by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh
On Wednesday when we arrived at the beach we saw this wonderful line of fresh footprints in the sand. it reminded me of these words of wisdom that we don’t always heed:
Follow one path until success!
Here is a good place for a call to action.
by Guest Author
On Wednesday when we arrived at the beach we saw this wonderful line of fresh footprints in the sand. it reminded me of these words of wisdom that we don’t always heed:
Follow one path until success!
by Liz
Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,
I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.
They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.
I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.
Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.
If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
by Liz
Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,
I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.
They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.
I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.
Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.
If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
by Guest Author
On May 11th, House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced he’s running for President of the United States. According to CNN, he officially announced his intentions to run via the popular social networking site, Twitter.
Anyone who takes their online marketing seriously needs to pay attention to the 2012 election starting now. Political action at the national level was always executed with the intent to cast the biggest net possible, similar to business advertising, but those tactics are changing. In traditional politics the customers transcend all market “types”. There’s a particular focus put on the means to reach everybody all at once through television or radio, because votes can come from anyone, kind of like how money can leave anyone’s pocket and go into your business. But today’s political arena is focused on strike force access to niche markets through social media, with the expectation that these strikes will go viral and the effort will be more cost effective than alternative mass-media means. Your entrepreneurial arena is undoubtedly the same.
President Barack Obama is estimated to raise $1 billion dollars for his re-election campaign. This number is unprecedented in presidential politics, but it won’t be for long. President Obama’s comparatively enormous war chest is the result of his presidential efforts back in 2008. Obama was the first national politician in American history to utilize the power of social media and social networking effectively. Nearly half of that figure was attained through donations of $200 or below made online. It wasn’t that Obama pulled the right strings, it’s that his team saw the possibilities of these online marketing techniques when opponents hadn’t yet. Never again will a serious presidential contender not have Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Consider then, what this says about the future of social media marketing as it applies to your business. I’m assuming you don’t have presidential ambitions, but you can still relate. If no competitor is Tweeting or updating a Facebook status, why aren’t you? If they are, you need to right away. It’s going to be hard to compete against someone who can instantly notify their customers of sales when all you have are weekend coupons. Find an online marketing consultant who can help you get started. Once you’re active in social media, it’s time to utilize it effectively. Big announcements need to be made on it. Subscribe to competition and do a little (perfectly legal) espionage. These are important tasks to achieve when you’re getting your social network foot in the door, and consultation will help.
Television was perhaps the most important communications invention of the last century. People often forget that it wasn’t until the Nixon-Kennedy debates of 1960 that the world began to understand the potential of its power to influence and persuade. The Internet will no doubt be the most important piece of communications technology for at least the first half of this century. Don’t wait to let its power start working for you.
——
Riley Kissel is a freelance writer who covers many industries with style. You can find out more about him at RileyKissel.com
Thanks, Riley, for simply showing how great thinking has built great success.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
by teresa
Iâm Teresa Morrow, aka The Author’s Cheerleader and I work with authors & writers to help them with their online book promotion and marketing. As part of my job I read a lot of books (I love to read anyway!). The books in The Book List series will cover a range of topics such as social media, product development, marketing, blogging, business, organization, career building, finance, networking, writing, self development, and inspiration.
About the Book:
Written in a straightforward, common sense manner, 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Personal and Professional Success provides the reader with practical, down to earth advice on how to create a successful life and career. In this book you will learn how to:
take responsibility for your life and career
become more self confident
create positive personal impact
become and outstanding performer
become a dynamic communicator
become more interpersonally competent.
’42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success’ is a guide to common sense career development, entrepreneurial achievement and life skills. Author Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy, has been helping people succeed for over 30 years. Heâs spent the last 10 years studying successful people, cracking the code to success. He shares what he’s learned in 42 rules to Jumpstart Your Personal and Professional Success. Bud shares stories of personal and professional triumphs and failures and what he learned from them. He also tells other peopleâs stories that he finds inspiring.
About Bud:
Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy, is an executive coach, motivational speaker, author and blogger. He is the Official Guide for Executive Coaching at SelfGrowth.com, and the Careers Group Coordinator at FastCompany.com. He is a member of the USA Today Small Business Advisory Panel. He writes the popular blog (www.SuccessCommonSense.com) to which he posts five days a week. Dr. Bilanich is Harvard educated but has a no nonsense approach to personal and professional success as a result of over 35 years of business experience, 10 years of research and study of successful people and the application of common sense. Bud is the author of seven other books, including Straight Talk for Success: Common Sense Ideas That Won’t Let You Down.
His clients include Pfizer, Glaxo SmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Abbot Laboratories, PepsiCo, AT&T, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citigroup, General Motors, UBS, AXA Advisors, Cabot Corporation, The Aetna, PECO Energy, Olin Corporation, Minerals Technologies, The Boys and Girls Clubs of America and a number of small and family owned businesses. Bud is a cancer survivor and lives in Denver Colorado with his wife Cathy. He is a retired rugby player and an avid cyclist. He likes movies, live theatre and crime fiction.
You can pick up your copy of ’42 Rules to Jumpstart your Professional Success’ at the publisher’s site
Another book that is on my Book List is ‘We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World’
“We First lays out a movement to transform corporate America, providing plenty of food for thought for the business leaders of today and tomorrow.”–Tony Hsieh, New York Times bestselling author of Delivering Happiness and CEO of Zappos.com, Inc.
âMainwaring is an inspiring leader that truly understands the dynamics in play in the new world of business, online consumer behavior, and how they can collaborate to rethink and rework paths to true global renewal.â–Brian Solis, award-winning author of Engage
âSimon Mainwaring shows how to use social technologies to create and deepen business relationships, which in turn drive profits. Put meaning back into your business by buying this book. Actually, buy two and give one away to someone who is also yearning to take their business to the next level.â–Charlene Li, author of Open Leadership and Founder of Altimeter Group
About the Book
A social media expert with global experience with many of the worldâs biggest brands âincluding Nike, Toyota and MotorolaâSimon Mainwaring offers a visionary new practice in which brands leverage social media to earn consumer goodwill, loyalty and profit, while creating a third pillar of sustainable social change through conscious contributions from customer purchases. These innovative private sector partnerships answer perhaps the most pressing issue facing business and thought leaders today: how to practice capitalism in a way that satisfies the need for both profit and a healthy, sustainable planet. Mainwaring provides case studies from companies such as P&G, Walmart, Starbucks, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Nike, Whole Foods, Patagonia, and Nestlé as well as a bold plan for how corporations need to rethink their strategies.
About Simon:
Simon Mainwaring is a branding consultant, author, blogger and speaker. A former Nike creative at Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy, he is the founder and CEO of We First, a social branding consultancy that helps brands and creative companies use social media to reinvent their industries and our world.
He is a member of the GMI Digital Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School, AdAge’s Power150 and is an Expert Blogger for Fast Company. Most recently he was a guest of the Brookings Institute at the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha as part of their New Media working group and a speaker at the 2010 Cannes International Advertising Festival.
In 2011 Simon’s first book entitled We First will be released that presents a new vision for the practice of capitalism, the role of the private sector, and for how brands and consumers use social media to build communities, profits and positive impact: www.wefirstbook.com
Simon has received over sixty international awards at the Cannes Advertising Festival, the One Show (U.S.) and the British Design & Art Direction Awards, among others. He studied Law and Fine Arts (1st Class Honors) at Sydney University and lives in Los Angeles. His website is www.wefirstbranding.com, he blogs at www.simonmainwaring.com and tweets @simonmainwaring.
You can pick up your copy of ‘We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World’ on Amazon.com.
by Guest Author
We all know how important customer service is to your long term success as a business. You probably donât need a briefing on that, so Iâll spare you the lecture on why the âcustomer is always right.â However, what you probably havenât realized is the fact that customer relationships are becoming more fragile.
We all remember the days, going to the local grocery store with our parents, and having the employees greet us by name. Loyalty is a wonderful thing; however something seems to have changed since the 50âs. Customer relationships arenât what they used to be, they are becoming more fragile than ever. As businesses strive to create relationships it seems one negative experience can cause a breakup, according to Social Media Paige, ânegative online shopping experiences result in brand abandonment. Smart consumers are very unforgiving.72 percent said they would share a negative online experience with friends and family. Another 70 percent said they would turn to a competitor as a result.â
Many managers also fail to realize how important social media is to their customer service. Whether you are trying to attract new customers or keep existing customers engaged, having a social presence gives your company a platform to reach your audience. I think businesses who try to âdateâ their community are able to retain a higher percentage of customers for life.
Link Multiple People To Your Businesses Social Account. Putting your PR, customer service and sales people on the same account, not only improves your reach but integrates your customer knowledge. Say for instance you only have one PR professional running your Twitter, he/she may not realize who they are actually speaking with. Having an integrated internal social media account improves your communication strategy by leveraging knowledge across multiple units. A good idea would be to add email contacts to your social networks from multiple accounts within your business. You can use your salespeopleâs, marketing department, and anyone you deem fitâs email address book to upload their contacts and follow them.
Although itâs important to integrate your internal departments on social networks, make sure they understand their roles. Have your sales person answer all sales inquiries, and all customer inquiries be handled by customer service.
Build Loyalty. Building loyalty is essentially taking your customers on dates. Keep your community engaged, active and excited about your brand. When the spark dies, you are much more willing to have a tragic breakup. Do this u
Solve Simple Problems Transparently A major advantage of conducting your customer service on social media is the fact that everything you do is transparent. Other followers will see your activity and you generate good PR for every issue youâve solved. Donât limit yourself on these platforms; figuring out how to work in social in to your strategy will help you keep your date for longer.
Keeping a customer for life is one of the most valuable things any business can ask for. We all know that 80% of business comes from 20% of your customers, so it makes sense to make sure that these people are happy to the fullest extent.
Matt Krautstrunk is an expert writer on postage meters based in San Diego, California. He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions at Resource Nation.