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Category Archives: Small Business
Social media workshop schedule for October and November
Photo via booleansplit on Flickr
Today, social media initiatives are part of every large company’s marketing play book. Most even have budget line-items and dedicated staff.
Then there’s the small business world. Many of you are still trying to figure all of this out. You’re busy with the books, managing people, servicing customers, watching the competition, taking out the trash – pretty much everything except worrying about your Twitter feed.
We know this, and we want to help – so we’re announcing a new three-week semester of social media business workshops on the evenings of October 28, November 4 and 11. These classes have been tailored to the needs of small business owners, entrepreneurs, freelancers and individuals who are just getting started in the space.
During these sessions, you’ll learn the fundamentals and best practices necessary to effectively use social media tools for business – helping you extend your online presence, better connect with customers, and grow leads. We’ll emphasize key tools like Google Reader, blog publishing platforms, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare.
There’s no reason the little guy can’t get bigger by using this stuff, right? Tickets can be purchased below ($30 per weekly session, $90 total plus a nominal Eventbrite fee) and details follow.
If you can’t see the above ticket form, visit the event page on Eventbrite.
Please note: The three sessions are held on Thursday nights from 6:15pm to 7:30pm, once per week over a three-week period. By purchasing a ticket you are committing to attend all three sessions. Classes are capped at 20 participants to guarantee hands-on, individualized attention from the Lava Row team members.
What to bring: Yourself, lots of questions, your laptops and iPads (if you have them) or pen and paper. Your choice! We’ll assume you know a thing or two about computers and the Internet. We’ll provide Wi-Fi access and refreshments (water and soda).
Directions: Classes are held at Lava Row, conveniently located just north of Principal Park (home of the Iowa Cubs) in Downtown Des Moines. Our space is inside the Brown-Camp Lofts building at 100 Market Street and we’re in unit 115. To access, use the walk-up sidewalk just off SW 2nd Street at the southwest corner of the building (nearest to the intersection of MLK Parkway and SW 2nd Street). This is our private entrance.
Parking: There is metered parking along SW 2nd Street, Market Street and SW 1st Street. Meters are not enforced after 6:00pm.
Questions? Just contact us.
Three things I’m doing to stay efficient
I’m one of the most easily distracted people on the planet, and that’s not a good thing when I have work to get done. Here are three simple things I’ve been doing recently to stay focused on the really important stuff (client work that pays bills) while not forgetting to “feed the monster.”
Blogging: Due to the long-form (and open-ended) nature of blog posts, I often spend lots of unnecessary hours composing, re-writing, editing, tweaking, stressing and trying to find images. This is a rabbit hole I don’t want to get sucked into anymore, so I started setting limits for my posts: No more than five paragraphs and one image. Also, I set a timer for 30 minutes – when that goes off, I publish. Even if the post is still rough around the edges.
Email inbox: Any time I see the (1) in my Gmail browser tab, I tend to stop what I’m doing and jump over to read whatever has come in. I really do love email as a business tool and many of our clients are in constant communication with us throughout the work day, so I don’t want to turn it off entirely for long periods of time. However, I’ve put together filters – one of those is to re-direct new Twitter follower notifications to a separate folder that I can check later in the day. Since then, my inbox has become less distracting and more focused. (Oh yeah, Gmail’s nifty Priority Inbox helps, too.)
Instant Messaging: I only let a few people IM me. These people are my wife and co-workers. No one else.
Those are just a few of my productivity hacks. Care to share yours in the comments below? Also, Chris Brogan has a great post up about his self-imposed “blinders” and simplifying information streams – which inspired this one. *Ding!* Time’s up, gotta publish this post.
Photo credit: pmiaki via Flickr.
More than just the Mayor: the new face of Foursquare specials
As Foursquare and other location-based networks grow in popularity, both in terms of users and businesses, Mayor and checkin specials are becoming more and more ubiquitous. Local coffee shops offer a free shot of espresso with each checkin, while restaurants offer free appetizers, desserts or discounts off each purchase to the top Foursquare users. But beyond free food and drinks, some businesses have taken their Foursquare presence to the next level by thinking outside the box.
At Miss Shirley’s Café in Baltimore, MD, the Mayor never waits for a table. The restaurant draws quite the crowd for its weekend brunches — often an hour-long wait — so there’s fierce competition to become the Mayor. And data from Baltimore ad agency MGH shows that Miss Shirley’s has seen a 427% increase in checkins since the special began in early 2010. But with some users checking in to the same businesses almost daily (I’m looking at you, Jeff Janssen), how do businesses give value to Foursquare users who don’t come out on top?
Milwaukee-based AJ Bombers has the answer: a “Loyalty Royalty” menu created by not just the Mayor, but all of its top Foursquare users, designed to dispel “checkin fatigue.” Each month, AJ Bombers’ top three Foursquare users create a menu of their own, naming the special dishes and even tweaking the recipes. They can also choose one day each month to make their special meal available to all AJ Bombers patrons. And with other specials for dethroning the current Mayor and for adding tips and to dos, AJ Bombers puts Foursquare deals in the hands of more than just the Mayor.
Interested in taking your business’s Foursquare specials to the next level? Check out these other creative specials for inspiration.
E-coupon-local-deals make their way to Des Moines
Everyone loves local deals! A growing wave of e-coupon-local-deal services are giving merchants a new way to promote their businesses and teaching consumers how to harness their “collective buying power.” Local deal services such as Groupon and LivingSocial leverage the power of their subscriber bases to offer deeply discounted local deals to consumers in a wide range of cities. In most cases, all you have to do to take advantage of the deals is sign up to get their daily email, but the deals themselves are fueled by social media.
While the initial success of these online coupon deal services relies on a large subscriber base, the ultimate driving force behind the deals is social commerce. The concept of group coupon services like Groupon is that the local deal for a product or service in your city can only be claimed if a minimum number of people purchase the discount, so the services provide social media sharing tools to encourage users to tell their friends about the deals – a win-win for everyone. Consumers get the discount and the local businesses get enough customers to make it worth their while.
Groupon and LivingSocial have yet to publish any local deals in Des Moines, but Travelzoo Local Deals recently joined the social media bargain hunting scene, launching Des Moines as a test market. If you’re a Travelzoo subscriber, you’ve already seen the first Local Deals in Des Moines, including $10 — Stam Chocolate & Fine Wine: Tastings for 2 (50% OFF) and $20 — Half Off at Dos Rios w/FREE Cocktails. Travelzoo Local Deals are currently only available in Des Moines and Minneapolis but will quickly expand into 120 markets.
You’re probably wondering why Travelzoo Local Deals launched in Des Moines and Minneapolis despite the success of Groupon and LivingSocial in larger cities like Chicago, New York and L.A. It could have something to do with their existing, large user base of 24k+ subscribers in Des Moines – a user base that Groupon and LivingSocial are currently working to build up, in addition to recruiting businesses to feature special offers. In the meantime, be sure to follow TravelzooDSM and TravelzooMSP on Twitter to keep up with all of the local deals, and sign up to receive local deals here. If you’re a business owner who would like to feature a Travelzoo Local Deal, you can start here.
What kind of local deals do you want to see in Des Moines? Leave a comment below!
Six Steps to Successful Blogger Outreach
According to a 2009 Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, 90 percent of Internet consumers have some degree of trust in recommendations from people they know; only 62 percent place their trust in television advertisements, and the numbers are even lower for other forms of traditional advertising. So what does this mean for social media?
For that 90 percent who trust the recommendations of people they know, they’re not just taking tips from family and friends, but also from their online connections. Think about it: if you read a rave online review about a restaurant, you’re more likely to check out that restaurant on your own, even if you’ve never met the reviewer.
Our online connections influence our decisions.
From a business standpoint, tools like Google Reader provide an efficient way to keep tabs on what people are saying about your company. And by reaching out to opinion leaders in the online community, you will find people who can vouch for your company, connect you with your audience in a new way and serve as contacts in the future. (You’ll also be able to track down negative messages and address a concern right where it’s voiced.)
Here are a few tips for getting started with blogger outreach:
1. Make a list of key terms and phrases bloggers might use to reach the audience you target. This list should be pretty exhaustive—try out different combinations, singular and plural forms of words (blog vs. blogs), even popular misspellings. Use Google’s blog search feature to generate a list of results, then scroll to the bottom of the page and choose “Subscribe to a blog search feed for [search term] in Google Reader.” You’ll also want to subscribe to your company’s name, Twitter handle and any other identities bloggers might use to reference your company. As new blog posts that fit your search terms are made public, they’ll automatically be fed to your Google Reader account.
2. Look at the posts that seem relevant to your company or your industry. Identify the bloggers you’d like to reach out to, and narrow your list down by their reach and influence. Eliminate any that haven’t posted within the last few months.
3. Take some time to get to know their focus, tone and audience. Connect with them on their turf by commenting on a post or two that are relevant to your own company’s focus—this shows them that you are familiar with their blog and that you want to join the conversation. Engage with them before you need something from them; establishing relationships now will give make it easier to reach them down the road.
4. Reach out to the bloggers you select to offer your “pitch.” Stay away from form emails—this is your opportunity to show that you really want to connect with them individually. In your email, explain why they and their readers will care about your brand. Personalize it by referring to a particular post on their blog that caught your eye, or use a specific example to show how your pitch is relevant to them. Some bloggers receive hundreds or even thousands of unsolicited pitches each day, so make sure yours is compelling and unique.
5. Be prepared to provide additional information, resources and logos to them. If they’re taking the time to write about your brand, you should make it as easy as possible for them to do so.
6. If a blogger you contact does write a post about your company, promote their post through your social media channels. Not only will you share their coverage with your fan base, but you’ll also drive traffic back to their blog and reinforce your commitment to staying connected to them.
If you’re less successful than you’d like, set your sights on bloggers who may receive fewer requests. Continue to monitor your Google Reader feeds, and stay engaged with the bloggers you’ve connected with. The more authentic your relationships with these bloggers are, the more likely they’ll be willing to help you out.
What are your tips for connecting with bloggers? Share your thoughts below.
[Photo courtesy of macalicommblog.com.]
