So you’ve heard about social networking and if you read last month’s article, you’ve learned about what it is and how it works. In either case, by now, you might be asking yourself how you can get involved.

One of the best places to start, for a beginner to the social networking universe, is with Twitter, found at www.twitter.com. Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging utility that allows account holders to send and read other users’ status updates (otherwise known as tweets). Following someone allows the follower to get the other person’s updates in their feed as they make them. These updates are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length that answer the question “what are you doing?” It is very easy to jump into without any experience, as it is highly user-friendly, and is gaining popularity faster and faster every day because of its ease of use.

Of the many draws to Twitter, it is its simplicity of use, lowest barrier to entry, and habit-forming nature of the utility that make it my starting-point suggestion.

Carrie Johnson, director of the Center for Women & Enterprise here in Worcester, says, “Twitter is a utility that has become an essential part of my marketing efforts for CWE. At first glance, I wasn’t entirely sure how useful it would be, but it has turned out to be an extremely valuable tool.”

Ready to get started? Log onto the website and create your account. When choosing your user name, consider who you are and how you sell. If you are an independent sales person (or, if you rely on relationships to make sales), try to get your name as one word. Mine is LauraBriere. If you have a common name, like MichaelSmith, it probably will be taken. Try to use MichaelKSmith or some close variation. On the other side of the coin, if you are the owner/marketer of a regional brand (or, if you rely on a brand to make sales), pick the company name. For example, Betsy Brewer and Cindy Brewer Lavoie of Southwick’s Zoo aren’t marketing themselves. They are marketing the zoo. They’ve picked SouthwicksZoo and SouthwickZoo as their user names.

From there, you’ll be given the opportunity to look for who you already know that may have an account on Twitter. It will prompt you to put in a web-mail address (i.e.: Gmail) and that account’s password. This is NOT your new Twitter password; it’s your email password. Click “Continue.”

Once you upload your contacts (don’t worry, it won’t keep these contacts), it’ll show you who is on, and who isn’t. By checking the boxes of the people you know, it will allow you to follow them. The next screen will allow you to invite your friends who aren’t on Twitter yet. Want to skip either of these parts? There is a skip button that sits in the very top right of the screen or at the bottom center.

Now to use and leverage the account—if you know me, or have met me, a great place to start is to type in the address bar (while logged in): www.twitter.com/LauraBriere. On the top right, it will show how many people I follow, and you can click on that number. From there, you can look at who I follow. See someone you know? Click on their name or their picture and then click the “follow” button that appears under their photo in their account page. You’ll see their updates in your feed when they post, and if they follow you back (likely if they know you), they’ll see your updates.

Leveraging the power of this utility relies on the same principles that traditional marketing methods do: consistency, clarity, conciseness and repetition. Get into the habit of posting 2-3 times a day on Twitter, regularly working to build your network (seeing who your friends know that you might know) and reaching out to invite your friends/colleagues that aren’t on Twitter yet. When it’s time to add another utility later to your marketing plan, it will be much easier.

(Second in a series of articles on this subject)

This article appeared in the November issue of DBA Magazine. You can check out this great publication online. Here are some links:

November Issue of DBA

DBA Blog

This Article

So I guess it takes an international business celebrity to make the point, and hit home a little harder. Maybe I ought to write a book or dozen (ahem) too…

I was reading the latest copy of Entrepreneur Magazine today, and I flipped it open to see one my heroes, Robert Kiyosaki, talking about the virtues of marketing and not being cheap. Can I tell you? I got chills.

In an article entitled “Go Big or Go Home,” Kiyosaki states that “even in a bad economy, one truth about marketing stands: you have to spend more to make more.” So true.

He goes on to explain further that “promotion is a six-week cycle. That means if I promote today, business increases six weeks later. Many businesses violate the six-week cycle. They promote for, say, four weeks, and because nothing happens, they stop. Two weeks later, there’s a sudden increase in business. For four weeks, business remains strong. Then, just as suddenly, business drops off, because six weeks earlier, the entrepreneur had stopped promoting.

My rich dad’s lesson was to never stop promoting: Promote whether the economy is strong or weak; promote even when you may not have the money. If you have no money, stand on a street corner at lunchtime with a sign hanging around your neck promoting your product or service.”

What I want to add to Kiyosaki’s article is some ideas on how to market in a crummy economy - because let’s face it - we’re in one. Notice he uses the words “promote” and “market” - not “advertise.” His lesson (and mine) - promote no matter what, constantly.

Given that, what do you have more of to invest into promotions right now? Time or money?

Use this table I created to help give you some visual ideas on where you might be, and in turn, what you can do in that situation to market yourself:

Like a garden without water, a business without marketing cannot succeed.

Social networking is an exciting, emerging trend in business that more and more businesses of all sizes are seeing tremendous value and potential in. Those currently utilizing this cutting-edge (but surprisingly user-friendly) tool are seeing amazing results, but only if used properly.

Reasons many people give for NOT utilizing social networking vary from group to group. Some are afraid that social-networking tools are too hard, some feel they are “only for the kids” and others are still sold on traditional methods—to the exclusion of all others.

While these concerns have some basis, they lack a really solid sense of how easy, how powerful and how life-changing these tools can be for the bottom line.

Let’s define social networking for those not familiar with it. “Social networking” is a technology-based means of communication utilizing the power and variety of the Internet to provide an infinite variety of tools and offerings. It is a continually evolving concept, as new tools and capabilities are introduced. However, the basic concept of using the Internet to communicate with each other should make sense to virtually everyone. Some of the more popular examples include LinkedIn, FastPitch, Plaxo, Twitter and Xing.

People can leverage these sites to create a sense of presence that even traditional marketing experts can appreciate: brand awareness, lead generation, information sharing and so on. And the real keys to success are the same as in traditional marketing: frequency, relevancy and cross-marketing, to name a few. Like traditional forms of networking and advertising, the result is directly proportional to the effort.

Critics claim that social networking is merely a gimmick. In reality, while it is true that social networking alone will not likely produce substantial leads in the absence of other critical methodologies, it IS true that combined with other methods, and when used regularly, social networking can, and has, produced excellent results.

Frank Damelio, founder and CEO of the area executive training company Target Intellect, says, “I have found that social networking is a simple and cost-effective method of building connections that have so far resulted in a significant increase in new clients and brand exposure.”

And social networking has one major benefit that other methods generally don’t—there is relatively NO barrier to entry. Usage is practically free (although one should employ the services of a social networking expert to glean the best results) and is relatively painless in terms of time spent updating and managing efforts.

Ease of use and low barrier to entry should absolutely make social networking an essential element of every company’s marketing plan. To not take advantage of these tools is to watch your competition use them to its advantage.

(First in a series of articles on this subject)

This article appeared in the October issue of DBA Magazine. You can check out this great publication online. Here are some links:

October Issue of DBA

DBA Blog

This Article

You might know this, you might not - I’m a foodie and have several “famous” recipes that send people to my parties in droves. I love to cook, and find artisic pleasure in making sensory experiences for my guests that sends them home raving about my cooking, my presentation and my creativity. I live for it.

That’s culinary arts, and this is marketing. Here’s the tie. What I love about my job is the people and the range of experiences. Last night, for example, I got to enjoy an evening as a chef behind the line at Rovezzi’s Restaurant in Sturbridge.

Chris Rovezzi, the owner and executive chef, showed me some great culinary tricks and I learned a lot of great new things that will help me out. Got a few great recipes (I’d share them with you, but I’d have to maim you) and really added quite a bit to my expertise.

Throughout the evening, I noted that Chris was militant about every dish being just right before going out of the kitchen, he was personable and social to his guests, and he managed his team with strong leadership and persuasive charm. Being the marketing die-hard that I am, I had thoughts swirling through my head the whole time about culinary arts and its similarities to marketing. The thing that struck me so powerfully is Chris’ mastery of word-of-mouth marketing. I wanted to highlight his efforts because he’s a great example of what people should do.

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of marketing. Chris has a busy and successful restaurant and there’s a few reasons why:

1. He’s obsessed with quality and won’t accept anything less than the best
2. His staff is personally trained in excellent and personable service
3. The recipes are made the same every time (I saw this first hand!), thus consistent in delivery of product
4. The overall customer experience is very positive, and designed to be memorable

I admire his ability to give the people what they want, which makes them WANT to talk about it. When you’ve done that, you’re doing something really good. Kudos, my friend!

What can you do in your business to generate positive word of mouth?

In no particular order…

• Be consistent in your offering AND your pricing - in other words, don’t confuse people
• Focus on the customer experience and make it a GREAT one (”good” is not good enough)
• Don’t be a jack (or jacqueline!) of all trades - BE THE BEST AT ONE!
• THANK people for their patronage and make them feel important
• Be humble, and genuinely kind and good to your customers/clients. When people feel good, they talk about it.
• Be proactive in reaching out to your customers/clients, asking for their toughest feedback - then ACT on it.
• Ask people to tell their friends/colleagues about you. Chances are, they would anyway, but a request from someone they adore is never an inconvenience.
• Think about things from your customers’/clients’ perspectives - how do they see you?

Give it some thought, and try to ask yourself what makes your favorite vendors so amazing to you. What keeps YOU going back? What prompts you to tell your friends? What makes you want to blog about a great experience?

We moved! We have pretty sweet new digs now… pictures of the interior coming soon.

New address:

340 Main St.
Suite 801
Worcester, MA 01608

Same everything else.

If you already know how to do this and some knucklehead keeps sending you emails visibly copying you in the field of 100 other people, send this to them - you may very well protect yourself in the process. If you’re the knucklehead, then read on. Gently said, my friends.

When people visibly cc a bunch of strangers, a few things happen.

1. The recipient gets annoyed (I do)
2. Your email has been exposed to a whole host of people - people you may not know. These people may not share your views on email privacy and you may find yourself learning all about the virtues of “miracle drugs” (ahem).

A few things to note for instructions on how else to not bug people:

For my low-tech friends, here’s how to do it:

1. Put your own name in the “to” field.”
2. Don’t put anything in the CC (carbon copy) field.
3. Put the email addresses you want to blast this to in the BCC (blind carbon copy) field. This protects the people you’re sharing with.
4. Keep the subject on point - since this is a blast email and it’s not being sent to them specifically, help them to decide quickly if its worth their time or not. Remember, if you’re not taking the time to send that person an individual email, why should they take the time to read it?
5. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point. don’t use annoying fonts, pictures or anything else. Brevity is the order of the day.

Now, for my high-tech friends (or at least the ones that want to cheat a little), check this out:

Easy Mail Merge** - this awesome little program is about $40, and is worth every penny.

Know what people hate most about bulk emails? THEY’RE BULK EMAILS!! If you could still send bulk emails, but …not… this would be the way to do it. You create a distribution list from your Vcards, pop it into the program, and then set the areas you want to populate.

It’s a remarkable little program, and allows for hundreds of emails to be sent INDIVIDUALLY and PERSONALLY to each person on your list. Yes, it’s still a bulk email, technically, but it allows for the recipient to feel slightly more important than the “select all” command on your blast list.

By personalizing your emails to each recipient, you will increase your readership, increase your chances of getting a reply, you won’t expose people to intentional (or unintentional) spammers, and most of all, you decrease the liklihood of upsetting the recipient.

Rules 4 and 5 still apply, no matter which approach you take (low or high tech).

**If you try the program and want me to write a how-to on its usage, leave a comment on this page with a link back to your web site (free promo 4 u) and I’ll post some pictures and tips within a week or so.

OK, so they called him an all-star - I think he’s a superstar.

I nominated Jeff Crumble for the Worcester Business Journal’s All Star Sales Award and he was one of 20 awesome people to get this great recognition.

I nominated him, saying that “Jeff is composed, masterful in his presentation and embodies ethics and quality of service fully. He treats each person like they are the only person in his world at that moment and is extremely gregarious and invigoratingly refreshing. People are motivated by his professionalism and enjoy doing business with him.”

CONGRATS JEFF!!! You deserve the recognition!

Don’t know him yet? Easy fix…

Read more about Jeff HERE
Follow Jeff on Twitter HERE
Connect with him on LinkedIn HERE
Email him HERE

…pssst!

If you (or a colleague) were interested in our Free Branding Giveaway, I’m just reminding you that the deadline for entry into the contest and the required submission are due by July 15th.

The time’s almost here for you to win some great, no-strings-attached marketing services from us! I can’t wait to read your submissions…and maybe work with you!

If you’ve wanted to dive into the contest but haven’t… write 500 words on why you deserve to win and what you plan to do with it if you do. That’s it! (Of course, if you’re feeling a little more wordy, feel free to write more)

Simply Click Here!

Know a non-profit that deserves to win? Copy and paste this link into email and let them know!

http://tinyurl.com/5u22zn

or

http://www.vision-advertising.com/about-us/community-involvement/grow-your-business-2008

Good luck!

This is so easy - you can do it in less than 5 minutes.

The purpose of this tool (and so many others) is to make it so people can access YOUR blog and your teachings/info distribution as easily as possible.

iGoogle (formerly Google Personalized Homepage) is a customizable homepage originally launched in May 2005. Updates include the capability to add web feeds and Google Gadgets (similar to those available on Google Desktop). It was renamed and expanded on April 30, 2007 and is currently available in several localized versions of Google: U.S., Australia, India, Canada, and more.

To get started, click here (this window will stay open).

1. Select RSS
2. Select one or several
3. Input the RSS address - NOT the address of your web site or blog. IE: http://vision-advertising.com/feed
4. Click “generate HTML”
5. TRY IT OUT & MAKE SURE IT WORKS
6. Copy and paste into your blog
7. TELL PEOPLE!!

Here’s ours:

Here’s what it looks like on our iGoogle pages:

And when expanded:

Easy stuff - enjoy!!

I just answered a great question on LinkedIn about marketing on the cheap and I thought you might be interested (since soooo many people want to know the answer to that same question). Enjoy!

The asker posed: “Marketing/Advertising at low costs? I have recently opened my real estate company in Dubai would like to know advertising/marketing methods which achieve desired results in low costs. Also are they any sites where I can place ads for free or low costs and still receive good leads? ”

I responded:

You may want to consider the power of social networking, and for the following reasons:

1. It is free.
2. It is simple.
3. It is effective.
4. It is popular.
5. It makes your other marketing 10x more effective.
6. It is the future.

What is social networking? Pardon me if you already know, but social networking is the activity of mass distributing yourself in a seemingly personal way while allowing you to maximize your time spent and financial investments. In simpler terms, its a way to stay connected to people and remind them that you exist in a relevant manner.

LinkedIn is a fabulous example of a business connection tool where you have the opportunity to connect with people through people. It’s a great concept on the principle of six degrees of separation.

FastPitch has created an excellent stand-alone utility that also allows you to use your LinkedIn profile, get more out of it and actively instant message (IM) new people and chat live. I like it, and have met some great people.

For outside of US bounds (primarily), you may want to consider Xing also - I have found it remarkably helpful and have met some amazing people all over the world. Based in Germany, it embraces cross-cultural networking. Some have called me from overseas to connect.

For Real Estate, which can be a B2C offering, you may also want to consider Facebook and Myspace.

How to tie it all together and make it work without going crazy? Twitter is an excellent and highly popular micro-blogging utility where you have to answer the question “what are you doing” in 140 characters or less. An example of what I might put: “answering an excellent question on LinkedIn about marketing with social networking”

How to wrap it up in a neat lil’ bow? ping.fm (current beta code: letmeping -not sure how long this is valid) - this utility allows you to update most of your status updates from that site - OR (and I love this:) AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

All that being said on the topic of social networking, here is some very specific advice on usage: be specific enough to pique interest, but vague enough to not give away the house, and ALWAYS maintain the highest level of courtesy, professionalism and respect. People mistake social networking as a forum to be a little too familiar with people and it hurts them. Use your best judgment and you’ll do famously.

NOW… to balance all of these activities out, I would NOT suggest advertising. It can be pricey and can yield low to depressing returns. I would highly suggest reading up on how to create and distribute interesting press releases and harnessing the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

I would also suggest email marketing (Constant Contact), blogging (WordPress or Blogger) and making the entire thing cyclical. If it can’t feed into itself, your marketing programs won’t work.

Strategic partnerships never hurt either.

I hope this helps you in your marketing adventures!