Most people start with an idea and then ponder the question about what type of entity type should I start with for a new business? This post is more about when you decide to start a new business rather than “if” you should start anew business. We will reserve the tax implications to a CPA who can adequately provide advice about this subject, however, if you want to start small and grow big, use the Sole Proprietorship. Beyond that, the following links are available, mostly for free, to those who seek to advance their business in the digital space.

Sole Proprietorships can be constructed with minimum efforts and with very dollars, which should be better spent on marketing your business in order to make your first profitable dollar!

Texas Sole Proprietorships can follow these easy steps to start your business (most states follow a similar path to creating a business):

1.      You need a plan and financials, and a forecast to predict your success, and to measure it.

a.       www.sanantonio.score.com – see “Templates & Tools” templates

2.      Decide on a name.

a.       Simple, yet conveying your product or service idea

3.      Register the business name as sole proprietor:

a.       Sole proprietor – with your County Clerk of Courts

b.      Doing Business As (DBA) is filed to ascertain you can use your name

c.       Bexar County Clerk http://gov.bexar.org/dc/Locations.html

                                                               i.     
Paul Elizondo Tower
101 W Nueva Suite #217
San Antonio, TX 78205-3411
(210) 335-2113

                                                             ii.      $21 cash for filing, $6 Notary fee and you get a certified copy

4.      Register the business name with Texas Secretary of State:

a.       Limited Liability Corporation with SOS Direct

b.      www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/sosda/

c.       Doing Business As (DBA) is filed to ascertain you can use your name

5.      Request an IRS employer ID number.

a.       Establishes a separate Social Security account for your business

b.      Get your EIN online www.ein-gov.us

6.      Request a tax certificate for the Texas Comptroller.

a.       You need this to pay sales tax to the State

b.      http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/01-forms.html#Resale

7.      Open a business checking account.

a.       You’ll need proof of identification

                                                               i.      Federal EIN

                                                             ii.      LLC Articles of Incorporation/Certificate of Formation

                                                            iii.      DBA Certificate

                                                           iv.      *Texas State certified Articles of Incorporation for corporate entities

8.      Get your business cards.

a.       Logos should be simple and convey your product or service

b.      http://www.vistaprint.com

9.      Insurance and bonding? Talk with your local Independent Insurance Agent

10.  Employees?

a.       Register with Texas Unemployment Commission

b.      You’ll need a process for payroll – software, bookkeeper or CPA

11.                       You’re ready to start selling! Good luck.

 There are many considerations for your marketing plan. Should you decide that it is prudent to market through the digital or Internet channel, and then we’ve included some ideas for you to increase the chances of your success.

STARTERS GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Demystifying social media just means that you’ll gain a little knowledge in areas you may not be familiar with yet. We hope this guide is helpful in getting you started with your efforts to integrate social media marketing into your existing ad campaigns and marketing platforms.

SOCIAL MEDIA SITES TO HELP YOU INCREASE YOUR REACH AND INTERNET AWARENESS

FACEBOOK – create an account: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

The idea is to create a Fan Page to help brand your company, expand your Internet reach, create awareness, engage potential customers, and convert them into clients. A client who recommends you and refers people is the ultimate cheap marketing acquisition!

If you want to go viral, and then add a Facebook advertisement within your budget to drive traffic to your websites for contact information, increase Likes on your Fan Page or drive traffic to a landing page for converting visitors into clients…

Add the Facebook LIKE or RECOMMEND button that you find on Facebook written in HTML, XML or iFrame language, and add it to website or Fan Page to encourage people who visit to recommend you. Your goal is to get your Facebook commenters to visit your website or Landing Page to convert them into clients.

Check out this easy, beginner guide to Facebook by Hubspot: http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-ebook/how-to-use-facebook-to-grow-your-business/?source=20111227-email-l-facebook-intro-guide-2011

Blogging or posting to Facebook should be done at least 10 – 20 times per month, and done at the beginning of the day or end of the day so more traffic can read your posts. The news cycle on FB posts is about 2 -3 hours.

TWITTER – create an account:  https://twitter.com/signup

If you’re able, align your Twitter Username to your business name, product or service. Twitter’s purpose is to utilize short posts or Tweets to promote your business, service or product.

Tweet (post) as often as you are comfortable with – 1x /day is ample. Tweets generally do best (think 15 seconds of fame and communication life cycle) during the business day in your time zone.

Your Tweets should achieve redirecting consumers and fellow Tweeters to your website and your Facebook Fan Page, or a Landing Page you have set up to receive Twitter seekers.

Reweet your Friend to increase awareness across this social site, and awareness for your company.

Of course everyone says make the topic relevant, so try to make it concise (140 characters) or less and meaningful to the readers. Including links to other sites is encouraged. The news cycle on Twitter posts is about 30 minutes.

Check out this easy guide to B2B Twittering by OPTIFY: http://www.optify.net/guides/twitter-for-business-the-ultimate-b2b-guide/?optify_r=EMAIL&optify_rd=T4B%20Guide

YOUTUBE – create an account:  www.youtube.com/create_account

Google owns YouTube, so this takes you to Google to create a YouTube account. When marketers speak about viral, the way to make it spread across the Internet is to use video, the most powerful conversation and buzz tool on the Internet.

You need a YouTube account to post video, preferably 3 minutes and less relating to topics for your business, products and services. Use your other social sites such as your company blog, Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter to link the conversation to the YouTube videos. The news cycle on YouTube video depends on the success of the video and your links to it.

LINKEDIN – create an account: https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join

This is the site to be on for business. This is where networking pays. If you think about it, the influence measured across all platforms and sites is about how many people you reach, and that react to your messaging. Be sure to link your website, blog, Twitter and Facebook on your complete Linkedin profile. 100% profiles will generate 100 – 200 visits per day based upon which keywords you use in defining your profile.

Besides your personal professional profile, have all employees do the same, and don’t forget to fill out your company profile on Linkedin in order to be found! Success from Linkedin posts means the news cycle is during business hours and lasts up to one business day.

AGGREGATION SITES TO HELP YOU MANAGE FEWER POSTS ACROSS THE INTERNET

HOOTSUITE:create an account: hootsuite.com

Gather your social sites together at Hootsuite and reduce the number of times you need to post. Helps you schedule messages for a fee.

Schedule your Facebook posts and Tweets easily with this software.

SEESMIC- create an account: https://seesmic.com

Updates social networks for free: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Flickr, MySpace, Tumblr, Digg and the list goes on…

SOCIALMADESIMPLE – create an account with free trial (paid site): www.socialmadesimple.com

Aggregates your major sites and coordinates the posts through their site – this provides single-point management, however, you still have to create the content so you can hire someone, or have an employee do this as opposed to pay for aggregation.

MONITORING SITES TO HELP YOU MANAGE YOUR INTERNET PRESENCE

GOOGLE ALERTS – create an account: www.google.com/alerts

Alerts take the form of emails for news, blogs, and all your keywords. This will help you deal with any “negative press” you get from Internet testimonials, or other mentions on the Internet.

SOCIAL MENTION: create an account: www.socialmention.com/

Alerts and metric to help you understand what you’re providing by way of Internet content and how others react to it.

TWEETDECK – create an account: by Twitter www.tweetdeck.com/login

Instantly manages all your sites at a glance, if you don’t mind the second-by-second updates. You can schedule a post on Tweetdeck as well.

ANALYZING SITES TO HELP YOU MANAGE DATA, INSIGHTS & ANALYTICS

These companies will help you understand what the data means: Oracle, SAP, AnalyticBridge, Google Analytics, Predictionimpact, & Radian6

FREE WEBSITE GRADERS

1. UpCity SEO Report Card – Ever wonder why we’re so tool-obsessed? Well, we offer a couple of tools of our own that we happen to think are pretty sweet. Not to toot our own horn or anything, but our free SEO Report Card provides you with some in-depth details about how well your site performs compared to your competition. Get feedback on your rank, link building, on-site SEO and more. Give it a shot. We promise you won’t be disappointed!
2. UpCity Local Report Card – Yeah, we talk a lot about the importance of local SEO. But we’re doing more than just talking with our free Local Report Card, which gives you a critical overview of your local visibility, with a rank analysis and insight into your local directory listings. Combine this report with our SEO Report Card for a broad overview of your online search visibility.
3. HubSpot’s Marketing Grader – HubSpot’s Marketing Grader looks at your website, social media presence, blog activity, email marketing campaigns, analytics and even mobile responsiveness. Another worthy report for keeping tabs on your efforts and whether they’re paying off.
4. Open Site Explorer – This free tool from SEOmoz provides in-depth data on your inbound links, your domain authority, page authority, total links, total domains linking to your site and more.
5. The Reaction Engine – The Reaction Engine offers a free report analyzing your website’s URI against a specified key phrase. Get a content summary including keyword density and total word count for the various page elements, find out your ranking and how many pages you have indexed on Google and Bing/Yahoo, and much more.
6. Pear Analytics – Pear Analytics’ Website Analysis Tool analyzes your site to determine your Alexa Rank, whether you have a site map, meta description, PageRank, page load times and much more. The results are provided in lists of things you should fix immediately, things you can fix over time and things for which you’re in the clear.
7. Nibbler – Nibbler provides scores on accessibility, user experience, marketing and technology along with key takeaways and points for improvement.
8. CrawlerFX – This tool analyzes the on-page factors contributing to your search rankings, including your Google PageRank, Domain Authority, Page Authority, inbound links, social media mentions, external links, keyword page density and much more.
9. SEMrush – Get a free instant report analyzing your organic keywords, your biggest competitors are in organic search, search engine traffic, ad keywords and ad effectiveness and more. All of this is delivered in an easy-to-understand visual format—pretty impressive for a free tool.
10. WebSiteOptimization.com – WebSiteOptimization.com offers a free tool to monitor your page load speeds. Simply enter your URI to calculate page size, composition, and download time—and get free tips on how to make it faster.
11. SEO Workers Analysis Tool – This easy-to-use tool offers an analysis of the page elements which are important to SEO, such as meta descriptions, title tags and more. For each element, you’ll get info on why it’s important, whether it’s relevant and within range and useful alternatives for some of the more outdated page elements. You’ll even get an analysis of the most relevant keywords and key phrases for your page.
12. SiteReportCard – Check for meta tag usage, find misspelled words and broken links, find out where you’re ranked in the SERPs, check link popularity and keywords and more with SiteReportCard’s free analysis tool.
13. My Site Grader – Get a free, in-depth analysis of your website’s visibility and rankings, along with useful tips to improve both. You can also compare your site to up to three competitors using MySiteGrader.
14. Analytics Checkup by Loves Data – Analytics Checkup by Loves Data is a free tool designed to help you get more out of Google Analytics. The tool checks your Google AdWords tracking, accuracy, goal setup, Site Search setup, default index page and more.
15. WooRank – WooRank analyzes your site and provides a list of top recommendations, such as write more content, build more backlinks, use more consistent keywords and other tips that will improve your search rankings. The tool analyzes your visibility via traffic, social media, mobile optimization and on-site SEO elements, such as titles and descriptions.
16. SuperMedia – Simply enter your website URI for a free report analyzing whether you have all the important SEO factors in place, including a site map, Facebook fan page, site description, keywords and more. You’ll get an overall score between 0 and 100, and you can download the PDF report for easy reference later.
17. SEO Sorcerer – This report covers 19 core SEO test groups, more than 90 base metrics and hundreds of combinations for an in-depth summary and analysis of your site’s performance. You’ll get a search engine overview with data on where you’re ranked, a social interaction report analyzing your social media presence, HTML & CSS standards validation and much more.
18. SitemapDoc – Find out where you’re ranked for certain keywords quickly and easily with this free tool. Simply enter your URI and keywords for an instant report of the top 64 results and find out whether you’ve made the list.
19. eMarketing4us – This free website analysis gives your site an overall grade between A and F, along with recommendations on areas you need to focus on to improve your score.
20. ReviewMyWeb – Enter your own site along with up to three competitors for a comparative analysis. Get an idea of where you stand on Google, Yahoo, blogging, social news, PPC and more.
21. Impulse Creative – Find out if your site is search-engine friendly, what domains are linking to you and other on and off-site ranking factors that are affecting your visibility with this free analysis from Impulse Creative.
22. SEOptimer – Enter your URI for your home page or any subpage to get recommendations to improve SEO. Get a list of specific actionable items, an analysis of your text/HTML ratio, a breakdown of your heading tags and bold text, internal links and more.
23. Web SEO Analytics – Get some essential stats on your website with Web SEO Analytics’ free tool, which provides your Global Rank, PageRank, domain links, domain trust, number of backlinks from .gov and .edu sites, the number of pages you have indexed in Google and Bing and more.
24. Alexa – Alexa’s free audit tool lets you enter your site URL for an instant report with your Alexa rank and the total number of incoming links to your site. Click on the number for a list of the top 100 sites linking back to you and on your domain name for detailed traffic stats, including an audience snapshot with demographics and more.
25. W3C Markup Validator Service – Is your markup up-to-date? If you’re using outdated markup, you could be affecting your website’s usability, search-engine friendliness and even mobile compatibility. Check your markup validity in HTML, XHTML, SMIL and MathML, or use W3C’s other free tools to evaluate CSS markup and other coding languages.

OTHER SITES THAT MAY BE OF HELP TO YOU

SKYPE – http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/, lets you communicate across the Internet for Free or for a fee, depending on users.

ANIMATO - http://animato.com, let’s you add photos to create a slide show, or video.

FOURSQUARE – https://foursquare/com/v/setup/, let’s you check-in at each location, and build a network of friends who frequent the same locations, or invite your friends to network.

USTREAM – http://www.ustream.tv, let’s you add video by category.

WORDPRESS – http://wordpress.com, let’s you create a free blog (link it to your website), create a website and they will host it as well.

CLIKRIX – www.clikbrix.com, to get QR codes to promote your product and services.

KLOUT – www.klout.com, scores your Internet social activity.

PEERINDEX – www.peerindex.net, scores your Internet social footprint.

SOCIALOOMPH – www.socialoomph.com, Twitter on steroids. This site can schedule, reuse, track keywords, views and mentions, auto-reply Twitter, and other cool stuff.

CREATE REACH – LIST YOUR BUSINESS WITH: Yelp, Yahoo, Google Places, MapQuest, CitySearch, YellowBot, Local.com, WhitePages, Superpages, Google+, Plaxo, MySpace, AOL, Dunn&Bradstreet, Manta, and others…

CREATE BUZZ – PUBLISH FREE NEWS RELEASES AT:www.prlog.com, or paid syndication at: www.prweb.com and www.articlesbase.com

STAY CONNECTED – create reach with news sites and discussion boards: StumbleUpon, Digg, Disqus, Quora, Ushi, and others….

A FEW MARKETING SERVICE AND CONTENT CHAMPIONS: Marketo and Hubspot are Internet service companies to help you, for a fee, with solutions to search engine management (SEM) and it’s marketing babies SEO and SMM.

A FEW INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER/EMAIL AUTOMATION CHAMPIONS: Constant Contact, Eloqua, 123Greetings, and Lyris are Internet Service Providers to help you with email capabilities if you need to send more than one at a time for prospecting, loyalty, nurturing and contact management.

A FEW CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT CHAMPIONS: Sugar, Salesforce, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Omniprise, BPMonoline, InfusionSoft, & ClaritySoft.

A FEW PAYMENT SYSTEM OPTIONS: hostmerchantservices.com, paysimple.com, heartlandpaymentsystems.com, intuit.com, Paypal.com, paymentonline.com, 2checkout.com, pcworld.com & securepaymentsystems.com.

A FEW COMPANY AND WEBSITE TRUST CHAMPIONS: Better Business Bureau, National Federation of Independent Businesses, truste, & Verisign.

A FEW COMPANIES TO HELP YOU FIND YOUR DOMAIN NAME, AND HOST YOUR CHOICE: Hostgator, GoDaddy, & InternetHosting.

A FEW SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) SITES TO HELP YOU ENHANCE YOUR WEBSITE RANK AND AUTHORITY (Getting found on the Internet search):

1. FREE – Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool: A great resource for exploring keyword possibilities. Make sure to understand the different between broad match and exact match and also consider that this is a PPC tool. The number of estimated  searches are those conducted for a phrase, not estimated unique searchers.
2. FREE – SEO Quake: A great free extension for Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari. Gives quick access to key factors such as PageRank, position, age, etc. for the site appearing on a search results page. When on a site, more information is available such as quick links to diagnose issues, a link for following links for quick recognition, etc.
3. $99/month – SEOmoz: A whole slough of professional-grade tools make this worth the price of admission. Tools cover everything from links to onsite to social media.
4. FREE – Copyscape: The free version lets you check a page on your site to see how often it’s been copied (and if you rank well it probably has been). Also good for testing upcoming copy for potential issues.
5. $99/month – RavenTools: A full suite of SEO, link building, social media and advertising tools. It doesn’t quite match the SEOmoz suite for pure function but the reporting abilities have some advantages.
6. FREE – SEO For Firefox: A free Firefox extension from SEO Book. Along the lines of SEO Quake but different data sources.
7. FREE – XML Sitemaps: A free XML sitemap generator.

A FEW LINK BUILDING TOOLS TO HELP YOU CREATE LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE:

Overlap – SEOmoz and RavenTools are listed under SEO tools but much of their suites are dedicated to link building.

1. ~$50/month (there is free access but it’s not overly useful) – Majestic SEO: Offers some very useful tools for tearing apart your competitor backlinks. From comparing multiple competitors to finding niche link hubs to break down individual domains into very thorough data, this is one of my go-to tools when I’m researching competitor backlinks.
2. FREE – Blekko: We were all sad when Yahoo! retired their link counts. Blekko is a solid backup with the classic link: command.

A FEW DEVELOPER TOOLS FOR THE MORE SKILLED:

1. FREE – Web Developer Toolbar: This Firefox extension gives you quick access to a number of useful functions such as turning on and off aspects of a page (images, scripts, etc.) Quick access to website verification tools, ability to outline elements on a page such as table cells and much, much more.
2. FREE – Webmaster Tools: Find errors on your site, broken links (both internal and external) and so much more.
3. FREE – Firebug: This Firefox extension allows you to look at any page on the web as usual or select specific elements and see what code (including lines in style sheets) is responsible for the appearance of that element. As you select different areas on the web page, Firebug changes the code displayed. Great for isolating issues and reviewing competitor’s code.
4. FREE – CSS Validator: A free W3C tool that validated your CSS for compliance.
5. FREE – Markup Validator: A free W3C tool for the validation of your code.
6. FREE – WAI (Accesssibility) Validator: Easily the most difficult of the validations this tools helps make sure your site complies with accessibility standards. If nothing else, you’ll end up with virtually perfect code if you can pull this off.
7. FREE – Xenu: Run a crawler over your site and find all your broken links.
8. FREE – Redirect Checker: Check the status of a redirect and make sure it’s delivering the right response.
9. FREE – Page Speed Test: Test the speed of your page and get suggestions on how to improve it. You can also compare the results with another site.

A FEW CONVERSION TOOLS TO CONVERT VISITORS TO YOUR WEBSITE:

1. FREE – Google Website Optimizer: Run A/B tests free with this tool from Google.
2. FREE – Google Analytics: It’s not possible to get into all the details and features here save to say, it’s worth reading up on all that it can do and poke around and test all the functionality. Every time I do, I find fun new ways to look at visitor data.
3. $59/10 heatmaps – Attention Wizard: Gives an algorithm-generated heat map of your page. Good as a first stop when you’re looking at a redesign or A/B testing.
4. $9/month – Crazy Egg: Produces a heat map of your pages based on user behavior such as clicks, scrolling, etc. and can break it down by traffic source.
5. $99/month – ClickTale: Record visitors and watch how they interact with your site.
6. $39/visitor – User Testing: Send visitors through your site and listen to them interact. Visitors will record their visits following your directions and provide feedback on what they like and don’t like. A great tool during a redesign.
7. FREE – Wirify: A fun tool that turns any web page into a wireframe. For $6 more you can buy a credit that makes the wireframe editable.
8. FREE – Five Second Test: Visitors land at a snapshot of your site, view it for 5 seconds and then answer questions. With the free version you’ll have to earn tests by viewing the pages of others. They have paid services from $20/month.

A FEW CONVENIENCE TOOLS TO HELP YOU WHEN YOU HAVE MORE TIME AND EXPERIENCE:

1. FREE – FireFTP: It’s an FTP client built into the Firefox browser. Effective and very convenient.
2. $99/year – Advanced Web Ranking: A highly customizable ranking report generating software. I’ve tried many, this is my favorite.
3. FREE – Search Status: Gives access to PageRank on the fly but also, with the click of a button gives fast access to Google caches, Trends, related links and more.
4. $12.95/month – MetroFax: There are many Internet-based fax providers out there, I’m just listing the one I use. Far better than the typical fax scenario.
5. FREE – Domain Tools – Quick and easy access to domain information including registration, server details and location and some basic SEO information.
6. FREE – Character Count: When you’re crafting titles and descriptions you need to stick to the right lengths. I generally write them directly into the tool so I know as I go how many characters I have to “play with”.
7. FREE – Archive.org: View old copies of the web. Ever wonder what Google looked like back in 1998? Click here and wonder no more.
8. FREE – Fireform: Firefox form filler. Saves a ton of time.
9. $78.66/year – HMA: Not the perfect proxy solution but an extremely good one at the price. Great for seeing exactly how rankings appear from different locations on the fly or running systems as though they’re from another IP address in a different location.
10. FREE (single project) – Basecamp: A client management, communication and productivity tool. It’s one thing to do all the work, it’s another to report that you’ve done it and know that anyone from your company (or your clients) can find that information easily.

A FEW MORE CONVENIENCE TOOLS TO HELP YOU WHEN YOU HAVE MORE TIME:

Social Media Tools

1. FREE – Tweet Deck: A good piece of software for organizing your Twitter profiles.
2. FREE – Twellow: A directory of Twitter users to help you find people in related niches faster.
3. FREE – Twitter Feed: Used right, this service allows you to automate things like

Forums

1. SEO Chat: Always lots of folks around to help though it’s rankings in the SERPs, also add a lot of new people who may be less experience but still hazard a guess.
2. High Rankings: A great forum and Jill (Whalen) tends to hang out there a lot to weed out the crud.
3. Black Hat World: I’m not suggesting you join the dark side but these folks know a few tricks that you should probably know about too. Being aware of what others may use against you can be extremely valuable. They do also chat traditional, Google-sanctioned strategy as well.
4. Digital Point: This forum has been around for ages and has almost 50,000 active members. As always, you have to watch who you listen to but if you’ve got question, ask here and you’ll get answers.
5. Web Pro World: An active user base and large array of subjects being discussed.
6. Adobe: While this isn’t an SEO forum, pretty much all of us use one Adobe product or another. Questions get answered quickly here.

News and Blogs

1. Search Engine Watch: I’m not an employee of Search Engine Watch but I am a biased author. That said, it’s my first go-to when I’m looking to find out what’s going on in the search world.
2. Google’s Blog: The official blog of Google. Get news from the horse’s mouth.
3. Bing Blogs: Believe it or not, Google doesn’t have 100 percent market share. Bing’s blogs are a good read too.
4. Webmaster Radio: Too busy to read? Webmaster Radio plays live radio geared to webmasters and Internet marketers and the podcasts can be downloaded for convenient later listening.
5. Matt Cutts: The personal blog of Google’s Matt Cutts. While his opinions are rightfully tainted with a Googley spin, there’s always wisdom in them; even if you have to read between the lines.
6. Search Engine Land: Another good daily news source.
7. SEOmoz: Apparently they get a hat tip for tools as well as information. Rand Fishkin and the SEOmoz team do a solid job of giving good advice that’s easy to understand.
8. Search Engine Journal: Up-to-date news that crosses a lot of related territory.
9. SEO By The Sea: The search world from a more technical perspective. From patent analysis to viewing “what may be”, Bill Slawski does a bang-up job of summarizing the areas many of us get glassy-eyed thinking about.

Social Profiles

1. Google+ - Matt Cutts: Google’s Head Of Web Spam
2. Twitter – he’s on there too.
3. Google+ – Search Engine Watch: Their official G+ page.
4. Twitter – Search Engine Watch: SEW’s official Twitter profile.
5. Google+ – Search Engine Land: Their official G+ page.
6. Twitter – Danny Sullivan: Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land.
7. Twitter – Lee Odden: CEO of TopRank Online Marketing
8. Google+ – SEOmoz: their official G+ page.
9. Twitter – Rand Fishkin: CEO of SEOmoz.
10. Twitter – Andy Beal, CEO of Trackur
11. Twitter – Brian Eisenberg: Well-published author and conversion optimization guru.
12. Twitter – Ralph Tegmeier: A top notch black hat SEO better known as fantomaster.
13. Twitter – Mike Grehan: Global VP Content, Search Engine Watch, ClickZ, SES Conference and Expo.
14. Twitter – Barry Schwartz: CEO of RustyBrick, Executive Editor of Search Engine Roundtable.
15. Twitter – Dave Davies: CEO of Beanstalk SEO (I had to include myself somewhere in the list)
16. Twitter – Daron Babin: Co-founder of Webmaster Radio.
17. Twitter – Dave Naylor: Head of Search Marketing at Bronco.co.uk.
18. Twitter – Brent Tabke: Founder of WebmasterWorld.
19. Twitter – Ann Smarty: Seasoned SEO and owner of MyBlogGuest.com.
20. Twitter – Brent Payne: Owner of BaldSEO (aptly named).
21. Twitter – Jonathan Allan: Director of Search Engine Watch.
22. Twitter – Aaron Wall: Founder of SEOBook.
23. Twitter – Todd Mailcoat: SEO Consultant and all-round solid guy.

The list is based on web statistics gathered by Ranking.com.

1. YouTube (Video sharing)
2. MySpace (Social networking)
3. Facebook (Social networking)
4. Beebo (Video and social networking)
5. Black Planet (Black online community)
6. Tagged (Social networking)
7. Imeem (Social network for sharing music, video and photos)
8. Hi5 (Social networking)
9. Orkut (Social networking)
10. Digg (Sharing and discovering links)
11. LinkedIn (Professional networking)
12. Ning (Create your own social networking community)
13. Stumbleupon (Sharing and discovering links)
14. Friendster (Social networking)
15. Buzznet (Pop culture social networking)
16. Multiply (Media sharing)
17. Twitter (Microblogging)
18. Cyworld (Social networking)
19. Netlog (Blog based social networking)
20. Livejournal (Blog based social networking)

A FEW THOUGHTS FOR BUSINESS EVENT MARKETING:

Companies choose to participate in an event for various reasons. Small companies may want the

exposure that a live webinar can provide. A large, global company may need the face-to-face interaction that a tradeshow affords. Whether small or large, companies usually participate for one – or more – of four universally compelling reasons:

1. Branding and awareness

2. Generating leads

3. Engaging with prospects and existing customers

4. Educating attendees

Webinar Platforms

You can choose from numerous webinar platforms, and each offers unique value. Consider what you are looking for in a webinar provider (there is more about choosing a webinar vendor in a later section on online events)—whether it is price, ease of use, or customer service, do your research.

Citrix

Offers both GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting. GoToWebinar is for conducting online events with up to 1,000 attendees. You can use this web-based service to conduct webinars, trainings or any number of other online events delivered to participants anywhere around the globe, and tap into unlimited usage for a flat monthly fee. GoToMeeting is Citrix’s web conferencing software integrating web, audio, and HD video conferencing for meetings and collaborations of up to 25 people.

ReadyTalk

This audio and web conferencing tool can help you plan, implement and execute a smoothly run webinar. With flexible pricing options and features, you can choose a full-service package with operator assistance or a cost-effective self-service plan with unlimited web conferencing and broadcast audio. ReadyTalk is focused on keeping technology easy to use so you can focus on your event.

Adobe Connect

You can use this all-in-one platform and web conferencing software to develop and deliver any number of different interactive online events like webinars, events and virtual meetings. And you can host up to 1,500 participants. By collecting registration information and looking at behavior during the webinar itself, Adobe Connect helps you get a full picture of your attendees.

Webex

Webex allows you to collaborate with your colleagues through easy to use productivity tools. Webex offers a platform for online events, webinars, meetings, and you can also use it to deliver online training. Webex solutions can help you increase productivity and also provides a top rated mobile app for iPhone, Android, iPad, and Blackberry

Virtual Event Platforms

Virtual event platforms enable an interactive gathering on the web, allowing participants to be a part of a tradeshow, meeting, conference or any other event without ever leaving their office. They can be a combination of technology and service, but however it’s configured, it’s essential

that your chosen platform is intuitive for both you and your attendees, accessible from any device, and able to support the number of attendees you plan to target.

ON24

Offering leading webcasting technology, ON24 empowers you to deliver virtual events that can last hours or days, or that can live on for weeks or longer in an on-demand form. ON24 also has webinar functionality, making it a robust platform. ON24 even makes it possible to put on

a virtual 3-D trade show that makes attendees feel like they’re attending a live event from the comfort of their offices or homes. The vendor touts its support for everything from webcasting to virtual events and virtual environments, supported by robust reporting and analytics.

INXPO

Provides the ENGAGE product for virtual events, allowing you to deliver presentations, videos, and content – and allowing attendees to interact with your team live – all from a single spot. The

company promotes its award-winning VX platform, which monitors behavior and delivers insight into attendee response. The platform also helps bridge the gap between physical and virtual events, such as by making it possible to stream live content from your physical events into your virtual ones.

Unisfair/InterCall

InterCall provides many functionalities to increase collaboration in a virtual environment. Their virtual events platform provides easy to create branded and interactive environments that help

increase marketing pipeline through a more engaged audience. InterCall’s Virtual Engagement Center provides a full service platform that enables customizable solutions and metrics.

A FEW WEBSITE BUILDERS TO HELP YOU WHEN YOU NEED A PROFESSIONAL TO BUILD IT FOR YOU:

SentConcepts / 210-793-8643  Located in Helotes, Texas

We are a complete full-service marketing agency. This means we drive your business model for profit. This may include road maps, marketing plans, website custom design that increases traffic and ranks above competitors. Besides being great designers, we are also fanatical about Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Paid Search Management, and Custom Programming, all leading to converting more of your visitors into customers. We can assist with graphical support for logos, artwork etc. to enhance your business brand.

Redhead Labs / (918) 932-2882 / Contact Us
Located in OK, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Selling online never looked so good! Redhead’s personable and responsive team of ecommerce experts build stunningly successful websites. Sleek, Fun, Elegant or Earthy – Redhead creates online ambiance. We offer full-service internet marketing solutions to complement your store design. Services include: custom template design, PSD implementation, custom navigation, store migration, SEO, marketing consulting, social media and SO much more! We welcome agency partnerships. Build your brand or create an entirely new brand with Redhead. Contact us today to discuss your ideas.

Coalition Technologies / (888) 800-9101 / Contact Us
Located in CA, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Coalition Technologies specializes in building BigCommerce websites that are highly Search Engine Optimized. We provide ongoing web focused PR, conversion optimization & marketing campaigns that help your site achieve #1 rankings in Google and capture the customers, transactions and revenue that go with it. Our 14 years of design experience brings you smart, easy to use ecommerce websites that accomplish your goals. Our services include: Web Design, Custom Programming, SEO, Social Media Marketing and the most advanced marketing techniques available. Click on our portfolio link above and you’ll see we do superior work at reasonable prices.

Frooition / (310) 205-2539 / Contact Us
View Website | View Design Portfolio

With over 100,000 online retail customers world wide, we have the reputation of designing and delivering world-class designs. At Frooition, we know how to create highly engaging web designs that drive traffic and increase sales. We’ve also developed the markets best BigCommerce to eBay integration. With a Frooition eBay store design, you can export your entire product catalog directly
from BigCommerce to eBay.

Contact us today for a free consultation and to learn how you can dramatically increase your exposure on eBay and Sell More Online.

New Dynamx Partner Account / 516-605-1189 / Contact Us
Located in NY, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

New Dynamx specializes in designing and implementing strategic BigCommerce websites that consistently convert traffic into sales. Our customized packages and services allow clients to define their budget based on immediate needs, but also give them the flexibility to envision long-term goals. From product pages and customer newsletters to full-scale ecommerce platforms and social media campaigns, we provide BigCommerce-optimized tools that maximize results. Simply put, our websites deliver, quickly and effectively. Our expertise also includes SEO marketing, API development, social media campaigns, graphic design, corporate branding, and IT support. Check out our extensive portfolio, browse our BigCommerce packages, and call us today to discuss your project.

Merchant Corner / 1-800-701-8480 / Contact Us
Located in Quebec, CAN – View Website | View Design Portfolio

The web sites we make, make a lot of money. For established
businesses we offer a range of high-quality services that increase
your profitability immediately: SEO, Custom Design, Data Migration,
Order Fulfillment Optimization, Inventory Management and Personalized
Training. Read our case studies on our website to understand how we
do what we do.

Marketing Media / (855) 430-7491 / Contact Us
Located in Quebec, CAN – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Marketing Media is a creative team of entrepreneurs, designers and marketing specialists whose mission is to help promote your small to medium business and increase sales through web and interactive marketing strategies. We handle your e-commerce design and implementation from A to Z. Design, programming, social media integration, SEO, PPC campaigns and consulting. We provide high end custom designs only. Sorry, we do not work on existing templates.

Flair Consultancy Limited / +44 (0)121 644 1110 / Contact Us
Located in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom – View Website | View Design Portfolio

“Having over 20 years of combined experience in internet development, we understand how the web should work within your business model. From planning stages, through development, right up to how we market your website to new and existing customers, we make sure that we provide a suitable solution for our clients and their business.

We advise the correct solution for the right environment. We recognize that there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” solution, and as such, each project we undertake is meticulously planned and managed with our client in mind.

We specialize in branding and eCommerce.”

KPCommerce / 973-270-0336 / Contact Us
Located in NJ, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

KPCommerce.net is a family-owned, home-based professional provider of highly affordable BigCommerce design services. We help you get your business online fast and offer fantastic customer service with our professional web design, logo art, SEO/SEM and even offline marketing services. Whether you need a minor touch-up or a completely customized site, our designs are attractive, user-friendly, and most of all, something that you will be proud of as you continue to build a brand for your online business. Let us be your partner in this journey towards online success.

Above&Beyond / +61 1300307390 / Contact Us
Located in QLD, AUS – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Above&Beyond is an award winning web design agency based on the Sunshine Coast of Australia. We have over 10 years experience building custom designed websites and specialize in BigCommerce design. We have affordable solutions that cater to all budgets and can turn your design ideas into reality to make your store look exactly how you want it. Many of our clients love the honest, reliable and professional manner in which we dedicate ourselves to our work. We’ll deliver on time, within budget and above & beyond your expectations. Stop reading, contact us now to get started.

PIXEL PRODUCTIONS INC / 541 773 3351 / Contact Us
Located in OR, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

A Result Driven Website Design Company:
We are a full service Website Design and development company, which means we offer much more than simply a website. Our clients choose us because of our unique ability to blend creative graphic design and dynamic website functionality with effective website marketing strategies. Because of our unique ability to seamlessly integrate these services, we achieve amazing results for our clients.

Third Eye Graphic Solutions / 1-888-623-3160 / Contact Us
Located in IN, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

We are here for you! Our #1 goal is to help your business succeed. Specializing in Yahoo/other platform crossovers, we can recreate or redesign your current online presence. New to online sales? We have you covered too. In addition to E-Commerce, we also offer a wide range of web/graphic design services. SEO/Content, Social Marketing, Web Graphics and Print Media are just a sampling of the other services that we handle. BigCommerce and Third Eye Graphic Solutions, the sky is the limit!

EpicFlowers / (888) 498-5361 / Contact Us
Located in Or, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

We are a company dedicated to helping the online gift industry. We specialize in the floral industry but have built our knowledge and proprietary code around eCommerce sites whose purpose is to sell gifts online and offline.

Creative Media Farm / 786-245-5030 / Contact Us
Located in California, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Our unique expertise of email and online marketing, web design and creative copy writing shapes us as the ideal business partner to take your online store to the next level. Our plans range from starter designs for one-man companies, to 18-months roadmaps that help your business increase revenue by getting the most of all BigCommerce’s outstanding integrations with additional services such as Mailchimp, Google Website Optimizer, Ebay, facebook and many more. Ask for a free consultation!

Scripti Labs / (512) 994-4237 / Contact Us
Located in TX, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Need store design maintenance? We specialize in hourly custom work!
At Scripti Labs, we work with BigCommerce store owners everyday and are dedicated to providing the look and functionality your site needs for the lowest cost around. We provide hourly site tweaks, install third party templates on BigCommerce, and do full everything-included store designs. Call or email us today to get a quote on anything from a quick site tune-up to your new superstore.

Cart Designers / 1-888-480-CART / Contact Us
Located in TX, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

CartDesigners exists only as a specialized design firm built to scale with the needs of BigCommerce customers. We work closely with the sales and support teams to ensure our services and standards of quality meet what you would expect from a partner of a company like BigCommerce. Our services range from full scale design, design odd jobs, product import/population, social marketing strategies, web content layout & authoring, and merchant accounts. We have qualified staff who have years of specialized experience on all things cart-related.

E-CartCustoms / 1-832-582-7531 / Contact Us
Located in Texas, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

E-CartCustoms leads the pack as a design firm dedicated specifically to the needs of BigCommerce customers. In addition to top rated professional design we offer an array of services proven to help your business succeed. We have a reliable track record, maintaining client loyalty since the inception of BigCommerce. You can count on E-CartCustoms to provide you outstanding design, exceptional customer service and an unmatched dedication to the success of your online store.

Webtise Ltd / 0845 073 3331 / Contact Us
Located in Cheshire, GBR – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Webtise is a UK top eCommerce and eMarketing agency. Our focus is to generate the highest numbers of conversions, not just high levels of traffic.

We are behavioural marketeers who understand the buying process. How a potential customer starts their search, how they navigate sites and what they look for when they want to buy.

With 18 staff we have a great mix of designers, developers and eMarketeers.

We also own a portfolio of our own very successful eCommerce sites so feel free to call us up and discuss anything about creating you an online business.

Be A Part Of / 1-888-992-2761×701 / Contact Us
Located in On, CAN – View Website | View Design Portfolio

API Specialists, Affiliate & Loyalty Discount Programs, Custom Reports, Better E-Bay Posting, Automated Back-Ups, POS Integration and Customized Programming to suit! Be A Part Of is the experienced API company of choice and yet still designs, develops and promotes websites with our 10+ staffed mid size firm. Simply put, we have become “Team Possible” and will always find a solution for your requirements – just give us a call or shoot us an email and let’s discuss your unique situation. 1/2 Price API Integrations for the Month of April.

Search Placement Marketing / 1-888-275-5301 / Contact Us
Located in FL, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Online marketing for Ecommerce storefronts is our primary focus. One of the most difficult parts of SEO is creating a search engine friendly design. We offer full service SEO or consulting to new and existing sites. With a proven track record of success in highly competitive industries, we have helped hundreds of businesses maximize sales via search engine optimization, Google Adwords management, and Social Media. Contact us for a free analysis of your industry, online competitors, & brand.

Sumall – Free real-time ecommerce analytics. MadNoodle – Traffic driving marketing engine. Get listed in the largest BigCommerce Gift Card marketplace. iContact – Easy email marketing software that integrates with BigCommerce. LegalZoom – Online legal documents to help start your new small business. oLark – Free live chat that integrates with BigCommerce. Visual Website Optimizer – Easy A/B testing that integrates with BigCommerce. Outright – Dead simple small business accounting. Kamplye – Collect feedback from your website visitors easily. Zopim Live Chat – See the products your visitors look at – in real time. Batchbook – The social CRM that helps you manage your contact network. SurveyGizmo – Create surveys and collect customer feedback easily. GoingUp! – The smarter way to manage your web analytics and SEO. Pixmac – Stock photos and for all your print advertising and website needs. KISSinsights – Give customers a way to tell you what they need. SwagLove – Promotional swag for online businesses. Reward customer loyalty. Moo – Design and print business cards and more. Bravenet – Free tools and plugins to improve your website.

Compliments of BLUE PLANET MARKETING™

Dave Howell (Score Chapter 0164 Mentor) (210) 618-6566 Cell

dave@bpmktg.com  bpmktg.com

Ever had a business owner ask you why their website wasn’t ranking on page 1 of  Google search? Try constructing an effective company website blog and integrating it with social media to gain rank and authority for your website because consistent posting over sporadic posting appears to be winning the consumer engagement battle.

Worthwhile content is one of the best ways to improve traffic to a blog. You also need to promote you website and blog to improve traffic – let people know it exists. Consumer engagement usually occurs when the blog writer entices the reader with catchy titles and teases the reader with bullets or pictures. It’s always a good idea to use open-ended questions to pique the reader’s thought processes.  

After you receive a comment on your blog be sure to reply and interact with those readers kind enough and interested enough to respond to your blog.

In today’s interactive age it is paramount that you integrate your blog across other media for maximum exposure. Nowadays it’s possible to blog and have a blog take on a life of its own – increasing the likelihood of showing up by search engines and occupying the search “real estate” on the Internet.

You’ll know you are blogging successfully when you get hundreds of website traffic to visit your blog, and hundreds more to comment. You should consider installing spam tools like ASKIMET to keep from being overwhelmed by professional “black hat” SEO specialists (spammers). However, you know you’ve achieved success by measuring your blog with two key indicators - traffic and reader engagement.

There are numerous ways to promote a blog.  Try linking your blog to emails and correspondence or press releases. Here are 10 more suggested ways to improve traffic and engage with readers:

• Intriguing headlines
• Interesting images 
• Use short “list” posts when possible  - a “Top 5” or “Top 10”
• Be the “source of the source” – include interviews or remarks from 3^rd parties
• Use news sharing (Reddit, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.) to share blogs
• Use social networks such as Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, to share blogs
• Include your blog posts in email marketing campaigns
  
• Comment on other people’s blogs, and leave a URL to follow back to your blog
• Provide an really simple syndication device (RSS) to subscribe by email to your blog
• Invite other guest bloggers

People respond to relevant content

Bottom line for all of us to engage consumers and convert them on your website is provide relevant content, reply to comments and syndicate the blog to keep the conversation going.

If you need help with perfecting the company blog, contact Blue Planet Marketing, 210-618-6566.

“Contribute to a Cause”

Blue Planet Marketing has declared May as their company “Contribute to a Community Cause” month. We are all part of a larger, connected family; thus, a community. Regardless of how large or small your city is, you’ll find people you know working hard to make life better for someone else. The idea is simple enough, volunteering time or money or both are doable for most people. After all, the average contribution to church according to the latest IRS statistics is about $2500.00 per year, so most families find a way to give.  Giving has beneficial health factors, and imagine what it does for people in need! In May you should prepare to align yourself with your favorite cause, your passion and give your time or money to the charity of your choice.

Volunteerism is an ancient and global phenomenon. Since the beginning of civilization, a fundamental human value has been people helping people and, in the process, helping themselves. The act is familiar even where the word “volunteer” is not. Most cultures have names to describe it:

• Baranguay in the Philippines;

• bénévolat and volontariat in France;

• gotong royong in Indonesia;

• harambee in Kenya;

• shramadana in India;

• al taawun wal tawasul in many Arab States.

Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity and is intended to promote good or improve human quality of life. In return, this activity produces a feeling of self-worth and respect; however, there is typically no financial gain. Volunteering is also renowned for skill development, socialization, and fun. It is also intended to make contacts for possible employment. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster

• The verb volunteer was first recorded in 1755 from the noun, in C.1600, “one who offers himself for military service,” by M.Fr. Voluntaire. In the non-military sense, the word was first recorded during the 1630s. The word volunteering has more recent usage—still predominantly military—coinciding with the word community service. In a military context, a volunteer army is a military body whose soldiers chose to enter service, as opposed to having been conscripted. Such volunteers do not work “for free” and are given regular pay.
• If a student is engaged in some sort of volunteer work, taking a gap year after high school or during college is also one form of volunteering. Career break is also considered to be a form of volunteering, until involved in a voluntary work.

19th Century

• Prior to the 19th century, few formal charitable organizations existed to assist people in need.
• During this time, America experienced the Great Awakening. People became aware of the disadvantaged and realized the cause for the movement against slavery. Younger people started helping the needy in their communities. In 1851, the first YMCA in the United States was started, followed seven years later by the first YWCA. During the Civil War, women volunteered their time to sew supplies for the soldiers.
• Salvation Army is one of the oldest and largest organization working for disadvantaged people. Though it is a charity organization, it has organized a number of volunteering programs since its inception.

20th & 21st Century

• In the first few decades of the 20th century, several volunteer organizations were founded, including the Rotary, Kiwanis, and Lions club. The Great Depression saw one of the first large-scale, nationwide efforts to coordinate volunteering for a specific need. During World War II, thousands of volunteer offices supervised the volunteers who helped with the many needs of the military and the home front, including collecting supplies, entertaining soldiers on leave, and caring for the injured.
• After World War II, the people shifted the focus of their altruistic passions to other areas, including helping the poor and volunteering overseas. A major development was the Peace Corps in 1960. When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a War on Poverty in 1964, volunteer opportunities started to expand and continued into the next few decades. The process for finding volunteer work became more formalized, with more volunteer centers forming and new ways to find work appearing on the World Wide Web.

Volunteerism is strongly influenced by the history, politics, religion and culture of communities. What may be valued as volunteerism in one country may be dismissed as low-paid or labor-intensive work in another. Despite the wide variety of understandings and words to describe it, volunteerism is made up of some core characteristics. What constitutes voluntary activity is:

 

1.)    That it is under taken primarily for freedom from financial gain or reward, (although reimbursement of expenses and some token payment may be allowed and even recommendable to facilitate access of individuals from all economic backgrounds);

2.)    It is undertaken voluntarily, according to an individual’s own free will;

3.)    Voluntary activity brings benefits to people other than the volunteer, although it is recognized that volunteering brings significant benefit to volunteers as well.

 

 

 

President Kennedy congratulates volunteers.

John F. Kennedy greets volunteers on August 28, 1961

Volunteerism is about people helping, learning and actively participating in communities. Volunteerism has no borders. It is a cross-cutting social phenomenon that involves all groups in society and all aspects of human activity. It can take many different forms, depending on cultural and economic realities of countries and communities. Four expressions of

volunteerism evolved out of a United Nations effort to define and promote volunteerism in 2001:

 

1. Mutual aid in many parts of the world constitutes the main system of social and economic support. It often plays a primary role in the welfare of communities in developing countries, from small informal kinship and clan groupings to more formal associations and welfare groups.

 

2. Philanthropy or service to others is distinguished from mutual aid in that the primary recipient of the volunteering is not the member of the group him or herself, but an external third party, although most people would acknowledge that philanthropy includes an element of self-interest.

                            

3. A third expression of volunteerism is participation or civic engagement. This refers to the role played by individuals in the governance process, from representation on government consultation bodies to user involvement in local development projects. As a form of volunteering, it is found in all countries, although it is most developed in countries with a strong tradition of civic engagement.

 

4. Advocacy or campaigning is a form of volunteerism which may be instigated and maintained by volunteers. It may include working towards a change in legislation affecting the rights of people with disabilities, or the introduction of anti-discrimination measures. Through advocacy and campaigning, volunteers have paved the way for the introduction of new welfare services in the field of HIV/AIDS, have raised public consciousness about human rights and the environment, and have been active in the women’s movement.

Volunteerism takes many forms and shapes. Each type, regardless of categorization is necessary to benefit the overall community. Examples include:

 

volunteers helping after Hurricane Katrina

Volunteers assist survivors at the Houston Astrodome following Hurricane Katrina.

2013 Treefort Music Fest Volunteers

Three of the nearly 300 volunteers at the 2013 Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho.

One of the current uses of volunteerism is to build skills. Skills-based volunteering is leveraging the specialized skills and talents of individuals to strengthen the infrastructure of nonprofits, helping them build and sustain their capacity to successfully achieve their missions. This is in contrast to traditional volunteering, where specific training is not required.

Another type of volunteerism is called e-volunteering or online volunteering; virtual volunteering is a term that describes a volunteer who completes tasks, in whole or in part, offsite from the organization being assisted. They use the Internet, a home, school, telecenter or work computer or other Internet-connected device, such as a PDAs or smartphone. Virtual volunteering is also known as cyber service, telementoring, and teletutoring, and various other names. Virtual volunteering is similar to telecommuting, except that instead of online employees who are paid, these are online volunteers who are not paid.

Micro-volunteering is an unpaid task that is operated via an internet-connected device and completed in small increments of time. It is distinct from virtual volunteering in that it typically does not require an application process or training period.

Environmental volunteering refers to volunteers who contribute towards environmental management or conservation. Volunteers conduct a range of activities including environmental monitoring, ecological restoration such as re-vegetation and weed removal, protecting endangered animals, and educating others about the natural environment. Giant Panda Conservation program in Xi’an and Sichuan, China is a famous endangered animals protection program. Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries conservation program attracts huge foreign support and volunteers.

Emergency volunteering often plays a pivotal role in the recovery effort following natural disasters, such as tsunamis, floods, droughts, and earthquakes. For example, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami attracted a large number of volunteers worldwide, deployed by non-governmental organizations, government agencies, and the UN.

School volunteers are a huge source of manpower for many schools. Resource poor schools around the world rely on government support, or on efforts from volunteers and private donations, in order to run effectively. In some countries, whenever the economy is down, the need for volunteers and resources increases greatly. There are many opportunities available in the school system for volunteers to take advantage of. They can add an experience in their resume and learn foreign culture and language. There are not many requirements in order to become a volunteer in the school system. Whether one is a high school or TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) graduate or college student, most schools require just voluntary and selfless effort. Much like the benefits of any type of volunteering there are great rewards for the volunteer, student, and school.

Volunteering in schools can be an additional teaching guide for the students and help to fill the gap of local teachers. Cultural and language exchange during teaching and other school activities can be the most essential learning experience for both students and volunteers.

A majority of the companies at the Fortune 500 allow their employees to volunteer during work hours. These formalized Employee Volunteering Programs (EVPs), also called Employer Supported Volunteering, and are regarded as a part of the companies’ sustainability efforts and their social responsibility activities. About 40% of Fortune 500 companies provide monetary donations, also known as volunteer grants, to nonprofits as a way to recognize their employees who dedicate significant amounts of time to volunteering in the community.

According to information from VolunteerMatch, a service that provides Employee Volunteering Program solutions, the key drivers for companies that produce and manage EVPs are building brand awareness and affinity, strengthening trust and loyalty among consumers, enhancing corporate image and reputation, improving employee retention, increasing employee productivity and loyalty, and providing an effective vehicle to reach strategic goals.

So, contributing, volunteering helps people who need help, and has side benefits for those who give in the way of self satisfaction, recognition, personal health benefits, or brand awareness and recognition. The idea that corporate volunteering is limited to the Fortune 500 or even the Fortune 1000 is a notion that is erroneous, and fails to recognize the contributions of small to median sized businesses which truly make up most of the companies in America.

 

I recommend cause marketing to most businesses when I consult with owners because the strategy has a very powerful side effect for awareness (reach and impressions) and goodwill. Please make May your month to decide to get your company involved in volunteerism to help your community. Make the strategy work for you and your company by choosing a cause that everyone can support!

Companies can greatly benefit from cause marketing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This is a list of awareness ribbons. The meaning behind the awareness ribbon depends on its color or colors. Many groups have adopted ribbons as symbols of support or awareness, and as a result, many causes often share each color. Some causes may also be represented by more than one color.

Colors and meanings

Ribbon	Color	Meanings
	clear, pearl or white ribbon	lung-cancer awareness; originally clear, referencing air and being too-often unnoticed, but evolved to primarily pearl or white for practical reasons[1][2][3][4] some sources suggest clear or white as a subset of pearl for long-term-non-smoker/never-smoker lung cancer, but there is no evidence of lung cancer organization support for this distinction[5] some lung cancer organizations use different colors or symbols[6]
	white ribbon	multiple hereditary exostoses[7] White Ribbon Campaign (what makes a man a man): working to end violence against women[8] (see also Woman’s Christian Temperance Union) White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood: to ensure that pregnancy and childbirth are safe for all women and newborns in every country around the world[9] (see also Woman’s Christian Temperance Union) to raise awareness for severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) and SCID newborn screening[10] as a symbol of distrust to the official results of 4 December 2011 elections to the Russian State Duma[11]
	zebra-print ribbon	rare-disease awareness[12][13][14] carcinoid and neuroendocrine tumor awareness[15] Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (EDS) awareness[16]
	yellow ribbon	armed-forces return bone cancer / osteosarcoma[17] giving prisoners a second chance at life[18][19] endometriosis awareness[20] craniofacial acceptance (CCAKids.org)[21] remembering Black Saturday Bushfire victims[22] Corazon Aquino’s death suicide-prevention awareness Liver Diseases Biliary Atresia.
	puzzle ribbon	autism awareness[23] child-to-child care and development awareness
	cloud ribbon	congenital diaphragmatic hernia awareness[24]
	grey and blue with blood drop “type 1 diabetes” ribbon	type 1 diabetes awareness[25]
	blue ribbon	transverse myelitis awareness (royal-blue ribbon with the words Transverse Myelitis Awareness)[26] child abuse awareness (solid light-blue ribbon – among certain advocacy organizations, ribbon is sometimes worn as a braided bracelet by survivors of violent physical or sexual child abuse in memory of victims) bullying awareness (usually worn as a silicone band in support and memory of victims) Von Hippel–Lindau disease awareness[27] tuberous sclerosis awareness[28] human trafficking and sex slavery awareness (navy blue)[29] Stevens–Johnson syndrome awareness[30] colon cancer awareness[31] Electronic Frontier Foundation: freedom of speech online[32] Canada‘s National Non-Smoking Week[33][34][35] Blue Ribbon Coalition: responsible use of public lands for the benefit of all recreationists[36] hydranencephaly awareness[37] chronic fatigue syndrome awareness[38] myalgic encephalomyelitis awareness addiction-recovery awareness[39] osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle-bone disease) “Unbreakable Spirit” awareness
	indigo ribbon	targeted individuals (bullying, harassment, stalking, systematic harassment/stalking, etc.)[40][41] MRSA (blue)
	light blue ribbon	dysautonomia awareness[42] twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) awareness (with two daisies in the center for identical twins or three for triplets – may be white, light pink or light blue)[43] prostate cancer awareness (sky blue)[44] support for the 2011 students protests in Chile
	jade ribbon	Jade Ribbon Campaign awareness about hepatitis B and liver cancer[45]
	lime ribbon	non-Hodgkin lymphoma awareness[46]
	blue jeans denim ribbon	genetic disorder awareness[47] (often misidentified as equivalent to rare disease awareness as “about 80 percent of rare diseases are genetic in origin,” implying 20 percent of rare diseases are not genetic in origin)[48]
	purple ribbon	suicide prevention[49] general cancer awareness testicular cancer awareness animal cruelty/animal welfare Crohn’s disease and colitis awareness[50] (however, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) uses orange and blue in its promotional materials)[51] domestic violence awareness[52] drug overdose awareness[53] migraine awareness[54] Spirit Day and victims of homophobia[55] Gilmore Awareness Campaign[56] sarcoidosis awareness[57] lupus awareness[58] Arnold–Chiari malformation awareness[59] fibromyalgia awareness[60] Pagan Pride peripheral neuropathy awareness[61] childhood hemiplegia and stroke awareness[62] cystic fibrosis awareness.[63] Alzheimer’s disease awareness[64] pancreatic cancer awareness[65] Workers’ Memorial Day[66] March of Dimes awareness[67] hidradenitis suppurativa awareness[68] orca whale awareness and protection[69] child neglect awareness and prevention leiomyosarcoma
	lavender ribbon	epilepsy awareness[70][71] craniosynostosis awareness – CAPPSKIDS.org craniosynostosis awareness (CranioKids.org)[72] cancer awareness (all kinds)[73]
	periwinkle ribbon	eating disorders awareness (anorexia, bulimia and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS)) stomach cancer esophageal cancer pulmonary hypertension awareness[74]
	pink and blue ribbon	pro-life[75] genital integrity[76] male breast cancer awareness[77] inflammatory breast cancer awareness[78] infertility awareness[79] infant loss awareness[80][81]
	orange ribbon	free software awareness/advocacy[82] leukemia awareness[16] multiple sclerosis awareness[83] Self Injury Awareness Day[84] malnutrition awareness energy awareness in Nigeria[85] Kidney Cancer Association[86] attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)[87] paramedics support in Argentina[88] reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome[89] muscular dystrophy awareness, Harley-Davidson Charity-Fonds supporting children suffering from muscle disease
	red ribbon	Software Freedom Campaign[90] AIDS awareness substance-abuse awareness (Red Ribbon Week is commonly held in American schools)[91] vasculitis awareness[92] heart disease awareness[93] epidermolysis bullosa awareness[94]
	gray ribbon	borderline personality disorder awareness diabetes awareness[95] (more commonly diabetes is symbolized by the blue circle, as designated by the International Diabetes Federation)[96] brain cancer awareness[97] asthma awareness[97] alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency awareness
	black ribbon	terrorist attacks in Turkey; a sign of mourning for those lost in the terrorist attacks Wiccan/Pagan rights and awareness [98] 9/11 – This ribbon is a sign of mourning for those lost in the 11 September attack mourning and remembrance of the Virginia Tech massacre[99] melanoma awareness[100] black lung awareness death awareness transgender hate crime awareness awareness for suicide, bulimia, anorexia, self-harm, etc.
	pink ribbon	breast cancer awareness[101]
	light-green ribbon	Kimidori Ribbon Project; raising awareness of the practice of parental child abduction in Japan and promoting the introduction of a joint custody system within Japan[102]
	green ribbon	Glaucoma Awareness depression awareness traumatic brain injury awareness and support[103] cerebral palsy awareness and support[103] CMV[disambiguation needed] Green and Blue CMV awareness and support[103][need quotation to verify] aging research awareness[104] celiac disease[105] Lyme disease[106] organ transplant and organ donation awareness[107] kidney cancer (also known as renal cell carcinoma) awareness[108] environmental protection[109] mitochondrial disease awareness[110] pedestrian safety[111] craniosynostosis awareness (varied organizations) bipolar disorder awareness Close Down Green Hill / Vivisection Campaign[112] support our public school students and teachers[113] Tourette syndrome awareness Mental Health Awareness The 26 people (including 20 children) who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012 (the school’s colors are green and white)[citation needed]
	teal ribbon	scleroderma[114] interstitial cystitis and bladder pain syndrome awareness and support[115] sexual assault and sexual violence awareness and support[116] dissociative identity disorder polycystic ovarian syndrome awareness and support[117] polycystic kidney disease[118] gynecologic cancer[119] ovarian cancer[120] myasthenia gravis awareness[121] tsunami victims[84] congenital diaphragmatic hernia awareness anti-bullying awareness military sexual trauma awareness anxiety disorder awareness post-traumatic stress disorder awareness A Million Dollar Gift – AMDG – For The Greater Glory of God[122] trigeminal neuralgia awareness [123]
	teal and white ribbon	cervical cancer awareness[124]
	violet ribbon	Hodgkin’s lymphoma awareness[125]
	gold ribbon	childhood cancer awareness[126]
	silver ribbon	brain disorders and disabilities, disability rights awareness[127] ovarian cancer awareness (Australia)[128] gynaecological cancer awareness (New Zealand) stalking awareness[129]
	burgundy ribbon	adults with disabilities awareness and support[84][130][131] amyloidosis support[132] oral cancer awareness [133] brain aneurysm awareness headaches and migraines
	red and blue ribbon	Haiti recovery and restoration awareness[134] pulmonary fibrosis awareness[94] Noonan Syndrome Awareness CHD (Congenital Heart Defect) Awareness
	red and orange ribbon	Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Awareness[135] Myeloproliferative Disorder Awareness[136] Polycythemia Vera Awareness[137] Essential Thrombocythemia Awareness[138] Myelofibrosis Awareness[139]
	red and black ribbon	atheist solidarity[140]
	red, white and blue ribbon	used in Omaha, Nebraska, after a deadly shooting at Millard South High School (the colors are the school’s colors)[141]
	orange and black ribbon	Ribbon of Saint George; commemoration of World War II in Post-Soviet countries[142][143]
	blue and black ribbon	Concern of Police Survivors (COPS): Support Law Enforcement[144] ocular melanoma (choroidal melanoma/uveal melanoma)[145]
	houndstooth ribbon	Relief efforts in Tuscaloosa and northern Alabama following the 27 April 2011 tornado; color refers to former University of Alabama head football coach Bear Bryant who is symbolic of that area[146][147]
	Olive-green ribbon	in honor of the 65th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi block during World War II; color refer to color blocks Medal for the Defence of Leningrad
	red and gold ribbon	neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) awareness[148]
	purple and red ribbon	chronic migraine (newly established by some migraine support groups)[149]
	burgundy and ivory ribbon	head and neck cancer[150]
	two-tone blue and purple ribbon	rheumatoid arthritis[151][152]
	red with yellow and black stripes ribbon	choking game awareness/advocacy[153]
	purple- and blue-striped ribbon	mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD)[154]

References

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98. ^ “What can you do to stop the continuing persecution of Witchcraft?”. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
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117. ^ “Welcome to PCOSupport”. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
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150. ^ “SPOHNC Homepage”.
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Universal Strategic Planning requires listening

We often speak about leadership and the attribute of vision. In a company, regardless of size, the leader should be strategic in thinking. This type of thinking will help everyone around the leader to align and adhere to the vision, if it is articulated properly. This article is not about communicating properly, it’s about thinking strategically. Creating a corporate global scope then is nothing more than planning and forecasting a 3-year plan, or is it?

I teach businesses about strategic planning, and often times I can recommend a management control plan (MCP) to manage the accountability of 5 -7 annual objectives. These objectives align with the vision, mission and objectives. The forecast, and hence, the budgets also align.  While these steps help, a few pieces that are needed to complete the transformation are: human capital planning, reorganization, unified communication plan, and a marketing plan that all align with the 3-year plan.  Business leaders who blame the economy, and others are not taking repsonsibility. Read more on this situation normal at www.CEO.com.

I will not discuss here how the next level down is accomplished, although I typically recommend departmental action plans and scorecards for accountability at the director level, and the MCP is the senior leader accountability tool that I prefer. This discussion is unnecessary here, because the focus is on the long-term plan for owner equity. I am not saying that directors, managers and supervisors are not important, I am just saying the focus of this article is all about delivering profit for owners and achieving this through strategic planning or vision. In fact, let say that I feel managers not only run the company, but from an execution standpoint, carry the bulk of the corporate weight for delivery of goals and revenue. Managers manage people, the most important asset a company owns.

Human capital planning should go hand-in-glove with forecasting a 3-year plan. In fact the human capital forecast is the key driver fro actual growth.  Assets, the human kind, lead us into the human capital planning required of the strategic plan. Recently, I was asked to redesign the organization from the ground up. This can be an onerous process, because it involves beginning at the line, evaluating the work and matching the job descriptions to the work, without respect to anyone person doing the work. Tie in the KPIs and you have a job description that tells a worker how they fit into the strategic plan! For more information on ERP (human capital planning) visit Ziff Davis’ contact page to sign up for a free white paper.

In a recent situation, I needed to redefine the forecast for a company where I was told that sales was “broke”. In fact, what I discovered was that sales was doing a great job, but the forecast was in error. As an example, someone had omitted the fact that each FTE is only available for work 85% of the time, and the forecast erroneously used a 100% FTE factor for predicting sales. This fact alone altered the trend line for growth by 15% a year. Imagine my conversation with the CEO and Chairman of the Board in explaining we needed to hire x more sales people to reach the objectives or adjust the sales forecast downward L. Hopefully you get the flavor for proper human capital planning!

The next factor I wanted to touch on was a communication plan. Somehow, some companies have separated the PR responsibility from the marketing responsibility. I think this is nonsense, because communicating the company mission in a positive light is PR’s job and this fits smack in the middle of an integrated marketing plan complete with an integrated communications plan. The disparate or disjointed approach to communicating the company brand sends conflicted messages and dilutes the brand. I don’t think I need to go on about this point except to say that as part of the strategic or global plan, senior leaders need to be instrumental in the design of the plan, both externally and internally to sync up marketing and communications. One last point is that employees perennially complain about 3 things: 1.) Lack of communication, 2.) Lack of development opportunities and 3.) Lack of recognition.

Did you notice that #1 is lack of leadership communication? How important do you think a note from the CEO, a newsletter and other communication strategies are to the health and well being of the #1 asset of a company – its people!!! For more information on engaging employees  go to www.CEO.com.

The final factor regarding the strategic and global plan is reorganization. For this point I want to simply say that it needs to start from the top down. Companies tend to hire and then never thin these responsibilities as they change. Further, if senior leaders can’t handle the task of managing 6-8 direct reports you need to find a new VP. What this says is that VP-level reports need to manage 6 – 8 directors, so hire more directors and fewer VPs.

I’ve been through several of these painful downsizings, and while they aren’t fun, they are healthy for the organization. Workers often wonder why 3 workers get laid off instead of 1 VP where the pay is equal (3:1)? They have a great point, so keep in mind the rule for direct reports.

So we’ve discussed why global thinking and strategic planning need to be part of every business, and my hope is that this short article has got you thinking about how and why you might benefit from a strategic plan in your business.

For more information contact Blue Planet Marketing at 210-618-6566 for help.

Philanthropy is necessary for business

It’s settled – old money and newer start up wealthy people give equally. A previous study indicated that new money gave twice as much as old money, but I just wish I had the money spent on these studies to help my non-profit San Antonio Giving! The bottom line nowadays is with the fiscal crash a few years back philanthropy in general has suffered.

I talk from time-to-time with other local or chapter executive directors about their plight and the consensus is the same – it’s been tough. So what’s the fuss over who is giving what? Only so many dollars to go around they say.

Long ago, people like Carnegie encourage successful businessmen to give up most of their fortunes to better society through philanthropic giving to encourage enterprise. Most from the 19th Century and maybe some in the 20th Century would roll over in their graves if they discovered their charities now give to the likes of environmentalism (Pew – oil and gas fortune) or causes diametrically opposed to the way they made their fortunes that their fortunes had now been taken over by people with nary a business experience or entrepreneurial capitalism bone in their body.

SAKnows how to use cause marketing for business to help charities!

I can’t fix most of this complaint, but what I can do is something about it. The something is www.saknows.com. I co-founded, with a like-minded entrepreneur, an e-zine to promote business and you guessed it – charities! With the complaints of the lack of giving during the recession, well I noticed something. Most small business people that I came across in my role as a marketing consultant, failed to grasp the gravity and brand potential of cause marketing which has been around as a strategy for a very long time.

The fix for a blank on cause marketing is to hook em up! Had one client complain of brand issues, and we rolled out cause marketing in a big way – it paid dividends. What better way for you to position your business than to partner with your favorite charity, something you have a passion for. What charities? What better way to raise funds than increase local awareness, and be part of an expense-free fundraiser.

Bottom line here for all of is to get involved to help others. In the end does it really

The staff and writers at SAKnows.com seem to have cracked the code about what’s going on in San Antonio. Moving to San Antonio, like most cities, has some quirks and peculiarities to watch for. Even though San Antonio, Texas was voted the number 7 city in America for job growth by the National Association of Home Builders, we still have issues. For more information about the great city of San Antonio, read the following article written by Kalyn Stralow and published on SAKnows.com.

Surviving SA: A Primer For Newbies

As a transplant to San Antonio, I know that there’s a lot to love about the city. The vibrant culture speaks to my soul, the people are absolutely lovely and I could write a sonnet about joys (and variety!) of breakfast tacos. But after two years in the city, this Northerner-turned-Texan has realized that a firm grasp from the get-go of a few of San Antonio’s quirks could have saved quite a bit of frustration and a lot of hours spent asking, “Why, for the love of our Lord, WHY?”

For the safety and mental well-being of other newbies (because who am I to withhold the keys to success for other non-natives?), I’ve recorded the top four things I wish I had known when I moved here. I had tentatively titled the list “Inexplicable-Things-About-San-Antonio-That-You-Must-Just-Accept-And-Move-On-With-Your-Life,” but I’ve since reconsidered the catchiness of that name.

 

1. “Sure, Aunt Susie, we’d love to take you on the boat tour.” When you first move here, you visit all the touristy places that San Antonio is famous for. And in the never-ending quest of Becoming A Local, you then check those items off your to-do list as “Done.” You plan to now spend your weekends doing hip, local things like frolicking through The Pearl’s farmer’s market. But you forgot something very important. When out-of-town relatives and friends come to visit, you will have to take a trip to remember the Alamo. Every. Single. Time. Help yourself out and skip some of those activities early on and save them for when you’re playing host. Also, just go ahead and watch “Selena.” Otherwise, you won’t fully appreciate any reference the riverboat tour guides make. Trust me.

2. “What is this ‘MERGE’ you speak of?” This is far-and-away the most frustrating one for every transplant. You know what I’m talking about. When San Antonians see a yield or a merge sign, their brains translate it as “come to a full stop immediately.” You WILL get angry. You WILL beat your head against the steering wheel after narrowly avoiding rear-ending the car in front of you. The sooner you realize you cannot change it, and that yelling “You have to be going the speed of traffic to merge!” inside your vehicle only raises your blood pressure, the sooner you can get through interchanges with your life, bumper and insurance deductions intact. No promises about your mental state.

3. The Grocery Stand-Off. Buckle up, this is a weird one. There is an unwritten, unspoken rule when going through checkout at your local HEB. The good people of San Antonio have an expectation that after you put your groceries on the conveyor, it is your job (and ONLY yours) to place the little plastic divider on the belt. I’m not sure why, but if you fail to do so, you are Public Enemy Number One to the people in line behind you. It’s as though the possibility of your veggies fraternizing with their yogurt is the worst crisis, but only YOU are capable of fixing it. It may be some odd offshoot of southern hospitality, but don’t worry about the psychology. Just make sure you handle that divider.

4. Boerne. Don’t even try it. No, I’m not saying, “Don’t go there.” Boerne is a charming and wonderful town. But never, EVER try to pronounce it until you’ve heard a local say it first. Because whatever you think, you are wrong. This also goes for “Blanco,” “Bexar,” “Eagle Ford” and a host of others. The crazy mix of Hispanic, German, Czech and Polish history makes the culture cool, but pronunciation a nightmare. You WILL sound ignorant, and you WILL be corrected. So please, don’t ever get brave enough to try out a road or town name first.

 

Armed with these simple tips, my transplanted friends, I wish you the best as you grow to love and embrace San Antonio. And if a snowflake should fall on the ground here and you are forced to live through the ensuing road closures, reminiscences and status updates, may God have mercy on your soul.

Kalyn Stralow is a (now) local writer and editor who came to San Antonio by way of Ohio, West Africa and Longview, Texas. In other words, as quickly and directly as possible. Kalyn can be reached at kalynstralow@gmail.com.

 

Image courtesy of Flickr, Gavin St. Ours

 

For more information about SAKnows.com, its nonprofit GIVINGSA, or ways to help your fellow citizen of San Antonio, contact Dave Howell at 210-618-6566 or www.bpmktg.com/contactus

Next Job Please, if it Means More Money$

Job hopping has always carried with it some risk. With “tongue in cheek” I say that knowing that the average time for American workers to leave a job has been reduced to a jaw dropping 3 – 5 years depending on circumstances, age group, etc. With the fast breaks from employment, does it help or hurt ones chances of landing that dream job climbing the corporate ladder?

First, let’s settle on a definition of social capital:

 “The network of social connections that exist between people, and their shared values and norms of behavior, which enable and encourage mutually advantageous social cooperation.”
-The World English Dictionary

We can analyze and map our own social capital by evaluating the following suggested excerpt of characteristics courtesy of  “Project of the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University” ~ bbi.syr.edu

• size of network
• density in locality for hiring
• number of contacts
• frequency of contacts
• number of contacts with mother, father, children, grandkids, etc. (face to face or phone)
• reciprocity in social contacts
• community organization membership
• religious involvement
• giving and receiving (life time; current; perceived, actual) [think charity work]

In the summer of 2008 I had an epiphany. After setting in motion a company plan to begin social media marketing, it dawned on me that I needed to build my own personal social capital. I set a goal at that time of 5,000 contacts, which I thought was almost unreachable. Interesting to note that by the end of 2012, I had amassed over 25,000 contacts and followers.

My cache of connections has been built organically without purchasing 100,000 Twitter Followers and any other scheme which requires money, because I never envisioned a following let’s say from China. That’s humorous because I signed up years ago to China’s answer to Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/) called Ushi (www.ushi.com/). Also interesting to note that I do possess a diverse set of 1^st level connections on Linkedin like the UK (#2) and India (#3), both behind U.S. connection (over 7,200 1^st level connections.)

So what do all those contacts really mean now that I have a sizable head start on my goal of building personal social capital? I cant’ say for sure, and I can only speak for myself, so what I am about to share is my view point on this issue at this moment in time. 

“Despite people in their 30s being in demand, a 55-year old with a steady employment history is easier for recruiters to place in a new job than a 30-year-old job hopper, according to an anonymous survey of 1,500 recruiters by Bullhorn, a leading recruiting software company.” This came from a recent article by Vinda Rao of Bullhorn Reach® after conducting a survey on the topic.

The methodology for the survey by Bullhorn was between August 23-28, 2012, Bullhorn conducted an anonymous survey of 1,500 staffing recruiters, corporate recruiters, and hiring managers. More information on the survey findings is available on the website of Bullhorn’s social recruiting product – Bullhorn Reach® – at: http://www.bullhornreach.com/content/resources/main.

Bullhorn was also kind enough to develop an info graphic to explain their survey findings at: http://bit.ly/PL1p9E.

I don’t think the results will startle anyone, and the takeaway is simple – people haven’t changed much in the way they think about work as much as the time spent with anyone employer has been reduced.  A few major takeaways from Bullhorn Reach® include:

Age Does Matter.

·         70% of respondents said 30 somethings are the easiest age group for recruiters to place in new jobs.

·         Respondents also said that there is greater demand for candidates in their 40s than for candidates in their 20s.

·         1% of recruiters felt candidates in their 50s were the easiest to place, with zero percent responding favorably for the 60-year-old age group.

The Kiss of Death. 36% of respondents said that a very difficult time for placement is between 6 -12 months of unemployment.

Is Unemployment a Crime? Recruiters admit that it’s easier for them to place someone with a criminal record (non-felony) in a new job than it is to place someone who has been unemployed for two years. Yikes.

Out Dated Skills. 31% of recruiters said “if the skills [candidates] possess are no longer in demand, it is very difficult to place the candidate.

Fired or Laid Off?

·         78% of recruiters ranked getting fired as the most severely damaging to a candidate’s future employment prospects.

·         2 percent of recruiters felt that being laid off would be the most serious future detriment –

Bottom line for me is that movement between employers has increased dramatically, however, the transition may have something to do with the climate and culture of the workplace in the U.S. where few employers appear to value the skills that employees bring. Even if this is true, a worker is there to do a job for a dollar earned – it’s that simple. It’s a trade off, and a concept I learned from a lengthy court battle a s a contractor – the courts viewed my contracted relationship with 600 year old tort law (Master – Servant). Guess who was the servant?

Any wonder that with the speed of change and innovation, a move away from manufacturing to service and the lack of loyalty that tenure is concept of the past or at least the Boomer generation ay be the last who feel an obligation to stay with an employer.

As a side note, I wonder what this does to productivity? Really. Studies over the last decade indicate that new systems (hardware and software) can impair a company. If this is still true, what does all this job hopping do to company’s ability to achieve the objectives with all these “newbies” on board? We’ll leave that thought for another day.

You can learn more about Bullhorn: Bullhorn Reach: Social Recruiting

www.bullhornreach.com/

Bullhorn® creates software and services that improve the way employees and employers come together. For over ten years our innovations have powered the recruiting and staffing operations of fast-growing start-ups up through the world’s largest employment brands. Headquartered in Boston, with offices in London and Sydney, Bullhorn’s recruiting CRM and social recruiting products serve more than 130,000 customers across 126 countries. Bullhorn® and Bullhorn Reach® are registered trademarks of Bullhorn, Inc. For more information you may also contact: Vinda Rao 617-951-4319 v.rao@bullhorn.com.

]]> http://bpmktg.com/does-creating-social-capital-today-mean-you-can-job-hop-with-impunity/feed/ 10 http://bpmktg.com/does-creating-social-capital-today-mean-you-can-job-hop-with-impunity/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BluePlanetMarketing/~3/goCDZEaLMaM/ http://bpmktg.com/whats-the-rule-of-3/#comments Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:53:47 +0000 Dave Howell http://bpmktg.com/?p=505 What’s the Rule of 3?

How does Rule of the Apply to Marketing?

This blog is about increasing understanding about how the Rule of 3 applies to marketing concepts. Please know that this is a rule of thumb, a guide, not an absolute to operate by.

Most people tend to use the 80/20 Rule to easily understand complex issues. Statistically speaking, and with large enough data, tendencies will come close to this rule. The history of the 80/20 rule comes from one of the three pillars of Total Quality Management in the 80′s, Joseph Juran. The 80/20 Rule came into being as the “Pareto principle” and can also refer to Pareto efficiency.

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80–20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Business-management consultant Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population; he developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas.

It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., “80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients”. Mathematically, where something is shared among a sufficiently large set of participants, there must be a number k between 50 and 100 such that “k% is taken by (100 − k)% of the participants”. The number k may vary from 50 (in the case of equal distribution, i.e. 100% of the population have equal shares) to nearly 100 (when a tiny number of participants account for almost all of the resource). There is nothing special about the number 80% mathematically, but many real systems have k somewhere around this region of intermediate imbalance in distribution.^[3]

The Pareto principle is only tangentially related to Pareto efficiency, which was also introduced by the same economist. Pareto developed both concepts in the context of the distribution of income and wealth among the population.

Are You Ready For Retirement?

I am afraid of (phobia) of retirement. I am afraid of what will become of me. I am afraid that I will become irrelevant.

If any of these thoughts have occurred to you, simply look around at the number of Boomers still in the workforce. This retirement phobia is a bottleneck, choking the Gen X and Gen Y generations, trying to move up in the workplace.

This phenomenon has resulted in large part due to the mortgage abuse, precipitating a financial crises in our Country which spread across the world, almost plunging the entire world into a short cycle of depression-like growth (a dichotomy for sure).

Good news is that the world economy has begun to recover in large part due to a few sectors and industries like energy that continue to see high growth. Thank goodness for this since our own economy is in “Slow” gear and the stock market is propped up by the Federal Reserve all-time low interest rates.

Will this giddy euphoria last, become sustainable and play out over the next few years? Anyone’s guess. The important part is whether Boomers will feel safe, and secure in the knowledge that they can retire.

Financial planning and preparation didn’t seem to be enough, even for the over $250,000 per year crowd, since we all lost about 40% of our 401(k) during the financial crises. For those Boomers of age to retire, I suggest you convert all your retirement plans into annuities now before anything else happens.

Beyond the obvious, Boomers need to grapple with the idea of retirement itself. Can active 60-somethings actually be happy doing nothing, or at least a little something? Can boomers turn retirement into life-changing, passionate creation and innovation? In the last century, the over 60 crowd was responsible for our greatest inventions and innovation, but this now seems to have passed to the 20-something crowd with Internet start-ups, introduced at the the rate of dizzying speed.

If you are a Boomer, and like me you have a phobia about becoming totally irrelevant if you retire, then you may have already decided, like me, never to retire. If this is the case, then how do we step aside for our children to move up in the work place? Answer? Create your own business. Find the passion that drives you.

As an example, I recently co-founded an online magazine (e-zine) with a Gen X’r, and founded a nonprofit to connect business with charity. It all works together and it is what drives me – helping others. So I have found, at least for the moment, something that works for me. I doubt seriously if this will hold my attention, since I tend to lose interest quickly and move onto something new.

My life plan, of course, is to live to be over 100 and change careers a few more times over the next 40 years. What will you life plan be?

Hill Country Ministry Provides Sustenance

The Texas Hill Country is a beautiful place to live, but for those who chose to live here and suffer under poverty, it is an especially challenging location. Many services either do not exist, or those county services are too strapped to provide humanitarian assistance in the far reaches of outlying counties. Counties without a major metropolitan center, whose tax base could otherwise support the programs necessary to assist individuals in poverty, can barely afford to provide many services required for families in poverty.

This is where Hill Country Daily Bread Ministries makes a huge difference in people’s lives.

Since 2000, Hill Country Daily Bread Ministries (HCDBM) has provided food and basic household necessities and given hope and comfort to the poor across an eight-county area in Central Texas. The ministry is not a food bank but does seek to transform lives and help people lift themselves out of the poverty cycle.

HCDBM was founded by David and Agnes Hubbard in October 2000. What began in a garage serving 30 families now serves more than 2,000 families a year out of a 17,500-square-foot rented warehouse complete with cold storage, office space and a fleet of trucks.

“There are no shortcuts on the pathway out of poverty.” — Hill Country Daily Bread Ministries co-founder Agnes Hubbard

The poor located in Kerr, Kendall, Medina, Bandera, Comal, Gillespie, Uvalde and Northern Bexar counties come to expect the provisions and assistance that HCDBM is known for. According to co-founder Agnes Hubbard, “There are no shortcuts on the pathway out of poverty; it is about a long-lasting relationship with Christ and the one-on-one ministry’s mentorship that transforms lives.”

Who are these people in poverty, really? They include the elderly, multi-family households, single mothers, the disabled, children and those who’ve been impacted by economic downsizing (situational poverty). Regional statistics show more than 40,000 individuals live in poverty in rural Texas Hill Country. Estimates peg the number of children living at and below the poverty level at 13,800 in and around the Central Texas Hill Country.

When you visit the ministry facilities located on Industrial Drive, it looks crowded and much like an ant farm. Staff and volunteers are using every inch of the small commercial buildings to train volunteers, mentor kids and receive, package and ship food and supplies to needy families across Central Texas. They work in partnerships with over 100 agencies, civic and community groups and local church congregations. The church partnerships form the core partnerships with HCDBM, and HCDBM acts as an outlet for the churches.

Another ministry mission is “Stand By Me” mentoring for kids. Since 2006 this program has matched volunteer mentors with at-risk youth in search of support, guidance and God’s love. The mission is to spiritually, emotionally and educationally transform lives of Texas Hill Country kids through a Christian mentoring relationship. The Stand By Me program focuses on the students in families participating in the HCDBM program, and mentors offer spiritual, emotional and academic goal-setting and progress. The program also offers a summer academy for academic remediation five days a week for the eight weeks students are out of regular public schools.

An impressive statistic HCDBM boasts is its retention: National averages for mentors is about nine months; however, HCDBM mentors average 36 months in the program. The six-pillar framework HCDBM uses leads mentors and families on the path out of poverty:

• Case Management – ongoing match support and training of mentors
• Summer Camp – Christian camping opportunities for mentored children
• Summer Academy – academic recovery for mentored children
• Enrichment – life skill opportunities for matches
• Celebrations – mentor and mentees recognition and appreciation events
• Family Support- Strong families, strong kids! Families are eligible for HCDBM Family Mentoring Resource Ministry.

For more information or to find out how to make in-kind or financial donations in addition to volunteering, visit http://www.hillcountrydailybread.org, call (830) 249-0025 or contact Communications Director Theresa Black, Theresa.Black@hillcountrydailybread.org.