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Building a Business that Counts

April 10, 2012 by dwellman 4 Comments

For a long time now, I have been a bit unsettled about business in this cray era of the internet and the “global” economy. As a dreamer, I have looked at videos, listened to gurus, and joined the social network. The more I did (and learned) the more unsettled I became. The reason for my unsettled condition was that through all of what I was seeing, hearing, and experiencing there was a tremendous loss of the human element.

For me business is about looking people in the eye and knowing that they trust what I say and I trust them in the same way.

It’s about being confident that the people you work with really care about you and you really care about them.
It’s about relationships that will give the other their last dollar to bail them out of a jam.
It’s about building a business that counts for you, for your customers/clients, and for your community.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to introduce some thoughts about building such a business. My hope in all of this is that some very talented entrepreneurs who are looking for more than just fame and fortune will take these simple thoughts and bring about a revolution of caring in this country and around the world.

So, buckle up and hang on for the ride. Please comment and add to the conversation. This discussion could very well change the course of your world. Most of all I want it to help you find purpose and passion!

Cheers ….

Filed Under: Designing Success, Small Business Tagged With: Building a business, Business, Caring, Experience, Facebook, Small Business, Social media, Social network, Twitter

Social Media and Real Business

March 22, 2012 by dwellman Leave a Comment

An example of the share buttons common to many social web pages. Thanks to http://www.nouveller.com for the free icon pack image. The author (Benjamin Reid) releases the image into the public domain, with the following text available at the source page: "You can use them anywhere you like, absolutely anywhere, anything. No attribution, 100% free.". (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The lure of social media is everywhere today. (I watched my Twitter stream all day yesterday to see the fate of Tim Tebow.) Nearly anyone can be found online and in the social media world. As recently as the last couple years the largest segment of growth online were Boomers and Seniors.

Businesses of all shapes and sizes are being inundated with “gurus” who are insisting that no business can survive without a social media marketing plan. Yet, thousands and thousands, and thousands, and thousands (you get my point) of businesses don’t really know what to do with social media or how to do it.

Let me give you three quick tips on how to use social media in a real business:

Create a social media plan that is heavy on the social. The point of social media for business is to build relationships and to actually carry on conversations with your customers and prospective customers. Most companies believe that if they just send out enough information to enough people they will gain enough customers. (That is really just “old school” marketing in a new medium.) Social means social, so talk!
Create a social media plan that allows your customers and potential customers to ask questions that then get answered for everyone’s benefit. The more you can answer questions before and after the sale, the more people will buy from you again and refer you to others.
Create a social media plan that allows you to monitor your brand and respond quickly to any negative comments. People today are more apt to take their anger with you and your company online these days than they are to talk directly to you. If you are monitoring your name and the name of your company, you can usually respond to and defuse most complaints in real time. This kind of open and thoughtful response will go a long way in repairing relationships with an existing customer and showing potential customers the kind of effort you will make with them should an issue arise!

Real businesses (not the shame groups teaching you to make money online by teaching people to make money online to teach people to make money online) need to have an online presence these days. But, don’t let the lure of the online cause you to loose sight of the rest of your business planning, marketing, and efforts. Social media is one tool in the tool box. Essential …YES! But, not to the expense of all others!

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Business, Company, Customer, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing plan, Social media, Tim Tebow, Twitter

Building from the Real You

February 29, 2012 by dwellman Leave a Comment

Social Media Cafe (Photo credit: Cristiano Betta/Flickr photo)

When I first started developing an “online presence” I, like most newbies, thought that everyone who ever put an eBook together must have had something unique to say. I wanted to know everything I could about the ways of social media and more than anything wanted to make a big splash for myself.

What I found over time was that most people writing eBooks are just re-purposing the same set of “must haves/must reads/must do’s” and that making a big splash online wasn’t really me in the first place. I found that what really made me happy was building my business from the real me.

Having gone through this experience, I would like to make three suggestions for anyone trying to build an online presence for either fun or profits (or both):

Start by understanding you! Social media and the internet allow for you to present yourself in anyway that you like. Lasting success online will come by building from the real you.
Build organically! Great conversations with people who know, like, and trust you are always better than “spitting in the wind.”
Learn the proper blend of life and business. I really don’t care what you had for lunch, but do want to know enough about you to suggest your favorite quiescence when we meet for a business lunch. I want to do business with the real you!

What lessons have you learned in your time online? How to you share the real you in the online world? What suggestions do you have for new people/businesses trying to make there way in social media?

Filed Under: Designing Success, Social Media Tagged With: Business, E-book, eBook, Facebook, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Social media, Success

When Social Media Turns Ugly!

February 22, 2012 by dwellman 13 Comments

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I spend a lot of time on social media channels these days and I have found that since we”marketing experts” have discovered them, they have really lost their desire for simple people like me. I will admit openly and without reservation that I embraced these channels of communication and considered with glee the great opportunity they provided for business growth and expansion. However, after becoming the victim of the insanity, I finally came to understand that these wonderful opportunities for small and quiet voices to be heard had been overtaken by the loud voices of “the market” and their ability to control the whole system.

Everywhere you go (from Facebook to Pinterest to LinkedIn to Twitter and beyond) the social stream is less and less social and more and more another channel to inundate the public with more and more “stuff.” Even the concept of “inbound marketing” where content is supposed to be free and limited so as to create a greater sales cycle.

I am not against the use of social media for business purposes, but I am dismayed that nearly everything you read these days is a “not so veiled” sales pitch. This post marks a change in thought (as well as direction) for me. I am still going to provide what I hope will be great and informative content to my friends and readers, but I am going to let the decision to work with me professionally be entirely yours.

The result may be a lessening of readership, a fewer numbers of “lead captures,” and maybe even less income for our company as well as for me, but I am ready to do the right thing. How about you? What do you think would bring you to such a decision? Is it important for your company to be seen in this kind of light or is money and growth all that is important? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Business, Facebook, Inbound marketing, LinkedIn, Marketing and Advertising, Pinterest, Social media, Twitter

The Trap of the Internet and Social Media

January 9, 2012 by dwellman 5 Comments

Starting a new business in the current business environment is as exciting as at any time in history. With the ability to be “seen” not only in your local market but also in every market around the world via the internet and the use of social media is just incredible.

Yet, with such powerful tools available, new businesses can also fall victim to the trap of the internet and social media. What I mean by this is that new businesses can easily get mesmerized by the power and reach of both the internet and social media and come to believe that if they are simply “out there” that success is guaranteed.

I remember having a conversation with a business owner who was in the second year of her business. She was a very savvy business woman who had used her internet and social media skills to launch her business a year prior to our conversation. What stunned her though was that now in her second year of business things weren’t going nearly as well and she was not getting the new business that had seemed to come so easily to her in the first year of business.

She recognized that her internet and social media efforts, which had been a large part of her first year success, were not bringing the same return as in the first year. As she considered her options, she began to reach out to her personal network and developed new products to make available to her local market. She continued with her online efforts as well, but learned that being online alone is not enough. You need to have a balanced approach to marketing that is strong both on as off line.

Don’t fall into the trap! The internet and social media can play a very powerful role in the success of your business, but for most businesses they cannot be your sole efforts.

What have you seen in your business? What other marketing efforts are you using to maximize your success model?

Filed Under: Internet, Social Media Tagged With: Business, Facebook, Internet Marketing, Local Network, Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Offline Marketing, Small Business, Social media, Twitter

Tired of all the “gurus”!

November 29, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

When I first started blogging and working in the area of social media, I read everything that the “gurus” were saying about social media and how to get noticed online.

After several years of reading and following these “gurus” I have come to the conclusion that I am tired of all the “gurus”! It seems that, for the most part, they are self-serving and only want to sell their wares. I’m not opposed to “selling your wares” as long as they have real value to individual clients. I struggle with so many people calling themselves “gurus” when all they have done is “parrot” what everyone else is saying.

For we Boomers who are looking for ways to reinvent retirement, these “gurus” can hook us early and we end up trying to create businesses that look like everyone else. These bland and unimaginative businesses fail as often as the averages suggest. And the “gurus” just keep on “teaching” the same worn ideas to another set of honest, hard-working people.

What Boomers need as they consider creating retirement businesses is for those who would be business/life coaches to consider them first. To help them think through and investigate what they want and how they want to do things. They don’t need “gurus” teaching tired systems, but rather they need honest people looking to help them find the business that makes their retirement years all that they have hoped for them to be.

So, if you are tired of all the “gurus” then take time to look for the right help that will help you help you reinvent retirement in the way that makes the best sense to you!

Filed Under: Boomers Helping Boomers, Social Media Tagged With: Business, Facebook, Guru, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Retirement, Social Media

Changing the Face of Business

October 11, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

One of the most difficult things for me to do is to change! I enjoy my routine. Yet, I have also come to understand that without change there is no growth and without growth there is stagnation. (Not a good word for a successful business!) So, I set out to change, to learn, to grow no matter how hard it seems to be.

However, I don’t want to do all this changing and growing alone, so I have come up with a little experiment that I want others to join with me. The experiment involves changing the face of business as we know it. I am speaking particularly about how business is conducted in the online, social media world.

When the business community invaded the online world and specifically the world of social media, we did so with the same bluster and bravado (and junk mail I might add) as our entrance into all other types of media. Suddenly every email, every website, every blog post, every tweet was an advertisement for some product and/or service that I didn’t know I wanted or needed.

Businesses are being swept into such tactics by the promise of a worldwide audience and the thought that if just .01% of all their posts become sales then they would be rich beyond imagination. So the posts come, the tweets are made and the email offers are non-stop. It is so bad now that I am ready to shut it all off and actually talk to my clients in person again (what a concept!)

Thinking about this makes my head spin! So, I have decided to do an experiment. The goal of this experiment is “changing the face of business.” The way that the experiment works is that I want to establish a business relationship (more about what that means later) with 100 people. This relationship will be one of mutual respect, and one of mutual benefit, driven by the sense of value that such a relationship can bring to all involved. I am not looking for people who necessarily want to sell me something, but want to know who you are, what you do, and how you bring value to your customers/clients. I want to share my value with you as well. Then, if we need something from the other, we would certainly feel comfortable hiring the other and/or recommending each other to our spheres of influence. No pressure, no hype, and no more quotes from dead people just to fill our twitter stream (my pet peeve!)

If this is something that might strike your fancy, you can check out my new twitter account @dwellmanonline. It is a social/business place where I talk business, root for the Cardinals, and talk with my business partners. This experiment will last as long as it has value to all involved. If you get too salesy I will let you know, if I get too salesy please let me know (PM’s please, not news stream flaming.)

In the end, I hope to find that changing the face of business is not only possible but also rewarding personally and professionally!

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Business, Change, Changing, Customer, Face of Business, Facebook, Online Communities, Social Media, Social Media Today, Social network, Social Networking, Twitter

Four Seldom Used LinkedIn Features

September 26, 2011 by Dave Wellman 4 Comments

This is icon for social networking website. Th...

Image via Wikipedia

I personally think that LinkedIn is the best B2B and/or job search social media site currently available. It has a set of features that I think bring all that an existing business, someone looking to start a business, or someone looking to for employment needs to find what is right for them.

That said, I also think that very few people take advantage of all the features available to them and, by not doing so, limit the effectiveness of this wonderful platform. Today I want to talk about four seldom used LinkedIn features and how to make them work for you:

First let’s begin in the “Groups” section. LinkedIn allows you to join 50 groups. This makes it possible for you to get noticed by a lot of people who have similar interests, knowledge, and passion as you. Many people join these groups, but my experience has been that very few take advantage of them. These groups give you a voice, they afford you a way to get your knowledge out, they can open doors if you will spend some time in them regularly. You outta give them a try!
Next, consider the “Companies” section. Here you are able to follow companies in your industry (even your competitors) or even one’s you would love to work for. By following these companies you will know what they are saying, where they are headed, and in some cases what they are planning to do next. You can gain industry insight and, if you are looking to work for one of them, you might even find a solution for a problem or an idea that might move them forward (looks great on a job application).
Have you ever explored the “Answers” section of LinkedIn? There are thousands of people asking questions about every subject under the sun. It is a place where you can let your knowledge and skill set shine. If I were looking for joint venture partners, answers to questions plaguing my business/industry, or an employer looking for answers that I have knowledge of, this is where I would start.
Reading List is my fourth choice for seldom used features. This feature allows you to look at reading lists from people in specific industries. This not only allows you to see what is being read, but it gives you insight into the problems that some may see in that industry and allow you to position yourself as the one with the best solution.

There you have it. My list of four seldom used LinkedIn features that could make LinkedIn not only a compelling platform for you but could also make you a sought out expert in your industry!

Filed Under: LinkedIn, Networking, Social Media Tagged With: Business, Employment, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social network, Twitter

Make Time to Network

September 21, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

I live and work in a very unique place. My local market is a small one, but within three hundred miles of me there are six major US cities. So, I have the benefit of both a small market atmosphere and a large market reach.

The best way take advantage of this situation is to make time to network. Networking in simple terms is reaching out to people who could be possible clients or business associates in your niche/industry. By networking with these people and companies you will have the inside track when they are looking for someone like you to benefit their business.

There are several things that are true in understanding the whole concept of networking:

Networking takes time. You can’t just join a “networking” group or put a profile up on LinkedIn and Facebook and expect that new business will come pouring in the door. You must learn to “make a name for yourself” in these groups and online before people will see you as an asset to their business.
Networking takes effort. If you plan to network with potential clients in your industry, you have to make the effort to know what they need and how your companies products/services can meet their companies needs. If you don’t do your homework, networking becomes nothing more than coffee table chat.
Networking is not the same as sales. This to me is the biggest single truth that we have to overcome. When you are networking, you are not selling. Networking will certainly bring people into the sales cycle, but to make networking about sales will loose you more clients than it will ever gain. Networking allows you to become someone who is known, liked, and trusted. Sales results from that!

To make time to network, when done properly, will open the door for opportunities that would have never come about any other way. (Both from those we meet and from those they will introduce us to.) To not make time to network just makes growing your business that much harder.

Filed Under: Networking Tagged With: Business, Business networking, Facebook, LinkedIn, Sales, Small Business, Social network, Success, Twitter

Marketing Your Way to Business Success

August 5, 2011 by Dave Wellman 2 Comments

Image via Wikipedia

I find it interesting when I talk to business owners these days. It seems that most of them have very strong views about what they are willing to do to market for business success. Some like outbound marketing techniques (ads, mass mailings, television and radio, trade shows, etc.) while others have abandoned almost, if not all outbound marketing in favor of inbound marketing techniques (blogs, content marketing, social media platforms, whitepapers, etc.)

But, those businesses who are building the strongest and most successful marketing strategies understand the benefits of a “blended” program that allows them to network on and off line. Let me explain with an example:

John Doe visits your companies website and enjoys an article you wrote about some aspect of your business. In that article you provide access to a free cd giving John more information about the theme of the article. The requirement for the free cd is, of course, his name and address. Once you receive the request, you send the cd out and have created a new lead for your products and services. Included in the thank you letter you send with the cd, you introduce John to your Facebook and Twitter accounts along with your YouTube channel. You also remind John of your blog/website url and invite him to subscribe via your RSS feed. Then on a regular basis you put more information in the hands of John via regular mail when they are ready email, always offering your products/services as a benefit to meet your clients needs.

By blending on and off line networking techniques, your marketing strategy will be seen as unique and will bring your business a more loyal and referring client base. This of course leads to more inquiries, more information requests, more customers/clients, and more business success. SWEET!

Filed Under: Inbound Marketing, Networking, Social Media Tagged With: Blended marketing, Business, Facebook, Inbound marketing, Marketing, Marketing strategy, outbound marketing, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube

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