Lack of Emotion/Passion

Passion for who you are or what you do is really challenging to fake — and failure to display passion can lead to disastrous results. In a Gallup poll, over two-thirds of Americans are not engaged at work with 16 percent of that number actively disengaged in the office. This lack of engagement can leave your employees bored, lackluster and dreaming of the weekend. Consider for a minute the implications of an unenthused workforce: A customer service representative who can barely put a smile on his face, or a designer who doesn’t want to take your logo through another round of revisions. Evaluate your employees, or hire a mystery shopper who will. Then take real action if you uncover a lack of passion threatens to undermine your brand. GoDaddy’s Bob Parsons has made passion part of the business culture. GoDaddy only keeps employees that meet and maintain standards, as reported in Inc.

Bad Logo

As Inc. notes, clothing company The Gap spent millions to change their classic logo to a more modern, sans-serif design. This was met with backlash as old customers no longer identified with the brand and protested via social media. Gap had to spend millions to change back the logo and cut short the negative branding. The lesson here is that you should always know your demographic and cater to them. Gap tried to stray from their demographic and paid dearly for it.

Bad Product or Company Name

Television maker Panasonic tried to break into the PC market with a computer called The Woody (and a Woody Woodpecker mascot). The Woody may have been all right, had Panasonic not launched included a touch screen feature called “Touch Woody” or called its web browsing capabilities “The Internet Pecker.” Seriously, no one on board gave thought to the slang meaning of these terms, says Inc. Needless to say, Panasonic did not penetrate the PC market with this punny product. Lesson learned: If you’re thinking of naming your product something, make sure you know what it means in the countries where you’ll launch the product and make sure it doesn’t have an alternative slang meaning.

Failure to Deliver

If your ads promise something, your product should deliver. Consider the recent case of the woman who sued Nutella for false advertising that its hazelnut chocolate spread was healthy, as reported in the Christian Science Monitor. While you may not get sued, your product and brand will generate ill will in the marketplace if users buy it with false expectations. Don’t set yourself up to fail with false advertising. Instead, find a different way to draw in the crowd. For Go Daddy’s Bob Parsons, it was to “be outrageous.” On inc.com, Parsons said years ago he decided that instead of advertising what the company does — it is, among other things, the world’s largest domain name registrar — he wanted a beautiful girl to be the face of the company. Well known for its Super Bowl ads, the company’s Go Daddy girls are now part of the multi-million dollar brand.

Disconnect Between Brand and Clients

In trying to rebrand as JCP, JCPenney created a rift between the brand and its clients. A series of confusing advertisements didn’t enlighten clients and the brand soon lost their audience without adding new converts, as Entrepreneur reports. One solution? Do your homework — in the form of environmental scans, focus groups and consistent messaging — to win a rebranding without losing clients.

Guest post by: William Diaz

Bill is a PR expert who specializes in reputation management.

The post 5 Branding Mistakes That Will Quickly Cripple Your Small Business appeared first on .

Is that all? No it is not.

Many have asked what a social media manager does, what role do they satisfy?

It’s an easy explanation and depends on the context of the question.

Business social media marketing puts products and services in front of your target customer audience. Social media methods, keywords and content reach your customer where they engage on the social web. Opportunities to reach and engage customers in one on one conversations is priceless.

Individual social media management is for reputation, professional image and impressions on profile networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. They say it’s all in the settings because they matter. Separation or inclusion of business identities comes with pros and cons. Children, especially teens need guidance including monitoring on social media.

Like I said, it depends on the context of the question.

What thoughts does a social media manager have?

It’s all about clarifying and building your identity while actively engaging with someone else in a fun and relevant way.

Social media management by a professional is frequently neglected.

Here is just a partial list of what the social media manager satisfies:

• Opportunity to be known/remembered
• Relevancy
• Presence
• Social etiquette
• Open communication and dialogue
• Community management
• In depth understanding of business/individual goals
• Monitoring
• Analysis of data
• Coordination with other marketing initiatives
• Up to date social topics, tends and tools
• Interactive growth management and maintenance
• Development of online strategy
• Spam filtering
• Google juice, yes social postings are indexed
• That social media will be taken care of

Social media is a strategy worthy of a five to six digit salary varying throughout the USA.

How much time do you think the above tasks take?

Social media consulting is a service where a commitment to quality is actively promoted. It’s not competing with your core brand identity, nor seeking to change it in any way. It’s seeking to build with your audience what they should already know and love about you.

A social media manager (strategist) task list goes far beyond the updating of Twitter, Google Plus and other networks for clients. While they are part of the overall result, the extension of responsibility to collecting data, interpreting analytics results and figuring out the best means to increase the return on investment is more important.

Return on investment is key, business still needs money.

Individual social media impressions are remembered.  Maybe you shouldn’t be at a bar or drinking in every Facebook post, especially if posts go to LinkedIn?

If social media isn’t returning value or being measured to do something, then do it!

P.S. Consider hiring someone [click here to hire me] to take care of social media. Free the business owner to run the business.  Free the individual of worry about impressions made.

P.P.S.S. Read my blog [click here] for more insight into what I can do for you and then [click here to hire me].

Please share and comment below.

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Yes LinkedIn is used by job seekers. Move on if that’s why you landed here. I’m focusing on reputation and why it matters.

Reputation

LinkedIn is for showing off your reputation, curating reputation and yes marketing reputation with lead generation.

No it is not the slimy salesman lead generation you are presuming.

A quality reputation is developed from:

• participating in LinkedIn discussions
•  utilizing LinkedIn Applications
•  joining LinkedIn Groups
• engaging your connections through sharing and liking content.

Executive profiles that are stagnant, incomplete or just stuck in basic mode have no reputation.  No value. No leads.

Why build reputation?

Credibility follows reputation.

Next steps (must haves):

1. Complete your profile! Above all include a headshot professional image. So many users have set up profiles and have left them blank still set on the default image. What does that say about who you are and where you’ve worked?
2. Set up a customized LinkedIn url such as mine: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mariahsnyder
3. Grow your network. Waiting for users to find you, especially if you have an incomplete profile is futile. Join groups, search for alumni and business connections. Don’t be shy and especially don’t be spammy. Reaching out to group members will connect you to others with common interests. Instead of using the cookie cutter message provided by LinkedIn insert a personal message in your request to connect.
4. Use the summary profile section to speak in the first person to viewers about yourself.  This summary section is like an about me page. It’s great web real estate that’s free to use. Use it to your advantage.
5. Rearrange content modules using drag and drop sorting in a logical way.
6. Include achievements along with your profile information such as awards, certifications and volunteer work.
7. If you are a business owner, get your phone number on there. How else are potential customers going to reach you?
8. Participate in group discussions, share content, like content, comment if you can.
9. Ask someone else to proofread your profile then ask what their impression is.
10. Consider including a video related to you or your business. People who view your video are more likely to agree with your reputation.

Viewers who arrive on a professional LinkedIn profile are more likely to give referrals and remember you and your company. Your reputation matters.

Recently my profile was professionally evaluated by someone else. I found the experience refreshing. I saw my profile from someone elses point of view.

Look at your profile from the other person’s point of view.

What reputation do they see?

Please share this post and leave me a comment or two.

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And it should be.

Because it’s proven to be successful at driving web traffic.

Many businesses use social media to drive traffic to other websites.

I recommend a Facebook e-commerce application named Ecwid, or another hosted online presence.

What happens when the customer clicks through?

• Does the customer know what to do?
• What information do they see to contact you?
• Is it possible to buy it now?
• Is your other site confusing, cluttered and unclear?

Improve your landing pages before social media, I implore you.

How can you use social media and sell if your landing page is terrible?

You won’t.

Helga Weber via Compfight

Improve your message.

Is it clear, concise and obvious?

Not sure.

Ask for feedback from someone unrelated to the business.

Do they know what to do? If they don’t, revisit and revise.

Make your call to action clear (buy me).

Next.

Push into social media, start strong on one network.

Which network?

How often?

That depends.

Please Tweet my post, click it:  Tweet

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Some have spent a decade managing social media, learning, and engaging audiences. After feeling awkward, an aaah – ha moment occurs when they simply start writing ideas down. With those ideas a plan evolves then success is evident because it’s in your plan.

So where do you start with social media?

Let’s start with an idea that builds your plan.

Focus the idea on next week’s business at hand.

Make the idea a task.

Create three more tasks related to the first one.

End each with the word success.

Did you write them down?

These tasks are your plans for social media.

Form tasked ideas as conversational sentences.  Ask a related questions or evolve them into a multiple choice selection quizzes. These are your posts.

Locate simple images that relate to your ideas.

Simple.

Get started on one network and one only to begin, my best advice is Google Plus.

Log in to your account and post at 12:25pm Monday, 8:15pm Thursday and 4:30pm Friday.

Respond, react and enjoy the knowledge that it’s easier to perform under a plan.

Going forward, focus on 2-3 posts per week spread out like the example above.

Rinse, recycle and repeat!

Planning is not complicated it’s directional. Follow the plan. Your destination will be achieved.

Ville Miettinen via Compfight

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Content marketing also improves SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social sharing and targeted traffic. The practice is growing, with 86 percent of B2C (business-to-consumer) companies planning to keep or increase their existing content marketing budget in 2013, the Content Marketing Institute reports. Before you jump into filming YouTube videos or writing white papers you think everyone will love, create a content marketing strategy that will ensure measurable results. Here are the basics:

Flickr image by buddawiggi

Content Hosting

Choose your website platform, such as one by WordPress, and decide whether it will be on-brand or its own entity. Decide which type of content hosting system you’ll use, from iPage hosting to an in-house server. Decide how the new site will relate to your business site — it could get its own vanity URL, it could be a blog section on your main site, or a combination. Set goals for visitors, page views and direct traffic percentage, and install an analytics system, such as Google Analytics, to monitor content performance.

Types of Content

Decide who your target audience is. It may be existing customers, who you hope will share content with potential customers. It might be people who have never heard of your brand, who you’ll target on niche social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon.com. Stephanie Chang, SEO consultant at Distilled, also recommends conducting a competitor analysis and keyword research related to your brand, along with existing user surveys. Determine which parts of your sales funnel need strengthening, and consider targeting content to those areas.

Choose which types of content and media are most appropriate, and create a content schedule that ensures delivery of original, innovative and shareable content. Avoid keyword stuffing (using a search term over and over again) your content as search engines could actually penalize you. Instead, aim for content that your target audience will find useful and informative and will want to share. Decide if the content will be created in-house, by freelancers, by guest bloggers, or a combination.

Be mindful of key dates that might influence content, like holidays, product launches and selling cycles. You may already have engaging content to convert for the web, such as interviews by your CEO or articles you can repurpose. Internet marketing firm Vertical Measures, which has a downloadable free content calendar, suggests including target audience, distribution channels and keywords to optimize distribution. Stan Smith, managing director of Pushing Social, recommends publishing new content at least once a week to ensure your site stays relevant to search engines and keeps readers engaged.

Promote Your Content

Now that you’re producing solid content on a regular basis, share it with followers and industry influencers. Use social media algorithm sites like Klout to find top influencers and pitch them to share your content with their audiences. Offer to return the favor, and build content sharing relationships with social media marketers. Use your own social networks to post your content and encourage discussion. Respond to comments on your content for increased engagement, and revise content strategies based on successful channels and content types.

Guest post by:

Ken Porter
A programmer and web designer, Ken has developed multiple programs to help site owners improve their SEO and page rank.

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Balance, that is one solution answer we all want the answer to

Most common social media platforms have a balance of selling and sharing of information. Each one is unique, there is no one size fits all approach. I’d like to share with you some common guidelines to help you find the solution of balance on social media.

First and foremost, keep your business and personal profiles distinct and separate. This way the photos and information shared of your day to day personal life are not intermixed with your business postings. Business postings should be professional, engaging and encouraging to engage customers in conversations around your business brand and products or services.

Most if not all business are selling something on social media and we need to first be honest, that’s why you are here. For every ten posts on social media, one can be a direct sell including a call to action to buy. Customers above all deserve and respect honesty, so take the one in ten opportunity to sell.

Marketing, do it with photos

The story they say is in the picture and that pictures tell one thousand words. Use visuals in your company social media posts, ensure likes and shares or plus ones by choosing photos that are awesome and can capture the attention of your current and future customers.  Be cognizant of the impression all images will have with your customer, make them memorable and stand out in their mind.

Know the best image sizes for each social network, they’re easy to find, just Google it and seek current parameters.

Studies show images are more memorable than text so use them more. You have my permission to be awesome.

Humor and the curious nature of us all

Yes I could quote someone funny, instead I’ll quote Seth Godin in his brilliance.

“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”
—Seth Godin, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Faking it, no just don’t

As businesses we can buy just about anything.

• You can buy fans and friends on Facebook
• You can buy followers on Twitter
• You can acquire testimonials for $5 on Fiverr
• You can buy reviews for your products

Get the picture?

We are blinded by it all. Being a faker has costs and benefits. Gain your fans, followers, testimonials and reviews the real way, by earning them.

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Twitter, the numbers matter

Small business owners cannot underestimate the power of Twitter and the revenue a properly written and timed tweet can bring them. Though very few small businesses will ever accumulate the 35 million followers Lady Gaga or the 17 million of Kim Kardashian, marketing companies are willing to pay these individuals $100,000 or more to publish a sponsored tweet just for the exposure, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Twitter can become a valuable asset to any company, blogger or socialite as the number of their followers increases. Branden Hampton, who founded @notebook on Twitter, told Smart Money he built a 4.4 million strong following in two years without spending any money on marketing. He said its possible to earn a six-figure income with a half-million followers. Here are some ways to increase your number of followers on Twitter.

photo by Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer

Twiends.com

One of the best kept secrets on the Internet when it comes to increasing your number of followers on Twitter is Twiends. This free service is like a virtual business card printing mechanism that subsequently hands said cards to thousands of individuals. In a nutshell, the applications lets users accumulate “seeds” every time they watch a video on Youtube or “like” a Facebook page. You can then use those seeds to, for lack of better term, buy followers. All you have to do is sign up for an account (you get 25 free seeds just for signing up) and, depending on how often you use it, could have a few hundred new Twitter followers in a matter of days.

Use Hashtags

Some people prefer to get followers the old-fashioned, organic way. Including #hashtags in your tweets exposes them to millions of Twitter users who would otherwise never see your thoughts. Small business owners should check what is trending locally and in their fields of business. Tweeters can tailor their trends to these specific subject matters simply by clicking the “change” link where trending items appear on your Twitter page.

Guest Postings

Writing for other blogs and websites exposes your name and brand to a whole new audience. Every guest post you write should include a link to your Twitter bio so readers can learn more about, and hopefully, follow you as well. Most websites that accept guest postings will post their policies about the process somewhere on their home page.

Follow “Autofollowers”

You may notice that there are some Twitter users with tens of thousands of followers, who also follow tens of thousands of people. Autofollowers automatically follow everyone who follows them, with the idea of attracting like-minded followers from the new followers’ following (say that three times fast). Some of these autofollowers are obviously spammers, as they only have a few followers in return. When you find one of these spam accounts, follow everyone who follows the spammer. These people are all likely autofollowers, and you’ll get a follow-back instantly.

Keep in mind, people are more willing to do business with and interact with those with thousands of followers. Just like the crowded bar is more likely to attract more patrons than the empty one across the street, the same goes for social media.

Guest post by Nate Atkins
Nate is a programmer and technology blogger living the dream in Silicon Valley.

The post Four Tips To Increase Your Twitter Followers appeared first on .

Wait – Jon’s a blogger?

Yes and he is a genius with a witty sense of humor and great business sense. It’s why the posts he writes will speak to you on a psychic level. He doesn’t offer tricks, or fancy advice. Jon gives real time, truth to what makes your writing matter – so that you too will read your readers mind.

I can’t get him out of my head!

You’d never know that Jon resides in Mexico enjoying an ocean view because his writing makes it seem like he just met you, is your best friend and summarized information you need to know now – the mind meld trick just happens. It’s kind of nice to know that he knows what we are all thinking.

Jon has an OUTSTANDING series of videos and posts that explain on this guest blogging stuff that you can get by signing up here.  Some of the topics Jon covers are how to get your first 1000 email subscribers, SEO for bloggers and how to build an email list from nothing.

Jon’s program is free, get it by signing up here. You have nothing to lose.

Want to learn more? Take up his offer to mentor with Guest blogging course it’s a BLATANT ENDORSEMENT. Go get the videos now if you’re serious about blogging for income. Nothing to lose no worries sign up here.

P.S.

Before you go, Jon has another web property, maybe you’ve heard of it, learn more about that here: http://boostblogtraffic.com/about/.

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No. I’m not kidding I saw it coming.

The use of social media, has significantly increased communication capabilities of tax-exempt organizations. Tax-exempt organizations cover a wide range of businesses: not-for-profit enterprises, political campaigns, booster clubs and civic organizations to name a few.  YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are some of the most popular social media platforms that are being utilized by business to reach the public in pursuit of their exempt mission and fundraising efforts. Use of social media provides organizations an opportunity to reach out to a vast audience through an efficient and inexpensive, form of communication.

Along with these opportunities, social media may potentially carry unintended federal and state tax implications. Taxation is enforced across many levels such as compliance, informative disclosure including leveling penalties and interest with enforcement of the rules. State taxation should not be ignored especially when it comes to sales and other taxes levied across and within state lines. Remember Amazon?

The Internal Revenue Service logo, doesn’t it resemble a maze?

Wait, the IRS knows about social media?

The IRS is very active on social media and could use it as an investigatory tool. Divorce attorneys have found it useful just as private detectives to uncover once unknown information. The IRS social media portfolio includes multiple Twitter accounts and YouTube accounts, Facebook pages and more.

The IRS has provided minimal guidance on the tax implications of online communication including Internet/Social media activities for tax-exempt organizations. The IRS deems online communication to be similar to other forms of communication, therefore a Web site is considered to be a form of communication. The IRS generally applies the Tax Code and judicial authority to an organization’s online activities as if those were the same as its conventional day-to-day activities.  Scared?

A nexus is created that may generate unrelated business income (UBI). UBI is generally taxable by federal and many state authorities.

Consult your tax adviser before, not after you go social.

Unrelated business income is revenue generated by activities unrelated to the tax-exempt organizations purpose and mission. Use caution when promoting your tax-exempt organization using social media. Federal taxation of unrelated business income may apply to you in certain circumstances. It’s better to play it safe and consult with your tax adviser as the rules apply to your situation.

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, as a Certified Public Accountant I inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.

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