27 Jul 2010

Social Media: A Waste of Time!

As a Social Media Manger and online marketing workshop instructor in Tucson, AZ I am often asked questions by business owners about using Social Media sites for their business and whether or not they are viable as a revenue generating source, or simply a waste of time.  I hear tales of how they have dabbled with sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc with no discernible results.  A question or two later, I can quickly determine why.

You see, the real power behind Social Media is in the ability for business owners to communicate with their target markets in a way that just a few years ago was only available to the folks over on Madison Avenue.  It took big budgets and deep pockets to interact with your market base and tailor your business and products to suit their needs and wants.  Today Social Media has leveled the playing field and provided a way for business owners to accomplish the same thing without the hefty price tag that usually went along with it.

Businesses tend go wrong with social media in 3 particular ways.

1. Businesses fail to separate the “Personal” From the “Professional.” When using Social Media for Personal reasons, your goal is to interact with and make new friends.  As a business owner,  your goal when using Social media sites is to build trust.  You want people know that you are:

  • Knowledgeable
  • Trustworthy
  • Helpful
  • And the Best Source of information or products and services in your niche.

Think about how you conduct your self in your business right now.  Often times you will share bits and pieces of your life outside the office, but there is usually a limit to what you will share and with whom.  Your goal is to interact with your customers while providing the service and or product to fill their needs.  In other words, your friends may want to know what you had for lunch, who your favorite team is, if you’re feeling tired, etc.  However, your clients, customers and prospects do not.

Now this does not mean that you need to be lifeless and boring in your Social Media postings.  It is always a good idea to show personality, but only do so by occasionally sharing carefully selected bits and details about your life.  Interactivity with customers, clients and prospects is an important part of the process but needs to be kept to more of a one-way conversation.

I remember having a heck of a time one morning opening up a box of cereal for my son.  Looking at the end result you’d think I used a weed-whacker to get it open.  Logging into Twitter (Which updates my other profiles) I simply posted, “Am I the only one who has trouble opening cereal boxes?” The response was immediate and started a virtual conversation that lasted for 2 days as business colleagues, clients and friends all chimed in with their frustration over such a rather elementary task.  With a simple question totally unrelated to business I managed to pull people away from the onslaught of sales pitches and promotions and useless information.  The information I was able to glean from this rather mundane post was invaluable.  Just remember: It’s the mundane that tends to connect us with people.  People do business with people… not businesses.

2. Businesses see Social media as just another Advertising vehicle.
More often than not, I see business owners heading onto the Social Media landscape with guns a blazing practically shouting “buy my stuff, buy my stuff.”  This is a huge mistake that business owners make and will inevitably lead to zero results.  Think of it this way, a person walks into your store and without saying hello to them or interacting with them in any way you say to them, “Here buy this.” Think that customer might be a bit turned off? What are the odds they’ll be interested in what you have to ay after that?

However, on the flip side, when that same customer walks into your store and you say hello and get to know a little bit about them and their interests you are able able to serve them that much more and better provide for their wants, desires and needs leaving the customer much more open and receptive to recommendations and suggestions.

3. Taking your business into the world of Social media without having a plan or goal in mind.
Businesses are often attracted to the big, shiny toys of Social Media and begin playing with it having no idea what they are getting into.  Social Media is not about visiting a website or two.  It would be more akin to moving into a new community, getting to know those within the community and how you can invariably help them.  Having a plan in place to help you achieve that goal will make the whole process go a lot smoother and with better results.  Your plan does not have to be grandiose.  After all, our goal in business is to acquire more customers and take care of those we currently have and we can use Social Media to leverage that.

Things to consider when developing a Social Media Marketing plan:

  • What product or service are you selling?
  • Who is your target audience?
  • What should you be talking about based on the above
  • What other related topics would people be interested in

Remember, you need to come across as knowledgeable, Trustworthy, helpful and the best in your industry to turn to.

All businesses are built around creating healthy relationships with prospects that will eventually become your customers by providing them value.  And so, is Social media a waste of time? If you fail to separate the personal from the professional, view it as just another advertising outlet in your arsenal, and fail to plan the answer is an emphatic “yes!”  However, Social Media, when  used properly, gives you the ability is to interact with your customers, answer their questions, and proactively push out information and provide that value to prospects who have needs, wants and desires in your industry.

Should you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me through this website.  I will gladly point you in the right direction.

~ Jonnie Allan
Jonnie Allan | Jonnie on the Spot

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Posted in Social Media | 2 Comments »
21 Jul 2010

6 Things Not to do on Facebook!

Facebook is a tremendous resource for Businesses, there’s no denying that.  In fact, if your business does not have a business page set up you are falling behind and will need to catch up… rapidly.  That said, in order to have a business page for your business you will need to setup a personal profile page.  below are a list of 6 things you want to avoid doing on your profile.

Do Not use Weak or easily deciphered Passwords:
Avoid simple names or words you can find in a dictionary, even with numbers tacked on the end. Instead, mix upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. A password should have at least eight characters. One good technique is to insert numbers or symbols in the middle of a word, such as this variant on the word “houses”: hO27usEs!

Do Not display your Full Birth Date in your Profile
It’s an ideal target for identity thieves, who could use it to obtain more information about you and potentially gain access to your bank or credit card account. If you’ve already entered a birth date, go to your profile page and click on the Info tab, then on Edit Information. Under the Basic Information section, choose to show only the month and day or no birthday at all.

Do Not Overlook useful Privacy Controls
For almost everything in your Facebook profile, you can limit access to only your friends, friends of friends, or yourself. Restrict access to photos, birth date, religious views, and family information, among other things. You can give only certain people or groups access to items such as photos, or block particular people from seeing them. Consider leaving out contact info, such as phone number and address, since you probably don’t want anyone to have access to that information anyway.

Do Not Use your child’s name in a Caption for images
Don’t use a child’s name in photo tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking on Remove Tag. If your child isn’t on Facebook and someone includes his or her name in a caption, ask that person to remove the name.

Do Not Post when you are going away on Vacation
That’s like putting a “no one’s home” sign on your door. Wait until you get home to tell everyone how awesome your vacation was and be vague about the date of any trip.

Do Not let Young ones Use Facebook Unsupervised
Facebook limits its members to ages 13 and over, but children younger than that do use it. If you have a young child or teenager on Facebook, the best way to provide oversight is to become one of their online friends. Use your e-mail address as the contact for their account so that you receive their notifications and monitor their activities. “What they think is nothing can actually be pretty serious,” says Charles Pavelites, a supervisory special agent at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. For example, a child who posts the comment “Mom will be home soon, I need to do the dishes” every day at the same time is revealing too much about the parents’ regular comings and goings.

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02 Jul 2010

How to use Twitter to grow your Business

Twitter | tlomgCan Twitter actually help my business or is it a complete waste of my valuable time? This was the very question I had asked myself, perhaps you’ve asked the same. When people I respect started singing the praises of Twitter, I decided to give it a go. At first I just didn’t get it. However, after a short while I was shocked at the level of access to high profile individuals I was able to achieve.

What is Twitter?

“Twitter is instant messaging made available to the public,” stated talk show host and author Hugh Hewitt. That’s a pretty fair assessment and a great place to start. Hugh tends to have a really good grasp on the advancement of technology and its influence as was evidenced in his book Blogger. In fact, I’ve heard others call Twitter a micro-blogging platform.

Here’s what you need to know: According to a report entitled the State of the Twittersphere, each and every day 5 to 10 thousand new people join Twitter. The current estimates of total users top out around 5 million. Just think of the opportunity. Within that 5 million are your customers, clients and prospects.

Twitter allows you to post updates affectionately called “Tweets.” These tweets can be posted as frequent or infrequent as you like with one catch: you are limited to 140 characters. That’s it. So be creative in how you tailor your messages.

While on Twitter, you have the chance to “follow” people. When you follow people on Twitter, you see their tweets. When they follow you, they see yours. Do you see how this translates into a messaging or micro-blogging platform? It creates a constant stream of communication between you, those you follow, and those that follow you. The good news is you can turn it on or off as often as you like. Twitter also keeps a public record of all updates, which can be mined with a free tool on there site called Twitter Search.

High-Profile People and Twitter

Although there have been claims to the contrary, Twitter is not just a fad. In fact, I was one of those in the beginning that believed that Twitter would never finds its legs. Boy was I wrong. When very high profile people began to evangelize Twitter, it was worth a closer examination. Here’s what some of those high profile people have said about this rather simplistic but powerful Social Media Platform:

Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch identified three big advantages of Twitter, “(1) I get great insight when I ask questions, (2) let’s face it, I get terrific traffic to my website and (3) people on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places.”

CEO of Zappos.com Tony Hsieh said, “We’ve found that Twitter has been a great way for us to connect on a more personal level with our employees and customers. We use it to help build our brand, not drive direct sales. It’d be like asking how does providing a telephone number for customer service translate into new business when they are mostly non-sales-related calls. In the long term, Twitter helps drive repeat customers and word of mouth, but we’re not looking to it as a way of driving immediate sales.”

Bestselling author David Meerman Scott stated, “I have personally connected with hundreds of people I otherwise wouldn’t have, and I booked an interview on NPR and a big daily newspaper using Twitter.”

Copyblogger’s own Brian Clark said, “Twitter Search is an amazing way to see what people are saying about your products or services. For example, I’ll do searches for Thesis Theme and people will be asking questions about our WordPress Theme. I’ll use the reply function to answer the question, which has led to direct sales. Plus, my answer creates awareness of Thesis for others that follow me. It’s a form of constructive promotion.”

Here are a Few Tools to Help Your Twitter Experience

To help you make the most of your tweeting campaigns, Twitter has a world of available support applications you can employ to gain the most of this social platform for your business. Here a just a few of my favorites:

TwitterFox: This Firefox web browser plugin allows you to view Tweets within your web browser (in a popup menu). This is very handy and eliminates the need to constantly return and login to Twitter.com.
TweetLater: This powerful service allows you to schedule tweets (much like you would schedule emails). A powerful feature of this tool is the ability to receive email digests of keyword activity in the “Tweetosphere.” This allows you to join a conversation or track topics and trends.
Ping.fm: If you have accounts with many services, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, this amazing site allows you to post updates across ALL of your social media profiles in one single step eliminating the need to log into each and every account to update your status.
Twitter for Facebook: If you are on Facebook (Which you need to be), this application forwards your Twitter updates directly to Facebook as status updates.

The information provided above should get the wheels turning as to how you and your business can implement and use a Twitter campaign of your very own. Should you have any questions feel free to give me a call or submit your question via the contact us page. I will gladly point you in the right direction. �

Posted in Social Media | 2 Comments »
17 Jun 2010

A Vital Service: Customer Service

It is something that is grossly over-looked. These days businesses just don’t think about it, especially in tight times. They’re thoughts are often focused on what changes they can make to their inventory, or what prices they can slash never realizing that the secret to a much more successful business lies in their list of past and present customers and providing them with a near extinct element…
customers service.

I remember reading a story about how the executives of JC Penny’s, searching for a way to tap into the market share they had lost sought out the executives at Nordstroms – a company renowned for there superior customer service. When asked during the meeting if they could shed some light on their success in the customer service department and how JC Penny’s could better develop theirs, the Nordstroms executives smiled and left the room. Upon their return, they placed a manual in front of the executives from JC Penny’s. It was the Operations and Customer Satisfaction manual of … JC Penny’s.

You see, at one time JC Penny’s catalog stores dominated the marketplace with their customer service and satisfaction. As time went on, they drifted away from the very thing that made them great in their customer’s eyes… customer oriented and focused service. And in doing so, they unwittingly drove their customers away and into the arms of their competitors.

The Future of Customer Service is here. Technology has made seeking out support faster and easier than ever. But has your digital age company sacrificed true service in the name of automation? When a customer sits down to write an e-mail to your company, it is because he or she needs help and/or advice. They choose e-mail because it’s quick. However, just because they are looking for a quick response does not mean they want a simplified or shallow answer. Their request still warrants a satisfying and personal response –The same you would give were he or she standing in front of you!

Give each customer the personal touch. Companies eager to save time and money often take automation too far in their customer support. Each customer has a unique question, and deserves a unique answer. Even if you save time by copying and pasting stock replies, change the opening and closing to make the message sound less robotic.

Be Clear, Be Sincere. When responding to customers’ e-mail, be sincere and to the point. Before sending a message, try turning the tables. Ask yourself, “Would this answer satisfy me if I were the customer?” Take that extra moment to give your customer the help he deserves. It might mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a credit card chargeback!

Offer Live Customer Support. E-mail has become an acceptable form of communication, but live customer support is still a necessity. The plethora of information available online can be overwhelming to customers, especially those new to the Internet! Single your company out from the crowd by providing customers with a real person to talk to. Live phone support is an invaluable way to foster trust. When your customer has reached the end of his Internet rope, and just needs help, your toll free number is the answer he’s looking for.

Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All The Answers. The presence of phone support will do no good if your staff doesn’t know your product! Customer support reps should be warm and friendly, and willing to help with any aspect of your product. What a good feeling it is to talk to someone who feels confident in his product. It’s even better if he’s knowledgeable enough to solve your problem without transferring you all around the company!

Provide Stand-Out Service; Gain Lifelong Customers. Too many e-businesses skimp on customer service, hiding behind web sites and message boards. Customer support is an integral part of every company, even those operating solely online. Be one of the few to offer stellar service, and gain customers for life!

Posted in Marketing Methods | 8 Comments »
22 May 2010

Web Ed: What is a website Hack?

As most visitors to this site over the last month or so have discovered, especially everyone who receives our newsletter, this website was hacked into and an attack was made by an unethical, malicious individual who, in my opinion, is a very sad, sore loser in the world of business. I am of the opinion that competition breeds efficiency. Without competition, complacency sets in. It’s what makes our society operate and work the way it does. Sadly there are those who do not like to play by the rules and need to resort to looking over the shoulder of those who studied hard just so they can pass the test. Very sad indeed.

As such, I thought it only appropriate to put together a few new articles on website hacks and what you can do about it.

Here is some basic information to help you identify and block hackers.

What is a website Hack?

Websites are made up of several files. Those files are stored on a computer somewhere often referred to as a “server.” This “server” or “web server” is really not that much different from your home PC or mac – save that it’s configured in a specialized way for making your website files available to the world wide web. Quite often this server has considerably more hard drive capacity and a very high speed internet connection. Usually it is a stand alone system with no monitor or keyboard. This is due to the fact that everyone who communication is accomplished through internet connections via a consumer’s browser, just like yours.

It would seem with everyone having the ability to connect and communicate with your server and website through the internet having a file or two changed once in awhile would merely be an accident, or par for the course. Only this is not the case.

Your website and server have several security systems put in place that determine what kind of access each person has. You are the owner/administrator so you have passwords that give you read/write access to your site. You can view files (read) and you can also change them (write). For Everyone else their access is limited to “read” only. They can view your files, but they are never, ever supposed to be able to change, delete, overwrite, or add new ones.

A “hack” occurs when somebody gets through these security systems and obtains “write” access to your server, In other words, they obtain the same level of access that should only belong to you as the owner/administrator. Once obtained, they can change, add, overwrite or delete files however they want. Imagine for moment some unscrupulous character breaking into your home sitting down at your PC or Mac with a box of installation CD’s from which hey begin loading and uninstalling whatever they please. That is precisely what a website hack is like. They might do only a little damage. Or they may do a lot. Unfortunately, The choice is up to them.

People often ask, “But how could my page, which was 100% pure HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), have been hacked?” The answer lies in the fact that the defacement of the page wasn’t the hack. The hack took place when they obtained “write” access to the server. The HTML page had nothing at all to do with it.

Altering the page was simply the thing they chose to do after they obtained access. However, once they get in, they can do ANYTHING. Altering your pages may be, and often is, only be the beginning. That is the reason why after your site has been hacked the most important thing isn’t repairing the damage they did – which most people focus on). The single most important item on your list is finding out how they got in.

Who are the Hackers?

Believe it or not, website hacking is one of the modern enterprises of organized crime. But if you think that means it’s being done amateurishly by a bunch of elderly, high scholl dropout mobsters who took night classes in the ABC’s of Computer programming to learn what this “Inter Web” thing is, think again. These organizations have professional programmers at their disposal running campaigns that have and will continue to take control of thousands of computers all around the world. Their attacks are well planned, sophisticated, and draw on an in-depth knowledge of operating system software, browser vulnerabilities, programming, and even psychology.

Strangely enough, if your site has been hacked, it most likely wasn’t done by a one of these individuals,.. but by another computer. A computer that was hacked by another computer, which was hacked by yet another. And somewhere way back in the chain is one of these unscrupulous programmers who unleashed the initial sequence of events that set all these computers to attacking each other and building a giant network – a “botnet” if you will. A “botnet” is a massive parallel virtual supercomputer whose purpose is to obtain all of the information in can acquire from computers the world over that these criminals can effectively turn into money. In order to be successful these individuals need to have access to as many computers as possible that are tied together into their enterprise. Which is why they wanted to hack your website.

Sadly, other individuals not affiliated with these organizations participate in the crime, whether they realize it or not, as affiliates of these crime syndicates. Using tools provided by these larger organizations, a small commission is paid – $5, last I heard – for each and every website they successfully break into.

Even worse are those that are thrill seekers who are motivated by fun, a challenge, or even prestige among their peers. In the case of my site the motivation and desire to deface this site was solely for the reason they disliked the competitive nature of business and wanted to take my company out of the equation. Imagine what this world would be like if these individuals applied the ingenuity and know-how to operating an ethical business, and improving how things work. Instead of exploiting weaknesses…

Posted in Web Ed | Comments Off

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