Small Business Social Media Basics - Three Tips

As a small business owner the thought of spending one more dime on your advertising budget probably sends shivers up your spine. You know you've got to do it but, especially today, cash is tight. One of the beautiful things about the web today is the ability to get free exposure on websites like Twitter, Facebook and more. It does not cost you a dime to create a Twitter account, put together a Facebook page or setup a Linked account. All it takes is a bit of time and a little know how.

When you start out looking to use some of these social media sites to advertise your business sit down and create a plan. You want to lay out three distinct points in this plan.

First determine, realistically, how much time you (or an employee) can dedicate to a social media campaign. Successfully building exposure, brand recognition and dedicated followers takes consistent effort over the long run. Just sitting down one night and plowing a few hours into creating accounts will get you nowhere. It is an hour a night? Maybe it's only a couple hours a week. Whatever it is decide what time you can afford to spend and dedicate yourself to actually putting that time in each and every week.

Secondly determine what your specific goal is. What do you want to get out of the time you invest in Twitter, Facebook and the others? Make it laser specific and not something as vague as "Make more sales." Especially when starting out pinpoint a definite goal that you can track and monitor. For example, say you've just started to carry a new line of product. Perhaps your social media goal is to increase the sale of said product over a certain period of time. Make it small, targeted and manageable. Now spend your time looking for, and connecting with, people on these social media sites that are interested in that product. As you build a base of followers you can interact with you'll notice they naturally start to explore more of your product line.

Lastly, and this is the hardest part, is you've got to do it. If you dedicate 1 hour a night then make darn sure you put that time in. Read and learn about how to become effective in the space. I'd wager that 9 out of 10 people that start on social media quit right before they start to see results. To borrow a massively overused saying - the online game is a marathon, not a sprint.

Visit BillyIrish.com for tips on creating, managing and getting the most from your small business website. Bill has been working for and running small businesses his entire life and helps others increase profits and sales from their small business websites. Get some small business website help!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_P._Kelly

Optimism: How to Survive the Recession

By: Colleen Davis

Economists suspect that the current recession in the US today will turn for the worse and might even surpass the period of decline during the Great Depression in the late 1930's. Whilst the Great Depression was 'accidentally' solved because of the start of World War II, the depression experienced today seems to have no immediate solution. Most businesses today are feeling the crunch. Top Fortune 500 companies who have weathered several economic downturns in the past are finding it difficult to stay buoyant.

Evidences of the effects of this downturn can be seen from the dampened mood to invest as well as the reluctance of consumers to part with their money. Asset and stock values have plunged to an all time low as well as consumer buying. Are companies ready to declare bankruptcy? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Experts suggest that this disaster is actually opening up opportunities. That is, if businesses just know how to unlock them. These experts think that through an aggressive marketing posture, the advantages of the crisis could be had. What does that mean exactly? The philosophy behind this advice of maintaining an aggressive marketing posture is anchored on the idea that businesses should maintain an aggressive marketing campaign when the natural tendency is to pull back or cut back on promotional efforts.

This just means that while most businesses are cutting back on the production of marketing collaterals such as flyers or poster printing, businesses should even increase its production a notch higher than usual. The logic behind this is that most businesses face fewer competitors during downtimes particularly because those without a solid foundation tend to collapse or go bankrupt. Others scale down operations because of the dampened consumer demand for non essential products or services.

The few remaining businesses are less motivated than in a period of sustained growth. Businesses can further insulate themselves from the effects of a recession by implementing creative marketing strategies which is ultimately aimed at stimulating consumption. Discounts or price cuts are strategies to stimulate consumption. One day sales are powerful because it creates an illusion of big discounts. Complement this sales with posters printed on the same day to achieve maximum effect. Finally, businesses should maintain a positive outlook. They have to stay upbeat and optimistic and think of the current recession as an opportunity rather than a disaster in itself. Anyway, failure is only for those who cannot think beyond the here and now. Success is for those who use the humps and bumps to propel themselves to greater heights.


Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
About the Author:For more information, you can visit this page on poster printing

Telling the Truth and Long Term Customer Loyalty

By: Mark Workman

Truthfulness is a difficult subject in a culture where standards are falling fast. Being truthful is almost a weakness in the business world, seen as clinging to old school approach to life and business. Ambition should be the rule of the day guiding our choices and direction as we see colleagues as enemies to be conquered and overcom. Blind ambition would define success by the results only, never considering the means that achieved the goal. We are a results oriented culture, willing to justify all kinds of behavior once considered immoral as moral simply because we win the battle. The results matter more than any other measure of success and it is driving our culture right into the ditch. The real truth here is that the lack of truthfulness will eventually take the short term results or success, and show them for what it really are; short term success at the expense of long term viability. Many of the companies that operate under the guidelines of shady truth, or ambiguous info, simply do not last. The motive for being truthful is not guided by producing a profit, but is guided by the simple fact that telling the truth is the right thing to do. Profits are a result of being truthful in your business pract As an example, the trucking industry is literally still the last place a verbal handshake drives the industry.

Truck owners are always looking for new shippers, and many times empty trucks are moved into place to transport loads with new shippers with a verbal handshake over the phone between the dispatcher and shipper. The industry moves so fast, and the truck owner needs to keep the wheels rolling or face company failure.

There is little time to evaluate shippers accurately, so the agreement is largely dependent upon the promise given to provide the transportation service from point A to Point B, and the promise of the shipper to pay promptly upon the agreed price. What happens is the dispatcher does not have a truck in place yet, but will in a couple of days. The dispatcher stalls, with panicked calls about flat tires, breakdowns, or the driver may be having trouble getting unloaded, keeping the new shipper on the hook for this trucking service they need.

The driver shows up, gets ripped by the shipper, and the truck driver tells the truth, that he was in Iowa and just got unloaded that morning. The result is the trucking company did ship the load, but lost the shippers business and respect forever for future shipments. Looking at this example, what would have happened if the dispatcher had explained he would have a truck in a few days and was interested in doing business? Even if he would have not gotten the load to be transported, the dispatcher would have begun the process of customer loyalty with the truth.

Telling the truth when it feels or appears that it may hurt you, always produces the opposite result. Most customers are reasonable, telling them the truth only builds trust for everything you say now and in the future. Even if anger or frustration is there response, trust is still being built. Telling the truth, when you think it is going to hurt you will build customer loyalty like no other principle in the virtue column. Telling the truth is an assumed part of the customer experience and the service they expect. When considering this issue, where is this behavior of not telling the truth born? Not telling the truth is driven by fear; fear of man, or maybe fear of losing, being seen as a failure. Fear driven business is bad business, creating outcomes that will not last.

The entrepreneur operating in fear always chooses to feed his panic, anxiety or fear, justifying a lie to keep the business going. In truth, all they are doing is sowing the seeds of destruction of their entrepreneurial efforts, having to go back and relearn, over and over again, one of the most basic lessons in life. Establishing truthfulness in your life is the right thing to do and will produce long lasting results for you and your company. Customer loyalty will increase in strength and numbers. You personally will grow, because you have chosen to operate from the character planted in you at birth, rather than blind ambition, looking at the results only. In these economic times, truthfulness is the key ingredient to getting through to the other side of this recession, strengthening your business and yourself.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
About the Author:Mark J Workman http://www.wutzzup.com http://wutzzupwiththat.blogspot.com/