Systems and Referral Marketing is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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One feature small business owners want to specifically be aware of is the ability to create company profiles on the site. By claiming and building out your profile, SMBs will be able to increase your company’s prominence on the site, help prospective employees find you, and use it as your own personal recruiting network. If you’ve ever had to hire locally, you know important this is.

So how can small business owners take advantage of this new feature? Here are five easy tips to get you started.

1. Create/Claim the Page

Your first step to creating a rocking LinkedIn company profile page is to create and your claim your page. By creating your page you give your brand an outlet to highlight your products or services, keep followers updated on what you’re working on, show career opportunities within your organization, tell your personal story, and highlight various aspects of your company. To get started, perform a company search to see if you’re already listed on the site. If you are, it’s a simple process to claim your profile. If you’re not, once you’re in the search feature you’ll see an option on the right-hand side of the screen to add your company. Select that and claim your company page.

Once you’ve added your company (or have found an existing listing), it’s really important that you take the time to fill out the profile in its entirety, including:

• Your Company Overview
• Company Product & Services pages
• Information about Career Opportunities

The more information you provide, the easier it will be for like-minded prospective customers to find you, AND the more likely it is LinkedIn will show your company for prominent search queries.

2. Get Your Employees Using LinkedIn

The more involved you can make your company with LinkedIn, the bigger payoff you’re going to see. For more information on how to use your employees to create a rockin’ social media presence, check out a recent Blueglass post entitled 8 ways employees can improve your company’s LinkedIn presence where writer Kerry Jones discusses, in impressive detail, what steps SMBs should take to maximize their exposure. I won’t ruin the post for you, but she mentions things like:

• Taking advantage of the activity field
• Properly highlighting the teams skills & expertise (and why this is so important)
• Including customized links
• And lots more

If you haven’t used LinkedIn much in the past, that post is a really great primer to get any business up to speed. SMBs can really increase what they’re showing up for simply by showing employees how to set up and use their own profiles.

3. Follow Relevant Companies

Another thing SMBs may not know is that with the creation of LinkedIn brand pages, you can now follow companies of interest. For example, maybe you want to follow what your vendors are doing. Or companies that you’re considering partnering with in the future. Or people whose radar you want to get on for media opportunities. Or to hire down the road. This feature allows businesses to do stay up to date on what other businesses are doing, who they’re hiring, what they’re working on, etc. If you like your social media with a high amount of signal and very little noise, you may prefer to follow a brand on LinkedIn instead of on a more socially-inclined site like Twitter or Facebook.

4. Build Followers To Your Page

Obviously if you’re taking the time to build a brand page, you want to get people follow that page. Doing so will help you increase your visibility and authoritativeness with relevant users. Without that following, all the work that you’re doing on LinkedIn may go relatively unseen.

Encourage people to follow your company page by:

• Using your profile to share exclusive information about your company and/or articles and news pieces relevant to your audiences’ interests.
• Highlighting your brand’s LinkedIn page on your Web site and in all company information (in email newsletters, direct mailings, etc)
• Following the LinkedIn pages of other companies in your neighborhood/industry with the hopes that they’ll follow you back and you can create a local referrer network.
• Participating in industry-relevant LinkedIn discussion groups and let them know about your business (without spamming them).

5. Stay Active

Unfortunately, you can’t simply create your LinkedIn page and then step away. Even though LinkedIn is a business social networking site, it’s still a social networking site. That means you’ll still need to be active there to develop a real presence and following, and keep the relevance of your company profile Being an active site contributor means making sure you’re using your page to share information via your status updates, participating in relevant discussions, joining and being active in groups, acting like resource in Linked Answers, and otherwise be a good site member. If you don’t keep up your site investment, you’ll lose all the goodwill you’ve created.

Those are some quick tips to help SMBs develop a strong presence on LinkedIn and keep it going. Are you using LinkedIn for business? Why or why not?

From Small Business Trends

How To Build a Rockin’ LinkedIn Presence

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

How To Build a Rockin’ LinkedIn Presence is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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The recent recession had been dubbed a “mancession” as men lost jobs in record numbers. By comparison, the study found, women fared better at keeping jobs (however, men are faring better in the current recovery). Not only that, but “Single, childless women in their 20s are more likely than their male counterparts to graduate from college,” says Sphere Trending CEO Maxine Lauer. “That demographic segment is going to be where a lot of the new young talent will come from in years ahead.”

Overall, some 70 percent of U.S. women now work outside the home, and one in four married women earn more than their husbands. What else do you need to know about today’s female employees? The study examined women in three age groups—Gen Y, Gen X and Baby Boomers.

Each faced special challenges:

Gen Y: Overall, this age group is doing great. They’re out-earning their male counterparts and embracing technology and social media as tools for both business and personal life. In fact, 53 percent identified themselves as early adopters of technology, and women were more likely than men (32 percent vs. 24 percent) to use social media to network and connect with co-workers. Younger women believe work-life balance is crucial and are less likely than older generations to sacrifice their personal lives for a job. Instead, they’re using tools like flextime, remote work and mobile devices to get it all done.

Gen X: Stress is the key word for this age group, which has more family responsibilities than Gen Y. Even though men are taking on more duties at home, most of the childcare and housework still falls on Gen X women, who may also be dealing with elder care. Gen X has high standards and these women often feel like they’re letting down their families and their bosses, satisfying no one. In the workplace, Gen X’s strength is “brokering” between Gen Y and Boomer employees and serving as a facilitator to smooth the generation gap.

Boomers: Boomers face many of the same issues as Gen X. Although their children are generally adults, the economy has pushed many of those adult children back into the nest, leaving Boomers in a tough position. With Americans living longer, even the oldest Boomers are often caring for aging parents, which can lead to lost productivity and greater stress. At the same time, Boomers may feel they’re getting pushed aside or left behind by younger employees, especially as Gen X employees rise up the ladder.

How can you help your female employees succeed? As with many employee motivation issues, the key is understanding what they need. That will vary from age group to age group, from life stage to life stage, and from person to person.

If your workplace is filled with young women, allowing remote work and making sure they have the mobile technology they need to work anytime, anyplace can be key. Be more focused on results, not on hours spent in the office.

If your team is mostly moms, flexibility to handle family responsibilities is most important. Like Gen X, they’ll appreciate being measured on their results, not the hours clocked.

If you’re dealing with Boomers, be aware they may be reluctant to share their challenges, especially eldercare. Being sensitive, providing resources to help them and finding ways to let them share their knowledge and experience with others on your staff can keep them feeling valued as members of your team.

Generational Women Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Understanding Women Workers

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Understanding Women Workers is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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Arbeiten Von Zuhause Komplettpaket is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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Extreme Facebook Profits is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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Turn Your Business Into a Community Building Platform

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

I believe the future of business and commitment building resides in the idea of viewing your business as a platform for your community.

The notion of a platform is one that receives a fair amount of play in various contexts.

An author is said to possess a platform when they have built a following. Consultants might work with a business owner to build a platform through speaking, writing, blogging and connecting in social media. And finally, many tech firms have built platforms by creating open source software, such as WordPress, that allows other 3rd party providers to build commerce and community on top of their framework.

Amazon sells lots of books, but in order to do that they needed to develop lots of file serving and storage capacity and get very, very good at delivering lightning quick web results in one of the highest traffic demand environments online.

Amazon took something that had little to do with their existing business, but which they had become incredibly proficient at, and created Amazon Web Services that allows thousands of business to build on the Amazon framework. I host and stream all of my product videos using Amazon S3 servers.

Airbnb is a community marketplace that allows property owners and travelers to connect with each other for the purpose of renting unique vacation spaces around the world. I use it frequently and love how simple the service is to use. Airbnb is built on Amazon Web Services and uses their database tools to build their community.

I would like to suggest that the notion of a platform is one that we can apply to almost any business.

What is a platform in this context?

A platform is a system that helps people create products, services, profits, businesses, communities, and networks of their own. The dynamics that must be present to create a platform environment are openness and collaboration.

So, the questions you need to ponder are:

• How could you or your business act as a platform?
• What could others build on top of your business or products?
• How could you add more value through your platform approach?
• How could you grow a network on your platform?
• Are there other businesses that your platform could launch?
• How could your community generate value for each other?
• How could your platform learn from community members?
• How could you create something open enough to attract your competitors?
• What platforms already exist that you could build on?
• Could you use your existing purpose, culture or community as a platform?
• What could you acquire as a way to build a platform?
• What could you extend as a way to build a platform?

When you start to think about your business in this manner you can move beyond the traditional applications of the term platform and blend platform type thinking into your business model, your culture and ultimately how you engage and communicate with your community.

Find your unique framework for openness

The key is to locate your unique framework as the foundation for the platform. Often times this requires thinking far outside of what your core business was designed to do and looking purely at things you can do, things you’ve gotten good at doing, even if they are simply things you do to support your core business.

AppleTree Answers is a call center business headquartered in Wilmington Delaware. The company has built a platform of sorts by figuring out how to change the paradigm of the call center culture. The company has received numerous awards for workplace excellence and is a frequent member of the Inc 500 and 5000.

AppleTree’s rapid growth then has come about by acquiring other small call centers and installing Appletree’s unique framework of openness. Appletree’s strong culture is the platform they’ve built all of their expansion on.

It’s all about building more value

A major dynamic of the platform component is value creation. No matter what your business does it will sink or swim based on the value (perceived or otherwise) it creates in someone’s life. This is extremely so when we talk about the community aspect of a platform.

Further, if you want to differentiate your business from others that are already providing value to a market, you’ve got to find a way to create more value as a competitive edge.

Many people default to adding features to products and services as a way to address value, but I think the real impact in value creation comes from strategically finding ways to add value in the way your business delivers a unique experience to its customer rather than through some sort of product enhancement.

The beauty of understanding value creation at the strategic level and then forcing that thinking into every tactical decision is that this is some of the most profitable work you can do. When a market comes to value what you have to offer as the “go to” choice you’re on your way to a premium pricing opportunity. People will pay dearly for an experience that helps them get more of what they want out of life.

View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Turn Your Business Into a Community Building Platform is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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Whether it’s an overly-demanding client who’s prone to instant message you any time of day (or night), an indecisive client who’s sole feedback usually entails “that’s not quite it,” or the client who’s perennially slow to pay, some clients just aren’t worth the business. An extension of the Pareto Principle says that 20% of your customers probably account for the majority of your time and trouble.

Most of us strive to avoid conflict and stick with the mantra that clients are good for business. However, staying too long in negative client situations can take a significant toll on your job satisfaction, emotional wellbeing, and business.

If your attempts to actively manage the negative aspects in a client relationship ended up hitting a brick wall, it’s time to cut the cord. Firing someone may not come as easily to you as Donald Trump, but here are some ways to make the process as pain-free and professional as possible:

Take emotion out of the equation: When deciding to fire a client, don’t act rashly from frustration or a bruised ego. Take a few days to consider the situation before acting. Although, if you find yourself going through this process multiple times in a month or year, it’s time to listen to your gut.

Review the contract: Before approaching the client, go through every line of your contract and check for loose ends. If you don’t have a contract, gather any documents you have (including initial emails) that define the project scope and expectations. Make sure you have completely lived up to your obligations. If a client has already paid for certain parts of the project, make sure you have delivered on them. If you’re concerned the client may fail to pay what they owe, consider how to minimize the damage. This could mean waiting until they have paid before telling them your intentions.

Meet face-to-face: As tempting as it may be, firing a client doesn’t mean you just stop answering their emails or calls. Meet your contact face-to-face (or over a phone call if you’re a web-based contractor).

Keep it brief: No doubt you have a billion reasons why you don’t want to continue working with this client, but you only need to offer one. And it can be as simple as, “I no longer think my services are meeting your needs.” The more details you provide, the more you open the door to an argument.

Give sufficient notice: If a client relies on you for regular work, give them time to find a new contractor or vendor. This could be 30 days, the end of a major deliverable, or whatever works in the context of your relationship.

Offer alternatives: Unless the client was disrespectful or a major problem, help them find a new solution by referring a colleague who could meet their needs. If you don’t have a specific person in mind, you can still offer guidance on the type of provider who might be a better fit such as, “Your needs have grown, you may need to consider a full-size agency.” Or, “Why don’t you look for someone who specializes in x.”

At the end of the day, firing a client is never easy. Yet the difficult conversation will be over soon enough and you can move on to more restful nights and bigger and better things.

Fired Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Is It Time to Fire That Client?

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Is It Time to Fire That Client? is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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Before your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person is going to triage it to find out if it’s even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures.

• Do I know this person?
• Did someone I trust send them over?
• Where does she work? (Ideo? the FDA? The New York Times?)
• Has she won an award? Is she famous?
• Are there typos and is the design sloppy?
• Are they pestering me?
• Do I already follow this person online?
• Does music play when I visit the website?
• Will my boss be pleased when I bring this project up?
• Who else is pointing to/referencing/working with this person?
• Is it too good to be true?

Notice that all of these questions get asked before the idea is even analyzed. Doesn’t matter that this might not be fair, it’s a hurdle you have to cross.

Not all good ideas are pre-proven, sophisticated and from reliable sources. That’s not your fault. Doesn’t matter. In a noisy world filled with choices, you can’t blame your prospects for ignoring you. I know that you’re talented and have a lot to offer, but do they?

View full post on Seth’s Blog

How do they know you’re not a flake? is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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eBay®’s Ultimate Recession Buster!!! is a post from: Home Wealth Project
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