Yesterday I got a Lands’ End catalog in the mail.  Today I got an ad in my Facebook account saying “become a fan of Lands’ End and get 25% off your order.”  Coincidence? I don’t think so!

Since I watched this quick 4 minute video about social media, I decided I it’d be a good idea to add our social media marketing links to the home page of our company website. Gee, I should have done this months ago!

• Follow me on Twitter 
• Linked In Company 
• Facebook Fan Page 
• Branding & Marketing Blog 
• Social Media Marketing Services

Watch this video and you may be motivated to advance your social media marketing too! Let me know!


Social media, the next wave of business
After watching this video, you may change something about the way you think about marketing, advertising and reaching out to customers!!
If so, here are a couple helpful resources to get started or on to the next level in Facebook:

• From the 11/12/09 New York Times: How to Market Your Business with Facebook including:
  • A Facebook guide for advertisers.
  • Advice on getting started from Mashable.
  • Strategies and a tutorial from All Facebook
• My 8/1/09 post with “how-to” screen caps:  How to Use Facebook for Marketing Your Business

It is Global Entrepreneurship Week November 16 through the 22nd.

I’m planning to see this new movie called TEN9EIGHT that looks at triumph and tragedy about an entrepreneurship program with inner city youth.

Gordon has been involved with them ever since, winning a social entrepreneurship award a couple years ago, and he majored in marketing at Montclair State University. His younger brothers weren’t so lucky. One was killed by a gang member; the other is in prison.

Read the whole article here about America’s Youngest Entrepreneurs in the movie TEN9EIGHT:  Shoot for the Moon featuring the work of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a nonprofit that began in 1987.

I was involved in Kent State University’s Entrepreneurship Extravaganza on Friday and recently learned that Kent State has the only major in entrepreneurship in Northeast Ohio.

Don’t know about you, but I find these kinds of stories extremely motivating. Are you going to see this movie?

Tags: Cleveland, Akron, Start a Business

Over the next few days LinkedIn and Twitter will be bringing business status tweeting (or microblogging) into the next level as they work together.

It looks like you’ll be able to separate the important tweets about business from the more personal tweets about lunch, which has been one of the big negatives expressed about Twitter by business followers. The way to do that is add #in (hashtag or pound symbol with the letter “i” “n”) to your tweets on Twitter when you want them to appear on LinkedIn. You’ll have to go to LinkedIn and activate it.

In the same way, you can add #fb to the tweets you want to appear on your Facebook account and you’ll have to activate it on Facebook.

Likewise I would imagine that LinkedIn will have much more functionality in the here and now. They’ve always seemed a bit behind both Facebook and Twitter with their applications.

For instance, you can only post one profile photo on LinkedIn and a logo for your company. Where’s the video? Photo gallery?

View this video on LinkedIn.com’s blog for more info.

Read the article from the San Francisco Chronicle SFGate: LinkedIn and Twitter partner to spread tweets

When you are developing your positioning statement, do you maximize your competitive advantage over your competition?

Take a look at how Verizon with HTC’s Imagio & Google’s Droid Eris is attacking Apple’s iPhone with AT&T’s cell phone coverage.

How does this apply to marketing your brand?
Does your company have a big, bad competititor? What is it that your company does better that might let you capture a bigger portion of the market share? Perhaps you are more nimble? Better customer service? Will take on smaller clients? Better at delivering service?

Yesterday at the Entrepreneurship Extravaganza at Kent State, I talked with several of the student entrepreneurs who have started and are running businesses.  Funny, in this economy, you’d think starting a business would be almost impossible, but it sure seems these students are on the right track.

Michael Matousek has launched a business called “Flash Notes” that he describes as “like Amazon or Ebay, but for student notes” and is building his college base by expanding to additional colleges and universities beyond Kent State. 

One idea he’s considering for his marketing: heading down to Fort Lauderdale for a “spring break business trip” with his laptop to sign up students from othere colleges on his company’s Facebook group page.  What do you think of that!

Neil Jacobsen is gaining valuable “real world” business experience in helping to start and run “Flash Flix”, an on-campus DVD rental service with a large selection of new release and classic movies for the student population.  

As a senior business student with an IT computer background who is about to graduate,  he’s positioning himself well for the future by gaining real business-running experience under his belt before he’s even graduated!

His company got the initial capital to invest in the movie DVD’s and now offers this on campus service to students.  I’ll bet the students have experienced first hand the struggles of hiring, scheduling, forecasting demand, getting students to return movies, and all the other situations experienced in a “real business.”

Brand new this semester, Laundry in a Flash uses the wall of their Facebook Fan page to promote specials to their fans, like “bring a friend and save on your laundry.”

It is no surprise that laundry is still something that students don’t like to do!

While each of these businesses are still very new, from a marketing perspective, each business has a great advantage: understanding their target market. From a “customer needs” prospective and how the business is promoted to the customers, each company keeps the focus on their target market.

I think that’s one of the real keys to having a strong marketing program.

Does your company have a niche target market? Which marketing tactic do you use to reach out to your market?

Today’s post is written as a resource for the Kent State University Entrepreneur Extravaganza where I will be a presenter with Rob Felber of Felber & Felber Marketing. Click here to read his post.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve come to realize that knowing how to improve your networking will improve your ability to market and brand your business.

Why is networking so important to entrepreneurs?

1. Starting and running a business requires  many facets of talent and experience.
2.  Having friends and business acquaintances who can help you find the right answers and resources is powerful.
3. By networking you get connected to other people who can and will help.
4. When you know a lot of people, there are more answers at your fingertips
5. As an entrepreneur, you need resources to bring your idea to market

Step-by Step Networking:

Keep your business cards in your right pocket, with your left pocket free to put their business cards.  If there are name tags provided put it on the right side of our lapel (people look to the right  when they shake hands.)

Don’t have a plate of food in one hand and a drink in the other.  How can  you shake hands? Grasp a business card? Don’t be chewing when someone wants to introduce you to someone else.  Just because there is food there, doesn’t mean you have to eat it.

Depending on the event, on your way there think about some casual small talk subjects for some of the casual conversations: weather, sports or other general, non controversial topics.  Have some short good answers ready for the common opening questions: where are you from? how did you get involved in this organization (if the event is hosted by an organization) and the favorite: “what do you do?”

A good networker is always ready for the what to you do with their 30 second commercial/elevator speech.  I’ve found that just launching into the full 30 seconds is a real conversation killer, so be prepared to  have a more back and forth conversation.

The 30 second commercial works when you are seated in a room of business professionals and the person at the microphone says: let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves, where we are from and what we do.  When it’s your turn, you stand, take a breath and tell the group who you help, why it is helpful to them, the name of your company and your name.  Meanwhile, you’ll be listening to the others to figure out who else you’ll need to meet before the event is over.

After the event:
Follow up after an event makes all the difference.  Either enter the contacts into your database or use an online contact system like Linked In.  Send an email to the person you promised to supply information to. Write a handwritten note to someone you will want to stay in contact with.  Perhaps schedule a phone call or meet for coffee to get to know more about the person and their resources.

You’ll want to reach out and connect two people who could help each other. That is where networking really gets strong.  When you become the connector you become the resource.

Online Networking
Many of the same concepts apply on line.  Your 30 second commercial is incorporated into your summary statement on LinkedIn. Or much shorter on your 140 character profile on Twitter.  Some advantages of online networking: you can move at your own pace, on your own time. It is searchable to find who you want or what you need, even when you don’t remember or know their name. 

Networking on line or in person is a key for entrepreneurs.

Helpful Links to Improve Your Networking Results:

• How to Build Your Network
• Top 10 Professional Networks for Women in Finance
• 10 Online Networking Tips for Entrepreneurs
• Tips for Effective Business Networking
• Business Networking Advice: Interviews
• 50 Ideas for Using Twitter for Business

This is a guest post from Rob Felber of Felber & Felber Marketing.  Rob and I are co-presenters at the Kent State University Entrepreneur’s Extravanganza on Friday, November 6, 2009.  These are the notes from his presentation.

Networking is about knowing who is a good prospect. Are you looking for a job, new clients or potential investors? Friends and colleagues who know your target audience can also help with introductions and referrals. Referrals, networking and target marketing go hand in hand. So, first, determine your target audience. Reference this article:
Referrals: You Are Responsible for Painting the Picture – Part One

What to say.  Create and then practice a 10-20 second opening statement to answer the question of what you do (or what you might be looking for as a student). Keep your phrase positive, free of jargon and “outcome-based.”

Working the room. Networking is NOT running around the room handing out as many business cards as you can. Plan ahead of special events and target those you want to meet. Speak to event organizers and obtain the attendee list. Study the list, note centers of influence and arrive early to maximize your networking time. When the meeting is called to order, do not sit with friends or colleagues. Remember, an empty chair next to you reduces your networking time by 50%. 

Follow up. How can you set yourself apart and be the one people remember? Write follow up notes. Not an email or a text message, but a hand written note. Mention an interesting fact or comment about something you learned while actually listening to people during networking. Having a business card is key to obtaining their card. It is difficult to send a note if you do not have their card.

Where to network.  Just about anywhere, if you are prepared. Have your business cards with you at all times. Know your audience through preparation. Depending on your goals, networking at peer groups may not yield the same results as groups where your colleagues are not present.
 
Social media sites. We’ve been social beings a long time. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are just new tools for the same objective. Balance your profiles personally and professionally and by all means keep them clean. Learn the etiquette of each site and harness the nuances.

Reference:
COSE meeting is all atwitter over pros, cons of social media

Take your networking to the next level and help others network. Reference: The Culture and Ethics of Referral-Based Marketing Programs – Part Two

For those of you who emailed me and posted comments to my recent post “Help! My Website Identity Has Been Stolen!” about the company who used my website for more than inspiration, I have some good news.

Jacob Johnsen took the site down and emailed me back this morning:

Chris,
No problem, site closed for redesign. Didn’t think there was any harm done with so different businesses (location and industries), just liked the appearance of yours (pls. take this as a compliment).
Jacob

I’m delighted right now. Wish all my problems resolved so easily!

One of the main questions I’ve been asked is, “How did you know?” It’s because I check my stats on my site and our clients’ site once a week to look for unusual activity.

Take a look at pages 9 and 10 in this slideshare presentation. It’s the push versus pull marketing.

I believe it is the outbound megaphone style of traditional advertising tactics and methods are become much more ineffective. Getting comfortable with the “nontraditional” inbound tactics of pull marketing (more commonly used for consumer marketing) can make a powerful difference in marketing your company in this decade.

If you do decide to use social media marketing for your B2B business, here is a great post with 10 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips from Mashable by Ross Kimbarovsky. Hat tip to @QueenBusiness.

Does it make sense for you to use social media tools for your company? Why… or why not?

Today I found out that a company from Denmark has stolen my company’s website branding identity. I know that imitation can be considered sincere flattery, but this goes too far! We’ve worked too hard on the marketing to let this just go.

My company’s site: www.resources-results.com. The stolen site: www.ipostes.com. Update Monday 11 am Eastern Standard Time: He removed the site and just has a holding page up now. See All’s Well That Ends Well

Jacob Johnsen, did you think I wouldn’t find out? ,

My first reactions: Mad. Disbelief. Feeling violated.
My next reaction: Confused. Now what should I do??

It’s early Saturday morning. I am on the other side of the world. An international legal fight is not my style. But I want to do something!! Now what?

Can you give me some direction on the best way to get my branding back? Obviously he hasn’t finished the site, but he copied my navigation and just slightly changed the titles, even down to the speaker sheet download. And he’s even taken my photos!

So far I know this:
Registrant:
Johnsen, Jacob (651552)
Hvidegaardsparken 57
Kongens Lyngby, , 2800 DK

Administrative and Technical contact:
Master, Host (HM6761)
One.com hostmaster@one.com
Kalvebod Brygge 45
Copenhagen V, 1560 DK
+45.46907100 Fax: +45.70205872

I’m reaching out to my blogging buddies — those who have helped and inspired me thru the years. Any ideas?!? Please offer advice!
Anita Campbell, Mack Collier, Sage Lewis, Mike Sansone, Ron McDaniel, Sandy Donaldson, David Airey, Veronica Noone, Tammy Lenski, Terry Starbucker, Liz Strauss, Denise Wakeman, Lorelle VanFossen.

If you are reading this and know the best approach to fix this or know someone who does, please offer advice! Thanks so much in advance.

With all the innovation of the last 100 years, we still don’t have a crystal ball to project which brands will be the strongest, which products will be the most popular, and what the future will bring.

I for one am an optimist and find that it is helpful to look back to figure out what to expect from the future. If you’re like me, maybe you will like this link to the various graphs of the markets’ historical performace. I find it gives me some real perspective. I particularly like the one of the 1900 to current Dow Jones Industrial Average.

It helps me to keep things in perspective when I hear a lot of negative reports on the TV, from acquaintances and friends who are really feeling down about the economy and when someone tells me how bad things are.

Having some long term perspective helps, doesn’t it?

This recession won’t last forever.

And here is another marketing consultant, Gregor Anton whose blog I read echoing some of this same sentiment with some action steps:

The recession won’t last forever, you’ll want to ramp up your marketing efforts now or never. Start by re-evaluating where you’re at and determining where you’d like to be in 1 year, 3 year, 5 years. You’ll want to identify what steps it’ll take to get you there. For example, are you targeting the right people? Who is your target market? How do your products and/or services compare to everyone else? When is the last time you’ve done market research? What do your numbers look like?

Maybe this perspective is too big for those who are going thru a job loss. Perhaps the perspective, offered by Tammy Lenski in Surviving and Thriving during Job Loss and other Major Change, may be more helpful.

Your thoughts?

Do you have keywords for your company that you believe your potential customers may search to find a company like yours to provide services or products?

If you don’t, you may be missing a key to improving your marketing and branding message distribution… and more importantly miss out on the incoming marketing efforts that are some of the most efficient and cost effective.

I had a happy moment today. I say moment because Google’s ranking system is very fluid and changes constantly. But today was a small victory (smile!)

I even bragged about it on Twitter, which I immediately regretted, but can’t help it.

@ChrisBrown330 Happy moment! My company is #8 Google result for “brand strategy” http://bit.ly/j0BTf

I’m sure I’ve jinxed it now, but here’s the Google link:

Search: brand strategy

I believe that measuring your marketing makes it more effective. Now that bragging about getting some top results in Google for brand strategy has probably ended the chance of staying there, we’ll have to work even harder to stay in the top 10 results.

Do you have a list of keywords that you check for your company? Do they contain geographic phrases if your business is looking for local customers and clients? Do you check regularly and keep a record of it?

Subscribe now to Branding & Marketing through an RSS feed or Email feed so you don’t miss anything!

Everyone knows that Google is the number one search engine.

And many people might guess that Yahoo is number two.

Or maybe Bing has jumped ahead.

But if you’re like me, you might be surprised to find that the number 2 search engine is also owned by Google.

It’s YouTube.

Here are 10 SEO tips to help you improve your rankings on the number two search engine.

Because it’s in a different format than Google, Bing or Yahoo, you may find it worth the effort to learn and understand YouTube’s unique search differences in order to have an impact on the search engine marketing of your brand.

Where does your company rank in YouTube for your keywords?

Subscribe now to Branding & Marketing through an RSS feed or Email feed so you don’t miss anything!

Garen Distelhorst is the Special Initiatives Director at the Marble Institute and in just 30 minutes a day is making a serious impact by using social media.

The screen capture to the right is how they promote their social media on the company’s website.

The organization uses social media to supplement their email blasts, direct mailings and faxes to their members.

This is how their social media program works:

• Garen set up 4 accounts: Facebook fan page, Twitter company account, Linkedin group, and a YouTube Channel.
• Each account features the Marble Institute’s logo. Each links back to the website. Each account has a mini profile about the Marble Institute.
• The Facebook fan page is linked from his personal Facebook profile page, but his personal page privacy settings are set to “private for friends only”, so business associates don’t inadvertently have access to his friends’ random comments on his wall or photos.
• The Marble Institute’s fan page is “public”, meaning the privacy settings are set so that anyone can see it. Side note: Garen also has a kids baseball team that he coaches and he made a point to say that he set that fan page site to “private” so that he approves any of the fans before they can view a page or photos.
• The 19 YouTube videos they have posted are a combination of professionally created ads and “homemade slide show” with audio and in some cases, video via a Flip Camera feed.  They use the Windows Movie Maker software pre installed in every PC to edit the show before posting to YouTube.
• Everyone in the Marble Institute’s organization helps to brainstorm new ideas of content that should be shared, tweeted and updated.
• They tell Garen their ideas.
• One person, Garen, is the one person responsiblity to post the ideas.

His job responsiblity expands beyond the e-communications and web initiatives. He’s also responsible for the magazine that the organization publishes. This gives him first hand access to alot of other content as well.

In the six months that he’s been implementing the social media program, it’s really beginning to pay off. 

It’s fast.  He’s figured out some social media posting shortcuts on how to hold to his 30 minutes a day promise.  One is to tweet using the #fb hashtag from the Marble Institute Twitter account.  The tweet automatically does a status update to the association’s Facebook fan page account.  The tweets post onto the Facebook Fan page with the use of the “Selective Twitter” application (search for it from Facebook’s search box.) He just includes 3 characters:#fb hashtag to the tweet to send to Facebook.

If he wants to elaborate on the Facebook Fan page, he can. Facebook’s status updates allow for much longer posts than the 140 character limit on Twitter and also allow video, photos etc. Plus then the fans can comment on the status update and it’s much easier to follow the conversation than on Twitter because its all in one place.

Then he takes the same tweet/status update and posts it as a discussion in the Marble Institute’s LinkedIn Group discussion’s page.  This will automatically send an email to all the group members on the schedule that the group member’s preselected when they signed up for the group (as it happens, once a day, once a week.)

Pretty slick, eh? I was skeptical that he kept to his 30 minute limit, but this makes sense.

Besides effeciently helping to build awareness and keep the organization top of mind, social media is helping the association in other ways too:

• Social media is helping them to cut time out of their marketing schedule.  This helps them be more flexible with their planning and execution.
• A recent status updates on LinkedIn group page has helped the organization to get renewals earlier and develop two way conversations faster.
• A recent education program with new CEUs they posted received 2 inquiries within an hour of the status update.
• This past week they got a new member inquiry.

By tweeting and updating to the 3 social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) with a link to their YouTube hosted videos, they are able to publish content within 30 minutes that before required hours, days and weeks of distribution.

One thing that Garen stressed.  The goal is awareness and education. It helps to build their brand as the go to organization for all things related to the natural stone industry. They use social media as a tool for marketing and education.  They are not pretending that the goal of social media is to increase sales.  But guess what? Turns out… marketing and education do lead to new sales. Who knew!?!

Garen made this presentation at the Greater Cleveland Society of Association Executives at the Holiday Inn on Rockside. Thanks Garen for a very informative session!!

Are you ready to start a business? Or recently started one?
Save the date for the Entrepreneur Extravaganza at Kent State University Student Center on November 5 and 6, 2009. I’m scheduled to be one of the speakers on networking and marketing.

The event is designed for entrepreneurs to learn and connect with resources, speakers, exhibits, and more.
Directions.
More info.
Schedule (My session is in the launch section at 10:30 to 11:30 on Friday)
Registration form.
Hosted by the Kent State University’s CEBI – Center of Excellence for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation.

Other entrepreneural posts:

• Three Ways to Invent a New Product or Service
• Entrepreneurship is Alive and Well in Northeast Ohio
• Finding The Keys to Entrepreneurial Success
• NEOhio Inc: 10 Tips for a First Time Business Owner

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