

General contact information, acquired from a general source, where no context is given.

Note that use of the word ‘general’ twice in the above definition is not a mistake, but rather a way to diminish the perceived value of a Name. Marketing people acquire Names from any number of places—business card drops at a trade shows, website downloads, mailing lists, industry association member registers, and so on—but the manner in which a Name was acquired does not increase its value. Most Sales people are savvy enough to acquire a Name on their own, and have every right to be insulted when a Marketing person attempts to give them one and pass it off as something that has potential revenue attached to it.

The Lead

The second level of inbound inquiry, and the one most people are familiar with by name, is a Lead. The definition of a Lead—which applies to most companies and in most situations—is as follows:

The name and direct contact information of someone within your target demographic who is looking for more information, and has given your company permission to follow up with them.

As outlined above, there are four important components that must exist before Marketing can declare something a Lead:

Direct contact information;
Confirmation that the Name is within your target demographic;
A desire on behalf of the contact for more information; and
Permission to follow up.

What happens to a Lead after Marketing receives it varies from company to company. Some firms enter them into the Marketing ‘machine’ to receive automated follow up, some companies pass them to an Inside Sales-type of role for cultivation, and some companies pass them directly to an Outside Sales function. But wherever they are sent, Leads are the second-most valuable thing a Marketer can uncover, with the most valuable being . . .

The Opportunity!

The third type of marketing-driven inquiry—and the most difficult one to generate—is the Opportunity. An Opportunity is something Sales people expect, Marketing executives demand, and professional marketers rarely achieve. The definition of an Opportunity is as follows:

The name and contact information of someone who has expressed interest in making a purchase from you, has an established budget, and is either an influencer in the decision-making process or the primary decision-maker.

Based on this definition, in order to legitimately refer to an inquiry as an Opportunity, the following three things must exist in addition to the components listed in the previous section:

A demonstrated need for (or want of) whatever your company has to offer;
Verification that the money exists to purchase what is being offered; and
Proof that the contact can either make the decision, or bend the ear of someone who can.

Much like the word ‘general’ when referring to a Name, the words demonstrated, verification and proof carry special meaning here. All too often, Marketing people get caught in what I refer to as the Think-Feel-Believe Trap when passing prospects onto Sales—”I think they need what we offer, I feel the client has the money, and I believe the contact is a decision-maker.” If the prospect didn’t clearly and specifically state his or her need, budget and decision-making power, what you have is nothing more than a Lead, which will eventually a) require significantly more effort to close, and b) make your Sales Department mistrust you.

The bottom line is, filling a Sales pipeline as a marketer is about more than simply keeping the Sales staff busy. It’s also about maintaining your reputation and credibility with the people who depend upon you for their paychecks. The most sure-fire way to ensure a successful relationship between Marketing and Sales is for the departments to speak the same language, and hopefully this article will help. That way, Marketing and Sales can get back to arguing about issues that REALLY matter—like why Sales people never use the standard PowerPoint templates we make, or why Marketing people refuse to create brochures for products and services that don’t actually exist.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to reply to this post. Also, social bookmarks are as good as currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so a Retweet (button provided above), Stumble or Digg (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

5 More Unbreakable Rules for Using Twitter as a Business Tool

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:00:16 +0000

More than any other social networking site in worldwide use today, Twitter owes a significant portion of its growth to pyramid schemes, egocentric celebrities, get-rich-quick gurus, and kids from Amsterdam with nothing better to do than collect thousands of new followers per week. While these people continue to tie up Twitter’s bandwidth by posting 140-character brain farts in rapid succession, there are also tens of thousands of actual companies—entities with things like employees and balance sheets and health insurance plans—trying to figure out how to use Twitter to gain an advantage over their competitors.

With this in mind, a few months back I wrote and posted an article titled 5 Unbreakable Rules for Using Twitter as a Business Tool. Surprisingly, this article is still the most popular 700 words I have ever typed into a computer. Not because using Twitter is overly-complicated, but because using it effectively within a business context isn’t nearly as easy as it looks. For example, Tweeting from a mobile device after draining your seventh beer might get you a laugh or two from your friends, but it has a markedly different effect among your customer base. Twitter’s lack of a rulebook (or any real standards, for that matter) makes it tempting for us as corporate marketers to do whatever the heck we want. But things like ethics, discipline, planning and strategy are what separate us from our neighbor who sells cleaning products out of her car. And a few rules never hurt anybody.

After investing close to 500 more hours in the research and use of Twitter, I have come up with five additional rules that should never be broken when attempting to use Twitter as a business tool.

Rule #6: Allow Your Twitter Account to Develop a Personality. By virtue of being a social technology, Twitter is a wonderful place to show your customers and prospects a different and more personal side of your business. Does this mean employees should be allowed to Tweet about upcoming vacations and family milestones? Of course not. But Tweeting in a more informal voice can go a long way in building loyalty among Twitter followers. This is especially important at virtual companies, where customers and prospects need to be constantly reminded that there are real people behind all of the webinars, mass emails and online newsletters.

Rule #7: Follow Your Industry’s Support System. Not surprisingly, a critical component of building a successful Twitter presence for business is the actual ‘networking’ part—extending your company’s reach by finding people to follow, and identifying potential customers who are interested in following your company. Most marketers do a great job of choosing Twitter members who have a high probability of being customers some day. But experienced Twitter marketers will also follow people and organizations who keep their customers educated and employed. Does your industry landscape include professional associations, educational portals, consulting companies and placement firms? If so, you might want to follow them. Not only will they be tempted to promote you to their followers, but they will also Retweet your news, offers and white papers once in awhile.

Rule #8: Automate the Day-to-Day Account Management. I obviously have no idea how much your company pays its marketing people. But if it’s anything over $30 per month, an automated Twitter marketing tool might save your company a significant amount of time and money. After just a few hours of setup time, subscription-based services like SocialOoomph (formerly TweetLater) can help your company find followers, send Tweets, and track chatter about your products and services—on multiple Twitter accounts and from a single user-interface. In fact, some automated tools even go out of their way to appeal to marketing geeks like me by offering features such as Clout Calculations (to determine which of your followers have the most Twitter influence), customizable Friend Filters, and various other types of advanced analytics. Most automated Twitter tools have free trials, and several allow companies to join month-to-month and cancel any time they wish.

Rule #9: Don’t Forget . . . Your Compeptitors Are ALWAYS Watching. True story: several months ago I heard through the industry grapevine that one of my company’s competitors was working on a new product. The product was going to be positioned head-to-head with my company’s cash cow, and was expected to take a significant percentage of our market share. After making a few phone calls and learning nothing, I decided to check the Internet. Within a few short minutes I was able to not only confirm the rumor, but assemble most of the company’s initial rollout plan and marketing strategy. The surprise here is not how I found this information, but where—in the Twitter account of the company’s CEO. Over the course of several months, the CEO of my closest competitor had been giving his followers blow-by-blow strategic planning updates. The point here? That social networking sites come with an implied barrier of confidentiality that really doesn’t exist. And if your people can’t keep a secret, they need to lock their profiles.

Rule #10: Build a Community

Contrary to the belief of most companies, the best way to monetize your business-related Twitter account has nothing to do with selling. The key, which might be counter-intuitive to many, is making your followers feel involved. Building a community among your followers through the sharing of knowledge and general communication will lead to more traffic, more activity, and eventually more sales than any 140-character ’special offer’ you could ever hope to distribute. Tweeting links to free white papers and Webinars, using your follower base to test market products, and leveraging Twitter’s @reply function to host open debates are three great ways to jump-start your community-building efforts. Not only will initiatives like this directly involve your followers, but it will keep them coming back . . . so you can sell them something later.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to post a comment below. Also, Social Bookmarks are as good as currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so a Digg or Stumble (below) or a Retweet (handy button provided at the beginning of this post) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

5 Visually Appealing Plugins for the Lazy Blog Designer

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:36:37 +0000

To me, one of the keys to my blogging success thus far (“success” being a term I use loosely in this case) is that I am keenly aware of both my strengths AND my weaknesses. On the Strengths side of the ledger, I have two things going for me—I can write, and I can market myself. But on the Weaknesses side, I have one major hole in my skill set: I can’t design my way out of a wet paper bag. To prove my point, I encourage you to compare my blog design with my friend Ira’s blog, GlassyEyes.com. His site is what a creative, professionally-designed blog can (and should) look like. It also stands as a constant reminder that a few Art classes in college probably wouldn’t have killed me.

So . . . once we artistically-deficient bloggers finally switch from the default blog template to something a bit more customizable, how do we add at least SOME visual appeal without having to spend $1,100 on Macromedia Creative Suite and another $2,000 learning how to use it? Plugins, of course! Sure, most plugins are designed to work behind the scenes by protecting our blogs from spam, managing our databases, and running our traffic reports. But a select few can actually add things like formatting, graphic elements, and even a bit of interactivity—without tempting us to download a pirated copy of Photoshop.

With the above in mind, below are five types of plugins that can add some sorely-needed visual appeal to any blog, with very little design effort or skill involved.

PLUGIN #1: ANY SORT OF RETWEET BUTTON

Most people view Tweet-related plugins as a great way to encourage republication of blog postings (please feel free to click on mine, by the way—scroll UP). But those of us with no design skills see this plugin and think one thing: page anchor. Everyone knows that starting a post with a graphic or a blue bird makes your content three to five times more interesting to readers. And more importantly, keeping a running count of your Retweets is a great way to give yourself a quick ego boost when you realize how crappy your blog design really is. Added Bonus: buttons can often be presented in different sizes and colors for enhanced appeal.

PLUGIN #2: GOOGLE ADSENSE

Moneymaker? Sure. But design element? Damn right. Unlike Retweet buttons, Google Adsense plugins give bloggers not one, but THREE opportunities to add customizable colored squares to any post or page. And colored squares are good. The “Mid-Post Ad” setting in Google Adsense also gives blog readers an opportunity to briefly pause and ignore something obnoxious halfway through literally any blog posting. Added Bonus: the perfect ‘triple-threat’ when it comes to plugins—revenue generator, design element, and content breaker-upper.

PLUGIN #3: CAPTCHA

In preparation of a Trivial Pursuit game ten years from now, you need to know that the acronym CAPTCHA actually stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Translation: this plugin protects our blogs from automated comment spam and iFrame injections. But more than that, CAPTCHA almost always includes a really cool graphic with a bunch of letters and lines in it, where our blogs are most in need of a little ‘flair’—at the very bottom of the page. Added Bonus: CAPTCHA functionality on a blog makes the owner look sophisticated.

PLUGIN #4: AN ‘ABOUT THE AUTHOR’ BLOCK

If there is one thing most blogs lack regardless of platform, it is boxes. I love boxes. And quite frankly, it frustrates me that you can’t just insert a box or table into a blog posting whenever you want. That said, an About the Author plugin not only allows you to make a box in your blog, but also put your picture in it. And who doesn’t love looking at a great headshot of themselves? Added Bonus: will save you the trouble of creating a “Profile” page for yourself.

PLUGIN #5: SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

Depending upon which one you use, a Social Bookmarking plugin could allow the addition of between 4 and 400 icons to your blog—the equivalent of winning the lottery for any lazy blogger. And more importantly, each of these icons is professionally designed, and completely customizable in terms of placement. Some Social Bookmarking plugins even include a bit of animation, as evidenced by the six-pack at the bottom of this post (how cools is THAT?). Added Bonus: use of multiple Social Media plugins will ensure even the most obscure social networking sites are forever represented on your blog.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise, Social Bookmarks are currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so a Digg, Stumble or Sphinn (below) or a Retweet (above) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Marketing Tool Review: SocialOomph Social Media Productivity

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:41:17 +0000

As a blogger who also has a day job, the lure of automated marketing tools is, at times, nearly impossible to resist. But as I discussed in a recent post titled Four Marketing Technologies That Are Ruining the Internet, most of the tools marketers have to choose from do little more than encourage us to clutter the Internet with artificially-generated traffic, irrelevant information, and duplicate content. Finding a balance between making my life easier and retaining my ethical standards as a marketer is an ongoing struggle. But eventually, I plan to win.

In my never ending quest for high-value marketing tools that also allow me to sleep at night, I began experimenting with a social media productivity booster called SocialOomph (formerly TweetLater). My experiences with this tool—positive and negative—are outlined in this article. If this post generates a decent level of interest among readers, I plan to continue the series by investing my own money in (and subsequently writing about) other paid marketing tools and services. With this in mind, if you have any suggestions for tools you would like to see evaluated on this website, please email me directly at eric@thesmallcompanyblog.com with your ideas.

SocialOomph: A Quick Overview

SocialOomph originally got its start as an automated friend-finder for Twitter users, and like other tools of its kind has since added dozens of new features. Some of these features you can probably live without, and some are absolutely critical for execution of a comprehensive Twitter marketing strategy—the latter including bulk tweet uploading, @Mention and Retweet monitoring, Twitter keyword alerts, and management of multiple Twitter accounts from a single user interface.

The Professional Edition of SocialOomph (access to all features) is $29.97 per month, and prior to paying this subscription the company allows prospective monthly users a 6-Day Free Trial to test everything out. This review will be written from the perspective of a full-blown user, who has paid his monthly fee and re-upped his subscription, which I have done multiple times.

SocialOomph: The Good

As a fundamental part of any social media productivity service, SocialOomph’s Friend Finder tool is as feature-rich and robust as I could expect to get for less than 30 bucks per month. To satisfy my inner control freak, SocialOomph allows me to search for and filter potential friends using nearly 25 different settings—settings that include uber-nerdy stuff like Following-to-Follower Ratio, Username Keywords, Length of Twitter Membership, and even the type of thumbnail graphic a Twitter member uses in his or her profile.

I also love the Clout Calculation, which allows me to generate a list of my Top 50 “Most Influential” followers, so I know whose butt to kiss when I need some traffic. And of course, the Bulk Tweet Upload feature allows me to upload a virtually unlimited number of Tweets (I have yet to hit the limit, anyway) and schedule them for distribution at some time in the near or distant future. For a person with no time to spare, these features alone are worth the price. Aside from my three personal favorite time-savers, SocialOomph’s TweetCockPit (for managing multiple accounts) allows you to schedule @replies and DMs, send broadcast (mass-distributed) DMs, and run you own TwitterBots . . . something that happens to irritate me personally, but many of you might enjoy this feature.

SocialOomph: The Not So Good

Compared to other membership-based sites I pay money to use each month, I must admit I expected a bit more from SocialOomph’s User Interface. Sure, all of the features work as advertised, but the main interface is a mashing together of tabs, links and ill-formatted tables that sometimes make it difficult to find exactly what I’m looking for. It is quite obvious that this website is too busy trying to make money to improve the design of its site, but as a paying member in good standing I expect to see some big interface changes soon.

The other negative regarding SocialOomph is, unfortunately for them, something they can do nothing about—speed. Like any other automated social networking tool, SocialOomph is constantly accessing the Twitter API . . . which means when Twitter is slow, SocialOomph is slow. But until the owners of Twitter actually figure out a way to cash flow their idea and use the money to add more bandwidth, users across the globe will be forced to deal with the big blue “Twitter is Over Capacity!” whale dozens of times per day.

SocialOomph: The Missing

After three months of relatively intensive use, there are a few features I would like to see added to SocialOomph. First, I would LOVE a report that analyzes my Following List, and automatically un-follows anyone who has not chosen to follow me within (for example) a week of me initially following them (note that SocialOomph does have a function that un-follows anyone who un-follows you, but what I’m referring to here is a bit different). Second, for as much time as I spend on their site it seems only right that they allow me to customize my view—basically create my own SocialOomph desktop—so I don’t have to deal with the dozens of tabs and links I simply don’t use.

And finally, as counter-intuitive as this feature might be to the concept of social networking, I would like to see the good people at SocialOomph build a function that helps me weed out spammers and idiots—kind of like a “Friend Finder,” but in reverse. For example, among my followers I know I have dozens of shadow accounts (where the same person owns multiple accounts and tweets the same thing for each account) and “Enroll in the Trump System of Wealth” pushers. Quite frankly I’m tired of reading their crap, and if SocialOomph could give me a way to find and permanently block them, I might be a customer for life.

SocialOomph: Overall Impressions

Is SocialOomph the perfect social media productivity booster? Not quite. But as a key piece of marketing automation for bloggers and website owners, there isn’t much missing in the way of features. Also, the owners and operators of SocialOomph deserve a HUGE amount of credit for developing and migrating their system in an ethical manner. Not only does the site keep its members constantly updated on new Twitter usage policies, but they resist the temptation to ‘game’ the Twitter API by forcing users to grow their follower bases logically and consistently over time—versus other systems that make promises like “Gain 10,000 new followers per week!” and “Get as many followers as Oprah!”

If you’re in the process of shopping for a social media productivity tool, registering for SocialOomph’s 6-Day Free Trial is a risk-free way to get your feet wet. And who knows: after those six days, you might find you can’t live without it either.

Comments? Questions? Please email me directly at eric@thesmallcompanyblog.com. Also, social bookmarks are as good as currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so a Digg, Stumble or Retweet would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

15 Things I Did When My Blog Was Hacked: A Recovery Plan

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:00:04 +0000

I don’t usually make a habit of getting emotional in my blog postings. But for reasons I will explain shortly, the last three weeks have changed me. Although I could never be considered an overly positive person, I certainly have never been a negative one. I trust people when they earn it, and believe for the most part that the blogosphere is a safe place to learn new things and develop my skills as a writer. But recently, a person I never met decided to destroy my blog, for no other reason than his own twisted entertainment.

And now, I’m just pissed.

Without going into too much detail, I will tell you that in a matter of minutes I lost an entire year’s worth of work. Ten pages, 55 posts, 19 drafts, hundreds of tags, and over 2,000 comments were gone in an instant—replaced with nothing more than a simple redirect to a Hungarian-hosted adult website, and a nasty virus (a Trojan, actually) on my computer. Exactly how the hacker destroyed my XML data file and all of my server-side backups is a complete mystery to me; and why he did it is something I will never be able to understand.

But on the bright side, after three weeks of sleepless nights rewriting articles from memory and scouring the web for reposts, my blog is finally live again—but not before multiple (read: five) failed attempts at go-live. Since early October I have repeatedly brought my site back online, only to discover the hacker somehow worked his way back in each time. But this time, I think I’ve finally figured him out . . . because if I didn’t, you’d be looking at porn right now.

If I learned one thing during the recovery process, it is this: information on preventing a blog hack is everywhere, but good information on recovering from a blog hack is nearly impossible to find. So in the interest of helping those of you who are going through (or eventually will go through) the same thing, I would like to share my 15-step recovery strategy, in as much detail as I possibly can. I sincerely hope this article helps you in some way—even a small piece of it—and if you have any questions PLEASE do not hesitate to email me directly at eric@thesmallcompanyblog.com.

15 Steps I Took to Recover from a Blog Hack

Step #1: Shut Down Your Blog. Immediately – Trust me when I say that this process will go MUCH more smoothly if you rip the Band-Aid off in one pull. Sure, it’s painful to take your site completely offline, but compared to 3,000 people sending you nasty emails and putting you on a “high-risk website” list, it is best to bite the bullet up-front. And don’t just replace your home page with an “Under Construction” sign—unassign your domain. I shouldn’t have to remind you of this, but someone with an unlimited amount of free time has control of your blog. If you want to regain control, you need to cut off his access first.

Step #2: Clean Out Your HTDOCS Directory – As a first step in combating a hacker, some experts (e.g. Level 2 Hosting Support at Network Solutions) will recommend you uninstall your blog software. Do not listen to these idiots. The uninstall process might cripple your blog, but it won’t kill it. In Wordpress especially, the uninstall process leaves dozens of files (and in some cases entire folders) completely intact. Many of these files cannot physically be un-installed, because the hacker has either hid them or modified their file permissions. If you really want to do this the right way, call your ISP and have them clean out your HTDOCS directory on the server side. But however you do it, don’t leave anything lying around.

Step #3: Run a Virus Scan On Your Primary Blogging Computer – Although all of these steps are important, Step #3 is critical when it comes to preventing re-infection. Many attacks made on blogs start with a virus on your computer—one that has very quietly picked off your FTP username and password and sent it to a third party. This step might cost you a tiny bit of money (less than $40 total) but this is not a time to start operating on a budget. Here is what you do: first, boot up in Safe mode. Run a full scan of Malwarebytes, then reboot in Safe Mode. Run a full scan of Super-Anti Spyware. Reboot in Safe Mode. Run CC Cleaner (CC Cleaner is freeware). Reboot in Safe Mode. Wash . . . rinse . . . repeat. Also, a friendly piece of advice: do not even consider using any other virus and/or Trojan-removal products. The virus on my computer not only crippled both Symantec and Windows Defender, but rewired them to give me false information.

Step #4: Change All of Your Blog-Related Passwords – Now that your computer is no longer spying on you, any logins you use for blogging-related purposes MUST be changed, with no exceptions. This includes the login for your FTP tool, the computer you use to manage your blog, your host login (Network Solutions, GoDaddy, etc.) and your blog itself—which you will be re-installing shortly. Also, a note of caution: it is important that you not perform this step too early. If you change your passwords before your blog is offline, your blog folder is empty and your virus scans have been run, you WILL be hacked again. How I know this is not relevant.

Step #5: Reinstall Your Blog Software from Scratch – While your domain is still unassigned and the hacker can’t find you, re-install your blog software from the beginning. But before you do, upgrade to the absolute latest version of whatever platform you use. Also, resist the temptation to cut your blog live as soon as the installation is done. You’ve still got a lot of work to do, and staying invisible is key.

Step #6: Re-Acquire and Re-Install Each of Your Plugins and Widgets from Scratch – If you’re anything like me, your happiness is dependent upon having at least 20 different plugins and widgets running on your blog. Unfortunately, this is where your willingness to try new things bites you right in the ass—because you need to re-download, re-install and re-configure every single one of them. Each one needs to be downloaded from a credible website, preferably the main site for your blog platform (Wordpress.org, TypePad.com, etc.). And while you’re shopping, pick up a plugin or widget that regulary inspects your blog for malicious code and secret backdoors, like “AntiVirus” for Wordpress.

Step #7: Re-Acquire and Re-Install Your Theme from Scratch – Similar to Step #6 above, visit the branded site that developed your blog and download your theme file again before reinstalling. Many previously uninformed people (like me) fell into the trap of acquiring a theme by typing “free blog themes” into Google, and clicked on the first few links that came up. But did you know that many of these themes are already pre-infected? Now you do. If you find a cool them on a not-so-credible website, chances are it’s been downloaded from a branded blog site and modified in some way.

Step #8: Make All of Your Theme Mods – Remember all of those really cool theme modifications you made over the last few months? I hope so, because you’re going to have to make them again. But this time, make a list of modifications as you go—a quick description of the modification and the template or CSS file you modified in each case is a great start.

Step #9: Turn Off Comments on All of Your Posts – If there is one thing blog platform developers do NOT want you to know, it is this: your blog’s XML database can be hacked and infected by simply entering the right combination of characters into the comment field of one of your posts. Even if your blog is set to not display a comment until you approve it, anything—and I mean ANYTHING—typed into your blog’s comment field is still permanently written to your XML database, and occupies the same file space as your posts, tags, cagetories and other comments. Until you see the CEO of your blog platform on MSNBC declaring that their ‘comments hole’ has been closed, turn off your comments. And leave them off.

Step #10: Turn off Your Blog’s Search Feature – In similar fashion to the Comments Field, your blog’s Search Field is just as vulnerable to a hack. This article from Network World does a great job of explaining how your blog site can be taken over via the Search field. If your blog does not have a simple “On/Off” switch for search, you may need to manually remove the code from your page templates before the field actually goes away.

Step #11: Re-Upload Your Content - If you have no idea when your blog was actually infected, do not blindly re-upload an old backup XML file of your database and assume everything will be fine. Before you load any XML data back into your blog, past the entire file into Notepad and look for phrases like “iFrame” and “redir” (redirect). Also, check all of the “http” references within the file, and make sure you know where each link in your data file is pointing. If you find too many scary things in your XML, or if you aren’t comfortable cleaning the file yourself, DO NOT UPLOAD IT. Instead, it’s time to start the painful and slow process of re-creating each post thru copy and paste. If you need to resort to this, here is a tip: start with the articles themselves, and save the comments for a day when you have less going on in your life.

Step #12: Change Your Blog’s Config File – I can’t directly speak for other platforms, but within a Wordpress installation there will be a file named wp-config.php, which carries important information related to site cookies (and therefore site access). Some hackers utilize this file to gain Administrator rights to your blog, but making few quick changes to your config file will invalidate all cookies on your site, and force people to re-log in using new credentials. As someone who is not a .PHP developer, I can’t say exactly how important this step is. But I have found this tip referenced on a number of sites where security-type nerds love to hang out.

Step #13: Turn it All Back On – The moment of truth has arrived, and now it is indeed time for you to a) cross your fingers, b) say a little prayer to whatever God you believe in, and c) make your blog live again. Depending upon how long your blog was down, it may take some time for your site to actually show up on the web again after you re-assign your domain. But if it takes longer than 2 hours, contact your ISP immediately.

Step #14: Create and Upload a New Sitemap – If you’re even remotely capable of following step-by-step instructions, your sitemap should have been blown away back in Step #2. With this in mind, the search engines have likely stopped by for a visit between then and now, which means your site is sitting in the Internet penalty box known as the dreaded “unverified” bin. Creating a new sitemap and uploading is the only way to tell Google and MSN that your blog is alive and kicking again.

Step #15: Let Your Readers Know What’s Up – For various reasons, most bloggers who get hacked are embarrassed to admit it . . . which is why articles like this are so hard to find. But rest assured, there are tens of thousands of people out there who already went through the same thing, and all of them will be amazingly supportive of your efforts to recover. Once your blog has been running hacker-free for a few days, let your site members and social networking followers know what happened. Not only will this explain why you disappeared from the web, but it will encourage them to hang in there if you get hacked and have to take your site down again.

Comments? Questions? Please feel free to email me directly at eric@thesmallcompanyblog.com. Otherwise a Digg, Stumble, Sphinn or Retweet (handy buttons provided) would be a great way to distribute this information to others. Good luck, and stay safe!

Four Marketing Technologies That Are Ruining the Internet

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:14:21 +0000

As I look back on my 17+ years as a professional marketer, it occurs to me how far we have come. Once popular marketing methods like direct mail, trade shows, cold-calling, and print advertising have been completely replaced by Internet-based technologies—technologies which are not only less expensive, but much easier to use. Today, anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can become a marketer. And because of this, the Internet we previously promised to love, honor and cherish is quickly becoming the electronic equivalent of a public toilet. Ah, the joy of technological advancement.

So why is our once beloved Internet turning into a place customers fear to tread? Has the Internet joined airport bathrooms and Dancing with the Stars as things that were invented for good, but used for evil? I believe the answer is a resounding “yes,” primarily due to the use—or more accurately, the overuse—of four marketing-based technologies.

Technology #1: The Automated Friend Finder

Just a few days ago I was doing my twice-weekly Twitter maintenance, evaluating the new people who chose to follow me, when I noticed a Twitter account that nearly pushed me off of my chair. This particular account was following over 96,000 people, but had only 17 followers. Even more shocking was the fact that the account had been activated less than three days prior. Although I didn’t think about taking a screen shot at the time, I logged back in a few minutes ago and found another account in my queue that was well on its way (See Screen Shot Below—Click to Enlarge: a pace of 1,776 follows in 5.5 hours will add 23,000 follows to this account every three days).

For many ‘professional’ marketers, automated friend finders are nothing more than an opportunity to score some quick follow-backs by mass-soliciting thousands of untargeted people per day. In the interest of full disclosure, I need to mention that I actually use an automated friend finding tool. It’s called SocialOomph (formerly TweetLater) and I use it for three reasons: 1) it saves me time, 2) it’s cheap, and 3) it’s ethical. Instead of attempting to ‘game’ the Twitter API by allowing me to follow tens of thousands of people per day, SocialOoomph will find a maximum of 40 in any 24-hour period. And before it starts searching for follows on my behalf, I have to tell it who to look for. (I actively seek to follow consultants, business bloggers, company owners, managers and business publications.)

Technology #2: Social Bookmarking

Back in May of this year, I took a great deal of heat from bloggers and web designers when I wrote and published an article titled Social Bookmarking: Dos and Don’ts. In this article I had the nerve to suggest that maybe—just maybe—marketers would be better served narrowing the list of social bookmarking options they offer to website visitors (I suggested no more than six options be presented). My primary argument was that web marketers were ignoring a founding principle of human behavior: a person who is given too many choices will almost never make one. This article quickly generated dozens of flaming emails, most asking the question “What if my visitors don’t support any of the six bookmarks I choose?” And to every emailer, I sent the same reply: “Get to know your target audience.” (See Screen Shot to the Left—Click to Enlarge: 30 social bookmarking icons in one block? The perfect combination of distracting and overwhelming.)

The fact is, websites and blogs were never meant to look like the front fender of Tony Stewart’s #14 car. When marketers give website visitors this many options to bookmark content, they might as well be saying “I have no idea who you are, and I don’t actually care.” A good marketer will know enough about his or her target audience to figure out which social bookmarking technologies they support, and which ones they don’t.

Technology #3: The Automated Comment Poster

After nearly one full year as a blogger, I am happy to say I have almost 1,000 heartfelt, well-constructed comments on my posts. Unfortunately, I have had to sort through nearly 24,000 spam comments to find them. Sometimes, these unwanted comments are nothing more than overt solicitations for mail order Cialis or Eastern European porn sites. But more often than not, comments on my blog postings are Trojan horse-type sentences like “Great post—thanks for writing!” and “Wow, I never thought of it like this before!” designed only to acquire free linkbacks from my site. (See Screen Shot Below—Click to Enlarge: If you’re going to try and steal a linkback from a blogger, PLEASE try to be more creative than this.)

Unfortunately, the misuse of automated comment posting technology fills blogs with tens of thousands of meaningless, poorly written and un-heart felt comments per day. And sadly, it’s not just the amateurs who are at fault. The worst offender on my blog was a guy named Bill Bartmann, who literally spammed my blog every day for two months straight, until I finally emailed him directly and asked him to stop. Important to note here is not only the fact that Bill is stinking rich, but has appeared on CNBC’s “Big Idea” with Donny Deutsch, and with Neil Cavuto on FoxNews. Come on, Bill, you’re better than that.

Technology #4: Affiliate Advertising

For this technology, I need to clarify something before I continue: most bloggers and website owners have earned the right to make a few bucks. Web hosting costs money, the tools we use aren’t free, and eventually, most of us would like to get paid a little something for our time. That said, ethical affiliate advertisers are being painted in a negative light by the underhanded ones who regularly practice techniques like link disguising, direct link tweeting, and outright click baiting.

Another major issue surrounding affiliate advertising is something I like to call ad saturation. Case in point: Darren Rowse, owner of problogger.net and arguably the most famous blogger on the planet, has over 20 revenue-generating links—just on his home page. This morning I noted 13 image ads and at least 9 paid links listed as ‘resources’ or ‘recommendations’ in his footer. Today, navigating a website or blog without clicking on an ad requires the forethought of a chess Grand Master, the alertness of an MMA fighter, and the steady hand of a heart surgeon. This is hardly the Internet we all envisioned for ourselves ten years ago.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to reply to this post. Also, if you enjoyed the story we would very much appreciate a Digg, Stumble, Sphinn or Retweet (handy buttons provided). Thank You!

The Five Hidden Ways Small Companies Waste Money

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:26:33 +0000

At some point in our lives we have all heard the saying “if you count the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves.” Although this advice might have helped your grandparents survive The Great Depression, this kind of small-minded thinking carries no weight when it comes to running and attempting to grow a business. This is not to say carefully watching expenses is not important. But business-related expenses should be treated no differently than sales opportunities, where dealing with the big ones first is almost always the wiser choice.

In many cases, however, the biggest expenses of all are also the ones completely hidden from the naked eye of management. Any manager with a second grade-level grasp of mathematics can figure out that the difference between a $300 flight to Chicago and a $200 flight to Chicago is a hundred bucks. But sophisticated managers also realize that a $100 savings on a business trip is almost never the company’s top financial concern . . . nor is it even in the top 10.

There are a number of ways in which money is sucked out of a small company each year, literally undetected. Five of the most common are outlined below.

Money-Waster #1: Under-Utilizing Employees

At a Fortune 100 company with 75,000 employees worldwide, one or two under-utilized employees can be easily overcome . . . if someone even bothers to notice. But at a small company, just one employee who is not being maximized—in terms of workload, skill set or effort—can mean the difference between a department’s profitability and loss. The number once concern of every small company manager should be to make sure that each employee is not only productive, but also being pushed in terms of the LEVEL of tasks and projects they are given.

Look around your company: does your Event Coordinator have a Masters Degree? Did one of your Customer Service people oversee 25 direct reports at a previous position? Is your Office Manager a published freelance writer in her spare time? All small companies have employees with under-utilized or ignored skills—skills which could be used to improve the bottom line by saving the company money AND generating new revenue streams. It is your job as a manager to find them.

Money-Waster #2: Contracting Out Functions that Could be Brought In House

Does your company spend $40,000 per year with a graphic design firm? $50,000 per year on an Accounting and HR consultant? $60,000 per year on outsourced IT services? If so, there is a good chance your company can save money, or at least break even, by bringing these functions in-house.

As a general rule, small companies should consider bringing a function in-house whenever the annual expenditure reaches about $20,000. At this point a company may realistically begin to weigh the pros and cons of either hiring a part-time employee to cover the function, or hiring a full-time employee who can absorb this responsibility and one or more others. If there is one universal truth at small companies, it is this: there is ALWAYS more work to be done than you think. Although hiring a new, salaried employee is one of the larger risks a small company can take, a lack of labor resources is easily the number one barrier to small company growth. More often than not a new employee will pay for him or herself many times over, even in the first year of employment.

Money-Waster #3: Re-Investing in Ineffective Marketing Campaigns

Given the limited amount of time and resources (and in some cases skills) small company marketing departments possess, it is not uncommon for them to re-book and re-execute the same initiatives over and over again, with no consideration of how they are actually performing. Do you know how many sales were generated by the trade show you attend each year? Are you measuring response to the full-page ad your company places in the main industry rag every month? When was the last time someone reviewed—much less changed—your Google Pay-per-Click ads?

If you have come to the realization your company purchases the same ad space, uses the same messaging or exhibits at the same trade shows year after year, it is time to demand measurement of these initiatives. Simple metrics like inquiries, leads, downloads, clicks, names collected or even sales can be assigned to almost any kind of marketing campaign. Once metrics are assigned, repeated instances of the same campaign can be tracked and compared over time—allowing adjustments to be made in messaging, frequency and budget.

Money-Waster #4: Adding Friends and Relatives to the Payroll

Whether your small company has 10 employees or 100, odds are good that someone on the Executive Team has championed the employment of least one friend or relative. Small companies are littered with spouses, siblings, in-laws, children and friends from college, to a degree that would make an HR Director at a Fortune 500 company seek therapy.

In situations where the employee has specific skills that could not otherwise be acquired, this move can be extremely valuable. But in most cases, hiring friends or relatives does a company much more harm than good. In addition to the risk of wasting money directly (these employees are often overpaid and/or under-qualified for their positions) they can be a significant de-motivator to other employees; especially when they are brought in as management. And even when these types of employees are not brought in at a high level, the person who made the hire rarely has the objectivity to manage them . . . or the foresight to allow someone else to do it.

Also, when personnel issues arise—and they absolutely will—the issues are seldom resolved. Instead, the non-relative or non-friend employees are forced to suffer in silence, eventually leaving the company for less stressful work environments. As tempting as it is to do so, hiring friends and relatives to work is almost never a good idea, unless your company goals include de-motivating employees and increasing the company’s turnover rate—neither of which make a positive impact on the bottom line.

Money-Waster #5: Tolerating Under-Performing and Negative Employees

With as much focus as small company executives put on concepts like Excellence, Dedication and Teamwork, the reality of working for a small company is often equivalent to ‘employment for life,’ meaning even employees who put forth a minimal level of effort can have their jobs as long as they want them. Every small company has at least one: the employee who refuses to work one minute more than published hours, is completely void of any sense of urgency, and snaps whenever asked to do something not specifically listed in their job description. At times they can be amusing, and often they make for great conversation at Happy Hour. But they are also hurting your company in ways too numerous to count.

Although many have tried, the fact is you can’t grow a small company by filling the employee roster with people who contribute the absolute minimum—and complain while doing it. Even if these employees have been around since the beginning, as a manager you need to understand that your company is changing; and if growth is the goal, there is no room for unmotivated, perpetually grumpy ands short-sighted employees.

Conclusion

Wasted money at a small company doesn’t always identify itself with a bright red bow and a blinking card that says “look here.” In fact, more often than not a company can come out farther ahead in the end by better utilizing its existing resources than it can by cutting costs and expenditures. There are a number of non-traditional ways that small companies under-use or mis-use its resources, and although this document has outlined five, there are obviously many, many more. If you have identified a different hidden way that small companies waste money, please feel free to reply to this post.

Also . . . Social Bookmarks are as good as currency here at TSCB, so a Stumble, a Digg, a Retweet, or a quick visit to one of my Google ad sponsors would be very much appreciated. Handy buttons are provided for the first three, and the fourth is relatively easy—just follow one of the three links in the ad block in the middle of this article. Thank you.

12 Essential Sections of a Great Marketing Plan + Template

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:06:21 +0000

I’ll never forget the combined feeling of excitement and panic the first time my boss asked me to create a Marketing Plan for a new product. While part of me was excited by the fact I had finally ‘arrived’ as a professional in my field—much like a doctor being asked to treat a first patient—the remainder of me was scared to death, because in reality I had absolutely no idea what a usable, real-world Marketing Plan actually looked like.

Sure, I had created a handful of semi-meaningless plans while earning my MBA, but this situation was different. I was being asked to create a comprehensive roadmap that would be used by over a dozen people to release, market, and make money on a brand new product. And unfortunately, I didn’t have a clue where to begin.

Attempting to climb out of the hole I dug for myself, I spent the following evening at the local bookstore, flipping through everything from college textbooks to home-based business manuals. Although I came across a number of ideas for sections to include in my plan, the closest I came to finding the parameters of a ‘standard’ marketing plan was information in a textbook on something called The Four Ps of Marketing . . . the worst over-simplification of the Marketing process ever documented in textbook form.

It was after this evening of research and several extended conversations with colleagues that I realized something: in a smaller company environment, there is no such thing as a standard marketing plan. And over a decade later, I now understand why: because every small company executive and stakeholder who ever commissioned a marketing plan was looking for something different.

Since the research project I conducted nearly a decade and a half ago I have created hundreds of marketing plans, ranging from a single page to well over 50 pages—not counting supporting documentation. Although each is unique in its own right, I have found over the years that the list of ‘most commonly included information’ in these plans can be narrowed down to a short list of only 12 manageable sections, as follows:

A High-Level Description of the Product or Service
A Description and Size Estimate of the Target Market
Competitive Differentiators
Proposed Marketing Messaging
Packaging, Pricing and/or Bundling Strategies
Marketing Vehicles Used
Required Changes to the Company Website
Initial Rollout Activities
Ongoing Marketing Initiatives
Projected Sales Volumes and Margins
Required Year 1 Marketing Budget
Product Development Assumptions

To further explain each of these marketing plan sections, I have created a downloadable Marketing Plan Template in PDF format, which you may take free of charge. The file is 4 pages in length, and approximately 150k in size. Please follow this link to download it:

tool-the-12-essential-sections-of-a-new-product-marketing-plan

In exchange for this tool, I ask only for one of four things: a Stumble, a Digg, a Retweet, or a quick visit to one of my Google ad sponsors. Handy buttons are provided for the first three, and the fourth is relatively easy—just follow one of the three links in the ad block above the numbered list. Thank you.

Adsense, WidgetBucks, Commission Junction and Amazon: A Side-by-Side Affiliate Review

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:55:14 +0000

According to several notable bloggers, I am now hitting the traffic milestones necessary to place affiliate advertising on my blog. As most newbie affiliate advertisers do, I experimented with multiple programs before I settled on my ‘ideal’ combination of placements. Although it is too early to financially evaluate all of the programs, I believe there is value in passing on my experience with four of the more popular ones—Google Adsense, WidgetBucks, Commission Junction and Amazon.com. My hope is that bloggers who are about to walk the Affiliate Advertiser path can benefit from the things I have discovered and the mistakes I have made with these programs thus far.

Google Adsense (www.google.com/AdSense)

Of the four programs reviewed for this article, it was no surprise that Google Adsense was by far the easiest to set up and administer. After completing a short registration form and downloading the Adsense plugin for WordPress, I was up and running in minutes. Their code generator for ads is simple and customizable in terms of look and feel, which made it easy to create ads (at least text-based ones) that matched the colors and fonts used in my blog.

In terms of negatives, I was almost immediately frustrated by the lack of variety in Google’s image (graphic-based) ad library, as they seem to be cycling the same three to five windows and banners on every page of my blog. Another negative was the fact that I had very little control over which ads appear. All decisions are made by various Google algorithms, which ‘read’ your pages and decide which ads best fit your content. Case in point: a few months ago I wrote and posted an article called The Real Reason Banks Won’t Lend Any Money. In this case, Google’s Adsense algorithm was smart enough to figure out the article was about banks, but too unsophisticated to determine that the article paints them in a negative light. So predictably, all of the ads being placed into this article by Google are positive ads about . . . banks. For a great example of Google’s inability to distinguish a positive post from a negative one, feel free to follow the link above and evaluate their ad selections on your own.

WidgetBucks (www.WidgetBucks.com)

After I was able to get a few Google Adsense placements up and running, I turned my attention to Widgetbucks—a service that came highly recommended by Darrin Rowse, the owner of ProBlogger.net and arguably one of the most famous bloggers on the planet. Because the program came with such a heavy endorsement (WidgetBucks is one of Darrin’s Top 4 “Recommended Money Makers”) I gave it numerous chances to occupy a few slots on my blog. But as hard as I tried to make it work, I was eventually forced to give up on the program and moved on.

For starters, the ads from WidgetBucks are the perfect combination of intrusive, obnoxious, and cheesy, pushing the limits of outdatedness to rarely seen levels. I’m not exactly sure how, but it seems the owners of WidgetBucks figured out a way to return to the early 1990s and hire an ad designer—a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Eddie Bauer Stores hired its last Marketing person. The WidgetBucks placements not only scream “look at me!” but also incorporate unimaginative and attention-seeking techniques like blinking, message scrolling, image dissolve and overuse of exclamation points. Anyone who is trying to run a credible blog will have a great deal of trouble making even one WidgetBucks placement work for their site; and based on my experience with the program, I do not plan on going back any time soon. I hate to say it, but any recommendation of this affiliate program needs to come with a great big asterisk.

Commission Junction (www.cj.com)

Commission Junction is a website I found on my own, doing general web searches for ‘Affiliate Programs.’ After the negative experience with WidgetBucks, it didn’t take me long to realize that Commission Junction was much closer to what I (the newbie) was expecting from an Affiliate Program. Not only do their ad placements have a clean and updated look, but Commission Junction works directly with thousands of high-profile advertisers—companies like Dell, EA Sports, Best Buy, PR Web, GoToMeeting and many, many more. This abundance of variety not only gives me more control over the look and feel of my site, but allows me to display ads that I know (or at least believe) visitors will be interested in. Also, during the ad selection process their easy-to-use interface told me exactly which partner ads were hot, and which individual ad sizes and products were generating real revenue for advertisers.

In the interest of full disclosure, I need to point out that with the exception of one, all of the 125 x 125 ads to the top right of this article are from Commission Junction. The non-CJ ad is for SocialOomph (formerly TweetLater), a site I approached on my own because I subscribed to their product after a 6-Day Free Trial and really liked the tool. Eventually, I see myself doing more of this—approaching individual companies instead of signing up with massive ad networks. But it’s still early, and my long-term strategy remains to be seen.

If there is a down side to working with Commission Junction, it is that not every decision is within your control. Sadly, GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, Dell and LegalZoom all rejected me as an advertiser, stating that my site was “not a good fit” for their products and services. Once I’m closer to the top of the blogging food chain, I’ll probably have more appreciation for the concept of advertiser vetting. But for now, it frustrates me to know that I’m sitting at the bottom looking up at everyone else.

Amazon.com (http://affiliate-program.amazon.com)

Much like Google Adsense, the Amazon.com Affiliate Program has been around a long time, which can be both a good and a bad thing. On the plus side, years of operation have made this program easy to register for and easy to implement. But on the negative side, most of the ad formats and widgets feel like the Year 2001 is trying to make an early comeback. Overall, the focus of the Amazon.com affiliate program is pretty simple: if I drive someone to the Amazon site and they buy something—anything—I get a small percentage of the sale (about 4%).

Unfortunately, after beginning this article I have come to the conclusion that my site simply isn’t a good fit for the Amazon program. If I owned a product-specific blog site that regularly reviewed music, books, video games or other categorically-matched products, this program could easily be the ultimate impulse-buy opportunity for my visitors (e.g. I could cross-sell a book at the end of a positive review for said book). But going forward, most of the value for me within the Amazon program will be to use their ads to increase the general visual appeal of my site . . . which I have yet to figure out how to do.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Also, Social Bookmarks are as good as currency here at THE small COMPANY BLOG, so a Sphinn, Retweet, Digg or Stumble would be greatly appreciated (handy buttons provided above and below). And obviously, a quick visit to one of our Google sponsors would be wonderful as well. Thank you!

3 Traps to Avoid When Starting Your Own Small Business

Eric_Rudolf — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:14:51 +0000

At some point, we’ve all been there. Over the last few years each of us—at least one time—has become fed up enough with our jobs to consider starting a small business. The process always starts the same way: we do some research on the Internet, make a few phone calls, and run a set of rough financial projections. Then, when we believe our idea is solid enough to begin discussing it with others, we lay out our high-level plans to friends, relatives and co-workers . . . only to be brought crashing back to earth when someone asks the following question:

“But 8 out of 10 small businesses fail, don’t they?”

And while these fateful words are still ringing in our ears, we gather up our research and financial calculations, and toss them in the back of a rarely-used drawer.

The fact that your small business dream has an 80% chance of forcing you into personal bankruptcy is scary. But this singular statistic does not tell the entire story. When you have a chance, grab a piece of paper and write down 10 people at random from your friend, relative and peer network. Once you have 10 names on your paper, go back through the list and make an ‘X’ next to the people you believe have the knowledge, motivation and passion to start a small business and keep it going. How many ‘X’s do you have? Odds are, you have no more than three marks on your paper.

Do you see where I’m going with this? The fact is, 8 out of 10 small businesses fail because 8 out of 10 people who start them have no business doing so. And why do these companies fail? Because their newly-minted business owners continue to fall into the same three traps their predecessors did. If you’re tired of making money for someone else and considering starting your own company, be sure to avoid these VERY common new business pitfalls.

#1: The “I’m Good At This–I Should Do it for a Living” Trap

When I’m not working 50 hours per week at my real job or spending my nights blogging, I’m learning the art and science of barbecue. I love barbecue, and happen to think my slow-smoked pulled pork and St. Louis-style ribs are good enough to be on the menu at any restaurant in the three-state area. With this belief in mind I recently cleared an entire weekend to do nothing but slow-roast various meats in a 225-degree hickory pit, and realized something: I hate doing the work. After two days of preparing, smoking, slicing and serving nearly 100 pounds of barbecue to my friends and neighbors, something finally occurred to me: hovering over a fire all day and constantly smelling like Hickory wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. The lesson here is simple: to avoid the most common small business trap, you need to have the foresight to test-drive your business idea BEFORE you invest your life savings in it.

#2: The “I’m Going to Pursue my Passion” Trap

Although the phrase “Do what you love, and the money will follow” makes a great opening line for a commencement speech (and one hell of a bumper sticker), there is a very important fact that most business owners ignore: your ‘passion’ may or may not actually pay a living wage. The whole point of starting a small business is to gain employment and financial independence—not to help you spend every waking moment in love with what you’re doing. In the real-world, having fun is what hobbies are for; and successful business owners understand the difference between doing something they love, and doing something they don’t hate that also pays extremely well.

#3: The “I Can Start by Selling to My Friends and Relatives” Trap

The idea of sucking money out of friends, neighbors and relatives is no longer exclusive to pyramid schemers and MLM participants. People who are looking to start real businesses often use social networks as a marketing ‘crutch,’ and rarely look beyond their personal contacts when planning the growth of their business. But every budding entrepreneur needs to ask him or herself a very simple question: when my friends and relatives stop buying, how will I reach people who don’t know me yet? The answer to this question is called a Marketing Plan, and if you don’t have one, you might as well start sending resumes to Fortune 500 companies again.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Also, Social Bookmarks are as good as currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so Diggs, Stumbles and Retweets are very much appreciated (see the tiny button bar below). Thank you!

The Myth of Social Networking and Revenue Generation

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:22:08 +0000

As anyone who was once a member of an electronic bulletin board knows, social networks have been around for decades. Twenty years ago, only a handful of businesses had the forsight or the technical knowledge to consider utilizing something like a BBS for marketing purposes. But today, social media technology is much more accessible and easier to use; and the minute the first luminary claimed social networks could be monetized, the world was off and running. In short order, executives and marketing people were frantically chasing the millions (if not billions!) of dollars that would inevitably be awarded to companies who could harness the power of social media.

What happened after was both predictable and expected. Companies large and small began hiring Internet marketing consultants, and adding social networking-related line items to expense budgets. Quarterly management meetings were dominated by social networking-related strategy conversations, and revenue projections were assigned to things like company blogs, FaceBook communities and Twitter accounts—projections which were turned into marketing goals. For the first time since the invention of the corporate website, executives were excited because their destinies were finally clear: figure out a way to monetize social media!

Fast-forward to today, and the first round of reality checks are beginning to set in for some firms. As companies continue to rack up massive amounts of time and money blogging and Tweeting and managing online communities, financially-savvy Executives are noticing something: bottom line revenues are not improving. The question “Where is our social networking income?” is finally being asked, and the answer—as painful as it might be—is now clear.

The social networking revenue they were chasing never actually existed.

You see, something interesting is happening right before our eyes. Business-related social networking is slowly being exposed for what it was originally meant to be: a communication channel. A channel designed to distribute information, increase corporate visibility, and build a community around a company and its products. A channel that can be used alongside—not in place of—things like SEM, SEO, PPC, e-commerce, direct email, telemarketing, outside sales, speaking events and trade shows.

So what is my point? That social networking is not a tool designed to generate sales, but a tool companies can use to shorten the sales cycle. Are there a few exceptions to this? Of course. Part-time bloggers who make 50 bucks per month driving people from social networking sites to affiliate ads (OK, you got me . . . and feel free to click on a Google ad or buy something from Amazon while you’re here) are obviously proof that once in awhile, social networking can generate a few pennies. But executives and marketers at REAL companies—firms with things like employees and health insurance and stock certificates—need to understand the difference between e-commerce and branding. And social networking is much, much closer to the latter.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Feel free to reply to this post. Or alternatively, I’ll take any sort of social bookmark you wish to give—a Digg, a Stumble or a Retweet would be very much appreciated.

4 Reasons Your New Business Will Thrive in a Bad Economy

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:16:15 +0000

Over the past six months or so, all of us have spoken to at least one friend or relative who is considering starting a business. Some have been laid off, others have experienced cutbacks or pay cuts, and the rest are simply unhappy with their current situations. But regardless of the circumstances, the person looking to start a business always ends the conversation with the same sentence:

“But with the economy, it’s probably not a good time to start thinking about starting my own business.”

With the above in mind, I would like to collectively make all of the budding busines owners out there aware of one thing: you are absolutely, one-hundred percent WRONG. The fact is, a bad economy is by far the LEAST risky time to start your own business, and below are four reasons why.

Reason #1: Great Employees are Easier to Find—and Much Less Expensive

During thriving economic periods where nearly all types of businesses are expanding, qualified and experienced people are hard to find. In the mid-1990s, software development firms were hiring $40,000 per year, self-taught programmers right out of high school. In the early 2000s, anyone who knew what the letters ‘HTML’ stood for was working as a webmaster or e-commerce expert. But today, people with 20+ years of experience and multiple advanced degrees are fighting over part-time Barista jobs. If you’re hoping to start a business that requires employees, the talent pool is full to the rim with people who want to work for your new venture.

Reason #2: Equipment and Services are Cheaper

In slow economic periods there are always great deals to be found, both in hard-line items like equipment, and soft-line items like professional services. Within a five-mile radius of my home I have watched no less than seven (7) food service businesses close their doors this year. At one point or another, each of these places made a significant investment in equipment. But now their brand new counter units, refrigerators, cash registers, dishwashers and commercial-grade ovens are owned by the bank—collecting dust while waiting for someone like YOU to buy them . . . at pennies on the dollar. Also, the rash of recent business closings has left contractors who cater to small businesses (IT services, cleaning, general construction, etc.) scrambling for customers, and looking to make great deals to acquire your business. From personal experience, I can tell you that contracting rates have dropped by over 20% in my region, compared to rates just one year ago.

Reason #3: Existing Competitors Won’t See You Coming

During questionable economic times, market leaders have a tendency to curl up in the fetal position and wait for the bad news to pass. But where there is chaos there is ALWAYS money to be made—and while your competitors are too busy trying to stay in business to do anything innovative, they are leaving you an opening to swoop in and offer their products and services better, faster, and cheaper. If you truly believe you can enter a market and improve upon what is already being offered, starting a business in the middle of a rough economy is the ultimate surprise attack.

Reason #4: Customers are More Open-Minded to the Prospect of Change

When consumers see friends and relatives lose things like jobs, houses and retirement funds, they tend to become more accustomed to the fact that maybe—just maybe—there is a better way to do what they’ve been doing. With this in mind, any customer who was formerly locked into a competitor of yours is very likely looking for a better, faster or cheaper way (see above) to live their work and personal lives. Choppy economies force even the most loyal people to rethink their buying decisions; and if a startup business can truly offer something better, consumers will ALWAYS be willing to give the new guy a shot.

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Reality TV: 7 Underrated Shows You’re Probably Missing

Eric_Rudolf — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:48:50 +0000

I am a firm believer that every person in this world has at least one vice. No matter who you are, where you live or what you believe in, there is a moral weakness out there with your name engraved on it. Mine, as made quite obvious by the title of this post, is Reality TV—the creative, chaotic, and sometimes violent shows that force participants to display the not-so-attractive side of themselves on a worldwide stage.

With the above in mind, to follow are seven (7) reality TV shows I believe are under-watched, under-marketed and under-appreciated by viewing audiences across the globe. If you agree or disagree with anything in this article, please feel free to let me know by posting a comment.

Chopped (Food Network)

Hosted by former Queer Eye favorite Ted Allen, the concept of this show is simple: experienced chefs are given 30 minutes to create a single course (appetizer, entree or dessert) out of a basket of mystery ingredients. But on this show, the mystery ingredients are seemingly selected at random, and include things like live sea urchin, gummy bears, collard greens and string cheese. Minus the panel of judges who treat each contestant like they’re interviewing for the Nobel Prize (could food people PLEASE stop taking themselves so seriously?) this show is the ‘MacGyver‘ of reality TV, and definitely worth the investment of your time.

Real Estate Intervention (HGTV)

If you ever wondered what happened to all of those people who took out 80/20 loans with variable rate ARMS and used their houses as ATMs, there is good news: now you can find out. In fact, if you have cable you can watch real estate expert Mike Aubrey deliver the un-sugar coated and financially devastating bad news to homeowners from the comfort of your living room sofa. Real Estate Intervention is basically a ’scared straight’ for homeowners flirting with negative equity, and HGTV deserves a great deal of credit for stepping up to show the darker side of the real estate market. Unfortunately, despite its extremely high entertainment value, this show has come too late to make any sort of positive impact.

The Ultimate Fighter (SpikeTV)

What do you get when you lock sixteen wannabe cage fighters in a Las Vegas mansion with an unlimited supply of booze and energy drink? Broken glass, a swimming pool full of furniture, and tons of ass-kicking—wrapped in a surprisingly compelling story line. If you like to watch underdogs win and nice guys punch bullies in the face, this is definitely the reality show you’ve been waiting for. As an added bonus, The Ultimate Fighter is a GREAT show for couples. While the guys enjoy the fighting, their female companions can watch an entire hour of muscular, square-jawed bad boys working out in micro-shorts. I believe this is called a “win-win.”

UFO Hunters (The History Channel)

Featuring the publisher of UFO Magazine Bill Birnes, the show follows Bill and a team of researchers (not all of whom are believers) around the world as they investigate recent and historically significant UFO incidents. Although much of the evidence they collect and analyze is compelling, there is unfortunately never enough to prove or disprove anything. That said, watching Bill blame various UFO phenomena on alien-human hybrids while world-renowned scientists roll their eyes is the equivalent of entertainment gold.

Hell’s Kitchen (FOX)

Who else but world-famous chef Gordon Ramsey could get away with firing an undercooked Filet Mignon point-blank into someones chest while dropping multiple f-bombs and putting his foot thru a food service garbage can? After nearly 10 full seasons, I still laugh every time I hear Ramsey call an aspiring restauranteur a ‘donkey’ or a ‘donut,’ but continue to be surprised by how few people actually watch Hell’s Kitchen on a regular basis. If Gordon wasn’t the star of the show I might consider watching Top Chef on Bravo, but he is . . . so I won’t.

To Catch a Predator (MSNBC)

Since its move to MSNBC, this show seems to have lost a significant number of viewers. But does watching the police cuff-and-stuff dirtbags who take advantage of children really EVER get old? Of course not. I’m hoping the Producers at MSNBC take my advice and move the show to pay-per-view, so the police will have more freedom to beat up the offenders before they arrest them. Host Chris Hansen may be a bit slimy, but it’s comforting to know that someone is putting these scumbags away—even if it means making boatloads of money while doing it.

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team (CMT)

Unless they live in Texas, the mystique of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders usually wears off for boys some time around 7th Grade, when they finally figure out exactly what is underneath those blue blouses and white micro-shorts. But this show is intriguing for men and women of all ages, primarily because it takes the struggles of young women and image to previously unreached levels. If you don’t have time to add this show to your TV rotation, allow me to summarize Season 2: grizzled, over-botoxed uber-cougars telling young women they’re fat, ugly and untalented. This MUST be why they call the Dallas Cowboys “America’s Team.”

Disagree with anything in this article? Think I missed one of your favorite Reality TV shows? Feel free to reply to this post. Also, please keep in mind that social bookmarks are currency here, so please Retweet, Digg or Stumble this article if you enjoyed it. Or, you may take a moment to visit one of my Google ad sponsor sites. Thank you.

NOTE TO READERS: A few months back I wrote and posted an article titled 7 Reasons Why I Suck at Blogging, and What I’m Going to Do About It. One of the promises I made to my readers in this article was to stray from my small company roots and write something fun once in awhile. This post is a direct result of that promise.

How I Became a Mediocre Blogger for Only $9.95 per Month

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:47:06 +0000

Although it has only been a year, it seems like an eternity since I made the semi-life changing decision to become a blogger. I had always dreamed of writing for the masses—showing people how smart I was, how clever I could be, and how many things I learned during my years in the working world. Blogging appeared to be the next logical step in a career as storied and successful as mine, and I was ready to pass on my experience to anyone who could benefit. After all, no one on the planet had seen what I had seen, or done what I had done. At least that’s what I told myself.

Fast-forward to today, and it appears I am not exactly taking the blogosphere by storm with my 1300 Twitter followers, 2100 RSS feed subscribers and 10,000 monthly page views. But on the bright side, there are plenty of people doing worse than me. Hopefully. So to celebrate my first full year of blogging I decided to take a look back, in an attempt to answer the question “How did I become the extremely average blogger I am today?” This roadmap is short, easy to follow, and absolutely free to anyone striving for blogger mediocrity.

Step 1: I Chose a Domain Name.

This step was not only the easiest, but also the most fun. I spent about two hours messing around with the domain name search function at GoDaddy.com (top right-hand corner), until I finally came up with a domain that wasn’t already taken. In retrospect, I wish I would have chosen something a bit more creative (read: less obvious). But domain names are cheap, and I can always pluck someone else’s great idea off of the expired domain name pile some time down the road.

Step 2: I Found a Host for My Blog.

Let’s get something straight: I enjoy ogling Danica Patrick in a tank top as much as any other guy who is attracted to short, bitchy, high-maintenance women. That said, I had some concerns that GoDaddy.com might not be able to properly host a website that doesn’t involve girl-on-girl action, cork-heeled stripper shoes or massive amounts of cleavage. So I chose the Standard Hosting Package from Network Solutions, for the low price of $9.95 per month. Pros: quick setup, easy FTP access, and a proactive and knowledgeable customer service department. Cons: slow Wordpress upgrades (still forced to use v2.5), sorely inadequate web stats, and separate logins for EVERYTHING.

Step 3: I Started Writing.

For those of you who have never dipped a toe into the raging river that is the blogosphere, trust me when I say that a blogger’s three worst nightmares are as follows and in this order: 1) having your blog crash BEFORE you back it up, 2) watching your content get ripped off and monetized by some dirt bag affiliate advertiser, and 3) running out of things to say. In an effort to avoid number 3, I cranked out two months worth of articles before I actually activated my blog, on the off-chance that a nasty case of writer’s block was headed my way. In retrospect, this was one of the better decisions I made as a blogger. Not because I eventually suffered from writer’s block, but because I often lack motivation to write. Maybe this blogging thing wasn’t the best idea . . .

Step 4: I Switched to a Better Theme.

After running the wheels off of ‘Wordpress Default’ for the first six months, the blogging world literally opened up to me when a friend turned me on to Wordpress Themes. Between hundreds of themes available for free on the Wordpress site and thousands generally downloadable on the web, I was able to find six themes centered around my favorite color orange, and narrowed it down to one that had all of the features I wasn’t getting in Wordpress Default—like configurability, a header graphic, a color palette with more than one color, and general visual appeal. If I made one mis-step here, it was underestimating the amount of time it would take me to switch themes. Depending upon the structure of a blog, uploading a new theme can be the equivalent of a full-scale site redesign. Don’t ask me why I know that.

Step 5: I Installed Some Useful Plugins.

One of the best parts about using a Wordpress blog is there are literally thousands of people out there developing little pieces of functionality that can be ‘plugged in’ to your blog with very little effort. Sure, there are plenty of stupid plugins out there (the plugin that replaces a spammer’s Avatar with a douchebag is one of my personal favorites) but there are also many with legitimate business uses. In my case I started with the All In One SEO Pack, which all joking aside has made a HUGE difference in my web traffic. I then added plugins for Statcounter (a free web stats tool) and Sphinn (a social bookmarking site for web marketers), and finished it off with one of the most popular plugins of all time: YARPP (Yet Another Related Posts Plugin). After running all of these together for a month or so, I eventually hacked the Sphinn plugin and added code for Retweets and Stumbles . . . which shut down my RSS Feed for 16 days, AND locked my Wordpress editor in “HTML Mode” for almost two months. Did I mention I’m still in the process of learning PHP programming?

So in a nutshell, that’s how I did it. If you have any additional tips for becoming a mediocre blogger in the first year, please reply to this post. Also, please keep in mind that social bookmarks are currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG—so Diggs, Stumbles, Sphinns and Retweets are very much appreciated. Or alternatively, you could take a moment to click through on one of our Google sponsor links. Thank you.

The REAL Reason Banks Won’t Lend Any Money

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:46:34 +0000

If you were looking for a sure-fire way into an argument, your most likely adversary these days would not be a neighbor, or an in-law, or even a customer service person at your local mega-retail establishment. More likely, your difference of opinion would lie with a banker. Utter the words “banks aren’t lending any money” around someone who works for a financial institution, and the next 20 minutes will be filled with phrases like “unfair claim,” “media bias” and “completely untrue.” But where there is smoke there is almost always fire; and the fact is, when it comes to lending money to individuals and small businesses, banks are walking a VERY thin line between keeping the country liquid and hoarding the nation’s capital. To make my case, I offer the following true story.

My Story

Back in mid-March of this year, I began to pursue the idea of borrowing a small amount of money for business purposes. I contacted the local branch of what has been my bank for the past 18 years, and eventually two more branches in the surrounding area, until I finally received a call back 30 days later (a sign of things to come?).

My meeting at the bank was scheduled for the end of April, and by all accounts the meeting went very well. I have a stable job, no credit card debt, money in the bank, equity in my home, and a credit score in the 800s. I was told by the loan officer that these were all very good signs, and if anyone should be able to get a loan, it was me. The next steps included appraisal of my assets, a check of my financial history, and a few levels of approval. When I was reviewing the papers to start the process, the loan officer penciled in a loan closing date of June 18th, but assured me things would need to go ‘horribly wrong’ for the process to take that long. With this in mind I signed the paperwork, locked in an interest rate, and handed over a $500 check to get the ball rolling.

Fast-forward to today (July), and you might be surprised to know that I still have not seen a dime. The last 12 weeks have been an absolute comedy of errors, delays, and oversights on behalf of my banker and the institution he works for. Although this is not an all-inclusive list, some of the more notable issues included the following:

During the review of my assets the appraiser pulled the incorrect map for my primary residence, and noted that my house was in a flood zone. Based on this information, the bank attached a requirement to my loan that I immediately acquire a VERY expensive flood insurance rider. After making my banker aware of this obvious mistake, it took him 13 days to return my call, and another five to tell me there was nothing he could do to fix it.
When I requested (multiple times) to see the closing summary in advance, I received the papers less than one hour before the scheduled closing. I quickly printed the papers and reviewed them in the car on the way, only to discover the loan amount—the whole reason I went to the bank in the first place—was off by 92.5%.
After already being scheduled for the ”worst case” closing date, I was forced to wait yet again and apply for an extension on my locked in rate, because my banker took a last-minute week of vacation.
Regarding the previous bullet . . . when I contacted my banker’s manager and asked if he would kindly sit in on my closing so I could keep the original date, the manager quite literally laughed in my face. Then he told me my loan was “not quite that high on his bank’s list of priorities.”

At this point, it is important to note something: I don’t bank at Pawn America. My bank is one of the largest, healthiest, and longest-standing financial institutions in the country. In fact, this particular bank sleepwalked through the recent “stress tests,” and has never been in serious financial trouble in its long and storied history. So this begs the question: why can’t I (or anyone else) get any money? Based on my recent experience, and a number of conversations with employees and customers within the financial industry, I believe the answer is threefold:

Reason #1: Banks are Finally Doing All of the Things They Should Have Been Doing 15 Years Ago. Gone are the days of loan officers encouraging people to push for 80/20 loans, sign variable-rate ARMs, and use their homes as cash machines . . . while encouraging them fudge their loan applications. Today, asset appraisals are being double-checked, employment histories are being triple-checked, and good credit ratings are no longer optional. The downside to the consumer? All of these checks take TIME.

Reason #2: Banks are Choosing to Remain Understaffed. At this point in time, there are statistically more people and businesses trying to get money than in any other period. Between historically low interest rates, unheard of home buyer credits and re-fi requests from struggling families looking to rework existing loans, there are nearly THREE TIMES as many customers in the banking pipeline. Yet for some reason, banks are not looking to hire additional staff. Why? To keep overhead down and stock prices up.

Reason #3: Lenders are Making Even More Stupid Mistakes than They Were Before. The lack of qualified people mentioned in #2 is causing bank employees to rush, which in turn results in an incredible number of mistakes during the loan application and approval process. This year, among my smaller group of friends and colleagues I have seen everything from typos to gross miscalculations—some of which caused loans to completely fall apart. The worst story? A couple who was 9 months pregnant showed up to close on their first home and was turned away, because their banker forgot to lock in an interest rate. Three weeks, $2,000 (unexpected) dollars and one baby later, the home is finally theirs.

It might not be fair, and it certainly isn’t right, but until interest rates move higher and the majority of foreclosure homes clear the market, you and your business must unfortunately expect slow, inaccurate and uncaring service from your lender. And the worst part is, they will continue to collect the same outrageous fees they’ve always been collecting.

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Authors: 6 Other Things to Do with Your Book Idea

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:31:01 +0000

As a recent visitor to my blog pointed out, the traditional self-publishing model of “write a book, print a bunch of copies, and sell them” is becoming more outdated and short-sighted every day. The fact is, recent developments in technology and content delivery have presented a whole host of fun, profitable and low-cost ways to deliver your book idea to the masses—ways that won’t result in dozen of prewritten rejection letters. If you are a budding author who is willing to forgo traditional publishing channels and do something a little different, take a few moments to review these six ideas.

Idea #1: Start a Blog

Since 2001 I have been working on a Nonfiction-Business book about growing small companies. After almost 350 completed pages, I thought I was ready to publish. Just to be safe I started a blog, with the intent of test-marketing snippets of the book to a broader audience. After nearly a year, I came to two startling conclusions: my idea sucked, and so did my writing style. The bad news is, I spent seven years of my life writing about things most small company managers don’t even care about. But on the bright side, I figured it out before I completely humiliated myself. And, the blog I started (the one you’re reading right now) is really starting to take off as of late, with 1,300 followers on Twitter, 2,100 readers of my RSS feed, and over 20,000 page views in the last two months.

Idea #2: Turn it Into an e-Book

Although it will likely be decades before e-Books completely replace their paper-based equivalents, millions of people already prefer the electronic format over its printed counterpart. Why not reach these early adopters by turning your book into an e-Book? They’re easy to create, easy to buy, easy to download and easy to read. The simplest e-Book format to master is PDF, which can be created with any number of free applications, including my personal favorite PrimoPDF. Or, if you’re hoping to see friends and family reading your book on their slick new Amazon readers, you can visit eHow.com for a quick tutorial on converting your book to Kindle format.

Idea #3: Develop an Online Course

If your book could be used by people to learn more about a concept, topic, activity, or special period in history, you might want to consider turning your book into an online course. Monster-sized companies like Microsoft, Adobe and Apple all offer rapid e-Learning development tools—but so do hundreds of smaller firms like Lectora, Unison/RapidIntake and MindFlash. Depending upon the tool you choose, your book could eventually turn into a comprehensive online resource that includes not only content, but also elements like interactive exercises, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos and other multimedia. And here’s the best part: online learning courses can sell anywhere from $99 for a short course (2 to 4 hours in length) up to several thousand dollars for a course in excess of 20 hours long.

Idea #4: Make an Audio Book

Much like converting your book into e-Book format, creating an audio version of your best-seller isn’t nearly as difficult as you might think. If you or one of your friends has a relatively pleasing voice, acquiring an audio recording of your book can be done in several ways. You can record it directly onto your hard drive in a quiet room with a nice headset (less than $100), or you can spring for a half-day of off peak time at the local recording studio for about 500 bucks. Either way, once you have your master file you can convert it to downloadable MP3 or iTunes format with any number of free tools. Add a website and a simple shopping cart to the mix, and people with hour-long daily commutes will be downloading your book to their portable audio devices in no time.

Idea #5: Break it Into a Series

If I have learned one thing during my 5+ years in the publishing industry, it is this: given the choice between an 80-page book for $10 and an 800-page book for $20, the vast majority of consumers will purchase the shorter book. Sure, the longer book is a much better overall value—2.5 cents per page versus 12.5 cents per page for the shorter book—but the longer book comes with something the shorter book does not: a commitment. People love the sense of accomplishment a quick read can give them. If your book pushes the boundaries of reasonable length, you might want to consider breaking it into a shorter continuing series that includes individual blog postings, smaller e-Books or 15-minute Podcasts.

Idea #6: Write a Screenplay

Can you visualize your book as a movie, musical, play, sitcom or soap opera? If so, why not convert it to screenplay format? True story . . . a very good friend of mine had a book idea in his head for years. One day, he and a film student acquaintance decided to convert the idea into a screenplay. After nine months of part-time work it was ready, and the film student used a few connections to pitch the idea. Less than a year after completing it, the two had sold the screenplay to director Clint Eastwood for well into the six figure range. Shortly thereafter the two were attending the Hollywood movie premier, hanging out with people like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood himself. Did they make enough money on their screenplay to quit their full-time jobs and retire? No. But now they both carry Screenwriter’s Guild cards . . . and have one heck of a story to tell their grand kids some day. For a bunch of free tips and information on how to convert a book into screenplay format, check out Screenwriting.info for a great primer.

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Internet Marketers: The New MVPs for Small Companies

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:15:07 +0000

As recently as ten years ago, Marketing Departments were widely viewed as little more than service bureaus for most organizations. In the eyes of many businesses, marketing existed only to perform low-level tasks like generate marketing collateral, assemble presentations, and coordinate trade shows. I know this not because I read about it, or because someone told me, but because I was there. During the mid to late 1990s, I watched as companies large and small maintained under-staffed (and under-skilled) Marketing departments. I listened to people tell me how easy my job was. I talked to sales people who were getting things like cell phones and support staff and car allowances, while I was stuck in a cube and forced to use the oldest computer in the building.

Then the Internet happened.

And literally overnight, the view of Marketing’s role in a growing organization changed. Small, innovative companies leapfrogged market leaders by realizing that building brand awareness, generating interest, making sales, and developing loyalty could be done without meeting customers face-to-face. Hiring plans were modified to include investments in high-level marketing personnel who could build skilled and agile marketing teams. Marketing processes were changed to leverage the latest technologies and perform functions sales people were once responsible for—reaching potential customers, sorting through them, and identifying those who are ready to purchase. And I finally got an office, complete with a door and the most expensive computer in the building.

But although life is good for many of us, even in 2009 it seems there are a number of companies who haven’t caught up yet. Many of you reading this article work for or manage organizations who still do not give Marketing—specifically, Internet marketing—credit for being able to do anything but send mass email and publish web pages. If your company is having trouble getting its Internet marketing efforts off the ground, here are five steps you can take to start moving in the right direction:

Step 1: Admit That Marketing is No Longer Overhead. First and foremost, supporting a successful Internet marketing effort requires a company-wide change in attitude. Until you begin to view the dollars spent in this area as investments and not overhead, your Internet marketing department will always be set up for failure. Internet Marketers need to be reassured that they won’t be let go (and that their budgets won’t be scaled back) the minute business slows down. Plus, a good Internet marketer has the ability to make a living with or without you. So if you don’t make sure they feel like a valuable part of the organization, they’ll just leave.

Step 2: Hire a High-Level Marketing Resource First, not a Rookie. Instead of building a marketing team from the bottom up, find an experienced management-level Internet marketer first. Companies often become enamored with marketing people who have experience in a specific industry, or who are specialists in certain types of marketing. But in this case, your search should focus on people who are familiar with a broad range of Internet marketing initiatives, and have a track record of experimenting with new methods and technologies.

Step 3: Allow Your Internet Marketers the Freedom to Experiment. Because marketing technologies and audiences change so rapidly, it is critical that your marketing personnel have the freedom to try new things, and the reassurance to know that an occasional failure is OK—as long as a solid business case was made up front. Not every Internet marketing campaign is going to be a hit. But on the flip side, there are millions of dollars to be made by companies who can figure out creative ways to reach a previously untapped market. Allowing your Internet marketing team some room to roam once in awhile will pay back your company ten times over.

Step 4: Invest in Ongoing Training and and Networking. To ensure your company is utilizing the latest in Internet marketing technology and techniques, it is critical that you support the department’s thirst for knowledge. In the Internet marketing world, knowledge is often tightly held; passed from person to person like a Mayan legend. Part of running an Internet marketing department is to support the transfer of this knowledge through conferences, workshops, and professional memberships in networking organizations.

Step 5: Dare to Dream. To run a successful Internet marketing department, you have to understand the rules of the game have changed. Given the databases, techniques and technologies that Internet marketers have access to today, almost any type of marketing campaign you can envision is now a possibility. Once your Internet marketing team is in place, don’t be afraid to challenge them by thinking big.

Conclusion

Visionary company owners and managers understand that embracing the value of Internet marketing can allow a company to reach unreachable audiences, generate a steady stream of interest, and compete with companies much larger in size. But in order to accomplish these things, you must be prepared both mentally and financially to not only assemble an Internet marketing effort, but support it successfully for the long-term. The fact is, there have been more marketing-related innovations in the past six weeks than there have been sales-related innovations in the past six decades. Gaining a customer has grown far beyond phone calls and personal appearances, into a comprehensive strategy that includes multiple customer touches in dozens of different forms.

Companies from two-person shops to Fortune 500 members are driving more revenue (and significantly more margin) by shifting their outbound focus to targeted, quick-response Internet-based marketing methods like social networking, PPC, blogging, direct email, organic and paid search, e-newsletters, podcasting, webinars, portals and downloads. And the Internet Marketers who hang out at websites like Sphinn and Search Engine Land are leading the way—pushing search, marketing and Internet technology to places your brain won’t allow you to go.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Also, please remember that Social Bookmarks are currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG—so a Stumble, Sphinn, Digg or Retweet would be greatly appreciated. Or, if social bookmarking just isn’t your thing, please take a moment to visit one of our Google ad sponsors. Thank you.

57 Things That (Sort of) Increased My Twitter Clickthroughs

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:31:24 +0000

Until I am willing to manually approve each person who joins my Twitter community, I have no choice but to live with the reality that a significant percentage of my Twitter followers are MLMers, self-proclaimed SEO experts, and consultants who would love to help me run my business . . . even though I don’t actually have one.

But the fact is, my target audience is in there somewhere. And because of that, I need to find a way to overcome Twitter’s notoriously low clickthrough rates and get people to follow my links once in awhile. Through extensive experimentation with multiple Twitter accounts over the better part of a year, along with a certain level of tracking and documentation, I know there are times when my Tweets perform significantly better than others. And for the most part, I think I might know why.

Below is a list of 57 ways that may (or may not) increase your Twitter clickthrough rates. For purposes of making this post as useful as possible, I threw in everything I could think of—strategies related to message tone, design, message construction, strategy, timing and so on; as well as some mistakes I made along the way. Also, the items in bold are strategies I have had particularly good results with over the last few months. If your time is limited, I would recommend trying these first.

And finally, if you believe I missed something or would like to recommend your own tip, please reply to this post and do so. I will gladly add your tip to this list, along with a link to your blog or website should you choose to include one. Here we go . . .

57 Ways to (Maybe) Increase Your Twitter Clickthrough Rates

Say something original.
Don’t write like a teenager.
Offer something of value other than your thoughts.
Resist the temptation to exaggerate or show false excitement.
Don’t use shorthand . . . spell out words.
Be consistently credible.
Use an interesting avatar.
Create controversy.
Don’t make promises or outrageous claims.
Figure out why YOU click on other people’s links, and do what they do.
Have your own take.
Use a call to action.
Respect the intelligence of your audience.
Develop your own style—and stick with it.
Avoid slang.
Check your spelling.
Experiment with Tweeting on different days and during different times.
Stop using cliches.
Cater to multiple nationalities.
Tweet in groups of three.
Don’t use industry-specific acronyms and terminology.
Make on point, and only one point.
Don’t use ALL CAPS.
Be sensitive to cultural issues.
Don’t over-use punctuation.
Build a following outside of Twitter.
Use spacing strategically.
Don’t sound TOO EXCITED!!!
Ask, but don’t beg.
Don’t get lazy.
Say the same thing multiple ways.
Create a Username that aligns with your focus.
Don’t expect a tool to do the thinking for you.
Remind yourself that getting ANY kind of web traffic isn’t easy.
Build a community.
Cater to people in time zones other than yours.
Call a specific audience to action.
Choose topics that people haven’t already run into the ground.
Stop trying to make everyone happy—become a specialist in something.
Break down the results of a research study.
Collect your own data for a survey, and publish the results.
Don’t Tweet because you’re bored.
Construct a well-written profile (people actually read these).
Avoid using Twitter ‘isms.’
Ask for honest feedback and opinions on something.
Don’t bombard people.
Keep it fresh.
Tweet a “Thank You” once in awhile.
Don’t Tweet inside jokes.
Check the trending topics.
Don’t talk down to people.
Use a “Tweet This” or Retweet button to increase distribution.
Don’t write like a Ph.D.
Ask people (nicely) to Retweet your stuff.
Go against the grain.
Watch how the pros Tweet.
Search Internet Marketing portals like Sphinn for other articles on this subject.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to post a reply. Also, please remember this: much like cigarettes in prison, social bookmarks are currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG. If you have a moment, please Digg, Stumble, Sphinn or Retweet this story if you enjoyed reading it. We have provided handy little buttons for each.

Other Ways to Increase Your Twitter Clickthrough Rates—Submitted by TSCB Readers:

# 58. Allow your personality to come through. (Submitted by Catherine Woods, Editor of RealBusiness UK)

7 Reasons I Suck at Blogging, and What I’m Going to Do About It

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:48:36 +0000

As many of you know, the first year as a blogger can be an extremely rewarding time when it comes to learning. If I compare my current knowledge of Internet marketing to what I thought I knew 12 months ago, I’m almost embarrassed at how behind I really was. This isn’t to say I’m caught up, but at least now I feel like I’m making some progress.

With that said, my first year has also been a hectic mix of mistakes: mistakes related to technology issues, content development, website design, and various attempts at marketing myself. Some were made due to a lack of time, some were made because I over-estimated my abilities, and some were made because I just didn’t know what the hell I was doing. As I start my second year of blogging, I have made a promise that I will implement a few changes—seven, to be exact—in the way I approach my blogging going forward. Hopefully, this list will be useful to others who are walking the same path.

Change #1: I’m Going to Make More Friends Online

Forging relationships has never been easy for me in person, and it has been surprsingly difficult online as well. In retrospect, I believe my problem stems from the fact that I spent too much time during my first year trying to make the Internet work for me, and not enough time giving back. During my second year as a blogger I need to do more commenting on other people’s posts, networking with people who are targeting the same audience, and handing out more encouragement and kudos to people who deserve it.

Change #2: I’m Going to Stay Focused on My Audience

Every once in awhile, it happens: I write a post, upload it to my blog, then read it one last time and wonder “What the hell I was thinking?” Over the course of my first year as a blogger I got distracted a few times, and let my writing go to places my target audience wasn’t willing to follow me. Going forward, I promise to do a better job of choosing my topics, and will ask my readers what they want instead of shoving content down their throats.

Change #3: I’m Going to Stop Watching My Web Traffic

If there were a rehab program for bloggers, there would definitely be at least one group session titled “Breaking the Addiction of Web Statistics.” At the present time I run no less than three (3) tracking programs side-by-side, which is a huge mistake for me—not because three tracking programs is too many for me to handle, but because I spend half of my day wondering why the data they’re collecting doesn’t seem to match. Starting today I resolve to spend more time writing than watching, and vow to not live and die minute-to-minute based on what my traffic reports say.

Change #4: I’m Going to Find a Better Filing System

At the time of this post I estimate my blog contains between 40,000 and 50,000 words of original content. I have no idea how I managed to push out this much writing by myself, but the fact is it’s there—presented as one big list of posts in the left and right-hand columns of my blog. This current layout frustrates me quite a bit, and I know in order to take the next step I have to come up with a better solution. During my second year as a blogger I hope to find a new tool, or upload a new theme that makes my posts easier to find for my readers. If you have any suggestions for me in this area, PLEASE feel free to reply to this post.

Change #5: I’m Going to Trim Down the People I Follow on Twitter

Over my first year as a blogger, I fell into the same trap many Twitter users do. With the exception of porn sites and pyramid schemers, I literally followed back EVERYONE who followed me. Now I realize I need to stop this practice, and significantly decrease the number of people I currently follow . . . starting with the people who Tweet me garbage. Starting today I won’t care if I lose followers on Twitter—especially if they’re wasting my time—and will concentrate on building a community with the followers who truly add value to my world.

Change #6: I’m Going to Write Something Different Once in Awhile

Since I started writing at my current pace (two new posts per week, every single week) I have written exactly one article that could be considered off-topic: The Dumbest Marketing Campaigns of 2008. This post had nothing to do with small company growth or strategy or marketing, but writing it felt like I took a vacation from blogging. And I need to do more of that. Going forward I will admit that I can’t save the world with every single post, and blow off some steam once in awhile by writing about something unrelated to small businesses.

Change #7: I’m Going to Think Bigger

During my first year as a blogger, I spent a significant portion of my time looking for a Digg or a Sphinn or a Stumble, hoping I could slowly grow readership by an extra dozen people per week. But recently it occurred to me that my goal doesn’t involve spending the rest of my life increasing my web traffic. I want to be syndicated. I want to see one of my articles on the home page of Slate or Fast Company or MSN some day. My goal is to write things for large groups of people, not to drive clicks to a 150 x 150 graphic on my home page. Ultimately, I want to write for millions of people, and unfortunately I haven’t done a darn thing in the past year to make that happen. As of this very moment I resolve to keep my head out of the little stuff, take more chances, and not be satisfied writing for a few hundred people per week.

Would you like to share a past mistake you made as a blogger? Have you made any adjustments or changes in the way you approach your blogging career? Feel free to post them here, and I’ll gladly publish your story—along with your name and a link to your blog if you wish to provide one.

Also, social bookmarks are as good as cash here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so a Digg, Stumble or Retweet would be greatly appreciated. Or, if social bookmarking isn’t your thing, please pay a quick visit to one our Google ad sponsors. Thank you.

The 4 Critical Differences Between Large Companies and Small Ones

Eric_Rudolf — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:58:11 +0000

Over the last three years writing about small companies, many of my friends, colleagues and fellow bloggers have questioned my decision to draw such a hard distinction between small companies and their larger counterparts. I regularly receive emails like "Is working for a small company really that different?” and “Aren’t good management techniques the same for all companies?” but have not bothered to prepare a response. Until today.

With the above in mind, the following post will outline the four (4) most critical differences between big companies and small ones. Please be warned: this article not based on any sort of worldwide study or market survey. It is based on more than 17 years of first-hand experience working for companies from $2 million in annual revenue to $25 billion (that’s billion with a ‘b‘). No matter what size of company you work for or hope to work for some day, I believe you will find some value here.

Difference #1: The People

Far and away, the most significant difference between a small company and a large one lies within the mix and variety of people who work there. At a small company, the employee mix is both diverse and inconsistent. Small companies are home to people who are always happy, people who are always mad, and people who ride the emotional roller coaster. There are people who never talk, people who always talk, and people who spend most of the day with at least one foot firmly planted in their mouth. Small companies are loaded with unattached twenty-somethings, divorced grandparents, and middle-aged people with kids—all with unique needs, unique motivations and personal lives that ultimately spill over into work.

Contrast this to the employee mix at a larger firm. As an organization grows, employees begin to homogenize to the point where any outward ‘personality’ that exists among individuals is eventually eliminated. Cultural expectations are set, groups begin to form, and people who no longer fit the big company ‘mold’ are forced out. In fact, by the time a company breaks the billion dollar revenue mark, it actually becomes difficult to tell people apart as individuality is replaced with company-enforced conformity. Employees buy the same clothes at the same stores, watch the same TV shows, and play in the same company-sponsored sports leagues as the people they work with.

Difference #2: The Environment

When you hear the phrase “big company,” the one word that immediately comes to mind is structure. Structure in the form of policy manuals, comprehensive job descriptions, HR handbooks, management hierarchies and jam-packed meeting schedules. By the same token, hearing the phrase “small company” almost always invokes the opposite impression: a complete lack of structure.

In contrast to a large firm, at a small company it is rare that a new employee will start on Day 1 with an accurate job description; and if they do, the description is almost always outdated after the first month. There are a distinct lack of policy manuals and work instructions, and formal meetings are only held in emergencies or for issues related to long-term planning. Also at small companies, the most effective employees are the ones who take risks, and learn to circumvent the management hierarchy to get things done; whereas at a larger firm, more value is given to employees who complete their tasks within the rules and without exposing the company to unnecessary risks.

Difference #3: The Money

To cut right to the chase, the critical difference in the way money is treated at big companies versus small ones can be summed up in one sentence:

Spending money that comes directly out of someone else’s pocket changes everything.

Big companies might have stockholders, but small companies have OWNERS. Owners, by the way, who have no problem chastising an employee for spending an extra $10 per night on a hotel during their last business trip. Knowing that every dollar you spend comes out of an owner’s bank account makes working at a small company unnecessarily stressful—especially for departments like Marketing and Sales. Also, small companies are full of opportunities for employees to become upset and disillusioned about finances. Have you ever been asked to tell your employees about a company-wide wage freeze, only to have the owner drive to work a few weeks later in a new Mercedes? Small company managers have.

Difference #4: The Politics

At a big company, you usually don’t have to worry about working for multiple bosses or married couples. You are also rarely forced to deal with relatives of the CEO, ownership teams who have been friends since college, and spouses of executives who ask for your help with a side business. But at small companies, these things are both commonplace and expected. The relationships, social circles and histories at small companies often make them a nightmare to navigate politically—making the shelf-life of even the best managers a mere four or five years at the most.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Also, if you are a current member of a social bookmarking site please use the various icons on this page to Digg, Stumble or Retweet. Or, if social bookmarking isn’t your style, please pay a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsors as a little “Thank You” for the article. Your consideration is very much appreciated.

17 Great Reasons Why Professional Marketers Hate Twitter

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:16:27 +0000

If given the opportunity, one would be hard-pressed to find a marketing channel that evokes a more polarizing reaction among professional marketers than Twitter. People who get paid to market for a living (the ones with things like degrees or experience or both) are rarely in the middle on Twitter: they either love it, or they go to bed each night hoping social networking’s newest golden goose dies a violent and painful death. After writing a number of Twitter-related posts—and reading dozens of angry letters from professional Internet marketers—I have assembled a list of 17 reasons professional marketers hate Twitter. I hope you enjoy them.

1. Any Idiot Can Do It. And Any Idiot Does. If you selected ten “Twitter marketers” at random and followed the links back to their websites, you would no doubt be treated to a disturbing mix of ill-conceived designs, bad formatting, poor grammar, and instructional videos shot in dark basements—four things that would get real marketing people banned from the profession for life. Allowing anyone with an Internet connection to use Twitter for marketing purposes is like issuing driver’s licenses to 8-year olds.

2. Twitter Users Have Their Own Vocabulary—and It’s Annoying. Grown adults are typically resistant to things that require acting and communicating like a teenager, which makes Twitter and professional marketing people natural adversaries. Having to use terms like Tweeotches (Twitter bitches), Twarma (bad Twitter karma), Twitterrhea (excessive and unwanted Tweeting), Twitterectomy (cutting Twitter out of your life for a period of time) and Twitterbation (inadvertently Tweeting yourself) are immature enough, much less the 420 other teeth-grinding terms in the Twitter vocabulary.

3. Oprah and Ashton Like It. The interesting thing about marketing people, especially Internet ones, is they love to claim they knew about something before it was considered trendy by the mainstream. Internet marketers are the ones who like songs until they get radio play, drink micro-beers no one has ever heard of, and refuse to eat at chain restaurants. The bottom line? When Larry King starts Tweeting, it’s just not cool any more.

4. Pyramid Schemers and MLMers are Ruining it for Everyone Else. As of today I have just under 1,000 Twitter followers, and I follow about 1,050 people as well—the 1,000 people who follow me, and 50 bloggers and news organizations of my own choosing. With this in mind, as I look at my Twitter inbox I count 17 Tweets out of a possible 20 offering me either a) easy money, or b) thousands of Twitter followers in a short period of time. While Internet marketers try to run legitimate web sites designed to help companies grow, con artists and grifters make it nearly impossible for people to distinguish between our information and their spam.

5. Twitter’s Response Rates Make Direct Mail Look Interesting Again. Like many of you reading this post, I track and measure everything I do from a marketing perspective. Through my first 100 Tweets, my response rate is exactly .21%. As a warning, do NOT read this as 20%, or even 2% . . . this is TWO-TENTHS of one percent. Or to put it another way: for every 1,000 followers I have, exactly TWO click through whenever I post a new article. Two. To match an average direct email campaign my Twitter hit rate needs to increase by 10 times, and over 100 times to meet the performance of my newsletter.

6. From a Business Perspective, Twitter is Basically a Mall with No Customers. How much time would you need to come up with the name of just ONE company who set up a Twitter account for the purpose of buying things? A minute? More like a month. Among the millions of businesses on Twitter, one rule applies: everyone has an angle, and no one has any money.

7. No One Tweets Original Content. I realize stating “no one” writes original content for Twitter is a bit of an exaggeration, but anyone with a business-related Twitter account knows that 90% of the Tweets they receive are quotes from tip-a-day calendars, personal observations (”I like the color red. Do you?”) and re-reports of breaking (and not-so-breaking) news. On Twitter, writing from scratch is not just a lost art—it is frowned upon.

8. Twitter Users Have No Self-Discipline. Have you had your Twitter account for more than a week? Congratulations! You already have at least a dozen followers who send six Tweets in rapid succession multiple times per day, or send one Tweet every 20 minutes like clockwork. The attention-getting philosophy among businesses who use Twitter is straightforwardly annoying: create enough noise to be noticed above everyone else who is doing the same thing.

9. Everyone Follows Everyone. From an Internet marketing perspective, the biggest flaw in Twitter’s design is that in almost all cases, the only way to build a follower base is to follow others. And when the temptation to indiscriminately follow other people is too much to resist, the most important component of target marketing—demographics—gets flushed right down the toilet.

The Honorable Mentions: 10 thru 17

Before I wrote this post I asked some fellow Internet marketers to send me a few reasons they hate Twitter, and ended up with nearly 50. Below are a few of my favorites—some serious, some clever, and some painfully true.

10. It doesn’t have a three-letter acronym. Ha! (e.g. SEO, PPC, etc.).

11. Every time I see that blue bird, I want to hit it with my car.

12. Most of the people on Twitter are really ugly.

13. Too many add-on applets to maximize your experience, and I get confused very easily.

14. The hash tag search is full of spam.

15. I feel inadequate because I don’t have 5,000 followers.

16. Can’t tell if the girls are actually hot or not.

17. The dude that Tweets by farting into his office chair. Enough said.

If you are an Internet marketer and would like to offer your own reason for hating Twitter, please reply to this post and I will add it to the list above—along with your name (or Twitter username) and a link to your site or blog if you provide them.

Also, Diggs, Sphinns, Retweets or Stumbles are appreciated as well! Or, if social bookmarking isn’t your thing, please feel free to make a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsors. Thank you.

Universal Search: Still Relevant for Small Companies?

Eric_Rudolf — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:33:14 +0000

In mid-2007, Google gave SEO experts and Internet marketers an entire year’s worth of job security when it announced the first steps toward a Universal Search model. Shortly thereafter, similar announcements were made by MSN and YaHoo; and for the remainder of 2007 and much of 2008, the topic of Universal Search was featured at every marketing conference and written about by every blogger on the planet. But then—like O.J. Simpson to David Hasselhoff—social media swept in and stole Universal Search’s moment in the sun, and topics like blog monetization, social bookmarking and Twitter have dominated the marketing landscape ever since.

[ Aside ]In 1994, Hasselhoff was scheduled to perform a televised concert from Atlantic City to jump-start his U.S. singing career. On that same night, the infamous O.J. Simpson police chase was televised live across the country. Hasselhoff has not attempted a TV concert since.

So whatever became of Universal Search? With all of the other new and easy-to-use traffic generating technologies, should Universal Search still be on a small company’s marketing radar? The answer to this question is a definitive “Yes,” for one important reason:

Over 90% of organic search engine traffic comes from the first page of results.

The point here is, any marketing program that allows your small company to appear on the first page of search engine results is a wonderful use of your time, regardless of how many other more “trendy” marketing channels may exist. As a refresher for those of you who need it (I probably should have done this earlier) Universal Search is basically the integration by search engines of elements other than web pages in overall search results. These “other elements” can include videos, images, blogs, news, book and shopping listings.

If you click on the screen shot thumbnail to the right (which I found at SubHub.com) you will see how Universal Search elements are presented during a search for the phrase “Paris Hilton.” In addition to the standard list of 10 web pages, this particular search generated multiple listings for News, Images, Videos and Blogs about Paris Hilton—a total of TWELVE additional (and free) opportunities for exposure on the first page of results.

So how do you get there? As a small company with limited resources, are there some relatively low-cost steps you can take to leverage the value of Universal Search? Of course. And here they are:

Step #1: Walk Before You Run. Prior to putting a ton of effort into Universal Search, make sure your website is optimized for organic (regular) rankings. Maximize your title tags, work on your meta descriptions, and submit an XML sitemap to any engine that will take one. For more information on these specific tasks, check out Inexpensive SEO Strategies for Small Company Websites: Part I and Inexpensive SEO Strategies for Small Company Website: Part II.

Step #2: Channel Surf. Because Universal Search will take information from all of a search engine’s “channels,” check each one to see what kind of exposure your site has (if any) within that specific channel. In Google, the channels you want to focus on are Images, Video, News, Blogs and Shopping (FYI—”Blogs” is actually underneath the “News” channel). Channels for other engines can usually be found above or near the search field.

Step 3: Take Inventory. Before your site can actually benefit from Universal Search, you need to make a comprehensive list of your company’s digital assets. Do you have files, images, videos and news releases that aren’t showing up in universal search results? If so, chances are these items are not tagged correctly. Find and review the Webmaster guidelines for each search engine your small company is targeting, and make sure you are follow proper tagging rules.

Step 4: Do the Easy Stuff. In addition to tagging Universal Search items like images, videos, news releases and blogs, there are a few other clever ways to earn free space on the first page of search results. Does your small company have a regional customer base? Update your local business listing. Also, figure out a way to get your company or one of its products (or possibly a key employee) a Wikipedia reference. And of course, if your company can justify one, start a blog. All of these are easy, and all can be done for free.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Also, please Re-Tweet, Sphinn or Digg if you are a member of any of these wonderful social bookmarking sites. Or if social bookmars aren’t your thing, please feel free to pay a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsors. Thanks!

The 5 Biggest Lies in Internet Marketing

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:55:16 +0000

Being a full-time blogger comes with a lot of baggage. Actively maintaining two websites, six email accounts and memberships to a dozen social networking sites is definitely fun, but certainly more work than I ever imagined it would be. Although these tools are great for keeping in touch with readers and fellow bloggers, they also come with a catch: I receive more than my share of incoming junk messages. Not surprisingly, most of these messages are related to Internet marketing, and claims of easy money and immediate wealth. Some are mildly annoying, some are ridiculous, and some are unethical. But whatever category they land in, there are five Internet marketing claims which are outright lies, and amateur Internet marketers need to be protected from them.

“I Made $5,000 per Week on a Social Networking Site!”

There is a reason so many people are convinced there is money to be made in social networking: because Internet con artists still claim to be able to generate six figures per year on sites like LinkedIn and FaceBook. Sure, social networking sites have a number of great business uses like distributing news, coordinating user groups and augmenting your internal database. But actually generating a few dollars worth of direct revenue from them—much less thousands of dollars per week—is not only unlikely, it is impossible. Unless, of course, you own a social networking site.

“You Can Make a Great Living Working Out of Your Own Home!”

Here’s a question: if you make such a great living working at home, why do you spend 12 hours per day trying to talk other people into doing your job? Because your home-based ‘business’ is actually a recruitment-focused pyramid scheme. If you are considering responding to one of these work at home solicitations, be sure to read 9 Signs You’re Involved in a Pyramid Scheme first.

“I Can Show You How to Get 2,000 Twitter Followers Per Day!”

I don’t mean to ruin the mystique surrounding Twitter, but if someone dedicates an entire day to it, acquiring 2,000 followers in 24 hours isn’t exactly the equivalent of splitting the atom. Even if you have only 15 minutes to spare, there are plenty of free or low-cost automated Twitter applets that can dig through the Twitter database and figure out which members are most likely to follow you back. The only real thing ‘professional’ Twitter builders plan on showing you is a form to enter your credit card information.

“I Made 400% Net Profit in the Last 60 Days In Affiliate Marketing!”

Affiliate marketers are a lot like poker players. Although two-thirds will claim they are making a living doing what they do, the reality is less than 3 out of 100 are getting paid minimum wage for their time, much less making any sort of ‘living’ at their craft. And if an Affiliate Marketer did figure out a system for pulling in massive amounts of cash, why would they offer to tell you about it?

Anything Related to Making ‘Big Money’ with Pay-per-Click

As I mention in a previous post, When Pay-per-Click (PPC) is a Bad Idea, PPC is the only marketing method where companies can be absolutely guaranteed to pay MORE than market value for each and every click. In addition, Pay-per-Click advertising has been around too long for anyone to find an exploitable hole or unique strategy that would allow excessive revenue generation. PPC should be no more than 10% of any company’s marketing budget, for a very good reason: there is very little value to be had anymore.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Feel free to reply to this post. Or alternatively, I’ll take any sort of social bookmark you want to give—a Digg, a Sphinn, a Stumble or a Retweet would obviously be appreciated. And of course, if social bookmarking isn’t your thing you may pay a quick visit to one of my Google ad sponsors. Thank you!

Social Bookmarking: Dos and Don’ts

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:47:49 +0000

One of the steepest learning curves I have encountered as the owner, writer and chief Search Engine Optimization guy of a blog site is with the art—and science—of social bookmarking. As I discuss in one of my recent posts Inexpensive SEO Strategies for Small Company Websites: Part III, getting websites to link back to yours (a.k.a. reverse-linking) is the Holy Grail of SEO. Until search engines like Google and MSN see a significant number of inbound channels to your website, your search engine rankings aren’t going anywhere; no matter how good your content is, how clever your theme is, or how slick your website design might be. And social bookmarking is far and away the most effective technique for building up your web site’s reverse links.

Before I get too far into this post, it is important we agree upon a simple definition of social bookmarking, so we’re all on the same page. Understanding it might not line up exactly with definitions others have written, for the purposes of this article I will use this:

Social Bookmarking: any method, website or technology used by web surfers to track Internet content, or tag Internet content for others to find.

Social bookmarking can take any number of shapes and forms, including links from networking sites like Twitter and FaceBook, referrals from content-rating portals like Digg and Sphinn, and readers from blog syndication feeds like Technorati and BlogSpot. Even the RSS feed on your own site can be considered a social bookmark if someone subscribes to it. For a massive list of social bookmarking sites and methods, check out The Big List of Social Bookmarking and Networking Sites for over 160 choices.

With the above in mind, below are three critical Dos and Don’ts for maximizing your link building campaign thru Social Bookmarking.

Don’t . . . Give People Too Many Choices

Does your website or blog offer a primary button bar with icons for Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Del.icio.us and Digg, and a secondary bar with icons for FaceBook, LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace, YaHoo and Flickr? Here’s an interesting law of human behavior: if you give people too many choices, they won’t make one.

Do . . . Narrow Your Social Bookmarking List

As an alternative to a shotgun approach, resist the temptation to sprinkle your website with colorful thumbnail graphics and scale back your social bookmarking options to a set of five, plus your RSS feed. Limiting social bookmarking choices for visitors will not only result in more social bookmarking activity, but give readers a clearer picture of which types of traffic are most important to you.

Don’t . . . Get Lazy

One bad habit many bloggers and web designers have is getting too comfortable too quickly, and putting the social bookmarking pieces of their sites into ‘maintenance mode.’ On a growing website, social bookmarking options should be kept nearly as fresh as the content, but rarely are.

Do . . . Change it Up Once in Awhile

With nearly 200 social bookmarking options to choose from and more on the way, bloggers and website owners have no excuse to stand pat. In terms of social bookmarking, it is very likely that the next big traffic generator for your site hasn’t even been invented yet. How are you going to find it if you never look around?

Don’t . . . Assume All of Your Channels Are Working

Once social bookmarks are in place and traffic numbers begin to increase, it is easy to believe your social bookmarking strategy is a winner. But chances are, most of your newly found traffic is coming from just one (or maybe two) of your social bookmarking options.

Do . . . Track What You’re Using

Like any other Internet-based marketing campaign, each social bookmarking option used on your website should be evaluated as its own stand-alone program. No matter where your site is hosted, there is always web log data available to figure out exactly where inbound traffic is coming from. To some degree, the free Webmaster Tools at Google and MSN can provide important pieces of the puzzle as well.

Wrapping it Up

Regardless of their size, social bookmarking icons take up premium real estate on your blog or website. Not evaluating each social bookmark as an individual marketing investment—even though the links are free—will cost you traffic, search engine rankings, and (if applicable) affiliate marketing dollars. If you invest the time and avoid the mistakes outlined above, your social bookmarking efforts will generate traffic you never knew existed. And this, my friends, is the reason we read and write things like this in our spare time.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Feel free to reply to this post. Or as an alternative, you could do me a big social bookmarking favor and use one of the icons on this site to Sphinn It, Digg It, Stumble It, Tweet It, or Join my RSS Feed! A visit to one of my Google ad sponsors would be much appreciated as well. Thank you!

6 Reasons to Stop Using Direct Mail

Eric_Rudolf — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:32:22 +0000

This past summer I spent three days at DMA 2008, the world’s largest annual marketing conference. Due to the expense involved in attending (a $2,000 registration fee + air and three nights of hotel) this was actually my first DMA conference. Being a professional marketer since the early 1990s I have seen a great deal of change within my profession, and expected the nearly three-hour opening session to be filled with teasers for new and exciting marketing-related concepts and technologies. However, I was surprised—if not completely disappointed—to find that DMA’s primary focus, even today, is their long and storied history with direct mail.

As an aside . . . shortly before I posted this article, I paid a visit to Google to do some testing. For each of the search phrases direct mail, direct mail marketing, direct mailing, mail marketing and direct mail marketing help, the DMA website came up on the first page of organic results. However, the site showed up on page 3 for search engine marketing, page 9 for email marketing, page 13 for Internet marketing, and nowhere in the first 20 pages for the phrase social network marketing.

I will be the first to admit there are still a few pieces of mail I look forward to: the rebate checks, the Restoration Hardware catalogs, our monthly township newsletter, and my quarterly Social Security statement . . . which unfortunately details exactly how little money I have made during my life so far. But other than these few items, anything I receive via mail—no matter how colorful or attractive—is dropped directly into my paper recycling bin. As a professional marketer I don’t believe I am alone in my aversion to direct mail, and have come up with six reasons why direct mail should assume its rightful place in the Marketing Museum next to the fax machine, the printed coupon, and the trade show.

Reason #1: Mail Pieces Cost Money to Design. With all of the advancements in software and technology, anyone with a computer can lay out an effective email, write a Twitter post, or upload a web page. But only a graphic designer with a $1,000 piece of software and a $4,000 Mac can design a direct mail piece. . . . and charge $50 an hour to do it.

Reason #2: There is No Opt-In or Spam Law for Direct Mail. The lack of any sort of direct mail legislation allows direct mailers to not only bombard people on their lists, but also sell their lists to other companies who do the exact same thing. What is The Direct Marketing Association doing in response? Fighting like hell to make sure ideas like the ‘Do Not Mail List’ never see the light of day. If you have some extra money, DMA will even let you chip in for their Congressional lobbyists.

Reason #3: Stamps are Expensive. Targeted e-newsletters can be sponsored for ten cents per name. Email houses can send mass blasts for less than two cents per name. Twitter and social networking posts are free, and so are blog entries. And the price of postage stamps just went up. Again.

Reason #4: Direct Mail Campaign Stats Aren’t Real Stats. Direct mailers throw around numbers like Response Rate, ROI, Shelf Life and Pass-Along Rate as if they were cold hard facts. But in reality most are nothing more than educated guesses, based on industry-wide surveys of other companies who do direct mail. Or maybe, just maybe, the catalog I threw in the garbage WAS actually read by 3.6 other people between my kitchen counter and the trash bin?

Reason #5: Direct Mail Leaves No Room for Changes. Depending upon the industry your company is in, a direct mail piece can be outdated within days of being sent. Publishing a price, description or sales promotion on a direct mail piece means you’re stuck with it for months, unless you want to bear the expense of re-sending a corrected version to the exact same audience. On the other hand, web pages and downloadable PDF files can be changed and published in real-time, and updated emails can be sent—and only to the people who actually opened your first email—for pennies.

Reason #6: Our Immediate Gratification Society. 80% of the responses to an email campaign will be received within the first 24 hours. At the end of that same period of time, your direct mail piece will still be in a bag somewhere, waiting to be sorted and placed on a stagecoach, or donkey, or mail truck, or whatever they use to deliver mail these days.

After extended discussions with a number of people who frequent this blog, I get the impression most professional marketers (if given the choice) would abandon direct mail entirely—if their companies would let them. It frightens me to think how many of my friends and colleagues are still being pushed toward direct mail by their organizations, when cheaper and more effective channels like email, search engine optimization, blogging and social networking are readily available. But eventually, the slumping economy will force most of them to drop direct mail as a marketing vehicle, whether they want to or not.

If you liked this article, please feel free to throw a social bookmark our way—we love Diggs, Stumbles and Retweets. Or, if social bookmarking isn’t your thing, a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsors would be much appreciated as well. Thank you for your support!

5 Unbreakable Rules for Using Twitter as a Business Tool

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:48:51 +0000

Like most social technology sites in worldwide use today, companies big and small are scrambling to convert Twitter from a simple networking tool to a legitimate way of increasing revenues and decreasing costs. Unfortunately, most of these businesses are learning just enough about Twitter to be dangerous. And annoying. And in some cases, unethical.

Although many of us would love to see each new Twitter account issued with a comprehensive User Guide and Rulebook, the fact is Twitter users can pretty much do whatever the want. Because of this complete lack of standardization (other than the 140-character limit on Tweets) businesses across the globe are using Twitter to annoy potential customers at record rates—faster than they ever could have hoped to annoy them through other, more traditional marketing channels like direct mail and direct email.

With the above in mind, below are five rules that should NEVER be broken by people trying to use Twitter for business purposes. As with all previous posts, this particular article is not written for pyramid schemers, get rich quick experts, professional traffic whores, or the kid from Amsterdam trying to find a million Twitter followers before the end of the year. This post is designed to help people who run REAL small companies figure out how to use Twitter—a simple, yet complicated micro blogging technology—to gain a market advantage.

Rule #1: Don’t Bombard Your Followers. Anyone who has been on Twitter for more than a week has at least one follower who sends six Tweets in rapid succession multiple times per day, or sends one Tweet every 20 minutes like clockwork. Here’s a tip: unless you work for a national news organization, your company is NOT important enough to justify this volume of communication. As a small company, sending one relevant piece of news to your followers per day is plenty.

Rule #2: Only Tweet When You have Something Interesting to Say. If the extent of your Tweet is going to be a rehash of an inspirational thought from your new desk calendar, don’t bother. Tweeting famous quotes, personal observations and headlines from ESPN’s breaking news section are are also off-limits. Listen to mom on this one: if you don’t have something relevant to say, don’t open your mouth—or in this case, don’t type.

Rule #3: Don’t Follow People Indiscriminately. When it comes to using Twitter for business purposes, the belief there are no ”bad” followers is absolutely spot on. Regardless of what your company does, someone voluntarily electing to hear from you might not always be good, but it is NEVER bad. The reverse, however, is not true. Making a poor decision about who your company follows on Twitter could cost you a significant amount of fans over time. Do the math: if you run a Twitter feed for your business and choose to follow Al Gore or Rush Limbaugh, you have a 50/50 chance of offending every U.S. visitor to your Twitter site. In the case of selecting Twitter followers, the rules of cocktail party conversation always apply: avoid politics, religion, and polarizing celebrities.

Rule #4: Avoid the Temptation to Re-Report the News. As a blogger who cranks out two or three original articles every week, I understand how difficult it can sometimes be to come up with fresh content. That said, sending your loyal followers a link to CNN’s latest article on the swine flu is a poor excuse for customer contact. If something really big happens in the world, there is one thing you can absolutely count on when it comes to Twitter: within two minutes, everyone will already know.

Rule #5: Stop Trying to Make a Sale Every Time. Understanding all of us have bills to pay, even the best cooks in the world take the chef’s hat off every now and then. If you condition Twitter followers to expect a sales pitch every time they hear from you, your followers will quickly build up an ‘immunity’ to your Tweets . . . and simply stop reading them. Between sales and marketing messages, be sure to mix in a good amount of ‘no strings attached’ communications—industry facts, trivia nuggets and short “Thank You” notes for supporting your company.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Feel free to reply to this post. Also, as with all posts at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG.com, social bookmarks are greatly appreciated—in the form of Diggs, Stumbles or Retweets. Or, if social bookmarking isn’t your thing, a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsor sites would be wonderful as well. Thank you!

A New Definition of Marketing for Small Companies?

Eric_Rudolf — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:43:19 +0000

Although the textbook authors at Prentice Hall, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin might not agree, the definition of Marketing is not a static, catch-all descriptor that can be indiscriminately applied in any situation. Marketing is a sliding scale; a moving target that changes based on industry, audience, and most importantly company size. While larger firms can spend ridiculous amounts of money simply throwing their logo in people’s faces (a practice referred to as ‘branding’ . . . see Super Bowl for more details) small companies have no choice but to drive real and measurable results—and in many cases sales—from every single marketing initiative.

The point is, as small company owners and managers it is critical we maximize our marketing dollars by executing on initiatives that actually qualify as marketing . . . something much easier said than done. With this in mind, a few weeks ago I took it upon myself to create a NEW definition of small company marketing; one that more accurately reflected a small company’s need to a) spend wisely, and b) receive value in return for each marketing investment. Here is what I came up with:

Small Company Marketing: any initiative used to reach customers or potential customers that either results in an immediate sale, or directly and measurably shortens the sales cycle.

To see if my definition would hold up in the real world, I tested it using some of the more traditional, big-company things people often put into the ‘marketing’ bucket. The ten initiatives I used were as follows:

Collecting business cards in a fishbowl at a trade show.
Producing a corporate video for distribution on a website.
Issuing a press release announcing the hiring of a new CFO.
Sending a monthly customer newsletter.
Purchasing Pay-per-Click advertising.
Hosting a free speaking event.
Offering a free, downloadable white paper on a website.
Sponsoring a snack break at an industry conference.
Applying for and winning a “Best Places to Work” award.
Sending a new catalog to a rented mailing list.

Based on the definition given above, were there any initiatives here that didn’t count as ‘marketing’ in small companies? Surprisingly, there were five. When I applied my new definition of small company marketing to the list above, I discovered that numbers 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 do not pass the test. Aside from the fact that none of them directly result in sales, it would be difficult to claim they could even shorten a sales cycle. Taken aback by my findings, I showed them to a (skeptical) big-company friend who demanded answers as to why—and how—things like collecting business cards and winning awards can’t possibly be considered ‘marketing’ initiatives at small companies. Here is a portion of the email I sent her:

. . . regarding example #1, collecting business cards at a trade show might give your sales people a pile of names to follow up with, but without some sort of prequalification you can’t possibly claim these people are interested in what your company sells. In terms of example #2, corporate videos are nice, but rarely bring potential customers one step closer to buying something. Many people consider PR part of marketing (example #3), and in some cases it can be—but your customers don’t care about your new hires. Sticking your logo on a table tent at a trade show (example #4) is a pure branding initiative, and winning an employer award (example #5) might help you recruit better employees, but won’t generate additional business.

On the other hand, numbers 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 do indeed qualify as marketing initiatives. Customer newsletters keep people on your list up-to-date on new releases, special promotions and upcoming sales. Pay-per-click drives interested parties to your website for more information and can shortening the sales cycle. Speaking events can educate potential customers on the benefits of your products and services, white papers are designed to present the challenges your products and services help solve, and catalog mailings will prompt interested parties to call, email, and ideally order something from you.

Hope this helps

The fact is, small companies rarely have the money or the head count to pursue non-revenue generating initiatives. But surprisingly, many small firms use a significant portion of their marketing budgets to do just that. Until someone can convince me otherwise (feel free to do so) I am going to begin using this new definition of small company marketing, and will convince everyone I know to do the same.

Agree or disagree with anything in this article? Feel free to post a reply. Also, social bookmarks are as good as currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so a Digg, Stumble or Retweet would be very much appreciated. Or, if handing out social bookmarks isn’t your thing, a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsors would also make us happy. Thank you!

THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG

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