Better Business Blog

10 Blogging Tips for 2012

Are you getting the most out of your blog? With the explosion of social media sites and a whole range of blogging and content sharing platforms at your fingertips, you should take another look at your blog. Is it still serving its purpose, reaching your customers and making the most of available resources? Here's a checklist of questions you should be asking and things you should be considering when evaluating your blog and planning for 2012.

1. Is blogging the best platform for your business? By now you probably already know about the success of new, highly visual online outlets such as Pinterest and Instagram. If your business depends on people seeing big, beautiful photos of your product or location, maybe these are a better fit. You could also look at blogging through Tumblr, which supports multimedia sharing well. And if you have the resources and manpower, you can always do both, using a photo-sharing site to showcase your visual appeal, then integrate these into longer traditional blog posts.

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11 major public relations mistakes (and how to learn from them)

“There is no such thing as bad publicity,” unless your company’s latest advertising campaign completely backfires and angers countless loyal customers. Even the most established brands are not immune to a faulty public relations blunder — including household names like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola — and it takes more than an apology to correct a company image and recover lost revenue.

I asked a panel of successful young entrepreneurs to share a misstep made by a major brand, and what they’ve taken away from the experience as seen from afar. Here’s how they learned from other companies’ mistakes and how they’re using the new knowledge to improve their own businesses.

Name one major PR blunder that you’ve seen a major brand make recently. What one lesson should all entrepreneurs learn from their mistake?

The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC leads  #FixYoungAmerica, a solutions-based movement that aims to end youth unemployment and put young Americans back to work.

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How To Close Big Business Deals

You don't climb the biggest hill in your neighborhood the same way you would tackle Mount Everest. Changes in scale require a big shift in tactics.

Let's start with the seven things that make your big sale different than your average size sale:

1. Size: Obvious, sure, but worth the mention. Adding a couple of zeros to the deal can change more than just the sweatiness of your palms.
2. Complexity: The bigger the deal, the more moving parts. Moving from 100 loaves to 100,000 loaves may not change the recipe–but it increases the logistical complexity of getting the bread to the market.

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How American Express Found Its Social Media Groove

American Express went from virtually zero social media presence in 2009 to being hailed by Advertising Age as the “real winner” at South By Southwest this year.

How did AmEx do it? Leslie Berland, SVP of digital partnerships and development at the company, attempted to retrace the brand’s steps during a talk at Mashable Connect, and then dispensed a few social media tips on Friday.

Berland highlighted two major inflection points in AmEx’s social media marketing history: its introduction of Small Business Saturday and its promotion of Sync at SXSW. The former started with a “lofty goal,” which was to “start a movement,” Berland said.

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Why Has New York Become a Paradise for Tech Startups?

Asking budding entrepreneurs where they’d like to build their next startup often elicits the same three-word response: New York City.

Over the past four years, there’s been a 40% spike in startup financing in “Silicon Alley” — a bigger increase than anywhere else in the U.S.

Cities around the world are increasingly looking at New York, rather than San Francisco or Silicon Valley, as a model for nurturing startup growth through policymaking and urban planning.

What’s New York’s secret to startup success? According to Brad Hargreaves, founding partner of startup co-working space General Assembly, the answer is twofold: it’s half the fault of the financial collapse of 2007/2008, and half the result of intelligent public planning and policymaking.

Thousands of the city’s brightest coders, says Hargreaves, were working for the finance industry when the bubble burst. As companies sank, those software engineers were either let go or abandoned ship — leaving some of them free to spark New York’s startup explosion.

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7 Tremendously Efficient Ways to Re-Share Content

There’s a really interesting thing that happens when you start writing a company blog. Suddenly you realize that you've managed to amass 50 or 100 posts. (If you're not quite there yet, don't worry; you will be before you know it.)

That many posts is a nice collection of thoughts and ideas, not to mention a lot of effort. So why not get the highest return for your work? This means getting that content out to wider markets, so that more people have access to your message. The trick here is re-purposing that content—and the possibilities are endless. Let's look at a few.

1. E-book, report, or white paper. Suppose your business is in interior decorating. You could grab your posts related to color mixing and create an eBook titled, Color for Interior Design Made Easy. You might sell this publication, or offer it as a free download.

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The 3 Essential Qualities of a TRUE Social Media Expert

No, really, I'm awesome with this social media stuff...

Right now, there are literally thousands of businesses out there in the world looking for social media help, advice, and guidance. And like any other industry, the social media realm is full of “legit experts,” “not-so-legit experts,” and “please-call-me-a-guru-even-though-I’m-not experts.”

Personally, over the last 3 years, I’ve seen many “experts” in this industry come and go. I’ve also seen many companies hire smart people and get huge results while at the same time there have been handfuls of others hire supposed “experts” that have done nothing but put a hurt on the company’s P & L statement with their false promises and frankly stupid social media strategies.

Throughout this process, I’ve seen definitive trends and qualities that dictate the most successful social media (including content marketing here) experts and the ones that might talk big but have very little to back it up.

3 Essential Qualities of a True Social Media Expert

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B2B Lead Generation vs B2B Advertising: What You Need to Know

Among paid media and advertising tactics, lead generation programs are a key source of leads for B2B marketers, especially in the enterprise technology space. Tell a B2B publisher that you are interested in lead generation and the majority will point to some form of white paper syndication program they offer.

For the sake of this post, lead generation programs refer to publisher programs that promote your content and capture registration. These are contacts or inquiries, not sales leads, but in keeping with the terminology publishers use, we will refer to this as lead generation here.

In enterprise technology, publishers like IDG, Information Week and TechTarget have nearly turned these programs into a science, with guaranteed leads volume and a myriad of filtering and qualification options driven largely by email and newsletter promotions.

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Baby Boomers: America's Hottest Group Of New Entrepreneurs

Aging in America has changed – and I for one, think it’s for the better. We are living and working longer and feeling good while doing it. Was it Oprah who first said, “50 is the new 40?” I see it at MBO everyday as I watch expert professional Baby Boomers leave corporate full-time positions to become America’s hot new entrepreneurs.

Rather than taking a bow with traditional retirement, many boomers today are forging fulfilling encore careers with independent work. Today, there are five million boomer independents in the U.S. and it has never been easier for these senior professionals to design a second solo act. Facilitated by the rise of cloud and mobile computing and social networking, boomers are easily able to leverage their intellectual and social capital to start solo businesses and earn continued income and professional kudos.

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6 Business Lessons From 50 Shades of Grey

Have you heard about 50 Shades of Grey?

If not, either you’re a guy who has no woman in his life, you’re living in a cave or you’re a guy living alone in a cave. Women everywhere are buzzing about this bestselling erotic novel, which tells the story of a wealthy entrepreneur’s affair with an innocent college student. First-time author E.L. James has been mobbed at book signings, interviewed on TV and given a seven-figure contract with Vintage Books. Ellen DeGeneres read snippets from the novel aloud on her talk show, Barbara Walters discussed it on The View and Time magazine named James one of its 100 Most Influential People of 2012.

As I read about James’ phenomenal success, I couldn’t help but draw some business lessons from her story.

1.  You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. James, a fortysomething TV exec, openly admits her books started off as “fan fiction” based around the characters in the wildly popular Twilight vampire novels. What plot there is also borrows elements from everything from Pretty Woman to Jane Eyre. When James published 50 Shades as a free e-book, she apparently struck a nerve, and the book took off. I can think of many business ideas that weren’t brand-new but became wildly successful by building on an existing product or service with a little tweaking. (Domino’s Pizza is one case. That company made billions by offering a 30-minute money-back guarantee.)

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There's No Need To Hire A Lawyer When These Sites Let You Do It Yourself

Four years ago, Michele Ellson created an online community newspaper,The Island, in Alameda, Calif., under a limited partnership. But she didn't hire an attorney to form the LLC or file the paperwork.

Instead, Ellson turned to LegalZoom, where she spent $552 to gain access to the forms and have attorneys review the paperwork and file it with the state. "I was looking for something easy to use and one where I knew what to pay up front," Ellson says.

Ellson is one of an increasing number of consumers trying their hands at being do-it-yourself lawyers. Last year, Google Ventures poured $18.5 million into Rocket Lawyer, which boasted 70,000 users a day and doubled its revenue for four years running, according to a Forbes report. And LegalZoom, according to its website, has served more than a million customers.

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When the Product Is the Marketing, and Vice Versa

Not that it happens often, but sometimes the product itself is the marketing. And in those rare cases, businesses thrive without organized marketing.

Normally, great marketing beats great product. But these are those beautiful "if you build it, they will come" cases that can be especially exciting to watch.

As I write this, I'm reviewing a startup that looks to me as if it could be one of those product-driven successes that thrive without much focus on marketing planning. Yesterday, the founders showed me their video-rich and design-rich web building platform. It looked incomplete, but really good. And the creators had very little to say about marketing.

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Who Googled You? This Website Knows

After a date, a pitch or a job interview, there’s a good chance you’re going to get Googled. Online reputation manager BrandYourself now helps you figure out who is searching for your name.

The startup, which helps individuals control Google results for names through SEO, launched a new feature on Tuesday that shows users where visitors to their BrandYourself profiles work and where they’re located.

BrandYourself built a database of organizations’ publicly-available IP addresses in order to create the feature. They use it to match IP addressees of profile visitors with the companies that own those addressses.

Visitors most frequently reach BrandYourself profiles through Google, but the feature works the same way if visitors reach a user’s profile from another search engine or website.

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10 Tips For Keeping Your LinkedIn And Business Connections Fresh

Keeping connections fresh is entirely about giving. You are giving someone attention, and you are not asking for anything. It is a pleasant contact for them. And it makes a huge difference. If someone hears from you, even once a year in an email when you don’t need anything, then when you ultimately do need something, it is very comfortable for both parties. But if you haven’t connected with them at all in five years and suddenly, out of nowhere, ask them for something, it becomes very uncomfortable for you and potentially annoying or easy to ignore for them. You may recognize this situation from having been on one or both sides of the exchange.

If you have kept the connection fresh and updated, not only will it be much more natural and comfortable when you need to reach out, but the other party will be much more inclined to actually help you!

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Three Requirements as Marketers, Agencies and Publishers Converge

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Communications, the publisher of BtoB Magazine, announced the creation of CrainsSocial, a new marketing services group offering social media solutions to marketers. This is one more introduction in a long line of changes that are blurring traditional roles in the marketing landscape.

Not only are the trends towards digital, social, mobile and content changing the B2B marketing landscape, the roles of agencies, publishers and marketers in that landscape are blurring as well.

As these lines move, the role marketers need to take is shifting as well. Here are three of the key changes marketers need to make. Please share your additions in the comments below.

1. Own It

More than ever, you need to own and enforce your overall strategy. Without traditional AORs as a natural lead for agency coordination and integration (AOR relationships dropped from 50% of companies to 15% in the last decade), you need to take on this role directly. Every provider will look to push the boundaries of your brand and marketing guidelines. You must ensure these pushes are coordinated and moving in the same direction.

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20 Interesting Facts, Figures and Statistics Revealed by Facebook

Facebook is about to raise $5 billion from investors.

When you are ask for that amount of money then you need to produce some reliable evidence and facts and figures about the current state of play that are accurate.

So Facebook has recently revealed the latest statistics about its business in its S1 Filing for its upcoming IPO.

Facebook doesn’t appear to be struggling for cash as it has recently paid Instagram $1 billion to purchase its mobile photo app business and Microsoft $550 million  for 650 patents (that it recently bought off Yahoo)

In a knowledge economy that rewards innovators, patents are becoming increasingly valuable to protect your intellectual properties from potential imitators.

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3 Simple Ways to Get People to Listen to You

 

I just spent the week with three of my Proteus colleagues, teaching management and leadership skills to a group of 60 smart, dedicated professional women through a program called Rising Leaders.  One of the core management skills we taught them (this was the group’s choice) was listening. I was thrilled they chose this skill. I dedicated the entire first chapter of Growing Great Employees to listening; I believe it’s foundational to success for both managers and leaders.

During the program, which we conduct twice yearly, I offer 30-minute individual mini-coaching sessions to the participants.  One of the women I spoke with told me that, though she had found the listening segment dramatically useful, she also wanted to know how to get people to listen to her.

I suspect a lot of people have that question, so – here you go:

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5 Tips for Great Content Curation

You’ve heard the buzz word — curation — being thrown around like it’s a gadget we all know how to work. In reality, good content curation isn’t as simple as pushing a share button. It’s actually a combination of finding great content and following some simple best practices on how to successfully share that content.

If you’re a curator looking for some boundaries in what feels like the Wild West, here are five best practices to consider.

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How to Create and Grow Your Influence on a Global Social Web

We are living in a world where influence is migrating from offline to online.

The ability to influence is also moving from local to global. Its reach is also transitioning to mobile devices.

Reputation and influence can now be gained faster and reach further than in any other time in history.

One definition of Influence is “the capacity to have an effect on the character, development or behavior of someone or something”

To be truly successful you must have the ability and power to influence.

Mass Media was the Platform

The development and popularity of movies and mass media over the past century has provided people such as politicians, business people and movie stars the platforms for creating and sustaining influence.

But we are still used to the traditional paradigms and ideas of influence. In the past it was vital to enrol at the “right” school or university, attend the right networking events or cocktail parties or belong to the right golf club

These are still important but the power of online influence and new media is starting to make itself felt as the social web shares ideas and content globally in real time.

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5 Ways to Build a Solid Email Marketing List

Email marketing is a powerful tool that can extend your reach beyond your website and create new salesopportunities. If you simply sell to customers when they happen to visit your site, you have an all-or-nothing chance of making a sale. Should they leave without making a purchase, there's no guarantee they'll return later.

But when you build an email list of current and potential customers, you can reach out repeatedly to your prospects with targeted messages.

Here are five ways to integrate email marketing into your website and stay in touch with your best prospects:

1. Build an opt-in form on your home page.
Perhaps the easiest and most common way to create a list is to integrate an email opt-in form into your home page. To get attention, place your form "above the fold," so visitors can see it immediately and don't have to scroll down.

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A Company With No Hierarchy Makes More Money Per Employee Than Google, Amazon Or Microsoft

Seattle-based game company Valve was the topic of much discussion on BoingBoing yesterday.  

The 16-year old company has no corporate hierarchy whatsoever, and yet - according to its employee manual - their profitability per employee is "higher than that of Google or Amazon or Microsoft". 

The company's team page proclaims at the top "We've been boss-free since 1996", and then proceeds to list every single employee (a bit over 100) in alphabetical order.  About the founder, Gabe Newell, the manual says, "Of all the people at this company who aren't your boss, Gabe is the MOST not your boss, if you get what we're saying."

How does this madness work?  Leaving alone the claim of incredible profitability, how do they manage to get anything done at all?  Is this not a recipe for corporate disaster? 

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Go Guerrilla: A DIY Guide to Product Launches

Joshua Waldman is what you might call an online-marketing machine. He knows how to build and feed social networks as a springboard to opening doors and achieving results. What's more, he's willing to share everything he knows.

When he realized that social media are the key to unlocking job opportunities, he wrote "Job Searching With Social Media for Dummies."When his book catapulted to the No. 2 position among Amazon.com business books and won features on CBS, ABC News, Mashable and mediabistro.com, as well as such publications as the Chicago Tribune and U.S. News & World Report, I asked how he did it. His answers provide a guide for anyone launching products in today's networked world.

Barbara Findlay Schenck: Every new product marketer craves media coverage. How did you get it?

Joshua Waldman: My biggest asset was a list of 500 top bloggers and media people, segmented into 11 groups, so I could send different and appropriate messages to different people.

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Inside Harvard B-school's Startup Boot Camp

With $3,000 of seed capital from Harvard Business School, around 150 MBA teams were tasked with developing their very own micro-businesses in short order. Here's what they came up with.

By John A. Byrne

(Poets&Quants) -- The idea initially came as something of a joke.

Earlier this year, a team of six Harvard Business School MBA students was brainstorming ideas for a new startup business. They came up with a peculiar takeoff on all the online dating sites: a Facebook application for Jewish mothers to set their children up with potential marriage material.

When the team shared the idea with fellow students, they heard nothing but skepticism. "They said there were a lot of barriers to entry," recalls Jyll Saskin, 24, one of the team members. "Others said they didn't think the market would be that big for it."

The feedback led to some serious rethinking. "We said, 'What if we expanded the idea to leverage the power of friend networks?' adds Saskin. "Friends could serve as yentas to recommend dates for their friends."

With $3,000 of seed capital from Harvard Business School, Yenta was launched last week along with as many as 150 other new startups in what might well be the largest single experiment in entrepreneurship ever undertaken. The so-called "micro-businesses" range from a company called Kinsey that sells "premium undergarments" for men to another called 4n Friend that is creating an online network that matches language tutors with students all over the world.

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10 Top Trends in Social Media

I visited Italy recently and as we know the Italians are a very stylish bunch. They seem to know what fashion is really about.

They can wear a scarf with fabulous flair, choose the cool hat that sets off the outfit or select a pair of sexy shoes that make them look like a fashion model and that is just the men!

The Italians have taken “style” to a level that the rest of the world can only aspire to.

Trends in Shoes

Now on the topic of shoes it appears that there is a trend that if it doesn’t stop very soon, it is going to lead to many injuries and even possible death as fashionista women fall from great heights after stumbling in their 30 centimeter high heels!

This will lend a whole new meaning to the term “Fashion Tragics“.

I have to admit though that the shoes in the windows of the fashion brand stores of Rome and Florence were not just fashion items but objects of style, art and creativity. Just not very comfortable or sensible to wear but who said that fashion should be sensible.

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3 Slick Analytics Dashboards to Monitor Your Business Website

If you’re running a company website without an analytics dashboard, you may as well be stumbling around in the dark. Building a viable and sustainable web presence in any industry is all about understanding the needs of your users and tailoring your service to fit their needs — how can you do that if you don’t even know what your users are looking at or how they got to your website?

The good news is that analytics dashboards simple to implement, and they also come in a variety of shapes and sizes to suit the needs and goals of your small business. While some people swear by Google Analytics or the tracking plug-ins found organically within their specific web hosting or content managing service (think WordPress analytics), there’s a lot of information you may not be getting from these sources. For example, while Google Analytics does a great job tracking individual page vies, it doesn’t necessarily break down any meaningful social sharing or referrals. You may want to know why a specific webpage on your site garners major traffic, but Google Analytics will only note that it comes from Facebook.

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