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Help Me Celebrate National Small Business Week
May 11th
Help Me Celebrate National Small Business Week
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Win a free iPad during National Small Business Week
I’m doing something just a tad kooky for National Small Business Week – May 16-20 (US) and I think you’ll find it very educational and kind of fun.
First off I’m giving away a free iPad each day during the week, that’s one a day for five days.
Now, here’s what I have planned: Starting on May 16th and continuing on each day through May 20th I will be posting five guest blog posts from five awesome bloggers each day. (Come back to ducttapemarketing.com/blog starting on Monday and each day the week to find the new content.)
These posts will be from folks you know and love like Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, Escape from Cubicle Nation’s Pam Slim, Palo Alto Software Founder Tim Berry, SNAP Selling’s Jill Konrath, The Go-Giver’s Bob Burg, Marketing Prof’s Ann Handley, Hubspot’s Brian Halligan, New Rules of PR and Marketing’s David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan, and SmallBizTrends Anita Campbell.
Twenty five guest post in all with five per day all around the topics listed below:
- Monday May 16 – What is a Marketing Strategy and How Do I Get One?
- Tuesday May 17 – Okay, I’m Creating Content How Do I Get Someone to Read
- Wednesday May 18 – I Have a Web Site, What Else Should I be Doing Online?
- Thursday May 19 – How Do I Get More Leads in the Top of the Funnel?
- Friday May 20 – I Hate Selling, So Now How Do I Convert Leads?
But here’s the catch!
Each day’s blog posts will appear without identifying who wrote it. That’s right you’ll get to read five educational posts on a single topic, but you won’t know which of my superstar guests wrote the post.
The trick is that each day I’ll have a form that allows you to match the guest post with the guest writer. And each day I will randomly pick one winner from all the correct guesses to win an iPad.
So all you need to do is read the posts from each day and submit your guesses on the form provided to enter to win an iPad. (Everyone that completes this step will also be offered a marketing audit valued at $300). We’ll announce both the winner and who wrote what at the end of each day. You can check back each day to review a new set of posts.
In addition, I’ll be hosting a free live session:
How To Create a Marketing System for Consistent and Predictable Results
Wednesday, May 18th at Noon CT – click here to register
(We will offer an archive version to anyone that registers)
You can also check out updates and other great events going on around the country at our National Small Business Week page.
Some rules:
You can only win one iPad – but you can enter each day
Must be US resident (we can’t ship the iPad outside of the US)
Must provide valid email address on entry form – only so we can contact you if you win
View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
National Entrepreneurs’ Day — Will You Celebrate, or Cry?
Nov 23rd
Recently, I wrote about the emergence of several entrepreneurs’ movements around the country. One was an initiative to gain federal recognition of Nov. 19 as National Entrepreneurs’ Day.
Update: They did it. Thanks in part to a robust Twitter campaign spearheaded by marketing and technology firm the Grasshopper Group, President Barack Obama has signed off on it, and today is the first-ever National Entrepreneurs’ Day.
The question is, does that news make you happy, or angry?
Let’s face it — many entrepreneurs are upset with the current administration for what’s widely viewed as a maddeningly slow effort to help small businesses through the downturn. While banks and big automakers got gigantic bailouts, small businesses waited — and waited — for a little of the assistance to trickle down to them.
Programs the feds did try, such as the Small Business Administration’s ill-fated ARC loan program and the bank-bailout funding, didn’t help small businesses the way lawmakers had hoped. Banks didn’t lend. More recently, business credit cards were left out of the CARD Act, and interest rates on company cards soared.
So business owners are probably justified if they feel it’s a little ironic that the White House has now recognized them with…a day. Many entrepreneurs I know would probably rather have a usable line of credit.
But if you’re happy to see entrepreneurs finally get some official recognition and you’re looking to make the day special, there are many events planned. National Entrepreneurs’ Day concludes Global Entrepreneurship Week, which has 25,000 events going worldwide.
Today’s activities include a business-plan competition in Oklahoma and a networking lunch for student and faculty entrepreneurs in Winston-Salem, NC. The 5th Annual Astia Awards will be handed out in San Francisco, honoring women business owners. The list goes on.
This year’s designation was a pretty last-minute affair, so there wasn’t time to launch a marketing campaign and spread the word. Next year, I’m envisioning businesses across America with big “National Entrepreneurs’ Day” stickers on their storefronts, both brick and virtual. Maybe a Web campaign. TV ads even.
Main streets could organize celebrations that might bring shoppers to patronize their businesses. Lots of potential for it we’ll hopefully start to tap next time around.
For this year, it’s a great day to thank a mentor, or maybe be a mentor to a young entrepreneur trying to get their business off the ground.
What’s your reaction to the designation of Nov. 19 as National Entrepreneurs’ Day? Leave a comment and let us know your views.
View full post on Entrepreneur.com – Daily Dose
National Unfriend Day Can Help Your Business
Nov 17th
Funnyman Jimmy Kimmel announced that today is National Unfriend Day, NUD for short. “Facebook users have an average of 120 friends a piece,” said Kimmel in his announcement. “Active users have more than that. I think that’s too many. Nobody has 500 friends.”
To honor National Unfriend Day, Kimmel wants everyone to gather through users, go through your list of friends, and eliminate anyone who isn’t actually your friend.
“I’m giving you a chance to take back your life,” said Kimmel. “Real friends are people you meet at Central Park,” added show guest Lisa Kudrow.
Looking at this from a business perspective, you wouldn’t want to unfriend anyone on your Facebook page, because you want to have as wide a reach as possible, right? Not necessarily.
Social media expert and Wharton professor Sherrie Madia, who we’ll feature in an interview later today, emphasizes that any business using social media needs to find an audience who will help accomplish their objectives. “Where’s the target audience that will find value in their message, hear your message, and so forth?”
If your Facebook profile or fan page is swimming with random connections, National Unfriend Day might be the perfect time for you to sort and streamline your audience. If there’s dead wood in there, but you don’t want to get rid of it, you can also use Facebook’s “Customize” feature to target special messages to people who matter, giving them priority on your page, while sending general messages to everyone else.
Madia also points out that really active, popular Facebook and Twitter users have an obligation to work hard to maintain their status. If you’re really successful in that space, she says, “chances are (you’re) doing it an awful lot. There are famous and infamous cases of bloggers who spend 60 hours a week doing this stuff.” If this is you, National Unfriend Day could be an ideal time to assess how much of your time on social media is really worth it, what you want to get out of it, and what kind of value you’re adding to your business with your social media messages.
View full post on Business Pundit
National Election Results Don’t Mean Much for Economy
Nov 3rd
Although some states have already seen interesting election results, the national stage isn’t as exciting. From an economic perspective, the new Republican majority in the House isn’t going to amount to much more than gridlock, according to the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein:
From the perspective of actually getting anything done in the next two years, there was perhaps no worse outcome. Republicans don’t fully control Congress, so they don’t have enough power to be blamed for legislative outcomes. But Democrats don’t control the House and they don’t have a near-filibuster proof majority in the Senate, so they can’t pass legislation. Republicans, in other words, are not left with the burden of governance, and Democrats are not left with the power to govern. Republicans don’t have to be responsible, and Democrats can’t do it for them.
For the time being, this means that the gains of Obama’s first two years are probably safe. Health-care repeal will not pass the Senate, and if Republicans attempt to defund the program, it will be the House acting on its own — a less tenable position than the Congress acting against the executive. It is also difficult to see major new stimulus programs — for instance, a payroll-tax holiday — finding backers in Congress, as Republicans will not be able to take full credit for them. This will be, instead, a time of implementation for the White House, oversight for the House, and paralysis for the Senate. As for getting the economy back on track, that’s now Ben Bernanke’s job, whether he wants it or not.
The problem with oligarchical musical chairs is that it substitutes dogmatic battles for sorely needed economic policy. If nothing happens in Washington in the next two years, given our current economic state, it’s the equivalent of giving the country a green light to die a slow death.
We need economic reform, badly, which means agreement between the two parties and subsequent action. If everyone’s sitting pretty in their reactionary seats, nothing will ever get done. The only groups that this kind of inaction benefits are status quo beneficiaries–the corporations that prosper under current subsidies and conditions–and the extremists who want to make 2012 their winning ground.
View full post on Business Pundit
Chinese National Offshore Oil Corp. Buys Major Texas Shale Stake
Oct 11th
Chinese National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, is buying a $1.08 billion (or 33%) stake in Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s Texas Eagle Ford shale project. It is the biggest Chinese acquisition of a US oil and gas company to date, according to Bloomberg, which has the story:
The sale gives Cnooc its first energy asset in the U.S., five years after it dropped an $18.5 billion bid for Unocal Corp. amid political opposition. China’s third-largest oil company has spent at least $3.8 billion on overseas acquisitions in the past year as the nation’s energy demand surges.
“The deal reflects the ambition of Chinese companies to enter the global oil and gas industry, especially when China’s gas demand is expected to rise sharply,” said Grace Liu, an energy analyst with Guotai Junan Securities in the southern city of Shenzhen.
The Cnooc purchase was the second announced in one day for drilling rights in the Eagle Ford shale, which lies across a swath of southern Texas. Statoil ASA of Norway agreed to pay $843 million, or $10,900 an acre, to set up an equal joint venture in the region with Talisman Energy Inc. Cnooc is paying $10,800 an acre, which includes the upfront cash and drilling costs in the basin, McClendon said.
The CNOOC acquisition basically represents a Chinese government purchase of privately-owned American resources. CNOOC is one of three Chinese state-run oil monopolies, and China’s biggest natural gas supplier. In 2005, CNOOC tried and failed to buy Unocal. The Eagle Shale purchase may be a NOC company first–of many.
I wonder whether the US has considered just leasing out vast portions of federally-owned resource land to China to pay down the national debt.
View full post on Business Pundit
Encharter Insurance Sole Recipient of Inaugural PIA National Excellence in Social Media Award
Oct 7th
| Upon hearing the news that Encharter was going to be honored… “We at Encharter are honored to receive the inaugural Excellence in Social Media Award. |
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View full post on Home Wealth Project Riot!
National Positions Introduces new Social Media Marketing program for Facebook
Sep 29th
| About National Positions: Headquartered in Los… National Positions is one of the fastest growing Internet Marketing companies in the world today. |
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View full post on Home Wealth Project Riot!
Happy National Coffee Day!
Sep 29th
This picture forgot to include joy.
Today is National Coffee Day, that annual day where you have a communal excuse to flaunt your usual cuppa.
To honor the day, companies are offering you…statistics. Last year’s National Coffee Day was full of freebies, but few providers are ponying up much more than numbers this year. (Scroll down to see who is offering freebies.) Here are some of the stats that various surveys found.
According to this National Coffee Association survey:
* 56% of adults drink coffee beverages every day.
* 84% of drinkers “have not changed their consumption habits despite the economic environment,” although 4% more people than last year prepare their coffee at home.
* 40% of coffee people buy is gourmet.
FilterFresh’s survey found that:
* 95% of people get their caffeine fix from coffee (rather than soda or tea).
* More people would give up their cell phones before giving up coffee.
* 71.5% of people drink coffee with their coworkers.
* 68% of people would not tell someone if they had coffee breath.
More fun facts from this Dunkin Donuts/CareerBuilder survey:
* 40% of young American workers (18-24) can’t concentrate as well without coffee. 43% of 18-34-year-old workers have less energy without coffee.
* 24% of 18-34-year-old American workers “buy coffee as a way to treat themselves for a job well done.” (How about buying it as a way to congratulate yourself for getting up in the morning?)
* Nurses, doctors and hotel workers drink the most coffee out of all careers surveyed.
Freebies from Around the Web
Free coffee at LaMar’s Donuts with this coupon.
Some Dunkin’ Donuts shops are giving away free coffee to celebrate National Coffee Day. Check your local shops to see if they’re participating.
Boca Java is offering free shipping on all of its products today.
Dunn Bros. is giving away a free cup of coffee to its email subscribers.
Florida’s Barnie’s is giving away free coffee.
View full post on Business Pundit
National Positions Introduces Internet Marketing 3.0
Sep 26th
| About National Positions: Headquartered in Los… National Positions is one of the fastest growing Internet Marketing companies in the world today. |
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View full post on Home Wealth Project Riot!
New Gmail feature: Priority inbox sorts important emails – Video – National Social Media
Aug 31st
| Which, for someone who is really social or extremely important, might come in handy. Or it might be one more place to look on a busy morning. |
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View full post on Home Wealth Project Riot!
