Spice Your Business
September 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
If you would like to:
- become more focused, efficient & effective in growing your business
- improve your profitability
- take your business in new directions
- build a culture of leadership throughout your company
- start a new business the right way
let me assist you!
I have been helping entrepreneurs develop & grow their own companies for over 25 years! It is my passion.
In 2007, the U.S. Small Business Administration recognized my commitment to assisting small businesses by naming me their Women in Business Champion of the Year for the State of Louisiana.
Together, we can identify & evaluate your options – based on your specific strengths & available resources — & craft a personalized development plan that produces the most efficient results possible.
* * *
I can offer your trade association numerous small business seminars or presentations including: 
- Ignite Your Sales with the Business Development Strategy that’s Right for You!
- Creating the Right Spice Blend: Product/Service Offerings that Can Double Your Profits!
- 15 Hot Marketing Strategies that Won’t Overheat Your Budget
- What Were They Thinking? Understanding How and Why Clients Buy
- Taking Ownership: Instilling a Culture of Leadership From the Ground Up
Meeting Planners Q & A about Facebook
September 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment
On Tuesday, August 25, 2009, Plan Your Meetings, sponsored a webinar, hosted by David Nour with Michelle Cullison and Nhat Pham. These questions were asked by the meeting planners:
1. Can a group created by an individual be moved to a public business page?
Moving from a group to a company page is a manual process. Create the page and then invite all group members to become a Fan of the new page. Some Group admins put a deadline on the move and close the group. You may also provide some new content on the page as an incentive to make the move.
2. How are people using Facebook to find potential partners/vendors?
You may find vendors/partners using the advanced search page on Facebook. It allows you to search for people, pages and groups by keywords. You can get to the advanced search page by typing search in the Search field. (Currently, there isn’t a link to advanced search on the menu.)
Another great way to find potential partners and vendors is groups. Join industry specific groups where your partners and vendors are spending time. Need to find the groups, search for them with the advanced search page.
Are they searching like on Google? Yes. Business pages on Facebook are public so googling the company name and the term facebook as search words is a good way to see if a potential vendor has a facebook presence.
How does Facebook rank pages when a search is done?
Facebook doesn’t disclose how it ranks pages on its search results page. However, this page about the new Facebook Search may be helpful to you: http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=923
3. I get feeds on my home page from groups/pages that I am member/fan of, what do we need to do as a company to get our updates to post to our friends pages?
4. Can you create an event for a Cause FB account?
A cause is an FB application. Anyone with an FB profile may create an event.
5. What is the difference between a group and a fan page – benefits of both?
Groups gather people around a topic of discussion and can be a good place for collaboration. FB fan or business pages are like personal profiles but for businesses. They have all the power of personal profiles including the ability to publish a lot of company info, install apps, communicate with and build a fan base.
6. Is it advisable to keep a “personal” Facebook page versus a “professional” page?
Having both kinds of presence on Facebook is important. You develop business relationships personally using your personal profile and as a brand using your (professional) company page.
7. If you post a blog to the notes section how do your friends see it?
Under the Settings menu, Choose Application Settings and then Notes under the Wall tab click on: Allow Notes to publish to Streams.
8. I am the director of communication for a small trade association – we have created a group on Facebook – so are you saying we should create a profile – if so, for me or for biz? How would you do this?
Groups are good for collaboration but do not have as many features a public profiles (business pages) have. As an association, you could benefit from the added features that public profiles have. To create a public profile for your association, go to Facebook.com and click this link: Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business. Having a personal and a business presence on Facebook is helpful as business relationships can be formed personally and organizationally.
9. How can Facebook give an incentive travel company an edge on the competition? Create a content-rich public profile for your company on Facebook Business pages. Make it a page that adds value to your audience and includes links to your website and industry specific keywords for Google. Invite your target audience to become fans. Engage your audience in conversation.
10. I’m looking for a job – any suggestions on how to use Facebook for that? Many times job leads come through the people you know. Make sure you’ve entered all your education and work history info in your personal profile. Communicate confidence and the value you bring to employers in your status updates. Do communicate that you are looking for opportunity. Don’t convey desperation in your updates.
11. How can you use Facebook for education/learning?
12. How can my company keep negative comments off our Twitter account? Controlling negative comments is a common concern across social networking platforms. Some of the blogging/microblogging tools allow you to turn off commenting but then you’ve shut down communication with the exact audience you want to build relationship with. Responding positively to the negative comments may indeed give you an opportunity to build repo ire with your audience and show how you are handling the issues that occur. Google the words “Transparency in blogging” to learn more about how companies are dealing with negative comments in the blogosphere.
13. How secure is Facebook?
I will talk about 3 common ways that FB accounts are compromised and how to prevent it from happening to you.
- Phishing: Do not give you account information to someone who claims to be an FB rep via email. FB will not ask you to update your account info via email ever.
- Hacking via email access. You can reduce your chances of having your account hacked by using a password on your FB account that is DIFFERENT than the password on the email account that you have associated with your FB account. If a hacker gets your FB password and it is the same as your email password, they can then take over your email account that manages your FB account and lock you out of your account.
- Applications are another door hackers use to compromise your account. Facebook is an open development platform meaning applications can be submitted by anyone. One way to reduce your vulnerability is by installing only verified applications. Read more about verified apps here: http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=247
14. Looking to extend company community aspects while differentiating content on Facebook so it is not a duplication of efforts. With this type of strategy, you will need to communicate what type of content will be unique in the FB arena. I saw a site that week that gives tips on their FB page that they do not post anywhere else.
And, if the company doesn’t have a blog where interaction occurs, then of course, the FB page can be the place for customers to provide feedback and enter discussions with you. Open up your FB page wall for community interaction.
15. How do you get over the legal hump within a corporation to allow use of Facebook for the company and employees? Developing a policy and making sure all parties understand the rules is key to social networking success in a corporate setting. Here is a GREAT site, the Social Media Blog Council, to use a resource in the process of policy development: http://www.socialmedia.org/
16. As a non-profit with few resources, how do we figure out what the best use of Facebook for our situation is? If you have a small budget for education, invest that in learning social media strategy. Then, perhaps you can utilize volunteers or college students for implementation. The leaders must understand WHAT the goals are and who the audience is on these social sites. Social Media Strategy programs are offered by David Nour, Nhat Pham and Michelle Cullison.
17. How do you keep you personal Facebook and business Facebook separate? I don’t want to personally become a fan of a vendor but want to professionally become a fan. Only people (personal profiles) can become fans of pages. However, you can tag another page as Favorite page of your Business page. Go to the Vendor page on FB that you want to support as a business. Then, click the Add to MyPage’s Favorites and select your business page from the list. You won’t be a fan but you will be showing support business to business.
18. What’s the quickest way to add value to the lives of those we contact with in Facebook and to monetize opportunities for all parties involved? To add value, think about what tip you can give your audience today that will help them in business. Monetizing many times comes when a client trusts your business enough to close the deal, buy the product. What can you say today to build trust in your product or service?
19. What is the balance between being effective at promoting events vs. spending all of your time on social media sites?
It is best to determine 2 things before you login to social sites:
1. How much time do I have to give to this social media session?
2. What specifically do I need to accomplish when I login?
I would suggest allowing time to create the event in the FB events app and promoting it on your page and to your targeted friends list. You may also promote the event to select groups on FB that have the targeted audience on FB.
20. How do you show the value and utility of Facebook and social media when executive management doesn’t even understand social media? Case studies are really helpful to show what others are doing that is working. Mashable.com is a good site for breaking info on social media and web 2.0. Here is an article that highlights some big business success stories that you may want to share with your executive management: http://mashable.com/2009/02/06/social-media-smartest-brands/
21. Facebook comes across as a social site – how do you make messages more “business like”? In your status updates, answer questions like these, “What would add value to my audience today? What can I share that will help them professionally?
22. How do I get folks to register for my online training?
You may want to familiarize yourself with FB events. Another great way to get the word out on FB about products and services is to join groups with members who are in your target audience. Start discussions in the FB groups and offer the group members free pre-training teleseminars or webinars so you add value first and then plug the training on the call. You wouldn’t want to join a group and then start selling your training services.
23. How can I advertise my business on FB but not have it so “In Your Face” to my friends. You may want to consider a paid FB ad. You can get significant exposure for $30 a month. Or, segment your friends using Friend Lists and send targeted advertising messages to select groups. However, remember that social networking culture is somewhat averse to advertising. Try soft marketing value add messages that also include links to learn more about a product or service.
24. To me, Facebook is merely a social tool. I want to be convinced of it’s usefulness as a business tool. I’ll give you 3 reasons:
First is location, location, location. Facebook allows you to put your business where the traffic is flowing. There are many people you can touch in FB that will never come to your website. Secondly, google loves high traffic sites and a link to your website from within FB increases your findability on google and other search engines. Finally, on FB pages you are allowed the chance to have people build a relationship with your company or brand.
How to Stop Wasting Time Now
September 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment
“Waste Time Faster.” This is a phrase on a billboard advertising high speed internet. I laugh each time I see it, but it also makes me think about how much time we do waste on the internet. Playing around online is just one of many activities we use to avoid getting things done. Of course, the things we are avoiding are usually things that may be difficult or not so pleasant.
Avoidance behavior is a component of procrastination. Some causes of procrastination are task related anxiety, fear of failure, perfectionism, and lack of knowledge. When you think about that it’s no wonder we find such creative ways to avoid tackling those tasks. Imagine that you have agreed to take on a new project at work. You are pretty excited because you know that the success of this event will have a positive impact on your career. Once the excitement wears off a little, you realize there are some pieces of this project that you aren’t quite sure how to get complete. Each time you sit down to get started on the project, you feel overwhelmed or don’t really know where to begin. So, what do you do? Maybe you start some project related research on the internet. Then you remember that you really wanted to check out the scores from Sunday’s football games. Ladies, your example might be a little different, but I think you know where I’m going with this. As you check out the football scores, you see a link to a video of a spectacular play. You proceed to watch the video and see some other videos that look interesting. An hour later, you’ve caught up on all the football scores, watched some re-plays, and maybe a few hilarious videos of kids dancing to “booty” music. It’s time for lunch so you head out the door having accomplished nothing related to the project.
Does that sound remotely familiar to anyone? I will be the first to admit that I do this very thing when I am doing something new or something that might push me a little outside my comfort zone. But we also use these techniques to avoid everyday tasks. Here are three steps to help minimize your task avoidance time wasters.
Three steps to curbing avoidance behavior
1) Awareness is the first step in changing any behavior. If you recognized yourself in the example and you want to change this behavior, pay attention to what avoidance behaviors you are engaging. Surfing the internet is just one form of avoidance behavior. Some other examples are watching television, reading magazines, hallway conversations with colleagues, checking email. To be clear, none of things is necessarily bad, but when used to avoid other, more important tasks, they will kill your productivity. Identify your avoidance techniques.
2) Minimize distractions. Once you have identified your avoidance behaviors, it’s important that you come up with strategies to reduce the likelihood that you will engage them. My top two avoidance behaviors are checking email and internet surfing. When I need to work on important project it’s best that I am in an environment where the internet is not available. Or the connection is so slow that it’s annoying! I have also discovered that I work best away from my home office and in a place with something pleasing to look at. Those of us working from home have so many potential distractions. Laundry, dishes, kids, spouses, and pets. It’s really helpful to find a place that allows you to concentrate. So, what can you do to minimize your distractions?
3) Get things done. Finally, get it done! Sometimes tasks seem a lot more difficult that they really are. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how much you will get done when you minimize your distractions and truly focus on the task at hand.
I hope this information helps you to get more done this week! Remember that the objective is not to cram your life with “things to do”, but to get things done in less time so that you can spend more time enjoying your life!
Strategize for Success Conference
September 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment
I am so excited to be a part of the Succeeding Women’s Strategize for Success Conference to be held Friday, March 20th at the W Hotel. Read more and register at www.StrategizeforSuccess.com!
Spice Your Business
September 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment
If you would like to:
- become more focused, efficient & effective in growing your business
- improve your profitability
- take your business in new directions
- build a culture of leadership throughout your company
- start a new business the right way
let me assist you!
I have been helping entrepreneurs develop & grow their own companies for over 25 years! It is my passion.
In 2007, the U.S. Small Business Administration recognized my commitment to assisting small businesses by naming me their Women in Business Champion of the Year for the State of Louisiana.
Together, we can identify & evaluate your options – based on your specific strengths & available resources — & craft a personalized development plan that produces the most efficient results possible.
* * *
I can offer your trade association numerous small business seminars or presentations including:
- Ignite Your Sales with the Business Development Strategy that’s Right for You!
- Creating the Right Spice Blend: Product/Service Offerings that Can Double Your Profits!
- 15 Hot Marketing Strategies that Won’t Overheat Your Budget
- What Were They Thinking? Understanding How and Why Clients Buy
- Taking Ownership: Instilling a Culture of Leadership From the Ground Up
