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4 Things All Entrepreneurs Should Do On LinkedIn

by Melinda Emerson on May 31, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Become Your Own Boss Tips, Before You Start, Branding & Marketing, Business Inspiration, featured, Grow Your Business, Social Media, Solopreneurs, Women in Business, Your Small Business

Linked in Logo

LinkedIn is important! 75% of all professionals in the US have a LinkedIn profile, which means if you want to do business you must have one too. LinkedIn is powerful tool that you can use to promote yourself if you are an individual consultant or a company with 2 or more employees. Here are my four tips that all entrepreneurs should do on LinkedIn.

Make sure your profile is 100%: If you do not have a headshot, please add a profession one. Typically, business owners who are not 100% lack recommendations. Look at your connections and ask at least three people to write why they love doing business with you. To make it easy, write the recommendation for them. This might be rough, but go ahead and do it. Actually, you should get in habit of asking anyone you interact with to give to a recommendation. I have over 47 recommendations and counting, you can never have too many.

Know Your Keywords: Your keywords should be spread across your profile. First your description of who you are should include keywords that your target customer would use to find you on the internet. Your summary and skills should also be peppered with keywords. This will also help you appear higher in Linkedin searches for experts.

Join LinkedIn Groups: You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn. You should join at least 10 groups that have your target customer in the group. You should have a strategy for how you will engage and attract members of the group to connect with you. Many groups allow fellow members to connect even though you do not know each other.
Answer Questions: One of best ways to standout in LinkedIn is to answer questions. It should become a part of your social media routine. Try to answer two to three questions a week and see how many new connections you will make for your business.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool and a great way to connect with decision makers. Make sure you are in the best position to promote yourself and your business online. Do you have any other LinkedIn secrets to promote a small business? 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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4 Tips for Listening to Your Audience Online

by sss4success on May 24, 2011 in Grow Your Business, Social Media, Your Small Business

One of the first pieces of advice you’ll find about using social media for your small business is to “listen to your audience“. By creating a listening strategy you’ll find out what conversations are happening among your customers (or potential customers), before you dive in and try to become part of the conversation and ultimately sell your wares.

A good Social Media Marketing Strategy starts with an active monitoring and listening plan that helps you learn what’s going on in your industry, as well as what people have to say about your brand. It allows you to plan exactly how you’ll enter the conversation and what valuable content you’ll use to make yourself a valued asset and not just another person shouting about their brand in the already overcrowded social media space.

The following 4 tips will help you formulate a listening strategy to hear what your audience is saying and find out what you can bring to the conversation:

1. Use Google Alerts: Google Alerts lets you get email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on the topics of your choice, where you can choose your topic and have the results delivered via email or RSS feed at the time you specify. The great thing about Google Alerts is that you can set up multiple alerts for your name, company name, competitors’ names, and relevant keywords or search terms for your industry to keep up with the information that you need. This intelligence will be delivered to you regularly, instead of heading to a search engine and running queries yourself.

2. Try Social Mention: Social Mention is a social media search engine that searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services. It’s like Google Alerts, but for social media platforms. It works similar to Google Alerts, where you can set it up and monitor your brand and competition in the social media space.

3. Search Twitter: With over 200,000,000 million users, tweeting 155,000,000 tweets a day, Twitter has become a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about topics you’re interested in. Searching Twitter is a great way to find out what people are talking about NOW, and using a Saved Twitter Search is the best way to monitor topics relevant to your brand and industry.

4. Create Surveys: Regularly polling your customers and prospects is a great way to find out what topics are of interest to them, and what kinds of products and services will meet their needs. Services like Survey Monkey make it easy to gather information from your customers first hand by asking them what you want to know. For the cash-strapped entrepreneur, Survey Monkey offers a basic plan that lets you have up to 100 responses on a 10-question survey, thus providing an excellent tool to learn more about your stakeholders.

Have you tried any other listening strategies that have brought you success in the online realm?

Kindra C. Cotton, Serial Entrepreneur, Technology & Social Media Specialist, and Jill of All Trades (and a Master of Two), channels her energies into her small business consulting enterprises specializing in brand marketing, market research, and strategic information consultancy. A transplanted Nashvillian with years of expertise with the Internet and web-based technologies, she channels her passion for entrepreneurship, information technology, and social media into being an excellent resource for online marketers and people looking to promote their brand on the web as Examiner.com’s National Online Marketing Examiner. Her flagship brand “SSS for Success (Small Business Survival Specialists)” specializes in preparing small and medium-sized organizations to take advantage of the free and low-cost marketing avenues that exist in the online arena.

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Ask @SmallBizLady: How do I get started with social media?

by Melinda Emerson on May 6, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Your Small Business

Every Friday, I answer your small business questions in a video blog segment called Ask Small Biz Lady.

This week, we are taking on the question: How do I get started with social media?

Here’s the answer:

If you want to start using social media as a lead generator for your small business here’s 4 steps to take to get started:

Develop goals (how many prospects, subscribers, website hits, etc.)
Conduct a listening strategy (know where your customers are hanging out online)
Have a great website that solves your customer’s problem within 3 seconds!
Start using social media by setting up a personal profile on LinkedIn

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.

Melinda F. Emerson, SmallBizLady, is one of America’s leading small business experts. She is an author, speaker, and small business coach whose areas of expertise include small business start-up, business development, and social media marketing. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to End Small Business Failure. She publishes a resource blog at: www.succeedasyourownboss.com and hosts a weekly talk show on Twitter called #SmallBizChat for emerging entrepreneurs. Forbes Magazine named Melinda Emerson one of the Top 20 Women for Entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. Melinda has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fortune, and Black Enterprise. She’s the author of the bestselling book “Become Your Own Boss in 12 months: A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works”, and she writes a column for www.secondact.com and is an instructor for the Black Enterprise Small Business University.

P.S. Want an “I [heart] #SmallBizChat t-shirt? It’s available! for $20.00 plus s/h sizes M-L-XL-2X

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Do You Have a Social Media Plan?

by sss4success on April 12, 2011 in Guest Articles, Social Media, Technology

“Social Media” is the latest hot button topic. It’s the buzz word on everyone’s lips, and now that there are several verified stories of how it’s being used to grow businesses and forge new era of engagement among organizations and their stakeholders, it’s now at the top of everyone’s list as they seek to improve their bottom lines.

Many small business owners turn their heads in the direction of Social Media, not just because it’s useful marketing tool, but because the term “FREE” is often juxtaposed to it, thereby helping it fit perfectly on a tight budget. One of the first things that entrepreneurs do when they want to capitalize on the “Social Media Wave” is set up a Twitter or Facebook account (or Fan Page) and then they feel that they now are a part of “the party”. But I contend that in order for a Social Media Marketing Campaign to truly be effective, you have to plan how social media outlets will be used within your overall marketing plan to promote your products and services.

To that end, I like to help my clients navigate the Web 2.0 environment and integrate Social Media into their business by mapping out a Social Media Marketing Plan that fits squarely within the overall marketing plan of a company. Specifically, I create a Social Media Marketing Plan that highlights how social media outlets will be utilized to:

1) Drive traffic to a company’s website or blog,

2) Generate interest in the site’s content,

3) Generate sales or leads for new customers, and

4) Provide ways of keeping existing customers actively engaged in the company’s brand through its website, blog, or other social media outlets. Continue Reading →

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Social Media Customer Service: Don’t Fake It

by Melinda Emerson on February 8, 2011 in Customer Service, Guest Articles, Social Media

In recent years, social media has effectively taken everything that we know about customer service, and turned it upside-down. Online, there is no place for your company to hide. If you leave your customers unsatisfied, you are pretty much guaranteed to see a rant or rave about it on a social media network somewhere. Consumers are quick to embrace this power that they have received- the power of mass exposure. And this can leave you and your company feeling, well, massively exposed.

One of the most valuable things that you can do as a business owner today is to develop a specific and detailed social media customer relationship management program in order to foster a positive rapport with your customers. There are plenty of small business owners out there who stumble across negative threads about their business, and do not know how to conduct themselves in response, nor do they have a plan for how to handle this type of negative exposure. If nothing is said, the problem is guaranteed to escalate. If the business owner poses as a “fake” customer to post a contradicting positive comment, the falsehood almost always shines through. However, with a plan in place, you can quickly change a customer’s negative experience into a positive one without taking on a false identity.

Oftentimes, what fuels a customer’s discontent in the first place is a company’s lack of response. For example, if a customer writes to a shoe company that he bought a pair of leather shoes that disintegrated the first day he wore them, and receives no response, it is likely that he will post a negative thread about the company on a public forum. Noteworthy is the fact that the likely focus of his thread will be the simple lack of response and lack of customer care from the shoe company, not the lack of quality in the shoes. The relationship that your company establishes with a customer is equally as important, if not more, than the product itself.

When your social media team responds to a customer service issue, such as a negative comment posted on your Facebook page, you must have a specific plan in place. First, ensure that your company has access to each customer’s contact information. A designated customer service representative should contact this customer personally in order to assist him or her. A social media customer service representative should always leave the customer with his or her own email address and personal phone extension. While social media allows your company to be available and accessible to consumers, you should never doubt the power of personal one-on-one contact.

When aligning your social media customer relationship management plan, insure that your customer service representative will follow through appropriately with the customer. For example, if a replacement pair of leather shoes has been sent to the customer, the representative should call the customer back in 2 weeks to make sure this pair has not disintegrated. Insuring that the same CSR checks back with the customer is necessary. We have all had the experience of being transferred to 4 different reps on a customer service line before, and it’s an experience that leaves you steamy under the collar, isn’t it? Insuring that a customer is able to correspond with one dedicated representative allows him or her to establish a comfortable, trusted relationship with your company. Enable your customer to provide a satisfied testimonial once you have corrected the problem, and you will see that the level of attentiveness you have provided is reflected in the customer’s new feedback.

As you continue developing and refining your social media customer service methods, make sure that your plan evolves as social media evolves. For example, if you use Twitter as a forum for customer’s to post feedback to your company, how do you handle the fact that Twitter is always on? Will you designate customer response hours in your bio? Will you designate a CSR to Tweet when the CSRs will be offline for the day? Allow your methods to evolve and develop over time in order to provide the best customer service possible.

Debra Leitl is the Mentor in Residence at eMentormarketing.com. You can find her on twitter @MentorMarketing. Her specialty is interactive marketing with a focus on ecommerce and online marketing strategy.

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How To Build a Social Media Brand

by Melinda Emerson on October 18, 2010 in Branding & Marketing, Social Media

One of the topics I regularly speak about as I tour the country helping small business owners is how to build a social media brand. I am often inspired by questions I’m asked to write blog posts to further answer business questions. In this case, I realized that I have already written many articles on virtues of social media and how to get started. I decided to use today’s blog post to recap my favorite posts for getting started with building an online brand. The first step in building a social media brand is starting with a marketing plan. Then you need to figure out where your customers spend time online. From there, start slowly and figure out if LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook are the right social media network to launch your online footprint. Plus, if you think blogging should be a part of your strategy, I threw in a three part series on blogging for business.

How to Develop a Marketing Plan

http://succeedasyourownboss.com/09/2010/how-develop-a-marketing-plan-for-your-small-business/

Getting Started With LinkedIn

http://succeedasyourownboss.com/06/2010/getting-started-on-linkedin/

Getting Started With Twitter

http://succeedasyourownboss.com/06/2009/getting-started-on-twitter/

Using Facebook to Promote Your Small Business

http://succeedasyourownboss.com/10/2010/using-facebook-to-promote-your-small-business/

Blogging for Business Three Part Series

http://succeedasyourownboss.com/09/2009/how-to-build-a-small-business-blog/

http://succeedasyourownboss.com/09/2009/strategy-developing-a-blog-vs-website/

http://succeedasyourownboss.com/10/2009/10-ways-to-get-your-blog-to-shine/

I want to know — what’s your formula to build social media brand?

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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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.

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How to Use LinkedIn to Grow Your Small Business

by Melinda Emerson on July 29, 2010 in Q & A Interview, SmallBizChat, Social Media

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 @PatriceRutledge. Patrice is a bestselling author of 30 books on business technology who has been interviewed by CNN, Inc., Fox News, MSN, AOL, and other media outlets around the world. Her latest book is Using LinkedIn, a complete training program for LinkedIn users that includes a print book, audio podcasts, and video tutorials. Patrice also offers business technology coaching for busy entrepreneurs who want to tap the power of technology to increase profits, promote their business, and save time and money. You can reach Patrice at her website: http://www.patricerutledge.com.

Smallbizlady: How can small business owners use LinkedIn to promote their businesses?

Patrice Rutledge: One common misconception about LinkedIn is that it’s primarily for jobseekers. LinkedIn is also a great tool for small business owners. You can use LinkedIn to create an online profile easily found by search engines such as Google or Bing, promote your products and services, find clients and customers, network with your peers, establish credibility as an expert in your field, do market research, find partners and sponsors, and much more.

Smallbizlady: What’s the first thing a new LinkedIn user should do?

Patrice Rutledge: The very first thing you should do is to create a quality profile. That’s the basic foundation for success on LinkedIn. When creating your profile, you need to really think about who you want to reach and what profile content will attract your audience and encourage them to do business with you. That said, you should never write your profile like an advertisement. LinkedIn is for networking, not direct selling, even if your goal is to increase sales and find clients.

Smallbizlady: What is the best way to approach LinkedIn as a business development tool?

Patrice Rutledge: With LinkedIn, as with other social sites, it’s important to engage with your target audience rather than broadcast to them. In other words, don’t just post sales messages to group discussion boards, engage your audience in conversation. Using features such as LinkedIn Answers and LinkedIn Groups can help you showcase your expertise, which encourages people to do business with you.

Smallbizlady: This is your second book on LinkedIn, and your third on social networking. Why do you think LinkedIn is such a great tool?

Patrice Rutledge: I’ve used LinkedIn since its early days, both as a recruitment tool when I was in the corporate world and as a business development tool now that I have my own business. I’ve found social networking—especially LinkedIn—to be one of the best ways to connect with a worldwide audience of potential customers and clients. Hopefully my LinkedIn books help people learn how to generate positive results with minimal impact on their time.

Smallbizlady: What’s your take on the ongoing debate about quantity vs. quality when it comes to the number of connections a LinkedIn member has?

Patrice Rutledge: This is definitely a hot topic right now with many varied opinions on the matter. There are basically three trains of thought when it comes to a connection strategy. There’s the more the merrier crowd who connects with anyone and everyone. This group tends to go out of their way to amass as many connections, followers, friends, as they possibly can and tout these numbers on their profiles. They’re the people who are upset with sites like LinkedIn and Facebook for imposing connection limits. At the other extreme are people who connect only with people they know and no one else. In a sense, they’re kind of missing the point of networking. I prefer a middle ground approach. Obviously, connect with all the people you know and then selectively connect with new people who share common interests to grow your network. The difference here is quality vs. quantity. I think you can generate much better results from a targeted network than you can from amassing tens of thousands of connections who don’t really care about who you are and what you have to offer.

Smallbizlady: How can a company profile help you promote your business?

Patrice Rutledge: If you have a small business—even a solo business—you should create a LinkedIn company profile. They’re definitely not just for large companies. It’s important to understand that a company profile isn’t the same as a personal profile, though. On a company profile, you can enter a company description, describe your specialties, and list job openings, company news, and blog posts. When LinkedIn members view your personal profile, they can access your company profile as well—which provides you another opportunity to showcase what you have to offer.

Smallbizlady: Can you explain how to become a LinkedIn service provider and the benefits of doing so?

Patrice Rutledge: If you provide any kind of professional service, you’ll want your profile information available in the LinkedIn service provider directory. To gain visibility here, one of your clients needs to create a LinkedIn recommendation for you as a service provider. You can’t enter yourself in the LinkedIn service providers directory, but you can send a request to your clients asking them to recommend you. They need to select “service provider” when filling out their recommendation.

Smallbizlady: What are the biggest mistake small business owners make when trying to promote their business on LinkedIn?

Patrice Rutledge: I see three common mistakes. The first is having a weak or incomplete profile. Another common mistake is using LinkedIn as a direct sales tool rather than a business connection tool. And finally, a third mistake is that many people never really move beyond the basic profile, even if they do complete it. There’s so much more to LinkedIn than just creating a profile and adding connections. Check out LinkedIn’s other features—answers, groups, polls, events, and applications. Post your status regularly. Become an active participant, not a quiet bystander.

Read an excerpt from “Using LinkedIn” at http://patricerutledge.com/linkedin-excerpt/

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

How to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

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 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. She has been featured on NBC Nightly News, the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur and Black Enterprise Magazine. 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)

Read an excerpt from “Using LinkedIn” at http://patricerutledge.com/linkedin-excerpt/ #SmallBizChat

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How To Get Started Using Social Media To Promote Your Small Business

by Melinda Emerson on July 8, 2010 in Q & A Interview, SmallBizChat, Social Media, Your Small Business

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 Liana “Li” Evans @StorySpinner who is known as the online marketing geek girl who loves all things social media! She has been an accomplished online marketer since 1995. She is also the author of Social Media Marketing: Engaging Strategies for Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media.

SmallBizLady: Can Any Small Business Use Social Media?

Li Evans: I believe that any small business can use some aspects of social media, there are many different types, it’s a matter of what’s the right fit for the business & where their potential audience is.

SmallBizLady: What’s the biggest mistake a small business can make in social media?

Li Evans: Not setting goals and measuring what they are doing to meet those goals. Without setting goals and measuring what you are doing, how will you know if your efforts are successful, need to be tweaked or a complete waste of your time & resources?

SmallBizLady: Where should a small business start in social media?

Li Evans: Understanding your target demographic thoroughly because you’ll need to research where they are active online in social media to engage with them.

SmallBizLady: Can my social media activities also help give my business leverage in search marketing?

Li Evans: Absolutely! Although you shouldn’t just do social media for search rankings, the content you produce for your audience and customers in social media can definitely be leveraged in your efforts search marketing such as SEO.

SmallBizLady: What issues do you hear as a stumbling block for small businesses not getting into social media?

Li Evans: Mostly that these smaller companies are afraid of what’s being said about them in the social media environments. Since they are smaller, they tend to “hear” more one on one from customers and they are afraid that this can get amplified in social media communities. Instead of looking at these situations as opportunities, many small businesses make the mistake of either ignoring them, or dismissing them arbitrarily.

SmallBizLady: Can a company actually sell “things” through social media?

Li Evans: That’s a pretty tricky question, it really depends on what it is you are trying to sell. Is it your brand, is it your reputation, or is it physical things? It’s a lot harder to track back “sales” of a product or service to interactions in social media than it is to track back brand lift, buzz, and even sentiment.

SmallBizLady: Can other parts of my marketing plan work with my social media marketing initiatives?

Li Evans: Certainly! In fact I often say the “social media cannot operate in a vacuum”. You actually need to integrate all aspects of your marketing efforts with your social media efforts. Everything for paid advertising, affiliate marketing, email and even your offline marketing efforts should be integrated with what you are doing in social media.

SmallBizLady: If my competition is out in social media, tweeting, on Facebook, and Myspace, should I be there too?

Li Evans: Not necessarily. You should have those profiles secured in the prominent social media sites, but actively engaging there because your competition is there is the wrong reason to be there. Even though they are your competition, you still might have a different audience. On top of that, how do you know the competition is finding their engagement in the social sites beneficial? It’s better to do the research on your own audience than worrying about your competition in social media.

SmallBizLady: What are some of the biggest misconceptions of social media?

Li Evans: That it’s easy, quick and cheap! The media plays up social media as this easy to implement marketing godsend that practically happens overnight, when that’s far from the reality. What they fail to outline is that relationships take time to build, trust doesn’t come easy ad that just because it’s free to have a Twitter or Facebook account, that doesn’t mean your time is free to run the accounts.

SmallBizLady: Is there some sort of guidelines small businesses should follow for setting up a successful social media strategy?

Li Evans: I call it the “Four Pillars of Social Media Marketing”. The first pillar is research, without doing it you won’t know where to even start or how you should be engaging. The second pillar is strategy, without a strategy how are you going to know what you are doing, who’s going to do it and how are they going to do it? The third pillar is engagement. Without engaging your strategy will be dead in the water, you can’t just lurk in social media, for your strategy to be successful in social media, you actually have to be social! The fourth and final pillar is measurement, without measuring what you are doing, how are you going to know if what you are doing is helping you attain your success goals?

My other “guidelines” are outlined in Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media – there’s 45 chapters chock full of good advice and guidelines any business can follow.

SmallBizLady: Should I let my employees engage in social media?

Li Evans: How can you stop them? That would be my question to any business owner. When your employees leave your four walls, what they do in their own time is of course their own. Undoubtedly they are on some kind of social network, whether its YouTube, Flickr or Facebook. They are sharing and engaging with their friends and family.

The question is should you let your employees engage in social media for you? That’s a question you need to research and understand how your employees communicate currently with your customers. It’s also about placing guidelines for your employees to understand how they should represent you in social media. If everyone is on the same page with your message and understanding where you want to be at the end of the day, utilizing your employees in social media can actually be mutually benefiting.

SmallBizLady: What if I don’t have a lot of time, can I still do something in social media to market my small business?

Li Evans: Sure! Pick the most valuable channel you can and dedicate the time you have to mastering it and engaging with your audience there. Make yourself a valuable asset to the community and pour your heart into it. Let the community know you are real and there to help. Spreading yourself too thin by trying to be everyone with very little time only hurts your efforts.

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

How to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

Melinda F. Emerson, also known as SmallBizLady is a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach. Her firm MFE Consulting LLC, specializes in small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She hosts #SmallBizChat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com. Her first book Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works was released in March 2010 by Adams Media. For more information: www.becomeyourownbossbook.com

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Getting Started on LinkedIn

by Melinda Emerson on June 21, 2010 in Branding & Marketing, How to Start, Social Media

Developing a LinkedIn profile is a great step towards building your social media footprint. LinkedIn is a professional social networking application. LinkedIn users tend to be more affluent and very well educated. 57% of users are men and 43% are women with 72% of users over the age 35. According to a May 2009 survey, 82% of total users have a college degree and 30% of LinkedIn users are savvy networkers who earn more than $90,000 per year. 69% of users read blogs, and 9% maintain their own blogs.

Benefits of LinkedIn:

Able to build a network. LinkedIn makes it much easier to keep in touch with contacts. This is a great way to generate warm leads and access potential partners.
Access to research. Having access to your contacts’ and/or targets’ resumes and background. This information tells you not only where they have worked, but also their educational background and professional organizations to which they belong.
Acceptable self-promotion. Be sure your profile highlights your best assets and current projects to attract people with whom you would want to be associated.
Promote your events. LinkedIn allows you to put your rolodex on steroids. You can reach out to contacts all at once to promote your latest projects, activities and events.
Job leads. LinkedIn helps you develop your network, which will be key if you are searching for a job or need to post one. LinkedIn is a great source for job leads and tools to track down connections at a particular company.

Below is a step-by-step instruction sheet for completing a LinkedIn profile. The information you provide will appear on your public profile on LinkedIn. Your phone number and email addresses will only be shared with your direct contacts.

To Complete Your LinkedIn Profile

Go to LinkedIn.com.
Sign up for an account.
Choose a password.

Contact info:

Full name: (Catherine Smith) (no place for middle initial, they are not used)

Display name: (Cathy Smith) Optional: if nothing is specified, LinkedIn will use full name

Email address:

Phone # with extension:

Former or maiden name: (Optional: but helps people who know you from college or job in the past can find and connect with you)

Headshot photo: Jpeg format—This should be a nice, smiling photo of you.

Create a Professional headline:

Examples: Experienced Transportation Executive, Web Designer and Information Architect, Visionary Entrepreneur and Investor. People also often include CEO, CFO, or Consultant etc. It is one of the first thing people see in your profile.

Zip code: this puts you in a metro region – use your work zip code, unless home or other Zip code is more appropriate.

Industry: Sample Options: Law Practice, Legal Services, Lobbying, Education Management, Public Policy Expert - Other industries are available.

(All of these sections have unstated word limits, so be brief, but thorough.)

Summary: Summarize your professional experience in paragraph form. This is your chance to provide an engaging 30-second description that highlights who you are and what you do— think of it as your personal elevator pitch. (This section is limited to somewhere around 325 words.)

Specialties: The specialties field allows you to list your areas of expertise that will help potential clients find you when they are looking for a specific skill-set or knowledge-base.. 60 words max, but less is fine too.

Experience: Your position descriptions should briefly explain what the company does, and your main responsibilities and accomplishments. Be sure to include the exact time period – the month and year of your start and end date. Use clear, succinct phrases to streamline your information down to precise bullet points that highlight your talent and accomplishments.

Education: Make sure your profile lists any universities, colleges, advanced degree institutions, fellowships, and any certificate programs. Be sure to provide any additional notes on your experience at each institution. Examples: Alpha Phi Alpha, Chamber Chorale, Debate Team

Additional Information: The additional information profile element allows you to give users more insight into your professional qualifications by providing the following:

Web or social networking profile URLs – Facebook, Twitter, personal blog, groups etc. All you need is the URL http://twitter.com/username etc.
Websites: list a link to your company website
Interests: list the things that you enjoy doing, learning about, etc. These can be a mix of personal and professional interests.
Groups and Associations: list professional organizations or display badges of LinkedIn groups that you are a part of.
Honors and Awards

Recommendations: In order to get a 100% profile on LinkedIn, you will need to secure three recommendations. Start thinking about who you can request recommendations from. It can be current or former employers or colleagues, clients and or associates with whom you have done volunteer service. You must be connected to a person in LinkedIn in order to receive a recommendation.

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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#SmallBizChat Q and A How To Build Buzz for your Content

by Melinda Emerson on May 13, 2010 in Branding & Marketing, SmallBizChat

Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wed. on Twitter from 8-9pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @TheRiseToTheTop, David Siteman Garland on How to Build Buzz for your online Content. After running three companies, and not finding a good resource for small business marketing info out there, Garland founded The Rise To The Top, a local TV show, daily online show, and website rich with content to meet that need: helping entrepreneurs and small business owners learn to market themselves in a fun interactive way. For more information: http://www.therisetothetop.com.

Smallbizlady: If you want to build an online brand what top three things should you do first?

David Siteman Garland: The first thing you need to do is quantify your niche and business model. At the end of the day, you have to make money. Where is it coming from? What is your niche? How broad and specific is it? Do you need money right away or can you moonlight doing this until you make enough income? Do you have a product now or do you want to develop something later?

The second thing you need to do is to setup or have setup for you an interactive website. You can start with a nice, well designed, functional wordpress blog. The key here is to have a design that sticks out. There is way too many poorly designed website out there. Imagine someone is coming to your website and they are a really important member of the media or a potential customer and your site looks like 1992 with a little graphic of a digging man. It isn’t going to fly.

Finally, start trying your hand at creating content. The key here is to create content that is educational, inspirational and/or entertaining. That is what spreads and build your brand. The idea here is to become a trusted resource as opposed to a product pusher.

Smallbizlady: If you decide to create online content, what are your options?

David Siteman Garland: There are lots of options but it all starts with platform, which is your home on the web.

First, play to your strengths and also how your community or potential community likes to consume information.

Video? Audio? Text? Those are the big three you have to choose between or mix ‘em. (you can add in photos as well). Bottom line though is to have a plan and experiment. A good quote from youth speaker Josh Shipp is to assume half your audience is blind and the other half deaf.

Next up is deciding your platform. Will be it be a blog? WordPress? Tumblr? Posterous? Go off your existing website or a new domain?

From there, it goes into researching, implementing and promoting.

Smallbizlady: What is the easiest way to create online content?

David Siteman Garland: There isn’t a magic formula.

However, that being said, there are certain types of content that do really well online: How Tos, Unique Interviews, Tips, Tricks, Lessons, Stories. Anything that is all about the community.

The easiest thing to do is try something. You need far less equipment now than even a few years ago. Text is just a computer and the Internet. Add in a microphone for audio. Add in a pocket camera and you have video.

You can always examine your niche to see what is popular and what other thought leaders are talking about. How? Via searching on Twitter and sites like Alltop.com. You will see the cream of the crop and it should spark ideas on creating content.

Smallbizlady: When should you start developing your online content?

David Siteman Garland: Now! But, first make sure you have somewhere to post it. Your home base. Remember, we are essentially leasing space for free on social media sites. We don’t own them. But we do own our website. It is our real estate.

In my opinion, it is always the right time to start. No need to over think it. You might have a product now or you might develop one in the future.

Smallbizlady: Should brands think like media sources and publishers? Why is that?

David Siteman Garland: Absolutely and this is one of the fundamental concepts that will lead small business owners to success in the future. It used to be your only outlets to attract customers/clients was traditional media, advertising location and other old-school methods.

The web has changed everything.

Sure it takes hard work, but brands have to view themselves as publishers. Their own media source of experts. Bloggers. Video Bloggers. Podcasts. You create your own media and go directly to the consumer with it.

Think about this for a second. Who would you trust more? Someone that is always promoting their product or someone that offers a library full of unique videos, how-to articles, interviews, etc. The part-media source, part-business wins every time. Plus when you are a media source, you are showing your expertise which can lead to traditional and new media coverage.

Smallbizlady: How soon should you start trying to monetize your online content? Should you have a revenue model in mind going in? And do you have any revenue suggestions?

David Siteman Garland: Yesterday (just kidding). But seriously, you can start now on day one. There is an illusion of size online. Meaning, you have to be really, really big to make money from your content. It simply isn’t true. If you got 50 new customers, would you be happy? How about 5? I know, I would. You don’t need hundreds of thousands of people to view your content for you to be successful. Imagine if 1 person engaged with it and that person was the key to millions of dollars and connections. Would you be happy?

I would think of multiple revenue streams and then you don’t have to put all your eggs into one basket. I would say you need to keep revenue in mind early on. Otherwise you have a hobby. That is fine, but at the end of the day, you need money to run a business.

Here are 7 ways to monetize your content:

Sell your own product/service
Affiliate marketing
Selling yourself (consulting, speaking, etc.)
Sponsorships
“Traditional Advertising” (banner ads, etc.) (not recommended)
Content marketing
Sell content to syndicators

Smallbizlady: Should you pay for a marketing company, or PR firm to create content for you?

David Siteman Garland: This is one of those tricky situations. In my opinion, no. Why? Because no one knows your content and company better than you.

A PR/Marketing firm might be better suited to help spread your content, bring in partnership opportunities, guest blogging opportunities, etc.

If they are savvy and forward-thinking, they might be able to help with headlines, research and content suggestions.

In the end though, it is best to do it yourself.

Smallbizlady: How do you bring in viewers/readers online?

David Siteman Garland: Great question. And there are many more besides these:

1) leverage what you already have. If you have customers, tell them. Via email. In person. On receipts. Tell Mom and Dad. If you have a store, put signage up.
2) (and this is really first) make sure your site is setup like peanut butter. Easily spreadable. Have the basics: A retweet button, Facebook share, RSS feed, way to stay in contact via email subscriptions, etc. And remember to know your audience! Are they tech savvy? If so, they might use StumbleUpon, Digg and other Social Bookmarking Sites.
3) Social media as a relationship building tool and not just a way to broadcast your message. Be a human. Interact with other folks in your niche. Give people a REASON to follow you. As long as you are giving first and helpful, there is no reason you can’t promote.
4) Guest blogging, guest posts, interviews. Nothing better for bringing in the traffic!
5) Paid content. Some high-end sites are offering unique ways to “pay to play” where you might sponsor a content series (such as videos) and other unique models with the goal of bringing in traffic and subscribers.

Smallbizlady: What if you don’t want to create online content but still want to get involved with other content creators as advertisers/sponsors/partners?

David Siteman Garland: Two options:

Become a content DJ. Find the best/most unique/funniest stuff in your niche online and bring it together in a unique way for folks. Perhaps a Top 10 List.
Sponsor A Content Creator

If you absolutely don’t want to create and want to get involved with online content OR you do create and want to leverage the audience of other sites, there is a new trend in content marketing. It is a blend of sponsorship + advertising + PR.

This means perhaps you sponsor a video series, or a series of blog posts. Not simply throwing up a banner ad. You business becomes PART of the content.

Smallbizlady: How should you go about creating content to be promoted on bigger sites?

David Siteman Garland: Use your content as a handshake. Lets say there is a huge site. The first thing I would do is create content related to that site for my niche. For example, lets say you sell soap and want to be featured on Soap.com (made up). I would write an article or create a video promoting Soap.com. Perhaps it would be an article on their top five articles over the past month. Or encouraging your community (big or small) to check them out.

Then, I would reach out to them on social media or email. Introduce yourself and share the link. Ask for nothing. All you are doing is starting a relationship.

I would also make sure to have a presence on their site. Leaving thoughtful comments. Promoting their content on your social media pages. Give love to get love.

Once the relationship is formed, suggest a piece of content. Or even better (and more ambitious), just write or create something (WITHOUT PERMISSION) and send it to them. You would be surprised what might happen!

Smallbizlady: You mention on your blog that there’s a rise in creative paid content. How can entrepreneurs capitalize on this paid content?

David Siteman Garland:

Identify key sites you want to get involved with. Use Alltop.com to search your niche and/or Google Blogsearch.
Reach out the site owner and say you are looking for something outside-the-box of a basic advertisement and you want to get involved in the content.NOTE: Any reputable blogger will tell you that trust is a big thing with audience. Therefore, if you have a bad product, most bloggers won’t blindly promote it. Make sure it is a fit for you and the audience.
If you really want to get the ball rolling, suggest something. For example: Lets say you sell soap and you find a soap blogger. Suggest a 3-part series sponsored by your soap company on the big mistakes in buying soap, or best soap-buying practices.

See where I’m going here?

Of course you have to a budget for this, but if you target correctly, it should pay off ten-fold. Would you rather spend hundreds of thousands on a big mass media ad to get 100 customers? Or spend some money maybe a few thousand with a blogger/content creator in your exact niche for the same 100? Or 50? Or 20? Or maybe even 200?

Smallbizlady: Tell us about your model for creative content sponsorships and has it been successful?

David Siteman Garland: We use the model listed here for The Rise To The Top and RISE.

The first rule is simple. We would NEVER EVER promote a product we don’t use, would use, or trust. Unfortunately, we have had to turn many down but we never want to break that trust and bond with our audience.

If a company approaches us with a product/service that is perfect for an entrepreneur, we come back with suggestions. For example, lets say you have a really cool app maker for the iPhone and want to promote it to entrepreneurs and it is a quality product. We might suggest a 3-part video series sponsored by your company. Part 1 might be 5 reasons your company needs an iPhone app. Part 2 might be the 3 ways to promote an pp. Part 3 might be the key mistakes to avoid when making an app.

In each episode the app company will be mentioned, plugged, and they often offer something directly to RISE viewers. For example enter the promo code RISE for 10% off.

We make the content interesting and fun. Then we syndicate it out to our 20,000+ subscribers, social media following, etc.

And as you know, the best thing about online is that it stays up and gets passed around long after the episode comes out. That is good for Google Rankings, sales and more.

Plus, we noticed many traditional media sources come in and spot unique companies and the PR buzz continues up and down the food chain.

Smallbizlady: Do you have any additional tips on how entrepreneurs can benefit from developing online content?

David Siteman Garland: The value is there if you put in the time, energy and at some points money. The biggest thing is patience. This is all a process.

Also, stay in the loop on the latest trends, tricks and resources. It always seems things are getting smarter, faster and cheaper.

The benefits of online content/blogging are limitless. First, it positions you and your company not just as a business but as a thought leader/expert. This can lead to media interviews, partnership opportunities, recruiting opportunities, and more. Plus good ole’ Google loves the content.

Second, you build an audience to spread the word for you. Nothing better than word-of-mouth on steroids.

Third, it is personally rewarding and a lot of fun. More fun is a good thing, right?

Here are two links to content on David’s site that adds even more depth on the topic of content marketing:

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

Melinda Emerson, known to many as “SmallBizLady,” is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Coach and Social Media Strategist who hosts #Smallbizchat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs. Her first book Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months was released in March 2010.

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Small Business SEO Basics

by Melinda Emerson on April 29, 2010 in Branding & Marketing, Grow Your Business, SmallBizChat, Social Media, Solopreneurs, Your Small Business

Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wed on Twitter from 8-9pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @WayneHurlbert. Wayne is a well known SEO and internet marketing consultant. He is also a highly regarded speaker and business book reviewer. His advice on business blogs and social media is sought after by leading companies worldwide. Wayne blogs at http://www,blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com Blog Business World. Wayne also hosts the twice weekly internet radio program http://www.blogtalkradio.com/WayneHurlbert Blog Business Success

Smallbizlady: What is SEO and why is it important for small business?

Wayne Hurlbert: SEO or search engine optimization is all about your small business website becoming easier to find by the major search engines including Google, Yahoo, and MSN Bing. Small business websites can compete successfully with their much larger competitors by becoming more search engine friendly. For a search engine, the size of the company is not important. What matters is that the site be most relevant for a search for a specific keyword phrase. SEO is not about tricks, but about providing good relevant content for people searching for information.

Smallbizlady: Should a small business owner think in terms of target markets with SEO?

Wayne Hurlbert: Yes. Just as a small business marketing plan seeks out its ideal customer, SEO efforts should be targeted toward potential customers searching for solutions to their problems, as consumers or business people. This means a combination of SEO for raw rankings on the search engines; SEO for e-commerce; SEO for branding your company, products and services; SEO to generate leads for later sales: and SEO to maintain your company reputation. The good news is people will be searching for all of these types of information, and by providing relevant information on separate pages on your site, you can achieve high rankings for any or all of them.

Smallbizlady: How do I know what keywords and phrases to target on my site?

Wayne Hurlbert: You must do some keyword research. First of all, write down all of the phrases that you believe fit your site, in 1 to 4 word phrases. Try them in different combinations. Ask your trusted employees, customers, and vendors what phrases they would use to find your site. You can also use Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal or Google’s Search Based Keyword Tool http://www.google.com/sktool/ Both will give you additional ideas about heavily searched keyword phrases relevant to your site.

Smallbizlady: Are links into my site important and how can I get more links?

Wayne Hurlbert: The first step is to provide link worthy content. Your site should be much more than simply a brochure site. That type of site doesn’t rank well as it contains little real information to attract links, and links provide the power to boost your rankings. Be sure to provide informational pages that show expertise in your industry, provide tips to help customers solve real problems, and additional specialty pages of possibly product reviews, industry news. useful tools and downloads, and other ideas suitable to your site. All of these pages can attract links. A blog page on the site is very powerful. Bloggers are free and generous linkers who will readily link to information and posts of interest to their readers. Blogging platforms like WordPress provide ease of blogging, as another set of pages, within a website. The blog posts provide many more relevant keyword phrases, that also rank well in the search engines.

Smallbizlady: How do I start to optimize my site for the search engines?

Wayne Hurlbert: Start with your domain name. If it’s not already determined, attempt to create a site domain that is relevant to your product and service. This is, of course, not possible for the main domain name if it already exists, but keywords can be added to the URL of each interior page, giving them URL domain power. A critical area on any site is the title tag. That is the wording that appears in the blue bar at the top of your browser. This is the title of the page, like a book title. The interior page title tags are like the chapter names in a non-fiction book. They tell the search engine what is the topic of each page. The title tag should contain your most important keyword phrases for that page. The company name doesn’t have to appear in the title tag, and if it does, place it to the right of the page. Search engines consider the most left placed keywords the most important. Don’t use the same tag on every page. Every page is distinct and needs a separate title tag.

Smallbizlady: How many keyword phrases should each page contain?

Wayne Hurlbert: Don’t fall into the trap of writing for the search engines. Write for your customers. If a page is difficult to read, or looks artificial and badly written, no one will stay on your page anyway. Those are customers who are lost. When writing copy on a page, keep it relevant to the topic of your site, and write for real people. There is ample evidence, especially from blogs, that writing good informational copy will rank highly, as well as being easy to read. As you write, your important keyword phrases, in various orders and combinations, will appear naturally anyway. Never write for the search engines. Always write for people. Be certain to include your company contact information including street address, and any relevant and frequently used local or regional location terms, to build local search. A local focus in the title tags will also boost your rankings for customers seeking your products and services in your city, state, province, region, or country.

Smallbizlady: How do I create links that work better for SEO?

Wayne Hurlbert: When you create a link within your site, to another page on the site, never use words like “here” or “click here” on the clickable link line. The wording on the clickable link line is called link anchor text and is very important to the search engines. It also tells the search engine what the page being linked is about, as the link anchor text is like a mini-title for the page. Use the keyword phrase, most relevant to the page being linked to, that you want to raise in the rankings. Don’t use the same link anchor text all of the time though, as that looks spammy to the search engine. At the same time, it misses the opportunity to use alternate but still relevant link anchor text to boost yet another keyword phrase.

Smallbizlady: How can I add links into my site from offsite sources?

Wayne Hurlbert: One of the best techniques for adding additional inbound links is articles. Submit your articles to the many article sites on the internet. Be sure they link with appropriate link anchor text to the most relevant page on the site. Some article sites permit a second link to the home page as well. Be sure to use both if available. Offer to write articles for other sites and blogs. Many webmasters and bloggers will be happy to add your article along with a link back to your site. Be sure to add your site to legitimate internet directories, but avoid at all costs link farms and other linking schemes. You can drive traffic, but not much link value though, from forum signature lines, Twitter profiles and post links, Facebook pages and LinkedIn profiles. Having a YouTube page can also help your rankings, and it too can be optimized.

Smallbizlady: Should I worry about being penalized and banned from Google?

Wayne Hurlbert: Google is not out to get you. They want to eliminate spam from their rankings. As long as you follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines http://www.google.com/webmasters/, and never use any dirty tricks or “black hat” SEO, your site will remain penalty and ban free. Don’t let yourself be fooled by anyone offering quick rankings through questionable means. Those rankings may never even materialize anyway, but Google could penalize or ban your site for using them. You can indeed rank well in the search engines with ethical “white hat” SEO techniques. There are no quick fixes. Good theme relevant content on your site will win out in the end.

Smallbizlady: Can I optimize the photos and graphics on my site?

Wayne Hurlbert: Yes. In fact, optimizing your site photos and graphics serves more than one purpose. To optimize a photo or graphic, you have really two optimization opportunities. One is the caption line below the photo or graphic. Use a descriptive version of a relevant keyword that is suitable to describing the picture. Use a mouse over alt attribute tag to describe the photo or graphic as well. Use a short relevant keyword phrase different from the caption to double your phrases. For people who surf with graphics off on their browser, the mouse over also tells the visitor what is in the photo or graphic.

Smallbizlady: How soon can I expect results from my SEO work?

Wayne Hurlbert: Google and the other search engines send their spiders, the little computer bots that crawl your site, out all of the time. Results can appear quickly if good relevant changes are made. Some results may take longer. Some keyword phrases are much more competitive than others, and are much more difficult to optimize for higher rankings. As a result, SEO is a process, not an end in itself. SEO is a continuous work in progress, as you add more pages, fine tune your title tags, rewrite your copy, and add more links. Before starting your SEO program, check the rankings of the existing site for your keyword phrases to create a base line. With that base in place, you can monitor your improvements, as they happen, on a regular basis. Don’t be alarmed by short term blips downward. They happen. Instead, optimize for the long term, using sound ethical SEO techniques for the long term. You can then ride out any ups and downs that can happen in the search engines.

Smallbizlady: Are number one and page one rankings in Google enough for success?

Wayne Hurlbert: SEO is only one marketing tool in your internet tool chest. Top rankings are of no value if no one who visits your site becomes a customer. Note the real value of writing for people, and not the search engines. The purpose or purposes of your site go far beyond the vanity of ranking on the first page in Google. Those rankings are only one part of your marketing plan. Be sure the copy on the page speaks to the customer, provides valuable information, and generates leads and sales. Note that well written copy ranks well, and builds your customer base, helping your business to grow. SEO is a tool, but it’s not a magic bullet. Use SEO wisely, however, and your small business will compete successfully on a global basis, against much larger competitors.

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

How to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

Melinda F. Emerson, also known as Twitter’s SmallBizLady is a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach whose areas of expertise include small business start-up, business development and social media. She hosts #SmallBizChat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs. She is the founder and CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, an award-winning strategic communications firm. She has created productions for such companies as Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Comcast. Her first book Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works!” was released in March 2010 by Adams Media.

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The State of Now, SmallBizChat Q + A with Jeff Pulver

by Melinda Emerson on April 8, 2010 in Q & A Interview, SmallBizChat, Social Media, Your Small Business

Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wed. on Twitter from 8-9pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @JeffPulver who is a Technology Anthropologist; Entrepreneur; Early-Stage Seed Investor. Jeff has been called “a habitual entrepreneur who likes to start Internet communications companies.” He is known globally as someone who helped popularize the use of Voice over IP (VoIP) and is a Co-founder of Vonage. In 2009 he created the global #140 Characters Conferences. For more information on #140conf, visit http://140conf.com/ I talked to him about The State of Now, real-time Internet and Your Small Business.

Smallbizlady: You have coined the phrase “The State of Now” What is that?
Jeff Pulver: Living and experiencing information in “The State of Now” is just different when compared to the way we are used to experiencing things. It is the magic about what is going on around you. Please read a blog post I wrote on the subject: http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/008934.html

Smallbizlady: What impact has Twitter had on small businesses?
Jeff Pulver: Twitter has changed business a lot. Twitter or real-time web has affected the way we all do business. It has changed everything; how we connect with people across all walks of life, but also how we consume information–and our expectations have changed. It’s the disruption occurring around us that has changed every industry.

Smallbizlady: Why did you start the #140conf?
Jeff Pulver: I wanted to explore the effects of twitter on businesses which lead to my discovery of what I call “The State of NOW.” I have continued these events due to the systemic change the worldwide adoption of twitter continues to have.

Smallbizlady: What is your long term goal for #140 character conference?
Jeff Pulver: I want this conference which takes place April 20-21, 2010 in NYC to help make the world smaller by bringing together as many diverse groups of people spread across diverse places around the world.

Smallbizlady: Of all social media, do you like Twitter the best?
Jeff Pulver: I don’t believe in best or worst. Social media offers us platforms to leverage for ourselves. Depending upon what I am trying to do, there are times and places where I prefer to be using Facebook. That said, I believe the widespread adoption of Twitter will cause more systemic change than the worldwide use and availability of Facebook.

Smallbizlady: What industries has Twitter most affected?
Jeff Pulver: Many including: Celebrity, “The Media”, Local Retail, Advertising, Information Marketers, Politics, Music, Education, Public Safety and Public Diplomacy.

Smallbizlady: What are the top two ways to build relationships on Twitter?
Jeff Pulver: Listen & Engage.

Smallbizlady: How long does it take to build community on Twitter?
Jeff Pulver: A lifetime. And a day. Really depends upon how you approach things.

Smallbizlady: What four things should smallbiz owners be doing to grow their businesses using social media?
Jeff Pulver: Four words. Listen, Connect, Share, Engage.

Listen – they need to become their own Chief Listening Officer.
Connect – they need to be there to connect with their existing customers and connect with their future customers.
Share – they need to be there to continue to provide value to their new, existing and potential customers.
Engage – these are your customers. If you are not willing to make a commitment to be on twitter and care for your customers, you shouldn’t be there at all.

Smallbizlady: What is your response to people who ask: “Do people really make money from Twitter?”
Jeff Pulver: Yes, of course.

Smallbizlady: What is your best small business Twitter success story?
Jeff Pulver: I liked the story you shared last night. I could argue that #140conf is also a small business and we are living the words shared here every day. And that in a world filled with 140 characters I’ve discovered a world of opportunity with an unbounded upside for the future.

Smallbizlady: Is Twitter here to stay?
Jeff Pulver: The real-time internet is here to stay. I hope this includes Twitter.

Smallbizlady: What do you think is going to be the next big thing?
Jeff Pulver: People. Humanity. And making a business from Serendipity.

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

Melinda Emerson, known to many as “SmallBizLady,” is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Coach and Social Media Strategist who hosts #Smallbizchat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs. Her first book Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months was released in March 2010.

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