• ChannelNet
• Strobl & Sharp, PC
• University of Michigan, School of Kinesiology
• Huron Valley Chamber of Commerce

Dr. Jeff Horowitz, professor of Movement Science

(Movement Magazine Winter 2013) The numbers spent on obesity are mind-boggling. In 2011, cash registers rang up $58 billion in revenue for the diet industry according to Marketdata Inc. Plus. The Institute of Medicine reports another $190 billion dollars is spent annually in the U.S. to treat obesity-related illnesses.  Read the full article

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s ‘dog years’ comments resonated around the table at a recent Brighton Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Snyder was there to speak about the State of the State speech he gave less than 24 hours before. Chamber members are predominately small business people. We live the dog years work life every day, cramming four years worth of work into six months.

“He (Snyder) adds value,” said Michael McManus, President of Micro Works Computing, Inc. My other table mates agreed. Many remarked that in terms of work ethic and passion, Snyder gets a big thumbs up.

The points of view on Snyder’s 2013 commitment to transportation were not so unanimous. (Read more)

Make sure your message punches through

Communication tactics like publicity, referral networks, and special events are popular because they create buzz in the real world. In fact, 90 percent of word-of-mouth happens offline or face-to-face. Your content—both spoken and written—is critical to spreading the word about your business.

Here are 3 key points that will help you spread the word farther and faster.

1. Select the right words

Boil down your information to the important key messages (3-5 maximum). Repeat, repeat, repeat these messages in all you do. Consistency is key to helping people remember what to say about you.
In the online world it’s common to visually analyze and represent the most used terms in a website by using a tag or word cloud. There is a web application called www.wordle.net that allows you to do the same thing for any written communication. All you have to do is copy and paste in your text on their form. It’s an easy way to see if your key message is punching through in all your materials.

(Listen to the narrated presentation that was given to a small business group.)

1. Make your content easy to share

Words aren’t everything, your actions and nonverbal cues also send a message. Be real and generous in all that you do. It resonates with people and supports what you say. If you say your business has a personable approach, then people expect you to behave in a personable way.  A good example comes from a Milford, Michigan realtor, Gail Bailey. She loves to cook and she frequently gives baked goods to people that she wants to develop a relationship with.
Communicate at an 8^th grade level and purge the industry jargon from your everyday language. If someone doesn’t fully understand what you are saying, or if he/she feels they have to explain your business too much they won’t feel comfortable sharing about you.

1. Be memorable through story telling

Develop a personal library of stories based on customer accomplishments. When you create your story make sure you have a beginning, middle, end, and punch line. The punch line is the results you achieved for your customer.  Stories are more memorable; therefore more easily shared. Here is one of my examples:

• (Beginning) Our client, a mobile phone provider, wanted to position its product as safe and generate general awareness.
• (Middle) We staged a one-on-one basketball game between a professional basketball player and a Michigan State Police officer at a media event. The basketball player had to talk to on the phone when he played the officer. We used the event to share safe driving tips with the press.
• (End) Being competitive, the basketball player threw down the phone because he couldn’t win and talk on the phone at the same time.
• (Punchline) The press loved it and we got a lot of news coverage. Our best support came from the Michigan State Place who endorsed the mobile provider’s safe driving tips.

Best wishes to you with generating your own positive buzz.

Joan

Lately, several small business owners have shared their Facebook frustrations with me. Many of their frustrations stem from a lack of planning on the front-end of the process.

There is far more to developing a social media presence for a business than setting up your profile and making status updates. In fact, it’s dangerously easy to create a Facebook page. It is dangerous because you can find yourself facing a negative—and potentially viral–public relations situation in seconds.

To ensure you start your Facebook business page off on the right track, try these 5 steps.

1)       Have a strategy

It’s important to think through your posting guidelines and the goals for your page, especially if you are delegating the posting to someone else. Some of the questions you will want to answer are:

• Do you want to endorse other businesses and community organizations? If you do (it is a good idea!), do you want to be selective about who you promote? Some social service agencies are very political in nature.
• How will you handle negative remarks or complaints?
• Do you want to use the page to generate sales, leads, or just create awareness?

 2)      Inform and protect your customers

Make sure you clearly tell people the key information in the “About” section (business name, industry, address, phone number, and short description). Don’t leave your wall open to the wild, wild, west. Develop community guidelines for your fans so you can delete inappropriate content without coming across like a dictator and protect yourself from any liability. Your guidelines can be as simple and short as a few sentences. If you are in a heavily regulated industry, or have an audience that is more adult you may want to create a line-by-line list of Do’s and Don’ts.

3)      Proactively drive traffic—don’t wait for drive-bys

Hang your sign up on the information highway and add your Facebook direct link to your website and online business listings (e.g. Google Places). Offline make it easy for people to join your page by using a QR code, a bar code that enables people to take a photo with their Smartphone to go directly to your page. You can create a QR code for free. You can add the QR code the same way you put any image on your business card, brochures, or ads.

4)      Make Friends—it’s not all about you

A successful Facebook business page strives for engagement—quality of conversation versus thousands of “Likes.” Of course, we all want millions of “Likes” but it is more realistic for a small business to hundreds or a few thousand. Your page is a way for you to generate online buzz, which helps retain customers and attract new customers. To get the conversation started, send a special invitation via email to your customers and friends, invite your newsletter subscribers, and seek out your business partners. When anyone joins your page, reach out and talk to them directly on their page. Promote your fans’ interests and they will more than likely promote your business.

5)      Create calls to action using other Facebook features—Get results

Unlike a personal page, a business’ Facebook page is about the bottom-line. It’s a great way to generate leads and for some, actual revenue. Rotate your cover photos and use them to promote different services or to link to more information on your website. You can also create sub-pages and expand your information or set-up a form to capture information. Sub-pages are a great way to add your catalog, display a library of videos, list business accreditations, or to provide a coupon to drive traffic to your website or brick and mortar store.

Have fun,

Joan

Giving is easy

Come have a beer and buy a $5 raffle ticket for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to the State Bar. Every penny raised from the raffle will go to providing food and tools for the Detroit students in the YouthBuild program. All donations are tax deductible.

About YouthBuild

The Youth Build program serves 18 – 24 year old high-school dropouts from low-income families and teaches them construction skills. YouthBuild is one of the many programs administered by SER Metro-Detroit. SER is a 501(c)3 organization with a year-over-year high performance record

in the skills training and placement of individuals into unsubsidized employment in the private sector. YouthBuild is one of Detroit4Detroit’s partners. Detroit4Detroit is a movement of passionate citizens, each committed to leading the fundraising for a community project in Detroit. 100% of the funds raised go to the project of your choice, providing a direct line of sight to their real world impact.

Why this group?

Frequently, students (78% graduate) in the program receive job offers but they can’t take the job because they don’t have the tools! On average students start out at the 5^th grade education level. They work hard to get their high school diploma and a trade certificate against the odds.

The term “poor” is not adequate enough to describe many of the student’s living conditions. Many go hungry for varying reasons. About 20 percent of the students are living shelters, which means they miss the meals while they are in class. Others live in equally difficult situations as their search for a place to sleep ends up being a drug house or a friend’s couch. Consequently, they have no place to store or prepare food.

These students are already giving back themselves! In addition to the traditional Construction and GED classes, trainees volunteer for Earthworks, The Greening of Detroit, UNI, and Latino Family Services. Learn more.

Can’t come?

Donate online now. All donations are tax deductible and 100% of your donations (less credit card fees) will be used to buy tools.

How will the money be spent?

The money will go for food (50%) and tools (50%), which will be purchased from Home Depot or a similar store. If you have extras of these tools or don’t use your tools any more, please feel free to bring them. Students need:

• Utility Knife ($3.94)
• Tape Measure ($8.77)
• Gloves($1.98)
• Safety Glasses ($8.97)
• 16 Pocket Carpenters Tool Belt ($60.80)
• Bostich Steel Framing Hammer ($25.98)
• ComboSquare ($9.98)
• Kobalt 12 Piece Screwdriver Set ($28.58)

Referral networks actually do have a handshake that forms their foundation, but it’s no secret. The primary purpose of the marketing group is to help members grow their business through—

• passing qualified leads
• education on how to network for leads

The pact:  members commit to using each other’s services as much as possible and to serve as a quasi-sales force for one another. Everyone in a group agrees that only one person per professional specialty can join. People who are successful in referral groups are the type of people that are good at mining social capital.

For insights on how to reap qualified leads from a referral marketing group, view  the below presentation that I recently gave to a Huron Valley Chamber of Commerce group.

The groups have their pros and cons. Members of Business Networking International (BNI), the largest business networking group and referral marketing organization, realized $3.1 billion in revenue last year. Across America, chambers of commerce and other groups sponsor referral network groups because they are effective.

The biggest con, really, is for generalists; as you are limited to only promoting your specialty area. For example, if another member is a residential real estate broker, a real estate broker that handles both residential and commercial accounts may only be able to promote their commercial services.

The secret to the success of any referral network group is not the one hour meeting they commit to attending every week (or in my case, every other week). The meeting mainly holds people accountable and provides a formal process for passing referrals.

The secret is that while a referral network is about generating business, it is ultimately RELATIONSHIP focused. It takes time—on average 6 months—to develop relationships to the point where you get a lead. Sure there may be low hanging fruit, a gold nugget in the river so to speak, because luckily you joined right when someone’s family needs estate planning and you are an estate planner. More often than not, leads start producing after you have developed your social capital.

You don’t have to be a social butterfly and good at small talk. The key is to be authentic and to work it!

Aerial view of Detroit at night

(This post originially appeared in the Huffington Post Detroit.) On August 20th, panelists from 12 small Michigan-based technology and marketing companies met with U.S. Representative John Dingell at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor. The meeting purpose was to discuss the small business perspective of Michigan’s technology issues and economic growth. It was great to personally hear that half of the companies are hiring. Not so great to hear–many are having a hard time finding talent and our federal and state policies are expensive.

The co-hosts of the roundtable were Google, the Small Business Association of Michigan, the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center, and the Michigan chapter of SEMPO, a global non-profit organization for search engine and marketing professionals.

The roundtable’s three strongest themes were:

1)    Michigan is a great place to start a business and we need to support our own businesses

2)    Savvy entry-level tech talent is hard to find

3)    Government needs to take some important actions

For some perspective, according to a recent White House National Economic Report on small businesses and entrepreneurs, 28 million small firms employ 60 million Americans, half of the private sector workforce. These small firms are heavily skewed towards technology-focused industries. The opinions of the leaders at the event are a reflection of a very large and important slice of the economy.

Michigan is a great place to start a business

Overwhelmingly, small-sized companies (employees under 300) said Michigan offers many positives for entrepreneurs. There was a strong request for more promotion of the Mitten’s great business benefits. Participants put low-cost real estate, quality engineering talent, creativity, and a family-friendly environment in the state’s pro column. Not mentioned—but important to note—is three Michigan cities rank in the nationwide top 10 for growth in several sectors.

Yan Ness, CEO of Online Tech, asked Dingell for aid. “We need help with economic gardening, growing our home-grown Michigan businesses instead of wooing foreign business to come to Michigan. Michigan is a great place to work and live. I can tell you Silicon Valley is not compatible with raising a family,” he shared.

Savvy entry-level tech talent is hard to find

Dingell agreed with Ness’ assessment and said other markets admire Michigan’s engineering talent. Yet, there was a persistent discussion theme about talent deficits in new professionals. Tom Beck, president of Enlighten, explained what many outlined, “We need talent with creative ability that understands the big picture and strategy. They also need to be able to work across disciplines. For example, a good new hire knows how to develop and design a website, program flash, and understand business.”

Another issue mentioned at the end of the event is the lack of females in the technology fields. I was one of only two female industry representatives.

Government needs to take some important actions

Policy was a hot topic that Dingell also actively discussed. There were three areas of concern:

• Internet (remote) sales tax
• Patent laws
• Online customer data collection

Internet and mail order non-compliance with the Michigan sales tax has been a problem for years. It is a serious loss of $141.5 million in revenue for Michigan and is a disadvantage to local businesses that have a physical presence and pay their state sales tax. The Michigan Legislature needs to pass House Bills 5004 and 5005 to equalize the marketplace.

To the dismay of the many companies present that are getting hit financially by frivolous patent suits, Dingell told the attendees to forget about updating patent law and to use trade secrets instead. The 57-year congressman advised those in attendance that the patent courts lack expertise and move extremely slow. “Technology changes so fast, you will still be in court and the technology will be outdated.”

President Obama’s newly approved America Invests Act was touted by the administration, in part, as a way to help entrepreneurs avoid litigation. I guess we can forget about that recent legislation.

Dingell also gave what seemed to be an unsympathetic ear regarding the expenses the failed system is costing many of the small business panelists saying, “I don’t mean to be insulting, but $750,000 is nothing.” Perhaps on an individual basis, this isn’t much to our federal government. However, the aggregate dollar impact is probably in the hundreds of millions. And, this amount can break a small business. This mindset isn’t what we need to move the economy forward.

Another very complicated policy area is data mining and consumers’ desire for greater control of their personal information. Everyone recognized the many economic benefits of effectively using mined data. However, many at the table also want to protect their own privacy. If businesses and policy leaders aren’t able to collaborate and resolve consumer concerns surrounding the collection of consumer data, there could be harsh federal repercussions at the end of this year. Pending legislative action could cost many businesses—small, medium, and large—hundreds of millions of dollars.

Pure Michigan: the next Silicon Valley

Linda Girard, Founder and CEO of Pure Visibility, Inc., summed up the panelists’ mood at the end of the day, “We (Michigan) can be a model for the U.S. in the area of digital ethics. We can be the next Silicon Valley. We just need to work together to make it happen.”

I hope we do it.

There are numerous social media outlets. Which one is right for you? Image from Web Design Hot’s social media icon library.

As a business owner, are you feeling like you are left behind because you aren’t active in social media? Before you rush into setting up a profile and start tweeting, posting, linking, and sharing, think about how social media fits into your marketing plan. Is it the right channel for your business? If so, which social outlet is the right one to reach your customers?

Once you answer these questions, you will be able to lift-off your social media outreach with  more success. This morning, I spoke to small business owners/entrepreneurs about how to get started in social media. The attendees wanted to learn how to start incorporating social media into their PR and marketing outreach and how to improve on their current efforts. Here is the presentation I shared, Social Media 101: Engaging and Connecting with Customers.

The above slideshare deck has information on:

• The top 4 social media outlets
• Practical tips and insights about:
  • Ethics
  • Etiquette
  • Engagement
  • Time Management
  • Content Management
• Measuring social media success

Click here for another great resource on social media management and measurement. This google doc offers insights from people on the social media front lines who participated in Ragan Communications’ first Twitter Chat.

Happy posting and tweeting!