Archive for November, 2010
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, November 24th, 2010
Guest blogger Kerry Sauriol of Crunchy Carpets explains why small businesses should blog.
When I Started Blogging
A little while ago, I was attending an event held by the Enterprising Moms Network. As usual I had to explain what Crunchy Carpets was. One woman exclaimed to me that she had never gotten into blogging and Twitter and all that stuff as she just never had the time.
This got me thinking about a few responses to that statement.
If she didnt have the time, what did that say about me or the many women I know who are into blogging or social media?
The statement seemed to imply that a blog was a tool mainly for personal use: merely a hobby. Judging from the amount of women I knew at that event that were using blogging and social media as business and marketing tools, I was quite taken aback by this assumption.
Many small business owners and entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed by the thought of adding one more activity to their already demanding days. Most then want to know in concrete terms what they will get out of a blog. What their ROI (return on investment) would be.
If your company has a website, adding a blog to it is the simplest and easiest way to reach out to your customers. A blog can add a human touch to your website. It gives you the space to reach out and communicate directly with your customer base.
The biggest lesson about blogging is ….you get out of it what you put in.
Companies can struggle with the difference between marketing and communicating. With marketing, you see the results of it quickly and easily in the form of sales that stemmed from that campaign. Blogging is different. Blogging is about relationship building. This can be tough to understand when you are focused on the bottom line.
This is true for both personal and corporate blogs.
Blogging shouldnt be demanding…but quality writing is key. Poorly written copy or a blog that is just all about marketing can put off a reader/potential customer. So yes, hiring a copywriter or professional blogger might be your next step.
Blog Examples
Agoo Clothings web presence is an amazing example of taking social media and community building to the extreme. Their site is more than an online store. Their blog is a mix of promotional copy and child and family oriented copy that they feel their readers (their shoppers) will appreciate. Add their HUGE Facebook activity and the promotion they do with personal (mom bloggers) and you can call their social media presence a huge success. Agoo wants you to know that the people behind the clothing line are family people too with kids of their own and so they can share an understanding with their buyers.
Raspberry Kids, another online child focused store already has a rich and readable website, but the blog has become not only a promotional tool, but a great insight into the life of the owner/operator of the company. She shares the ups and downs of entrepreneurialship with her readers and customers. She is one of “us.”
From these two examples, you can see how well the addition of a blog to your web presence can enable your business to connect with your community.
Marketing today has a far more touchy feelly vibe to it than the days of traditional marketing, and for some this may feel frivolous, but I do firmly believe that community building, relationship building through the internet is the way to building solid business in the real world.
If you already have a company site, the addition of a blog is a simple and inexpensive step. Talk to your webmasters and they should be able to help you or talk to Out-Smarts.
If you don’t have a website, platforms like WordPress are simple and easy to set up and there are many free templates out there that can be customized without needing a degree in code. WordPress.com is a free system and their .org site is where you can set up a blog with your OWN URL and host.
If you need a writer for your blog, there are a lot of us out there!! And we are all so talented and ready to help.
About Kerry
Having discovered that children don’t give annual employee evaluations, Kerry jumped at the chance seven years ago to be a stay-at-home mom. She has found she can more than handle being called a stupid head by her two eldest and sweetly precocious children instead of being fired by her peers.
Kerry’s hold on sanity is her computer and the world of mommy bloggers. She can ignore the chaos created by three kids, three cats, a dog and patient husband and find the peace it takes to come up with her latest post at her personal site Crunchy Carpets . Apart from obsessive Tweeting and Facebooking, she can also be found haranguing people to post on her other site Wet Coast Women.
Blogging has brought her the opportunity to meet amazing people, speak on CBC Radio and be interviewed by the Globe and Mail on a few occasions.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, November 12th, 2010
One of the major considerations for retail store owners has always been to make sure that your shop is located in the right place and that you are doing things to attract visitors and maximise the number of feet on the street that come through your door to sample your wares. Nowadays, thanks to technology, there are online actions and activities that you can easily do to make it easier for potential customers to locate your real world store.
Have you ever tried to find a retail store that you havent been to before? You know roughly where it is but you dont know exactly which block or street its on. Off course you have, this happens all the time. The first thing you do is to try to find it using your phone but what if you cant find the store online? The answer is that you get put off and go elsewhere instead, to return (maybe) at a later date.
This blog post gives 6 tips that will help people who use the Internet to find your store but these rules can (and should) be applied to any business with a physical location.
1. Website – makes sure the address, phone number and opening hours are front and centre on your website so that visitors can find your location easily. Consider adding a page that is dedicated to helping customers find your store giving directions, maps and transit tips. The pages that contain your address should include appropriate META and keywords that people are likely to use when trying to find your store.
2. Directories – If you dont have a website yet, dont despair – you dont have to have a website to use Internet technologies to help customers find your shop (although it does help!). Instead make sure your business is listed on a few of the search directories with the biggest clout such as Yellow Pages and Yahoo Directory. Both of these are paid directories but they are worth investing in especially if you dont have a website and you want to help people find your location online. You should also consider listing your location on hyper local directories in your community – many of these are free.
3. Google Places – one of the best ways to help people find your location is to make sure it is listed in Google Places. Not only does it allow you to list your business, it also shows your business on Google Maps. Our next blog post will be all about setting up Google Places as it is without a doubt one of the most beneficial tactics you can use.
4. If you have a Facebook Page, be sure to add your location details, hours of opening and phone number to the information section of your Page so that Facebook followers can find you when they need to.
5. Make sure your business is listed on the location based social networking tools that allow clients to share when they are at their favourite outlets. By listing your business in these forums you will assist those who use these tools (and their numbers are increasing rapidly) to find you online and thus find your real world presence. Read more about location based networking in our blog post).
6. More people access the Internet these days by phone than by PC and people on street are sure to use their phone if they are trying to find your location. Consider adding a .mobi site for your website making it easier to view page contents (including location and directions) by phone.
By applying tips outlined here you can make sure that potential customers locate the address of your physical location using the Internet and thus find your store more easily: enabling the feet on the street find their way through your door.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, November 04th, 2010
Several people have asked Out-Smarts lately what they should do about duplicate social networking profiles. It is normal for people to set up a social networking presence and to forget about it only to revisit at a later date and set up another. This can be true for personal profiles as well as business pages and can be damaging because it confuses those who search for you in these forums. Here is what to do about it.
Determine if you have a duplicate account
To determine whether you have duplicate accounts, simply sign in to the network in question and do a search for your name or company. If more than one result hits the target then you know you have gone a page to far!
Don’t loose out
All of these tools have capabilities that allow you to delete such accounts but before you do you should follow a couple of steps to make sure you don’t loose out:
1.Make a list of your connections on the account you plan to delete and identify those you want to transfer over to your main account,
2.From your main account, send an invite to those connections identified in step one.
We recently asked this question on LinkedIn answers which is a very handy tool for finding answers to questions quickly (but that is another blog post entirely). Thanks to all of those who answered – you can see the responses here. We liked the following response by Frank Feather the best as it is simple to follow. Thanks Frank!
Dealing With Duplicate Profile on LinkedIn.
Each profile is associated with a different e-mail account.
1. If you know the email (but not the Password) of the account you wish to close, try to log in and then click “Forgot
Password”.
2. If you do not know the Password, then you need to write to CustomerService@LinkedIn.com or go to the Customer Service link (bottom of page) and fill out the appropriate email form.
3. If you know both the email and the Password, read on …
Unfortunately, you are not able to merge profiles.
Please follow this step-by-step process.
Decide which account/profile you wish to Close out.
Log out.
Log into that account with its email and password.
Export or make a note of any Connections you wish to keep. (Export link at bottom of list of Connections)
Go to “Settings” (top right, next to Help)
Close the account.
Log out.
Log in to your remaining account.
“Import” any Connections from closed account.
Re-send invites, with explanatory note.
Go to “Settings”
Add any additional email addresses you wish
Designate one as primary/default.
Better not to pick work email in case you quit.
Then you won’t again accidentally create new profile.
Out-Smarts Services
Out-Smarts provides social networking training and consulting services to help you use social media tools effectively. Contact us now to find out more.
