Successful Blog

5 Twitter Advantages for Your Small Business

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Rosemary O’Neill

5 Twitter Advantages for your Small Business

Are you still trying to make sense of Twitter?

As an onlooker, it appears much the same way the New York Stock Exchange looks from the observation window–messy, chaotic, and disorganized. But stand a moment and keep looking, because you will start to see groups of people gathered around specific topics. Over here, a loud tribe of Kardashian followers (we’ll just step around them) and over there in the far corner, an intense crowd of small business owners.

They pop in to conduct their transaction and then move back to their desks on the trading floor.

What’s great about Twitter is that anyone can step out onto the floor and mix it up in the trading scrum.

Use Twitter as a Small Business Advantage

  1. Network and share your expertise – join a regular Twitter chat (check out the massive list of chats here). At the appointed time, go to Tweetchat.com and type in the hashtag for the chat. Follow the conversation and add your own thoughts. With regular participation, you can form a strong network. I highly recommend the #SOBCon chat!
  2. Build relationships to support your PR efforts – it’s an open secret that journalists like to hang out on Twitter. Your faxed press release will get tossed in the recycle bin, but it’s very easy to learn insider information on media likes/dislikes, beats, and current projects on Twitter. One place to start is Twellow’s news and media category (http://www.twellow.com/categories/news).
  3. Find leads – yes, you can actually find real people who might want to be your customer on Twitter. Use Twitter’s advanced search to find people who are searching for “help” plus your keyword, and then offer assistance. The important thing to remember is that you’re providing help, not a sales pitch. That’s the fast route to loserville.
  4. Be available to your customers – Twitter is the open phone line, and although all of your customers might not be on Twitter, the ones who are will appreciate having access to you. Just be sure to subscribe to alerts so you can hear the phone ring when someone mentions you or sends a direct message.
  5. Show your human side – Mix in some personality to your business Tweets, and use it as one more way to humanize your business. Not to share a steady stream of cat pictures, but sharing your passion for motorcycles or movies can be a great conversation starter.

Are you still procrastinating on jumping into Twitter? Share your fears here and maybe we can work together to get you out onto the trading floor.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

The Right Diet – Eating Your Way to the Online Success

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Getting the riches or recognition via Internet is all about producing great content, making the most of social media, taking advantage of all available opportunities, optimizing your website for the right keywords, so on and so forth. And regardless of how easy it sounds, carrying out all these tasks while not compromising on the quality, and trying to keep it “in line” with Google guidelines is not a walk in the park. The incessant mental labor can drain the last ounce of your energy reserves, the even increasing competition and challenges can ruin your work-life balance, and the small setbacks and rewards on daily basis can initiate a rollercoaster of emotions, which is not healthy at all.

Amidst all this madness, many of us start to neglect something that can be our first line of defense (or attack) for all these challenges, and that is the diet.
While we only associate the notion of balanced diet with the weight management, and the only time we focus on our diet is when we are looking to gain or lose some weight, in reality diet can affect everything from our moods to energy level, and our thought pattern to productivity. To make a long story short, there’s no way that you can perform at your optimum levels with a malnourished mind or body.
Here’s how a wholesome and nutritious diet can invigorate your mind, body, and subsequently your business.

Avoid Work Burnout:

If you have to drag yourself to work all the time, and you hardly feel like focusing on work, it’s supposed to be nothing else but the dreaded burnout? While it’s true that you can a monotonous job can result in a work related burnout, but sometimes lack of energy can also result in the feelings like fatigue or exhaustion, and it might not be something associated with your job. That is why changing job or your work timings doesn’t seem to help. If you are feeling drained or exhausted all the time, you should try eating something healthy, especially in the breakfast. The right food in the breakfast will give you the energy as well as morale boost that you might be lacking.

Obesity & Weight Management:

Eating healthy is not about eating more and it’s not about eating less either, healthy diet is all about including the nutritious food in your meals. You might be eating a lot of unhealthy stuff, but while it takes care of your appetite, it will keep adding to your weight, and before you know, you will be facing the much dreaded problem of being overweight. It takes a short duration of unhealthy eating and working habits to gain those extra pounds, but reclaiming your fitness might take much longer. Obesity and weight problems can seriously dent your confidence. It’s not easy to put your best foot forward in presentations, meetings, and anything you do, when you are not comfortable about your looks. Not to mention the ill effects of obesity on your health.

Procrastination:

Procrastination is one of the biggest problems faced by people who are working from home (e.g. freelance writers, bloggers, and online entrepreneurs). Little or no physical activity and poor diet coupled with the comfort of home can push you into a vicious spiral of procrastination. Not having the “luxury” of a manager or boss to keep you on your toes, it’s so important to complete the day’s work on daily basis without putting it off. And while eating healthy wouldn’t really make you more organized, it will surely help you avoid the low blood sugar level that is associated with short attention span (meaning that you will get distracted more easily).

Fighting the Fatigue:

Last but not the least, having the right food will help you deal with the stress and fatigue, resulting from long working hours on computer and Internet. Food items like almonds, walnuts, salmon, yogurt, and green vegetables can help you deal with the damaging effects of work related stress. On the other hand, consuming junk or unhealthy food can add to your stress levels, let alone dealing with it.

Rahil writes on health and fitness related topics concerning bloggers and online entrepreneurs. You can find best meal delivery program or compare diet plans online at his blog. There’s no doubt that food plays an integral role in our health and overall wellbeing, and the diet plan reviews or coupon code at his website will help you find the best diet plan for weight management at discounted prices.

Putting Some Notoriety Behind Your Brand

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When it comes to letting people know about your brand, how do you go about it?

Do you regularly advertise through in-house means on radio and television, through newspapers, and via your social media opportunities? Do your employees spread the word to help promote your business? Or, even though it can be more expensive, do you get a well-known figure to promote your brand?

If you are practicing the latter tactic, you are not alone. In fact, more and more companies are using celebrities to help them spread the word.

Even if you only watch television or peruse the Internet on a limited basis, you have likely seen some of the following ads over the last year:

* Peyton Manning promoting Papa John’s Pizza with owner John Schnatter;
* Charlie Sheen promoting DirectTV;
* Danica Patrick for GoDaddy.com;
* Betty White touting Snickers;
* Norm Macdonald promoting SafeAuto.com.

While celebrity advertising is certainly nothing new in this day and age, it has become more prevalent given the mass reach of the Internet not only in the U.S., but worldwide.

Whether large or small, businesses have the opportunity to put a face behind their brand and tell both current and potential customers why their product or service is second to none.

As you might expect, it oftentimes comes down to advertising budgets, something the smaller business doesn’t always have much of. In those cases, it may involve finding a well-known figure who actually uses the product to go in front of the camera or the radio to promote it.

If you are a smaller business and your advertising dollars are stretched, the big question then becomes can you get the celebrity to consent to their likeness being used in the ad?

The bottom line is that celebrity endorsements give the impression that the individual uses the product or service they are promoting. If it is discovered the celebrity does not actually use the product or service and still promotes it, does a company’s brand suffer as a result?

If you plan on using a well-known figure to promote your brand going forward, consider a few items:

* Does the individual have mass appeal to a wide range of consumers?
* Does the individual come with any “baggage” that may dissuade consumers from touting your product or service? Such cases can be where the celebrity has said something negative, had a run-in with the law, or is viewed as not relevant at the time;
* Does the individual meet your budget needs? If not, you may be able to come to an agreement where they will take less for an advertisement in return for something beneficial to them.

In today’s world, a company’s brand is its heart and soul.

Before you get a well-known figure to promote what you have to offer, look at the big picture, identifying whether that individual is going to brand your business a winner or loser.

Photo credit: adnews.us

 Dave Thomas covers small business topics for various websites.

 

 

 


Organize Your Thoughts Before You Blog

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Poala Werner

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Perfect Blogging Tip: How to Organize Your Thoughts

There are a lot of people who believe that they do not have a talent in writing. Some college students, for example, will easily give up on writing a decent piece and simply settle for a mediocre essay because they will they do not have the knack for it.

But that is not entirely true. Though there may be fortunate people who can write better than the others without exerting too much effort, you can still learn how to be a good writer by learning the right tricks. One of them is called Thought Organization.

When writing anything, it is very important to have a collected thought to have a single focus. Who wants to read something that starts discussing Point A then ends in talking about Point W. It does not make any sense, right?

So how can we organize our thoughts? Are there any special tricks for it?

Let us learn each step one by one, starting with a discussion about the three basic essay components. These are the thesis statement, the supporting details, and the conclusion.

The thesis statement is the part of the essay where the main argument can be seen. It shows the focal point of the paper. It will be hard to start any writing task if we have no idea what our thesis statement is. It also paints the picture of the entire essay for the readers. Most of the time, the thesis statement can be seen in the last sentence of the paper’s introduction.

On the other hand, the supporting details refer to the discussion of the evidences gathered to support the essay’s arguments. Normally, essay writers (http://www.superiorpapers.com/custom_essay.php) stress the importance of each supporting details in separate paragraphs. If there are no enough evidence to support your argument, better change the focus of your thesis statement to something which can be discussed further.

And then there is the conclusion. This is the part that wraps up the entire essay by reinstating the thesis statement. It must go over the earlier details mentioned without having to repeat the words completely. A good conclusion must also pose a challenge or a call to action to the readers.

After learning the three basic essay components, let us proceed to the essay writing organization proper. These are Outlining, Writing, and Proofreading. Now let’s discuss each a little further.

Outlining

This is the first part of the thought organization process for writing. It is like making a blueprint of the house that you want to build. It may be an additional task for essay writing, but it can make your essay writing process a lot easier.

A sample outline can look like this:

I. Introduction/Thesis Statement
II. First Argument
III. Second Argument
IV. Third Argument
V. Conclusion

With an organized outline like this, it will be quite impossible for any writer to lost track of the discussion.

Writing

After we are done with our outlines, start the actual writing process. Our outline can actually cut the essay writing process in half because we just have to follow the items in it. We won’t have to worry about getting lost in our thoughts anymore.

Proofreading

Finally, we have the entire paper in our hands. Are we done with it? Not yet! We still have to do the proofreading part. Some essay writers choose to let the proofreading done by other people, like their friends or family. But you can choose to do it also on your own. Whatever makes you comfortable, do it. No one wants to submit a paper full of spelling or grammar mistakes, right?

See, we don’t have to be professional essayists like Kurt Vonnegut or David Forster Wallace to write a good paper. With proper thought organization, we can surely compose a good essay in no time.

Author’s Bio:
Poala Werner is a college student who spends her time juggling class duties and her baby sitting job for her older brother. She would love to work on a publishing company someday, that is why she is currently taking Journalism majors in the university. In her timeline, she will be in her dream job in two years time. Follow her on Twitter as @p0wer111890.

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

Success Truths from 21 Successful Entrepreneurs

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Brandon Pipkin

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What can 21 Entrepreneurial Millionaires Teach You About Success? The Truth!

For seven years I devoured all I could get my hands on about success and wealth creation. I read blogs, books, and newsletters. I attended conferences, watched videos, listened to tapes and CDs, and worked with a mentor.

Then I eagerly implemented what I learned about goals, plans, the law of attraction, dreaming big, setting an intention, leadership, personal development, passion, determination, accountability, and smashing through obstacles.

After seven years, however, instead of mountains of money, all I had were mountains of debt. Instead of success untold, I was frustrated beyond belief at my inability to create the results that were €œguaranteed.€ I constantly questioned what I was doing wrong. Why wasn’t it working for me?

It wasn’t until I interviewed 21 self-made millionaires to find out how and why they did what they did that the answers became clear.

The Mistaken Role of Goals

I was surprised to learn that very few of these entrepreneurial millionaires had written goals, or even had goals€ at all. Most of them weren’€™t out to accomplish something specific, but rather were moving through life simply following each next step that seemed logical at the time. There was no overarching vision or destination in mind for most of them.

In fact, with the exception of a few, becoming a millionaire was almost accidental, an unintended side benefit of something else they were doing.

In addition to learning that despite not having solid goals and plans these people created amazing success, I learned that work – good, hard, honest work – is the most forgotten virtue in the success literature. None, I repeat none, of these millionaires expected immediate results, and none of them got where they got by being lazy and waiting for good things. They worked hard at whatever they were doing because it’s simply part of who they are.

What About Obstacles?

I also learned that instead of smashing through obstacles, there are other ways to move forward. When something didn’t work, the millionaires didn’t call a committee and do a post-mortem to figure out how to fix it, they didn’t have to “face their fears,€ or confront deep-seated anxieties that might be holding them back. They just tried something else.

To a person, these millionaires didn’t seem to be bothered by failure and just looked at it as one way not to do something. They kept trying different things until something worked.

You Can Go Your Own Way

And one of the most valuable things I learned: there is no one right way to create success. There are as many ways to skin a cat as there are cats, and the path that works is the right one for you.

Not one of these millionaires doggedly followed the experts’ advice concerning goals, passion, dreams, mentoring, accountability, and all of that. Ironically, some of the millionaires don’t even know who the success experts are!

These millionaires got where they are by working hard no matter what they were doing, taking life as it came without grand plans or visions, trying different things until something worked, and pursuing their unique path to success.

By interviewing 21 self-made entrepreneurial millionaires I learned that success isn’€™t as predictable as the books, tapes, and experts would have you believe. Instead, I learned the truth.

Author’s Bio:
Brandon Pipkin is the author of 21 Questions for 21 Millionaires: How Ordinary People Create Extraordinary Success. After years of searching for success and not finding it, he interviewed 21 self-made millionaires to learn how and why they did what they did. He shares his findings and the real life stories of these 21 successful people in their own words in his book. Visit www.21for21.com to learn more. You can follow Brandon on Twitter as @21for21com.

 

Thank you, Brandon, We always need more success motivation!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

5 Compelling Business Reasons to Carpool to Work

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Paul Ellett

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5 Compelling Business Reasons to Carpool to Work

We’ve all heard those in the eco-climate field tell us about the dangers our cars are using and that we must act now, and we might all be sick of it. There is only so much talk about “being green” that we can handle at any one time. This is why many dismiss car-pooling as one of those options that are always discussed but never so seriously. I mean, who would want to share their car with someone who they only occasionally speak to at the copier at work, right?

Wrong. There are in fact several compelling reasons why carpooling or car-sharing to work is a viable way to travel. Whether you share a ride either each day or a few times a week, it makes solid sense and can grow your business and professional career to do so. Keep reading to find out more.

1: Strengthen Relationships

Because workplaces see many people from various backgrounds come together every day and interact regularly, there can often be little in the way of common-ground which can make for awkward lift-conversations or lunchtime conversations. If you’re in a job for the longhaul, change this outlook now! You may even find that you have a lot more in common with particular individuals than you originally thought;whether it be material things like sports, or deeper circumstances like lifestyle. This bonding can make team-projects or exercises that much easier and smoother. Additionally, if we have someone with which to coordinate with to get to work, we can teach ourselves to be more careful with how we manage our time, if we know someone else is relying on us.

2: Company Incentives

If you do take part in carpool schemes within your company, you may be able to apply for petrol-incentives or have these reimbursed in return. Ask your supervisor, human resources representative or even boss about this. This may be possible if your company pays for public transport travel costs for some employees currently. If you can show that you can save money, the person who you speak to within your company will be more susceptible to that as everyone is looking to save where they can.

3: Your Boss

Some people find it hard to stand out from a crowd which can be a killer when it comes to promotions in a large company. It can be a case of really being able to present yourself on a one-to-one basis rather than in a group or during the general workday. If you can arrange something with your boss, then it might be a grand opportunity to let them get to know you. You might find some common ground you didn’t know you had, and show them qualities that don’t make themselves so clear otherwise. Carpooling can be a lot less formal than being in the office too. If your boss can see from these daily interactions that you are capable, you’ll be more likely to be considered for projects and promotions.

4: Share the Stress

Often road-rage arises from a fear or frustration that we’ll be late for work, but why? Probably because we’re scared that we’ll look inferior to our colleagues and be knocked down the totem pole. If we’re late often, then we can often feel like we’re the only one in the world where we shouldn’t be and it can gain unwanted attention from those higher up if a frequent occurrence. It makes sense that if we’re late with someone else, we share the brunt of this stress and are less likely to feel so on edge that we’re running late. The company we get from having someone else with us in the car, can distract us from stressful situations we would otherwise focus on. It also makes sense that if more people carpooled, there would be less traffic on the road in certain areas, like heavily-congested motorways which join cities to surrounding areas.

5: Can’t Drive?

Often the jobs we apply for depend on how easy or possible it is to travel to it each day. This can limit the options available to us which impacts how we make a living. You may also wish to consider what happens if your circumstances change for the short-term. What if you’re found guilty of a drink driving offense and are temporarily suspended from the road? What if your own car is off-the-road due to repairs? Are you taking any medication which makes it difficult to drive or that requires you to stay away from heavy machinery of any kind? Can you get to work via public transport or would it be easier to speak to someone about carpooling? Will it save you money if you do this? In a large company there should be at least a few others who travel the same route as yourself; you just need to find them. Carpooling may be your only viable option to get to work and save money.

Author’s Bio:

Paul is working with a firm of drink driving solicitors in London and across the UK, who defend those who have been caught speeding, driving while under the influence etc.