Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
So easy to talk about lunch
Jul 11th
If you want to get things moving at a meeting or in an online forum, start discussing what to order for lunch. Even the most reticent attendee has something to contribute.
Same thing when you start discussing the logo for your new venture, or what to call the subcommittee on committees… Have you noticed how many people are willing to weigh in on redecorating your office?
It’s so easy to speak up on the things that are trivial, defensible, matters of taste. So easy to imagine that you’re a valuable contributor because you’re willing to share your personal taste on a matter that’s beyond reproach.
If I want your opinion, I’m going to want it for something where you might be wrong, for something that actually makes a difference and most of all, for something where you are putting yourself at risk. Not lunch.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Are Your Ears Burning? In Social Networks, One-Third of Consumers Talk Brands Every Week
Jul 6th
| Social media didn’t invent conversations, it provided us with tools to surface and organize them. Conversations about brands predates the mediums used… |
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How To Talk To Small Business
Jun 10th
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
I was recently asked to share some insights (opinions) about small business at a conference attended primarily by large enterprise B2B marketers charged with growing their organization’s small business segment. (My friend Anita Campbell helped me on this one)
I found myself slipping out of my supposed expert role and instead talking to them more as a long time small business owner.
And this is what I shared:
Small businesses owners do business with companies and people they know, like and trust. While you can buy a great deal of know and like, trust is earned over time and where were most of you ten years ago when we started our businesses?
When it comes to word of mouth about your organizations we talk about businesses we know, like and trust, who also give us something remarkable to talk about. When was the last time you talked about a perfectly adequate experience? Give us something to talk about.
When you want to get inside our heads and try to figure out why we are such irrational beings when it comes to your value propositions understand this – an enterprise buyer considering a purchase may be juggling between two line items on a spreadsheet, a small business owner may be making that same consideration by juggling between your proposal and their daughter’s braises.
Create engagement with your content, not your metrics. If you’ve produced white papers, webinars, ebooks, and research that we can use, put it out freely in the social space. Don’t make us give you 27 data points before we can see the goodies. I know you’ve got a VP somewhere whose benchmarking registrations, but if you put that content where we can have it, where we can engage with it and find value in it on our time, I promise you we will trust you more.
Create connection by proving you know who we are. Gather up some of your small business customers and ask us what we think, what we Google when we look for your kind of solution, what we don’t understand, what else we need, why we don’t trust or get your message. Understand that you must change your language when you market to us. You can’t strip features, repackage and reprice your enterprise solution and call it a small market offering. We won’t get it. It’s not that small business owners aren’t sharp, we just don’t have time or use for corporate speak and jargon.
Create community by investing in ways to help us get more of what we want. No matter if you are trying to sell us credit services, printers or mobile devices if we can come to understand that you want to help us succeed and grow our businesses in ways that are related, or even unrelated, to your core offerings, we’ll get closer to you. Create ways for us to learn from trusted advisors, bring us together in peer to peer sharing environments, and every so often do something that surprises the heck out of us.
I hope this doesn’t come off as a personal rant, it’s meant to help any B2B marketer struggling to understand the small business beast.
Two asks today
1) Please, let me know if this seems on target and add your thoughts
2) Tell me about brands that you think get the above
Image credit: eschipul
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View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
Blog Talk Radio
Jun 2nd
| NuSpark Marketing Blog Talk Radio: Starting Sunday June 13 and continuing every Sunday this summer at 630pm: The NuSpark Marketing Strategy… |
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Small Business News: Can We Talk?
May 22nd
The headline above was once the catch phrase of legendary comic Joan Rivers. But as small business owners we all need the opportunity to talk about our businesses. And sometimes to hear some hard truths as well. In this edition of the Small Business Trends Roundup we look at some things all small business owners need to talk about to make our businesses strong and healthy. It’s time for some wincing honesty. Can we talk?
Marketing
Is your small business a greedy beast? Are you losing money on every sale or every prospect? Is your fundamental business model at fault so that you are forever putting more money in on marketing and other efforts than you will ever get out the other end? Are you thinking that somewhere, somehow there will come a time when you’ll reach enough sales to fix that problem? Are you sure? JonathanFields.com
Does your business need a social media site? No, we’re not talking about just a Facebook fan page, a group on LinkedIn or a Twitter account. We’re talking about a whole social media site branded with your business name and centered around conversations connected to your product. Entrepreneur Ivan Widjaya makes a compelling argument in this post using the American Express Open Forum as an example. Would creating your own social media site based on your brand help your business? Noobpreneur.com
Does your business have a network? Not a set of computers linked together in an office somewhere but a group of people with whom you share thoughts, ideas and ideals? Networks are important for people, too, as Chris explains in the post above, but they can also be really important to your small business, connecting you with customers and partners who may share your passion. Who is in your small business network? Chris Brogan
Operations
A guide to outsourcing online. The Internet has made outsourcing easier than ever but care must still be taken to select the right partners or projects may fall through and mistakes may be made, costing you and your business money. Here are some important tips to make sure your outsourcing efforts don’t cost you more than they’re worth. Abonar’s Blog
Anatomy of a self-fullfilling prophecy. Sure, the economy is tough, but allowing poor sales to rob you of your passion for your small business can take away your ability to recover when the rebound comes or to find new paths to growth and a better business model in the future. This article looks at getting beyond the excuses and trying to figure out what you can do to turn your business around today. You’re The Boss
What can the top women business owners teach you? A survey of 46 of the top 50 women-owned and led businesses as selected by the Women Presidents’ Organization and Open Forum has turned up some interesting tips that may be helpful to small businesses everywhere. Open Forum Innovation
Startups
Finding your entrepreneurial vision. Nora Abousteit, founder of BurdaStyle.com, an online community based around the passion of sewing, talks about finding the vision for her first business and the most important aspects of being an entrepreneur and launching a company. We hope you find the video as inspiring as we did. Fast Company
From business plan to workable business model. What a great thing it would be if the plan we first create for our small business translated perfectly into a workable, profitable and scalable business plan. Unfortunately, as we all know, it ain’t necessarily so. This podcast looks at the process from that initial idea to taking the leap of faith needed to see if a viable business results. Barry Moltz
Innovation
Is big business immune to innovation? Though this post is actually about overcoming the tendency toward status quo in corporations, what does it say about the natural evolutionary advantage small businesses and startups have over their larger competitors when it comes to innovation? Open Forum Innovation
Self-development
Inspiration from 10 most creative women. No matter what your gender or how large or small your business aspirations, we hope you find the stories of these 10 creative women entrepreneurs stirring and that they open your mind to the immense possibilities of starting a business and changing the world, even if it’s only on the smallest level. Fast Company
Small Business News: Can We Talk?
View full post on Small Business Trends
Small businesses talk social media strategy, results
May 8th
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But more small-business owners and managers are incorporating social networking into their marketing strategy, whether as one component or as the sole… |
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Jazz Talk – Feed | Social Media Marketing, Find-Inform-Engage Audience
May 2nd
| Keep up on the latest Jazz blogs, news, and other resources.Social Media Marketing – WebPartner’s tools help you find your audience, and then inform… |
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US Airways, United Talk Merger
Apr 8th
One decade after labor unions and the Department of Justice busted a merger attempt, United and US Airways are at it again. The two airlines have been in merger talks for several weeks. Delta and Northwest are already in the process of merging, so US Air and United are feeling the heat. The Washington Post has more:
In 2008, sources had told Reuters that US Airways was in parallel talks with United and Continental Airlines Inc about a possible merger, when Delta Air Lines was merging with Northwest to create the world’s largest airline. The talks ended as United chose to pursue an alliance with Continental instead.
Airline industry consultant Michael Boyd said United’s talks with US Airways might be intended to signal to Continental that they are ready to renew merger talks.
“If you take a look at those two carriers, there’s a tremendous amount of overlap,” Boyd said, referring to United and US Airways. “This is likely to get Continental, which would be a better fit, out of the barn to start talking.”
Speaking at (a) summit, US Airways Chief Financial Officer Derek Kerr said: “Consolidation is one of the major ways this industry can become profitable.”
If consolidation is “one of the major ways” for airlines to become profitable, I shudder to think what the other ways are. $45 carry-on baggage, I bet.
Consolidation also reminds me that we may one day be flying alliance airlines, like Oneworld, rather than name-brand fleets. We’re already edging closer to that.
View full post on Business Pundit
MSNBC’s Ed Schultz- Time For ‘Socialism’ In Talk Radio
Mar 26th
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Http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com — in an unusually candid rant, MSNBC libtalker Ed Schultz tells radio listeners he believes the next ’socialist’… |
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Six Internet Marketing Experts Talk About How To Make Money Online- Free Seminar
Mar 25th
| (EMAILWIRE.COM, March… visit http://www.InfoSeminarsClub.com/ and enroll for free for The Internet Marketing Info Event starting from 1st April .. |
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