Growing small business owners rarely have the staff in-house do it all, all of the time. One way to set the odds in your favor is to use similar marketing tactics that the high-paid marketing pros use. When you pick up a cork-screw you don’t first ask how many bottles it opened – you know it works. Many marketing tactics in today’s high-tech world are similar.

I read a lot of email newsletters focused on website marketing. Although many are not necessarily geared toward small business, the tactics used can often be scaled and implemented within the limits of a small business budget. Here are a few interesting links and marketing articles for your perusal. They just might spur a few ideas that you can use within the limits of your small business marketing budget:

Ad AgeDIGITAL – NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The 186 responses that Old Spice pitchman Isaiah Mustafa recorded for fans of his beauty, intelligence and outstanding physique took just a week to eclipse the original TV ads themselves in total views, according to new numbers from Visible Measures (full article here at AdAge.com).

Youth, Business, and Podcasting – SitePoint talks with a couple of veteran podcasters about the medium and have an interesting discussion about youth and entrepreneurship. This is the SitePoint Podcast #70: Youth, Business, and Podcasting with Dave Moyer and Jeff Chandler. (SitePoint Podcast here).

Flipboard for iPad – Designed from the ground up for iPad, Flipboard creates a magazine out of a user’s social content. Launch Flipboard and “flip” open the cover – readers can view their sections and personalize the magazine. (Flipboard Press Release here).

“With over 1 billion messages posted every day, social networks are quickly becoming the primary way people discover and share content on the Web. The result is a huge influx of incoming messages and links people must sort through across multiple web sites just to stay up to date,” said Mike McCue, Flipboard?s CEO. “We believe the timeless principles of print can make social media less noisy, more visually compelling and ultimately more mainstream.”

Let us know what works for you – drop us a comment below. Thanks.

- Greg Magnus

The seminar features many big name inspirational speakers like Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, Zig Ziglar, Terry Bradshaw, Sarah Palin and many others.

Time: 8:00AM to 4:30PM
Date: May 19
Where: Richmond Coliseum

Visit the seminar website Get Motivated here for additional details. Also, visit the Richmond SCORE Chapter website here for counseling details or to join us as a volunteer!

Washington, D.C., April 7, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” is pleased to announce the formation of a public/private partnership to accelerate small business growth through access to broadband. SCORE, Fortune 500 Companies and leading technology firms launched a national initiative to accelerate broadband adoption. Learn more at www.score.org/broadband.html.

The consortium will help increase small business growth through the use of broadband technologies, as SCORE seeks to grow 1 million small businesses. SCORE, in consultation with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), will work to encourage small business success through the use of technology.

Leading technology firms in the United States and SCORE’s extensive network of 12,400 business mentors across the country are partnering to help level the playing field for small business through broadband access. SCORE supports the FCC’s Broadband Plan. The founding consortium partners are: AT&T, Best Buy, Cisco, Constant Contact, Google, HP, Intuit, Microsoft, Skype and Time Warner Cable Business Class. Supporters include DRT Strategies and Engage.

SCORE CEO Ken Yancey says, “Broadband connectivity is critical for business success in today’s marketplace. We want to make it easier for small businesses to access this technology to create efficiencies, leverage e-commerce, expand marketing, and increase social networking online.” Yancey adds, “This consortium will make it easier than ever for small businesses to learn about using technology to grow their businesses, using broadband to enable e-commerce and leveraging technology to meet the demands of today’s consumers.”

The new initiative will focus on increasing digital literacy, web skills, e-commerce capabilities and online communications tools usage for small businesses. Consortium founders are donating $1.125 million to The SCORE Foundation to support the SCORE Association’s local small business training, online training and resources to help small businesses adopt broadband technologies. SCORE will expand small business outreach by making new local workshops and online training and tools available through its 364 chapter offices and via www.score.org. These tools will help small businesses leverage technology and boost their productivity and growth.

Learn more at www.score.org/broadband.html.

The growth rates in mobile computing are compelling and the answer is definitely yes according to industry experts.

AT&T Mobility president and CEO Ralph de la Vega, says 95% of iPhone owners regularly surf the web; 30% didn’t do so on a mobile device prior to his or her iPhone ownership.

A recent Tech Crunch article covers some of the trends for those interested (excerpt and link below):

As smartphones like the iPhone and Android take over the mobile Web, the amount of data traffic going over cellular networks is expected to grow 40-fold over the next five years. UK firm Coda Research Consultancy forecasts that in the U.S. alone mobile handset data traffic will grow from 8 petabytes/month this year to 327 petabytes/month in 2015. That amounts to a 117 percent compound annual growth rate. (See Tech Crunch for full story here)

Are you capturing new business using mobile marketing tactics? People are connecting everywhere now, not just when they are sitting behind their desks. In restaurants, elevators, hotel lobbies, trains, planes and automobiles.

Going Mobile
I’m going home and when I wanna go home
I’m goin’ mobile
Well, I’m gonna find a home
And we’ll see how it feels
Goin’ mobile, keep me movin’
(Pete Townshend, Lyrics by Who; The Who At Kilburn: 1977 Blu-ray)

Is mobile marketing a compelling strategy for your business? Is your site optimized for mobile viewing? Now is a good time to test so you can determine if your online content is optimized for usability, design and content distribution. Contact AIM Custom Media if you need assistance.

“He has the strong support of the business community as well as the school’s faculty and staff.”
Michael Rao, president of VCU, added, “Ed Grier’s leadership and ability in resource development and strategy will advance the VCU School of Business to be one of the best in the nation."

Grier began his professional career with Ernst and Young as a member of the audit staff in Pittsburgh, Pa. He joined Disney in 1981 and rose through the company’s ranks gaining broad cross-functional experience in the finance, marketing and operations divisions. He served in several executive leadership positions with responsibility for multiple lines of business both in the United States and abroad. Highlights include managing marketing development at Disneyland Paris, serving as general manager for operations at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Fla., and time in Tokyo as vice president, representative director of Walt Disney Attractions Japan. He was named president of Disneyland Resort in 2006.

Grier is a frequent lecturer on business leadership and has served on the California Travel and Tourism Commission and the California Economic Recovery Task Force. He also served on the boards of the Children’s Hospital of Orange County in California, and Health Central Hospital in Florida. He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Duquesne University.

“Ed’s rich professional background fits perfectly with the mission of the VCU School of Business to produce students that are ‘business-ready,’” said Steven A. Markel, vice chairman of the Markel Corporation and chair of the VCU School of Business Foundation. “The entire board of the School of Business Foundation is excited to work with Ed to ensure that the school continues to offer an education that enables students to thrive after graduation." (Full Press Release at VCU School of Business website here)

Think your small business is ready for an e-commerce Web site?

Don’t make the following mistakes, advised SCORE, a national small-business counseling organization, and Web site-designer Greg Magnus, a local counselor for SCORE in Richmond:

Making a hasty decision. Don’t say yes to the first vendor who offers to build or host your site. Contact about five vendors. Ask for referrals through business people you know — or ask SCORE for a recommendation.

Research the basics of starting an e-commerce site. “Try to find examples of sites that you like,” said Magnus, owner of Aim Custom Media (http://www.aimcustom.com), which sets up shopping-cart Web sites. They should be a similar business to the one you’d like to have, he said.

Be ready to tell what you like about the sites — color scheme, design, functionality — and what you’d like to accomplish on your site.

Neglecting customer service. You want to deliver personal service to your customers. Answer their e-mails promptly and address them by name.

Send an e-mail saying their order was received or shipped. Encourage them to contact you if your product doesn’t live up to their expectations. List your company’s physical address and phone number on the site. Read the full story at RTD here.

You can contact Iris Taylor at (804) 649-6349 or at itaylor@timesdispatch.com (RTD email address).

• More than 350 million users are active on Facebook
• 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• More than 35 million users update their status each day
• More than 55 million status updates posted each day
• More than 2.5 billion photos uploaded and 3.5 million events created each month
• More than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news, blog posts, etc.) shared each week
• More than 1.6 million active Pages on Facebook
• More than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
• Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

And, its not just Facebook anymore. Google now uses social content when determining the ranking of web pages (SEO). Facebook is good for SEO and it has been very good for businesses for some time now.

Facebook Tips for Fan Pages

First Things First – Plan
To be effective requires a plan as well as fresh content on a regular basis. Once again, “content is King.” Give your potential customers and existing clients a reason to not only visit your Facebook pages but also help promote them. Keep in mind that updating the page doesn’t require a significant amount of effort if you first have a solid plan. Planning your campaign is a must – allocating the necessary resources to implement your plan goes without saying.

Social Networking is All About Leveraging Technology
Online marketing requires integration so understand that a significant amount of content is distributed automatically to numerous social media channels. Maximize your content and get better results by:

• Linking your blog posts to your Facebook wall. Your business website doesn’t include a blog? Get one.
• Use a service to update all of your social networks at once (Facebook, twitter, etc.)
• Similar automated services, widgets for example, are available for your YouTube and Flickr feeds

Engage Visitors But Avoid Confusion
Create a landing page on Facebook that you control. It is preferable to send traffic to a controlled welcoming page that highlights your brand instead of the “wall” page on your Facebook fan pages. The Fan page “wall” is a great and valuable tool for communicating with customers and prospects but it can be extremely confusing to first-time visitors.

A controlled page can also be used to offer users an incentive to become fans and help promote your brand. Contests, coupons, weekly specials and other tactics are being used effectively by numerous brands.

Be aware that new Facebook marketing guidelines were published last year in November. The guidelines require brands, marketers and advertisers to go through an approval process for contests. Get help if you don’t understand the requirements.

Interaction and Communication Required
First and foremost, understand completely that social media is all about interaction and two-way communication. Here’s a few basic tips to help you get conversations started:

• Ask questions that solicit honest opinions
• Create polls and provide access to tabulated results as well as candid reviews that support multiple views
• Don’t just post relevant industry news, provide – on a timely basis – executive summaries of industry trends

Don’t miss out; social networking will without a doubt enhance your brand and increase your marketing ROI. Face it, someone else paid to develop the technology and all you need to do is learn how to use it and get plugged in. 

Consider Ads
Advertising your business on Facebook is definitely something to consider. In fact, there are unique tactics available to precisely target a specific ad to a specific demographic profile. For example, you can target college graduates working in your target market that like fine wines and classical music – or a 50 something professional that likes head-banging punk music and Mexican food.

The two basic types of advertisements on Facebook are: (1) Display ads and (2) Social ads. Either can be purchased like banner ads (Cost Per Click, CPC) and Cost Per Thousand, CPM). Given Facebook users like staying within the Facebook environment, in general, create a killer Facebook Fan Page and direct your ads to that page.

Better yet, create a specific “tab” on that Fan page for your campaign; each tab has a unique URL by the way. If you’re not familiar with Facebook Fan page design, outsourcing is the way to go. Although relatively straight forward for design pros with programming skills, business owners that really don’t understand the features and how to use them will inevitably waste a lot of productive time on social networking.

Just like any business project, the social marketing rewards you’ll receive will be a reflection of the effort you put into it; haphazard planning and implementation won’t get you the results you desire online. But, those allocating the appropriate resources are gaining excellent results by leveraging social networking technology. 

The top spot for fitness franchises goes to Jazzercise Inc.  at No. 18 overall on the list. The other fitness companies in the top 500 include:

• Anytime Fitness at No. 43
• Snap Fitness at No. 51
• Gold’s Gym International at No. 109
• Fitness Together at No. 118
• The Little Gym at No. 141
• Planet Fitness at No. 157
• My Gym Children’s Fitness Center at No. 208
• LA Boxing Franchise Corp. at No. 427, and
• Personal Training Institute at No. 451.

Competition is fierce with new fitness facilities in almost every shopping center. In fact, Curves (number 2 on the list in 2004-2005) didn’t even make this year’s Top 500. It fell to number 381 last year.

Google offers a wide variety of free tools that help small business owners manage documents, photos, blog subscribers and the list goes on:

1. Google Docs: Share documents on the web with your associates, clients and business partners. Instead of emailing attachments back and forth, creating multiple versions, share your documents online and everyone can edit the same document (one copy, no more hunting for the latest version).
   • Upload from and save documents to your desktop
   • Edit anytime, from anywhere
   • Pick who can access your documents
   • Share changes in real time
   • Files are stored securely online and best of all, it is free.
2. Feedburner: If you own a blog, you probably want to give your site visitors the opportunity to subscribe so they can automatically receive updates when published. Feedburner is an excellent tool for this purpose.
3. Picasa: Fast and easy photo sharing that allows you to organize and edit your digital photos and create online albums to share with business colleagues and clients, as well as your friends and family.
4. Blog Search: Keeping track of blog updates and news specific to your industry can be a real challenge. Using “blog search” helps you find news and info from just blogs.
5. GOOG-411: Google’s 411 service is free and easy to use. It allows you to find and connect with local businesses using the phone. Just dial: 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411).

What online business management tools do you use on a frequent basis?

This 4 day event is a comprehensive playbook designed to give you step by step instructions and coaching that will move you from transition to dream job, as well as life management tips along the way. Every topic of transition will be covered so that each participant has a complete understanding of what it takes to accomplish their goals for employment.

October 19th & 20th from 9:00am – 12:00 noon: St. Michael’s: 4491 Springfield Rd, Glen Allen

October 21st and 22nd from 9:00am – 12:00 noon: Three Chopt Presbyterian: 9315 Three Chopt Rd, Richmond

It is designed so that each participant should attend the entire 4 day camp.

RSVP: virginiacareernetwork.com or canon@equity-concepts.com

Speakers

Greg Magnus: Publisher, AIM Custom Media
Social Networking PRESENTATION (PDF)

“Social networking that works for YOU.”

John Sarvay: Owner, Floricane, Next Steps

“Live your A life. Identify your greater purpose and begin to generate your ideal future.”

Eleanor Rouse: Life Coach, Executive Coach for the Frontier Project

“Align the next chapter of your life or career with your personal values and vision.”

Bob Ruthazer: Executive Director, First Things First

“Relationships: Thriving in Transition. Understanding communication and warning signs.”

Veronica Boyd: Consultant, Lee Hecht Harrison, JAM Leader

“Map out your game plan. Step by step instruction on what you need to do to find career opportunities.”

Jim Roman: Networking Extraordinaire, Owner, Team Roman

“Networking that works.”

Brent Peterson: Owner, Interview Angel

“Confessions of a Hiring Manager. How to Land an Interview. How to Inspire the Hiring Manager. Personal Statements. Tell Great Stories. Getting Hired is a Project.”

Alan Dole: Wealth Manager, Equity Concepts

“Money Matters. Unemployment insurance, cash flow, 401k options and warnings.”

Debbie Stocks: Principal, Your Benefits Partner

“Understanding your benefit options. COBRA, Individual policies and HSA’s.”

Clayton Gits: Owner, The Gits Group

“Manage your mortgage. Precautions, options, last resorts.”