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How to Avoid Facebook Group Disasters

By Melinda Emerson on May 8, 2012 in Guest Articles, Melinda Emerson @SmallBizLady, Social Media

With Facebook reaching the 900 million mark, there should be no surprise that it is a terrific tool to use in the quest for business exposure. Joining a Facebook group seems to make sense; it’s a great way to expose your brand and/or find a new business opportunities. With countless groups on the social network giant, you’ll want to use groups to virtually shake hands or exchange business cards with peers and prospects.

How do you join a Facebook group? To join a group, click Ask to Join Group at the upper right side of the group’s page. You can also be added to a group by a friend who is already a member. Since groups require admin approval for you to join, you may have to wait for an admin to confirm your request. Certain groups on Facebook are secret and will not appear in search results. You cannot request to join these; only being added by an existing member will give you access to these groups.

Now once you get into a group, there are certain things you should and should not do. You do not want to go about things the wrong way. Before you accept another group add-on, (or even launch a group of your very own) make sure you avoid the following Facebook group gaffes:

Don’t forget to read the rules. Well-run groups usually have house rules posted in the document section of groups, and for good reason. Rules help to ensure that the group is serving its intended purposes and prevents chaos. Reading (and adhering to) the group rules is about respecting your fellow group members, the admins and your own brand.

Don’t you dare post an ad. Would you attend a networking event, interrupt conversations and speeches to blurt out one of the following?

Like my page!

(Shoe) size 10 no longer available!

Vote for my neighbor’s baby!

Of course you wouldn’t. Yet, this form of shameless promotion is the norm in many groups. You’re not likely to receive the feedback you’re looking for with random posts like these.

Don’t harass group members.Just because someone “liked” your posted business advice, doesn’t mean you have the green light to post on their profile wall or send them a private message. These methods are considered spam, and as a business owner that’s not where you’d want your brand to be.

Don’t be a group bully. You know the type. The bully wants to do nothing more online than to take over a discussion, start a pointless debate or poke fun at ideas. There is no room for bullying in school and not in social media, either.

Don’t be a lurker.Join Facebook groups for a reason. If you bring nothing to the proverbial table, don’t take advantage of the information shared throughout the group. What is the point of joining a networking group on a “social“ network if you cannot bother typing a ‘hello’ once in a while?

Joining a Facebook group should lead to the right connections and customers. By avoiding these wrong moves, you’ll help to make these gathering places more welcoming for all.

Tyjuana Wilson is a freelance writer and consultant who provides to small business owners: articles, press releases, website/blog content, newsletter copy, and more. More importantly, she is also watching her 14-year-old diva, Tyra, grow before her eyes. Find Tyjuana online at
http://tyjuana-wilson.com and on LinkedIn.

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How to Build a Social Media Brand

By Melinda Emerson on May 4, 2012 in Branding & Marketing, Melinda Emerson @SmallBizLady, Social Media

Sponsored Post

Social media has leveled the playing field for small business owners in today’s marketing environment. It’s all about two-way communication with customers. Building a social media brand is a major factor in small business success, but the key is being niche focused. Beyond having a website, you need to make sure that you are out there demonstrating your expertise and dominating your niche at every opportunity. No one is calling 411 or looking in the yellow pages for vendors, it’s all about what comes up in the search engines. Don’t forget about LinkedIn, too. Many experts, consultants and professional service providers are sourced through LinkedIn. Here are the answers to the top 10 questions on how to build a social media brand.

How important is an online brand to a small business owner?

Once a month people should Google themselves to see what is out there on the internet about their business. If nothing comes up in the search engines, that is a problem too. Start building online credibility with a LinkedIn profile and a helpful website. I would also add a Twitter account, Google+ profile, and Facebook Fan page as well. Retailers and service businesses should have a Yelp profile too.

What is the biggest mistake small businesses make when building an online brand?

You must consistently talk to the same customer online every time you share content and understand that it takes 7 contacts to make an impression. Many people think it’s going to start raining money in their small business as soon as they start using social media. Not so! It’s like building any other relationship. It took me 2 years of tweeting, blogging and sharing other people’s information to be recognized nationally.

How does one go about developing a strategy to build a brand online?

Start with three C’s of social media Content + Community = Commerce. Your content is currency in social media. Once you pick a target audience, you must listen first to find out where they are spending time online. Then you must use your content to become part of the conversation on that social networking site. When you start to engage with people by sharing their content and commenting on blogs, that’s when you starting building community. Once you have established trust within your online community that’s when you can sell to them. If you try to sell too quickly, you will torch the relationship. Think of social networking as “Give to Get.”

Can you explain what you call “The Triple ROI of Social Media”?

Return on Investment: All social media accounts are free. Your investment is your time. A smart social media program returns the time you put in, in terms of engagement with customers and prospects as well as word-of-mouth referrals.
Return on Influence: By sharing quality content, small business owners build influence, which they can eventually monetize online and offline.
Return on identity: Everything in social media is about building your brand identity.

What is the HELP mantra?

The HELP mantra is how I think small business owners should approach social media: Help Others, Engage People, Listen Carefully and Promote Yourself With Care. Traditional selling is dead. Use a 4:1 ratio of sharing other people’s content over your own. Your content will do the selling for you. No one will engage you if you lead with “Buy my stuff, buy my stuff.” They will always respond to great stories about how you can solve their painful business issues.

What is your best advice for a business owner trying to build their brand online?

Before you do anything, clearly identify your niche target customer. Research the keywords people use most to search for your topic, service or product. Then develop your content strategy to stand out amongst your competition. If you are planning to use blogging as your strategy, start working on an archive of blog posts at least 3 months in advance so writing does not feel stressful to you.

How important is it to choose the right social networks? Which ones work best for what, ie. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr etc.?

Everyone does not have to be doing everything. Twitter is a terrific listening device and is great for driving traffic to a blog. I convene my #Smallbizchat community live each week on Twitter, which has been a major factor in growing my online audience. LinkedIn is the most formal social network. It’s perfect for people who need to network with key decision makers. Facebook groups and fan pages are great for engaging with retail customers. Google+ is also becoming a major factor in communicating with your entire social rolodex. Don’t forget about Pinterest too. If you have lots of great visuals Pinterest is perfect for target customers with that interest. Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. You can post text messages, photos, quotes, links, music and video from email and from any devices. If you use blogging as a key strategy, any of these accounts will help you spread the word.

Should a small business owner stay on message at all times? Is it ever okay to go off message?

It is critical to stay on message in social media. It should be obvious who your customer is by what you share online or what you write on your blog. If you change your message too often, you will confuse people. It’s ok to share personal things about yourself, so that people know that you are a real person, but be strategic.

Are there any special tools or apps on any social media sites that you would recommend? why?

I like www.Hootsuite.com to manage all my social media accounts. You can have up to 5 social accounts with the free version, but if someone is helping you with social media you may want to invest in a pro account.

How does one go about earning a community of subscribers, followers, friends, etc?

Engagement is key. If someone leaves a comment on your blog, respond back quickly. In order to attract subscribers, followers, likes and connections you need to give them what they want – valuable content. Then, engage the people who like your content. Highlight a fan each week on your Facebook fan page, run a contest on Twitter. Be first to answer questions on LinkedIn to highlight your expertise.

On Tuesday May 8^th 1-2pm ET I will speak with @FedExOffice during a live Tweet Chat #FedExOffice about how to build a social media brand as part of the Our Office Is Your Office Tweet Chat series.

Do you have any more ideas on how to build a social media brand? Your idea could be worth $50 bucks.

@SmallBizlady will offer two $50 gift cards for two more great ideas about building a social media brand. To be considered, post your comment on this blog post until 10pm ET Friday, May 11, 2012. Winners will be announced on Twitter on Monday, May 14, 2012. FedEx Office has no involvement in the selection of winners. This is sponsored by @SmallBizlady.

Disclosure: FedEx Office compensated me to write this post and participate as a small business expert during the FedEx Office Our Office Is Your Office Tweet Chat series. FedEx Office also provided the $50 gift cards. The ideas in this blog post are mine and are not ideas or advice from FedEx Office.

About FedEx Office: FedEx Office, an operating company of FedEx Corp., has more than 1,900 stores and locations in the U.S., Canada, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East, providing convenient access to printing and shipping expertise with reliable service. The company’s network features retail stores, centralized production centers, corporate on-site print centers, and on-site business centers at hotels, convention centers and universities. Services include copying and digital printing, professional finishing, document creation, direct mail, signs and graphics, computer rental, free Wi-Fi, corporate print solutions, packing services, FedEx Express and FedEx Ground shipping, Hold at FedEx Location and more. In addition, InformationWeek 500 recognized FedEx Office® Print Online and FedEx Office® Print & Go solutions with the 2011 Most Innovative Products award. Products, services and hours vary by location. For more information, please visit www.fedex.com/office.

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is America’s #1 small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also bestselling author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.

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How to Use Facebook to Grow Your Small Business

By Melinda Emerson on April 19, 2012 in Q & A Interviews, SmallBizChat, Social Media

Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with AK Stout @akstout18. AK has been working with social media for the past 6 years, as one of the first group introduced to Facebook. AK prides herself in finding ways to utilize her knowledge and experiences in conjunction with the ever-expanding mix and advantages of new media tools to help businesses enhance their online footprint. Check out her website http://www.sayingitsocial.com

SmallBizLady: Should I use a Facebook Page, Profile, or Group for by business?

AK Stout: Businesses should use Facebook Business Pages in order to be in ompliance with Facebook’s Terms of Service and to reap the best business benefits on Facebook. To create a Facebook Business Page go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

If you have already set up your business on Facebook and you accidentally set it up on the personal profile platform (if you have to approve ‘Friends’ for your business – you have a personal profile) you can migrate your Profile to a Page while retaining ‘Friends’ and ‘Subscribers’ as ‘Fans’ by going to: https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate

If you are using a Group for your business there isn’t a feature for converting to a Page so you will have to set up a new Page and let your group members know how to find the new Page.

SmallBizLady: What are the business benefits of a having a Facebook Page?

AK Stout: In short, exposure. Facebook Pages are indexed by search engines so if you are posting content relevant to your business you have the potential of having your Facebook Page show up in search engine results.

Having a presence on Facebook also helps keep your business top of mind for your audience. Every time you post something, it could potentially be seen by your ‘Fans’ and while a ‘Fan’ may not need your product or service right then and there, if they keep catching your posts, your business is more likely to come to mind when the time does come to make a purchase decision.

Additionally, whenever one of your ‘Fans’ takes action on your page (posts, likes, comments), that action appears in their activity feed and subsequently in the news feed of their personal network for all to see.

SmallBizLady: I created a Facebook Page, why doesn’t anyone ‘Like’ it?

AK Stout: As wonderful as it would be to set up a Page and have people automatically flock to it; that is simply not reality. The next step of the process is to actually let people know you have a Page and to make it as easy as possible for it to be found.

The first step is to click on the button within your Admin Panel that says ‘Build Audience’ and then invite your Friends to ‘Like’ your Page.

Next you’ll want to advertise your Faecbook Page EVERYWHERE. Some places to make sure you have a button, link, or display URL to your Facebook Page would be: your website, your email signature, your personal Facebook, your eNewsletters, printmaterial and even in-store signage.

I always recommend thinking about every point of contact you could have with a prospect or customer and make sure that there is an option for them to ‘Like’ your Facebook Page at that time.

SmallBizLady: How do I come up with content to post on my Page?

AK Stout: It is best to post a variety of statuses: links to articles, links to your own blog posts and content, pictures, videos, questions, and quotes. Continually posting the same of one type of status becomes boring for your ‘Fans’ and you will begin to lose their interest.

I recommend setting up Google Alerts to keep track of what is going on in your industry and then pulling quality articles that come to your email to post. When you post blog posts and articles, don’t just post the link, ask a thought provoking question about the article to encourage ‘Fan’ participation.

Multimedia posts have shown to attract the most interest so do not neglect these types of posts.

SmallBizLady: When is the best time during the week to post on my Page and how often should I post?

AK Stout: The best day and time to post on your Page depends upon your audience. I’ve found the only way to figure this out is with experimenting and analyzing trends. For the first month or so of Facebook marketing post at all different days and times then begin looking at your Facebook Page Insights to see when your posts are receiving the most impressions and interactions.

As a basic rule I recommend posting 1-2 times per day. There are some Pages that can get away with posting more times than that but you run the risk of irritating your audience and getting ‘unliked’. If you have the content and you want to post more than 2 times per day – give it a try and use your Page Insights to see how your impressions and interactions fair and if you are being ‘unliked’ – if your stats are dwindling you will know your audience thinks it’s too much. If your stats aren’t affected – post away! If you can’t post for a day – don’t panic, just make sure you get a few posts in per week so that if someone stumbles upon your Page they won’t think you’ve abandoned the Page.

SmallBizLady: What is an appropriate response time for when people post on my Page?

AK Stout: As soon as possible and before you put out another status update. The worst thing to do is have questions and comments posted on your Page and then you post a status update leaving those people feeling ignored.

Make sure you have post notifications enabled to be delivered to your email and respond at your next opportunity – letting no more than 24 hours elapse. To really impress your audience, carry an email and web enabled smartphone and respond on the go. Nothing makes a Fan feel more appreciated and cared for than an immediate response.

SmallBizLady: How should I address negative comments on my Page?

AK Stout:: Unless the negative comments are offensive and have vulgar language do not delete them – deleting negative comments will only infuriate the ‘poster’ and encourage them to continue posting unfavorable comments.

Addressing negative comments in the public eye is not necessarily a bad thing because it shows that you care about your business and your customers. If you can address someone’s problem in a timely manner you may just be able to turn their opinion of you around because they appreciate your desire to help.

If you don’t immediately have a response at least comment to let the person know that you have received their question/comment and that you are looking into a solution and will get back to them. Just the acknowledgement can go a long way.

SmallBizLady: My Facebook Page URL is really long and ugly, how do I make it short and customized to put on my print material?

AK Stout:: You can create a custom URL in the form of facebook.com/username by going to http://facebook.com/username and choosing what you want to display for “username”. Make the “username” as close to your business name as possible. If you are going to be doing any print advertising you will want to do this so that your URL is short and memorable. Note: You cannot create a custom URL for your Page until you have 25 ‘Fans’.

SmallBizLady: How can I ‘Use Facebook as my Page’ and why should I do this?

AK Stout: Click on the drop down arrow in the upper right hand corner of Facebook to the right of ‘Home’ and select the name of your Page. When you do that – any interaction you have on Facebook will be under the name of your Page.

You should do this to get on the radar of other businesses by ‘liking’ and commenting on their Pages. If you are going to do this make sure are adding value and not posting promotional messages about your own business that could be perceived as spam.

Doing this will not only get your business on the radar of other businesses but also on the radar of their audiences who will see your business name on the posts as well.

SmallBizLady: I saw that I can send my tweets on Twitter to my Facebook page, should I do that so I only have to post one time?

AK Stout: I do not recommend this. The format of a tweet can be confusing to Facebook users who do not use Twitter. @replies and hashtags will look like foreign and misplaced characters on Facebook. Also, when you are posting a link to a blog post or article via Twitter you lose the image of the post, post name, and description from showing on Facebook.

Finally if your strategy is to post many times throughout the day on Twitter that will lead to way too many Facebook posts. If you want to only post in one place, you can send your Facebook posts to Twitter by going to http://facebook.com/twitter

SmallBizLady:: I’ve heard running a contest is a good way to get more Facebook fans, how should I implement a contest?

AK Stout: Facebook has very strict guidelines about contests. The most important rule to know is that you cannot administer a contest directly on your Page without using a third-party application. To make sure you are in compliance, carefully read Facebook’s Promotion and Contest Guidelines at: http://on.fb.me/fbcontestguidelines

Once you have chosen an application to implement your contest make sure you let everyone know that you are having a contest – talk about it in your blog posts, email newsletters, website, other social sites and even in your email signature.

SmallBizLady: Should I add applications to my Facebook Page?

AK Stout: If you have a YouTube channel, adding a YouTube application to your Page can be a great way to tell your audience about your products and services. If you sell products, you can use Facebook applications to sell right from your Page. There are Facebook applications for a variety of different purposes. It’s important to understand that only three applications chosen by you show up prominently on your Page so while you can add more – just know they won’t all be readily visible without your ‘Fans’ taking action to look for more applications which doesn’t always happen.

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter. Here’s how to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also bestseller author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.

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How to do Facebook Ads for Business

By Melinda Emerson on March 20, 2012 in Branding & Marketing, Grow Your Business, Social Media

On Facebook, 850 million people spend more than 350 minutes a month hanging out online. To some, it may be how they keep in touch with college friends, the way new moms share photos with family, or where sports fans go to cheer on their team and connect with other fans around the world. To businesses, it’s more than just a communication tool–it’s a goldmine. Businesses have the opportunity to create a Facebook Page where they can interact with their customers, provide product information, offer promotions, and gain valuable customer feedback. Facebook ads are becoming a major marketing channel for small businesses.

The user information that Facebook provides is data that businesses and marketers have dreamt about for decades. All of the information that determines a business’s demographic is being handed out on a silver platter when a Facebook account is created. Name, age, gender, geographic location, birth date, political opinion, religious view, marital status, place of work, college, college major, high school, friends, likes and interests are the advertising treasures that make the Facebook Ad’s platform unique. As business owners we are able to target campaigns to any and all of the profile characteristics that pertain to our specific target customer. This allows for more quality leads.

Facebook Ads operate using the cost per click (CPC) model, similar to Google AdWords. When running ads in Facebook you have the option to direct people to a business brand page within Facebook, or to an external website. When using ads within Facebook, you have custom opportunities that you can only take advantage of within Facebook. Opportunities include running a sponsored story, an ad for a Facebook Event, a specific post, application, contest, or video. This allows for marketing creativity and the use of an ad to coincide with a current social promotion.

There is also a major value here that a search engine can’t provide- the social reach. This is a feature that associates ads that run with users that have interacted with that brand or business on Facebook. The social reach brings us to the value of a friend’s opinion and word of mouth recommendations in 2012 purchasing. Those features are the clear picture of two marketing mediums working together for a better user experience.

Paid Ads + Social Intelligence = Smarter CPC

The above images display the social feature that Facebook incorporates into their ads and the role that a friend referral for a business plays in Facebook marketing

5 Areas to Focus on When Setting Up Facebook Ads

User Destination: Figure out where you want to send the users that click on your ad. There is a strong benefit to sending people to a Facebook Business Page, as well as sending them to a company website. It all depends on the marketing goal you are hoping to achieve. Costs per click will also vary based on where you direct people to go. A CPC landing page can make or break an ad campaign, but the landing page doesn’t necessarily need to be offsite. Facebook Business Pages allow for creative opportunities for landing pages including a contact form or a Facebook store among other options.

Ad Type: Determining which ad type to choose can directly impact the success of a campaign. Facebook Ads are a common ad type that is structured most similarly to traditional CPC ads. Sponsored stories, event, post, and application ads can also be successful for brands but focus on more specific content. There is a strong social advantage for running ads that highlight a brand’s status update or event because they show “likes” and shares associated with that post. These ad types often see increased click through rates because of the social association.
Targeting: You not only have the opportunity to target your current demographic, but can also connect with an audience that you would like to target as customers. Facebook allows you to target users based on every profile feature that they enter. Likes and interests are a feature that businesses need to take advantage of. If a business sells fitness products they have the opportunity to show their ads to anyone that “likes” fitness, health, working out, yoga, etc. The specific targeting allows for leads from a very qualified user group, which makes the Facebook Ad conversion rates much higher than traditional CPC campaigns.

Reporting: In addition to the basic reporting that Facebook offers, there are other ways to track your user’s activity after they click on your ad. You can setup goals and conversion tracking in Google Analytics that can assist in determining the success of the ad campaign.
Optimization: Continuously managing your ad campaign is vital to its success but knowing how to optimize it is what can really drive results. Knowing which ads are performing and why is what you’ll need to know to carry that success to the other ad campaigns.

As a marketer, Facebook Ads have been a revolutionary tool for driving success for clients. The dream-like targeting capabilities set Facebook apart from all other ad platforms and deliver quality results. Unfortunately, at the current time Facebook reporting doesn’t compare to the capabilities and functions of Google AdWords. Facebook offers basic features of budgeting, bidding, and reporting with a major opportunity for improvement as ads continue to grow and be a major financial driver for Facebook in 2012.

Do you want more tips for how to use social media to grow your small business? Register today for Melinda Emerson’s webinar teaching social media, direct mail and email communications techniques March 29th 1-2pm ET http://www2.pbsmartessentials.com/how-to-better-communicate-with-your-customers

About the author:

Lindsay DeFeo is the Director of Social Marketing at Teknicks, a well known Social Media Agency in New Jersey. Lindsay utilizes her education and experience in both marketing and design to provide valued services to Teknicks’ clients. After working across several interactive enhancement marketing channels, Lindsay quickly saw the value for businesses in social and has built the Teknicks Social Marketing department from the ground up. She now manages a hard working and innovative team, working with many of Teknicks clients to improve their social presence online. Connect with her on Twitter at @Teknicks.

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Five Reasons Your Company Should Have a Platform

By Melinda Emerson on March 13, 2012 in Guest Articles, Social Media, Starting A Small Business

These days, you can’t go five minutes without hearing someone talk about platforms. The term is almost a buzzword. As I explain in The Age of the Platform, a platform is merely a structure made up of “planks,” or integrated features. For instance, Google in 1998 wasn’t a platform; it was a really neat search engine. By adding planks such as Gmail, Maps, Docs, Voice, YouTube, and countless others, it became a true platform.

By comparison, a traditional business based on a 20th-century model produces one or more closely related products or services, then uses marketing to try to attract customers. This business model can no longer compete with 21st-century, platform-based companies that have learned how to integrate an ever-widening universe of consumers and partners into their ecosystems. Consumers are driving today’s economy—not enterprises. Consumer-driven platforms matter more than ever.

Wondering whether to investigate — and invest in — the platform as your company’s business model? Here are five benefits that may motivate you:

Increased Innovation

All companies face limits; not even Google has infinite resources. But you can dramatically expand those limits. Building a powerful platform lets you cultivate an ecosystem of developers, partners, users, and other collaborators who contribute to — and may drive — innovation at your company.

Think of Apple’s app tsunami. By inviting thousands of users to develop apps for its iPhone and iPad, the company generated billions in new revenue. It has tapped into an endless stream of inventors and innovation.

Tip: Offering tools such as application programming interfaces (APIs) and software development kits (SDKs) only gets you halfway there. You have to create incentives for prospective partners to extend your platform and build different planks for your mutual benefit.

Quicker Response Times

Platform companies move faster than their traditional counterparts. When your core products and services frequently change, it forces your employees and your organization to embrace change quickly. Bad habits are less likely to get ossified.

Think of Amazon. First it sold only books. Soon it started selling virtually everything. In 2007 the company launched the Kindle. In 2010 it started publishing books to read on the Kindle. In 2011 it introduced the Fire, to compete with the iPad. The Fire brings everything together — shopping, reading, and consuming media — and introduces more e-commerce and social networking opportunities. Can the company handle all this change? No problem!

Tip: Find employees who are comfortable with change. To build a platform, you can’t rely on people who consistently resist new ways of doing things.

Reduced Risk

What if your company only does one thing, as mine did in 2008? What if the market for that thing suddenly dries up? Platforms encourage diversification and thus reduce risk.

Imagine if Apple had remained only a maker of stylish but expensive computers? Chances are it would be struggling for its very existence right now. But with its multi-pronged platform extending into music, telecommunications, media, commerce, entertainment, and education, Apple is beautifully positioned to withstand any surprises the market sends its way.

Tip: Try to find potential partners with complementary interests—and don’t be greedy. Grow the pie together.

Greater Brand Awareness

Platforms and ecosystems mean that customers are out there extending your brand in innovative ways.

Facebook is a beautiful example. Although it began as a social networking site for college kids, Facebook, through continual growth and invention, has expanded its offerings to include business and marketing sites, community gaming sites, email, instant messaging, groups, blogs, advertising, consumer data mining, and much more. More than 50 million Facebook “likes” are clicked daily, and by some estimates one out of every eight people on the planet will be a Facebook user soon.

Tip: Think about innovative ways to extend your brand. Survey trusted customers and clients to find out what services or products they wish you offered.

A Bigger Customer Base

This one is simple. More products and services mean more customers.

Tip: No, a local butcher can’t also offer ballet dances. But what if he creates an app? What if he blogs about recipes and cooking tips? What if he cultivates a tribe?

About the Author

Phil Simon is the author of four management books. His fourth, The Age of the Platform: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Have Redefined Business, is his most ambitious yet. A recognized technology expert, he advises companies on how to optimize their use of technology.

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7 Must Use Social Media Platforms to Grow Your Small Business

By Melinda Emerson on February 21, 2012 in Guest Articles, Social Media

The best way to promote your business online is through social media platforms. 78% of people trust peer recommendations, whereas only 14% trust ads. Just think about how often you’ve tried something based on someone else telling you that it’s worth checking out.

Having a great online presence on the right platforms not only makes your business more personable and approachable, helping you build great relationships with your current and potential customers, but more importantly it offers you the opportunity amplify your message to millions of others.

That being said, for small business owners, time and resources is something they cannot afford to waste. With new social media platforms popping up all over the place, the choices can get overwhelming, but jumping into the right one can be tremendously rewarding.

Here’s my breakdown of 7 social media websites, and why they could be worth your time.

1. Facebook - Most of you reading this probably have a personal profile on Facebook and possibly even a Facebook “fan page”

With over 850 million users, Facebook is the one platform that is pretty much a no-brainer.

As you may have noticed, Facebook recently updated the look of everyone’s profiles to display as timelines. Timeline is the Facebook’s new profile that helps tell your life story through photos, friendships and personal milestones like graduating or traveling to new places.

In the upcoming weeks, Facebook will be doing the same for brand pages. Timeline is a great chance to tell the stories that make your business unique. Also, Facebook ads have emerged as a popular and cost-effective way to promote your small business to targeted users online.

2. Twitter - Twitter is one of those platforms that has a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it can serve as a tremendous benefit to your small business.

It’s the perfect tool to directly engage with individual customers, and is an instant way to get feedback and learn from your customers to improve your product or service.

Twitter took me a while to learn, but I feel like it is the most personal of all the social platforms, and you can’t beat it for truly building relationships. If you’re looking to start somewhere, begin by reading Melinda’s post on how Twitter changed her life.

3. LinkedIn - LinkedIn works well if you are in one of the more professional fields. Along with yourself, you can create a company profile for your business.

Another useful feature is LinkedIn’s groups. Here you can connect with other like-minded folks as well as potential customers. In my opinion, this is the best part of LinkedIn. Groups allow you to gather and network with others in your industry.

4. YouTube – YouTube, which happens to be owned by Google, is the largest video platform and surprisingly enough, is the second largest search engine. You can create a branded YouTube channel, which is a positive addition to your social presence, especially if you’re committed to creating compelling and informational videos.

Video can be a very powerful tool to demonstrate your expertise. What’s great about YouTube is that it’s good for seo (search engine optimization), has a global audience, and has the potential for your videos to go viral.

5. Tumblr - Tumblr is a free micro-blogging platform and community where people set up blogs or “tumblelogs”. It allows you to post pretty much anything –videos, audio files, photos, links and text notes. In addition, people from Tumblr community can reblog your posts to share with their followers.

The best thing about Tumblr is that it’s dead simple. It’s easy to set up and customize, and you can start posting within minutes and it’s packed with great visually appealing themes.

If you want to start up a blog for your business, Tumblr is a good place to start.

6. Foursquare - Foursquare is different from the others mentioned here. It’s a smartphone based geo-location app that rewards users with points for every time they check in to various locations. The person, who checks into a place the most, claims mayorship of that particular location.

Registering your business on Foursquare, and then offering badges or special deals can be a compelling way of inducing people to check-in when they visit.

With over 10 million users, Foursquare is a nice platform to experiment with if you’re looking to set up a rewards based system with your loyal customers.

7. Pinterest - This platform is buzzing at the moment, and for good reason. In the past six months, visits to Pinterest grew by 4000%, receiving an amazing 11 million hits in just one week. One of the most interesting stats about Pinterest is the fact that over 80% of its users are women.

You can use Pinterest to host contests, inspire your customers, offer exclusive discounts to your followers and perhaps most importantly sell your products by adding a price to your pinned item and directing them to your online store.

I often hear Pinterest users saying, “I’m addicted!” For businesses, that can be a great thing.

Pinterest has also proved to be a great way to drive traffic to your site, and in some cases, has out-performed Facebook.

Choosing the right social media platform for your business comes down to where your users are, and which one you enjoy using.

I’ve enjoyed experimenting with all of these platforms. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Personally, Twitter has been really working well for my startup PressPass.

Getting yourself involved in the right emerging social media websites can really benefit your business as you ride the platform’s rapidly growing number of users to acquire new customers.

Over to you now. Have you tried out any of these platforms for your business? What methods have you used that worked, and what didn’t?

Valencio Cardoso is a product designer, and social media marketer. He is the co-founder of PressPass.me – an interactive directory of journalists and media organizations aimed at helping startups and small businesses find the right journalists for their newsworthy stories. Message him on twitter @ValencioCardoso

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Simplify Your Social Media Strategy

By Melinda Emerson on September 20, 2011 in Branding & Marketing, Guest Articles, Social Media

As a small business owner, it’s important to keep essential aspects of your operation in-house whenever possible, logical, and cost effective. Social media outreach is one element more and more small business owners feel comfortable handling themselves.

But whether you’re taking on the responsibilities yourself or delegating them to other members of your team, it’s important to keep your strategy simple and straight forward.

But be warned, simple doesn’t mean easy. Irregular, haphazard, or lazy social media efforts will not be rewarded. Don’t waste your own time. Take your strategy seriously, and be consistent.

Below are a few basic guidelines to help you carve out a simple and effective social media presence. Keep your strategy limited to just a few key points, so that you can maintain focus.

Tell Your Story

Telling a compelling origin story or branding story to help ground and personify your business. Letting your customers know where you’re coming from and where you’re moving to (through narrative) will make your company more approachable, more trustworthy.

Engage with Content not Product

Content creation is the easiest way to keep your Fans interest. Here are a few rules of thumb:

Quality over Quantity (no more than one Facebook post every three to four hours, use Twitter and other avenues for more rapid fire engagement)
Less sales speak, more content marketing (offer useful information to your readers and they will come back for more; you’re sharing and teaching first, selling second)
Less self-promotion, more engagement (limit half of your Facebook activity to promoting your own content and products, and focus the rest of your time and energy on facilitating discussions and responding to other people’s posts)

Be Deliberate

Whether you’re selling or engaging, your calls to action need to be purposeful. Think about this when designing your Facebook page and planning your outreach strategy.

Organize your goals: first and foremost you want to grow your Fan-base, secondly you want keep them engaged and interested with relevant content, coupons, and contests, and finally, you want to eventually make a sale.

To do all this your Facebook page needs to be simply designed (less clutter, so your brand shines through), the calls to action (Like this, read this, share this, etc) need to be apparent and easy to follow, and your content needs be consistent and compelling.

This guest post is by Brooks Hays, content creator and Customer Bliss Officer at Hy.ly. It’s a social media software company that offers its clients do-it-yourself Tab Building tools, so they can customize their own Facebook pages, get prospect, leads, and customers, all without outsourced assistance.

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10 Things to Grow Your Business This Summer

By Melinda Emerson on June 22, 2011 in 10 Things Lists, Ask Smallbizlady, Become Your Own Boss Tips, Branding & Marketing, Business Inspiration, Customer Service, Featured Post, Grow Your Business, My Recommendations, Social Media, Technology

Summer is here! Now that the kids are out of school, you might be thinking about how to reduce your work schedule, but that’s the worst thing you could do. It’s time to turn up the heat in your business. Third and fourth quarters are critical times in business. You may have customers who are in budget planning cycles, or have excess budget to spend. Now is the right time reach out to your existing customers and get your house in order to make your revenue goals for the rest of the year.

Here’s 10 Things to grow your business this summer.

1. Take a break. Even if all you can afford to do is a staycation, take a break from work for at least 7 days. You need to recharge your batteries so that you can go hard the rest of the year.

2. Attend a conference. The Summer is a great time to sign up for a course or attend a conference in your industry to learn the latest trends and techniques.

3. Read a great business book. Pick a book that’s you have been meaning to read and learn a few techniques that will help you grow your business. I really like 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business by Jane Applegate. http://www.amazon.com/Great-Ideas-Small-Business-Bloomberg/dp/0470919663/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

4. Revisit your business plan. In the first few years of a business, you should be updating your business plan every 90 days. When is the last time you reviewed your marketing plan and how well it was working to drive sales. Make sure your budget and revenue projections are up-to-date.

5. Organize a Business Retreat. Take your team offsite treat them to some good food in a lush environment. Brainstorm with them to solve the top three issues in the business. Bring in a trainer.

6. Ask for testimonials. Go back to all of your customers that you worked with over the last six months and ask for testimonials. Get them in writing to update your website and ask them to post recommendations to LinkedIn.

7. Refresh your website and marketing materials. Take a look at your website and marketing collateral including your blog header, business cards, and newsletter template. If something was just thrown together just to get some out or you’ve been using the same template for a whole, take the time to clean up your design elements to make your brand shine.

8. Update your personal bio and profiles across social media. Every small business owner should have a professional biography. Take this time to update yours with any new marquee clients, non-profit board service, and speaking opportunities. Be sure to update your profiles on your social media accounts as well.

9. Do a waste walk in your office. Summer is a great time to chuck the clutter. The shredder is your friend. Get rid of stray paper, conference bags, direct mail, magazines, equipment that doesn’t work, and giveaways you really didn’t want anyway.

10. Develop a special offer. You need a reason to contact your customers. Nothing is better than a discount, coupon or special offer. You use this as your excuse to call, email or snail mail your existing customers. They are the most valuable asset in your business.

Do you have any other tips to keep a small business growing over the summer?

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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Ask @SmallBizLady: How do I follow-up after a business conference?

By Melinda Emerson on June 17, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Become Your Own Boss Tips, Branding & Marketing, Featured Post, Grow Your Business, Social Media, Technology

Every Friday, I answer your small business questions in a video blog segment called Ask Small Biz Lady. This week, I took a question live from the New York Times Small Business Summit.

Here’s the question: How do I make a plan to follow-up after a business conference? Here’s the answer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3rKLFEkF_I

Immediately reach out to all of your new connections on LinkedIn.

Separate your new contact into piles email follow-up vs. hand-written note.
Wait 5-10 business days to follow-up your initial contact with a personal phone call. I really enjoyed attending this year’s conference.

Here’s some key takeaways: It’s all about being ready to do commerce via mobile devices. All websites need to be mobile ready and google is coming out with some innovate tools to help…stay tuned.

LivingSocial.com CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy, enlightened the audience by explaining how important it is to have a local sales presence for an online business. He also made the audience aware of all the other services his company can provide for small businesses beyond daily deals, which I am intrigued to learn about that more fully.

Susan Sobbott, President of American Express Open, shared sobering statistics on social media use among small businesses. 35% are using Facebook, 14% are using LinkedIn and 10% are on Twitter regularly.

If you have a question for Melinda Emerson, Small Biz Lady, leave a comment on this blog using the contact us page or send me a note on Twitter @smallbizlady, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/smallbizlady or you can hit me up on www.linkedin.com/in/melindaemerson I’m always here as a resource.

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Using Facebook to Promote your Small Business

By Melinda Emerson on October 13, 2010 in Q & A Interviews, SmallBizChat

I’m Melinda Emerson (AKA “Small Biz Lady”). Each week as @SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with small business experts on my weekly Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. This is excerpted from my #SmallBizChat interview with Paul Mosenson (@NuSparkMktg on Twitter). Paul is the founder of NuSPark Marketing, a team of independent experts from the Philadelphia area. He is a seasoned advertising vet of 25 years, experienced in B2B & consumer marketing; he is also adept at social media training, implementation, and measurement. Visit the website at: http://nusparkmarketing.com/

Smallbizlady: Should every small business have Fan page?

Paul Mosenson: No, not at all. It depends on a number of things; do you target consumers or other businesses? The jury is still out on b2b use although there are isolated cases of results. So assuming the business targets consumers, a couple of factors come to mind: a. Is your potential audience large enough to support the time and effort to maintain the fan page, and b. Do you have compelling, engaging content or offers that you can offer your audience exclusive from your website or other channels. I’m more likely to become a fan if you provide me with something of value, because remember, when I become a fan, my own friends will see that on my updates. In essence, you’re creating an alternative database of potential customers. And don’t forget to become a fan of your own page, so all your friends of your personal page take notice.

Smallbizlady: Something I think a lot of people do not understand: How should you suggest that people like your fan page?

Paul Mosenson: There are a number of methods to generate fans.

a. External marketing- advertising, direct mail, or other means where you can remind audiences to become fans of your page (and receive unique content or offers).

b. Other internet marketing; email newsletters, your website, even other social media channels. Make sure all methods include a link to the page.

c. On premises; promote the page on internal store signage and even direct requests.

d. Facebook itself. When you set up a fan page, you can advertise your page to connections and specific target audiences on Facebook. Promote offers or events

e. Create an engaging page. Take advantage of applications; upload photos and pictures- give people a reason to become a fan. Also create events. Post updates and useful articles on your wall

f. Suggest to Friends. You can suggest to your personal Facebook friends to become fans.

Smallbizlady: It is better to have a Facebook group than a fanpage? Or should you have both? What about new Groups Features?

Paul Mosenson: Typically a fan page is better for businesses. It opens up your targeting to anyone with an interest in your business. Fan pages can use multiple facebook apps. Content updates are shared with fans. And, you can advertise on Facebook to generate fans. Facebook groups are a little different. Figure groups are like clubs- they bring people together with a similar interest. You can only use a few basic applications. A business doesn’t really need a group; but a non-profit could, or a school, or a hobby. However, Facebook just changed how Groups work, so the jury is still out on the new FB Groups.

Smallbizlady: What are some general guidelines for Fan Page design?

Paul Mosenson: Generally speaking, you want to stay focused on the needs of a potential fan; every element should offer value. You want to keep your page clean; too many apps can be a distraction. You want to keep your content fresh. By providing fresh content, your customers return to your page often. A Fan Page should reflect your personality. It’s ok to have fun with it, but be professional at the same time. Of course, give fans an opportunity for feedback-whether it be posts, polls, surveys, or content.

Smallbizlady: How do you do Facebook advertising?

Paul Mosenson: Actually you have two options; pay-per-click OR cost-per-thousand impression pricing (CPM). At the bottom of a Facebook page there’s an advertising option where you click and go to the ad set-up screen. You write a headline, ad copy, and provide an image for what you are advertising. Then include a URL of a landing page you’d like your ad to link to. On a Fan page itself, you’ll also see a section where Facebook asks if you want to promote your page with an ad. So there are two types of ads here. You may promote your Fan Page specifically, or you may link people to your website instead.

Smallbizlady: How do I target who’s going to see my Facebook ads?

Paul Mosenson: Once your ad is done, you select targeting options, from age, gender, and education, to interests (by keyword), relationship status, and geography (usually you can select 10, 25, or 50-mile radius from cities, or choose state targeting. You can also target connections, or friends of connections. Once targeting is ready, you choose your daily budget and either a cost-per-click or CPM model. You can test various ads and targets for optimization. More information on creating and targeting an ad, go to my NuSpark Marketing YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/nusparkmktg.

Smallbizlady: Should you have a weekly or monthly budget for FB advertising? How much budget is reasonable to get results?

Paul Mosenson: Like Google, think about a daily budget. But your actual campaign budget will depend on what you’re promoting. If it’s a specific offer or event, you’ll spend short term. If it’s an ongoing message, you can advertise consistently. Like any advertising campaign, give it time to work- build the reach and frequency. Track trends and make revisions accordingly. I would give 1 month, but you should test various targets and ad creative

Smallbizlady: What are the steps for a successful campaign?

Paul Mosenson: First, define your audience. What are their needs? What kind of content are they looking for? Second, determine your goals and objectives. Is it lead generation, branding, customer service? Also, define who will be the administrator of the page in your organization. Who will be responsible for page updates and responding to customers? Third, Configure your page. Determine your Facebook landing page. It doesn’t have to be the Wall page. It could be another tab, or even a custom tab you create, like a special offer page. Then decide rules for comments and wall writing- will you allow customers to post content? Finally, create a compelling page, with good content, photos, videos, and appropriate apps.

Smallbizlady: What about Facebook Events?

Paul Mosenson: Facebook is a great way to promote any specific events that your business is having, whether it be a sale, open house, or a lecture. By clicking the event tab, it’s easy to set up the details. First, input general info such as name of event, date, time, location, you can even upload photos or videos. Then, there are options to share your event, exporting it to a calendar invite, RSVP options, Event type (open, closed, secret), and any other information. More information on creating an event can be found at my NuSpark Marketing YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/nusparkmktg

Smallbizlady: What are the most important metrics to track?

Paul Mosenson: Well, the first thing is to create a spreadsheet and start tracking your fan growth per day, as well as page views. Page views are a measure of engagement and shows how robust your page is with information. By clicking on the Facebook Insights section on your Wall page, you’ll see a number of variables to measure. Fan growth and page views are the most important as a start. By the way, although I keep using the term “fans”, what I am really measuring is “Likes” as Facebook altered the term a couple of months ago. People still use FANs as a term and so do I. By liking a page, you become a fan of it.

Smallbizlady: What else can you track on Facebook Insights?

Paul Mosenson: You can track two categories: Users and Interactions.Users give you data such as demographics of your fans, gender and age, and the activity of your fans-photo views, audio plays, and video plays. Interactions tells you the number of discussion posts, reviews, wall posts, videos uploaded, and overall trends on likes, comments, and unsubscribes. A healthy fan page has an active number of interactions happening each day. The important thing is to measure trends, and act accordingly whether you need to post new content, or evaluate existing content to make sure its relevant to audiences.

Smallbizlady: There are many Facebook APPs created by third party developers. How do I choose?

Paul Mosenson: Applications are powerful tools for marketers. They are a great way to dress up your Fan Page with some sizzle. Facebook apps for business range from creating simple RSS feeds, linking YouTube videos, to conducting surveys and even promoting contests and sweepstakes to the Networked Blogs app. A favorite app for contests is wildfireapp.com. Wildfire sets up your contest seamlessly, allowing users to upload their own essays, videos, etc for your company to judge and pick a winner. You can also promote coupons and special offers, and then promote those offers with ads. Custom tabs can also be created using FBML, or Facebook Markeup Language. HTML code can also be entered into these custom tabs so that you can display an ad, coupon, or even a webform for a newsletter signup. It’s all about engagement. More information on finding apps can be found at my NuSpark Marketing YouTube page: go to http://www.youtube.com/user/nusparkmktg

Questions that will be in the Q&A blog post, but not in the Twitter interview

Smallbizlady: How do you use privacy settings to separate personal and business contacts?

Paul Mosenson: More intricacy here. First privacy affects friends (of personal pages) and not fans (of fan pages). First, from your friends list, click on friends, and you’ll see a button called Create a List. Call it “business contacts” Then select which friends are business contacts and add them to the new list. Next, go to your privacy settings page and click the blue “customize settings” link. From there you’ll see a number of categories that you can share with various sets of people. To the right of each category click the drop-down menu and choose “customize” again. From there, you can choose the unique list “business contacts” if there are certain Facebook posts and info you wish to hide from business contacts. Again, seeing how to do this is more effective to understand.

Smallbizlady: If you have Google Analytics installed on your website, can Facebook be tracked?

Paul Mosenson: Certainly, any kind of digital marketing needs to be tracked with certain engagement goals, whether it be a purchase, or an action such as a newsletter sign-up or request for quote. These goals can be tracked by setting up goals through your Google Analytics account. Then, for every link you have on your Facebook page or Facebook ad, use a URL shortener like http://bit.ly, and further, you can create a custom tag that can include such variables as campaign name, media type, and offer. Once created, you can analyze your Google Analytics and measure how Facebook users engage in your site compared to other media or social media sources. More information on tracking Facebook ads with custom URL tags can be found at my NuSpark Marketing YouTube page go to http://www.youtube.com/user/nusparkmktg.

Smallbizlady: Any last tips like How do you import your blog into facebook?

Paul Mosenson: It’s a little intricate, but two ways:

When you setup for your fan page, view the tabs at the top of your fan page. Click on the little right-facing arrow and go to the “notes” icon and add the notes tab. Once there, click on “add a new note” But instead of writing a note, you’ll see a section at the bottom left if the screen, saying “edit import settings” and here you can add your blog feed or blog URL. The Notes page will populate your last few blogs until you publish a new one. Other people use an application called NetworkedBlogs, but that’s a third party app. SocialRSS, another popular app, works as well to integrate your blog. When possible, it’s always best to use a tool directly from Facebook. More information on importing a blog my NuSpark Marketing YouTube Channel-http://www.youtube.com/user/nusparkmktg

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as Small Biz Lady (or on Twitter as @SmallBizLady) is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com. Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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Resources to Use Twitter to Grow Your Small Business

By Melinda Emerson on August 30, 2010 in Branding & Marketing, Grow Your Business, Social Media

I regularly get emails and direct messages asking me if I tweet myself or if use a team of people help me maintain my Twitter accounts. I have two @smallbizlady and @smallbizchat. Well, the answer is that I do it myself, and here’s some of the tools that I use to manage my online brand on Twitter. Hopefully you’ll be able to build your business using some of these great tools—some of them will work with Facebook and LinkedIn, too.

Twitter Monitoring & Automation Tools

Are there any other Twitter tools that you use for your small business? I am always looking for new resources.

For more tips on starting or growing your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog at www.succeedasyourownboss.com

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She hosts #SmallBizChat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs and publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com. Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010) For more information http://www.becomeyourownbossbook.com

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The Entrepreneur’s Job Description PART II

By Melinda Emerson on January 25, 2010 in Become Your Own Boss Tips, Branding & Marketing, Cash Flow & Finance, Grow Your Business, How to Start, Starting A Small Business, Your Small Business

Just as you would write a job description when hiring an employee, you need to understand what is fully involved in your new job as an entrepreneur and business owner. Everyone at some time or another has dreamed of becoming their own boss, but I’m here to tell you there’s a lot of work involved in running a successful small business. This post is the second of a two part series on what it takes to be an entrepreneur; click here to view Part I of this article.

This blog post is excerpted from my new book Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months; A Month-By-Month Guide to a Business That Works which will be released in March 2010 by Adams Media. Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months walks you step-by-step through the Emerson Planning System, which will reduce your learning curve as you start your business.

Starting a business is a huge commitment of time, money, and personal energy. Here’s a list of five more jobs you must hold as a small business owner.

Chief Operations Officer– Once you have your vision for your business, then you must run it. Issues such as office space, banking, insurance, inventory management, budgeting and financial management are all things that must be handled in order to run a small business effectively. You must also make sure there are processes in place for hiring, sales and customer service.

Chief Project Manager— You must know who is going to really get the work done once a sale is made to a customer. Who’s going to communicate with the client, attend all meetings and make sure the project or delivery stays aligned with the timeline? Will you need to hire employees or freelancers to get the work done?

Web/Social Media Manager— In addition to having a website that is updated regularly, you also need to make sure that you are maintaining a presence on social media sites where your prospective customers are spending time. Three top social networking sites are LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. If you decide to launch a blog to keep your website updated and promote your expertise, you will also need to write regular blog posts. Using social media consistently is the best thing you can do to build your small business brand online.

Bill Collector— One you make a sale, you must have a process in place to collect your money. In the current economic environment many businesses and corporations are paying their bills late. Small businesses are always on the bottom of the list, so you must be aggressive about getting paid. On day 31, you should be on the phone and emailing about the status of your payment. This is one of the least fun things to do as a business owner, but you must be paid for your products and services.

Secretary— In addition to writing your own letters, you will do your own mail merges, labels and take your mail to the post office or over night mail drop off. You will probably answer your own phone as well. It will be important to screen your calls. Never hesitate to tell a caller you are on deadline and need to call them back. Be sure to use a message pad so that you can actually remember to return the call.

This information will help you think through having your own business – before you get too far down the road pursuing your entrepreneurial endeavor.

Click here to view Part I of this article.

What else do you think needs to go into the small business owner’s job description? Please leave a comment.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Melinda Emerson “SmallBizLady” is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Expert and Social Media Coach who hosts #Smallbizchat on Twitter. #Smallbizchat is the trusted resource on Twitter to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business. Melinda’s first book, Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-By-Month Guide to a Business That Works will be released by Adams Media in March 2010.

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How to do Facebook Ads for Business