YouTube Scares Me!

October 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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The second largest search tool on the internet is YouTube and yet most businesses don’t even have a YouTube Channel. When asked why, people say things like “YouTube scares me – or – I don’t want to be on a video – YouTube isn’t for serious businesses!”

The truth of the matter is that as businesses we need to get past things like this and embrace the possibilities that video offers. Getting found online involves making use of every avenue available. With a computer, a video camera, and a free YouTube account (along with a relatively short learning curve) you can make yourself known in this area of the internet world as well.

Let me try and help you with five thoughts about using YouTube to make your online presence soar:

  1. YouTube makes it easy to create, upload, and promote your videos. The process is very simple and if you are at all creative it can be fun as well! I have a friend online who says that he does all his videos in one take and no editing. It can certainly be that simple and should be (at least in the beginning.)
  2. Do a search on YouTube for the name of your industry (Real Estate, Insurance, Speakers, Car Sales, etc.) See what shows up and watch these videos. You will notice that most of the are not professionally done and that they are getting views anyway. You will also find that nearly every industry has people making videos. People searching online for your industry will likely find these folks before they find you.
  3. Study the videos that are industry specific and find out what is being said, what is being taught, what is being done badly and then improve upon them or create innovations that will set yourself apart from them.
  4. Don’t be discouraged. Just like everything in social media, it takes time to be recognized. Stay at it, set a schedule and make videos. As people begin to watch, your message will be heard and you will gain position in your industry.
  5. Make your first video!

 

Don’t let “YouTube scares me!” be your excuse to keep you from one of the most powerful tools available to you?

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Tell the Truth and Tell it Fast!

October 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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I watched a great interview done by one of the men that I respect most online (Mark Schaefer). Mark was interviewing Amy Howell of Howell Marketing Strategies. (See the interview here!) Mark and Amy were talking about the changes that have occurred in the world of Public Relations with the onset of social media. The point that struck me the most was that Amy said because of the speed at which things occur online these days you, as a business owner must, “tell the truth and tell it fast!”

I couldn’t agree more with Amy’s assessment of the online business climate. Tell the truth and tell it fast ought to be a mantra that is driven home in every business small, medium, or large in our world today. Not only does this kind of transparency avert bigger problems down the road, but it also helps you become more real to your clients today.

There are three things that make telling the truth and telling it quickly stand out to me (and I would suspect to a lot of others as well):

  1. Telling the truth in a crisis acknowledges your humanity and your fallibility. I have worked with businesses in the past who, for whatever reason, would not acknowledge an error when it was obvious that one had occurred. (Several auto repair shops will go unnamed at this time!)
  2. Telling the truth, quickly shows clients that you are on top of your business and that your companies reputation is important to you. This level of importance gives current and prospective clients the confidence that you will do all that is necessary to protect your reputation by protecting theirs as well.
  3. Telling the truth, even when you are to blame, makes it difficult for even your staunchest critic to cause long-term damage to you or your company. While every mistake causes short term damage to a client and/or those that they can influence, acknowledging the mistake and fixing the problem can also make for loyal customers and a life-time of referrals from someone who could have been a critic for life.

 

My thanks again to Mark Schaefer and Amy Howell for stirring my thoughts with this great interview. You can follow Mark (@markwschaefer) on Amy (@howellmarketing) on Twitter.

What do you think about this kind of transparency? Has it helped your business in the past? What do you think now?

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Marketing Your Way to Business Success

August 5, 2011 by 2 Comments
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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!

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Social Media and Baby Boom Business – 6

July 22, 2011 by 2 Comments
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Well so far in this series, “Social Media and Baby Boom Business” we have looked at three of the five most important aspects of building a strong and sustainable social media strategy for your business. We have looked at the importance of your base camp (blog) and the two most prevalent outposts (Twitter and Facebook). Today we want to look at another outpost that can bring you significant credibility, traffic, and in the end sales to your business.

This outpost for your business is YouTube. Adding video to your arsenal of marketing tools will mark you as one of the most innovative people in your niche. To put yourself into this arena is neither costly or difficult to do, but statistics reveal it to be one of the best options on the net.

That said, videos probably need the most planning and thought for them to produce the kind of results that will bring you the power results that they are capable of. Think about these five things:

  1. You need to be sure of what you are going to say, before you get “on camera.” Very few people can just turn on a camera and begin speaking. You may not want to write a script, but you need to at least know the direction of the video from the opening remarks through the story/body of the video to the conclusion and call to action.
  2. You need to understand about how to produce the best sound possible for your videos. There is nothing worse than to try to listen to a video with such bad sound quality that you become incomprehensible. Find the right equipment and learn how to use it!
  3. You need to have fun while producing your videos. No one wants to watch a video of you being “scared out of your mind” in front of the camera. You will get better at it the more videos you make, but remember to be yourself.
  4. You need to talk to the person watching the video. Don’t lecture, don’t condescend, just talk. More people will watch your videos and respond to you the more you talk to them rather than at them!
  5. You need to be creative with your videos. While there are benefits to having a studio set up, don’t get stuck in the studio all the time. Get outside, video from your car, make those watching believe that your life is just like theirs.  They will pay more attention to you if you do.

In the end, video is a really powerful content tool. Use it wisely and you will gain extra strength in your marketing strategy!

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Social Media and Baby Boom Business – 3

July 12, 2011 by 8 Comments
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This is part three of the series Social Media and Baby Boom Business. In this post we will take a look at the tool of blogging to build interest in your second career. Enjoy and don’ t forget to comment!

Blogging …. sounds scary to most people. I hear all the excuses: I can’t write; Nobody would read my blog; What would I write about; Nobody sits around all day reading blogs; etc. and so on!

However, if you are like most people, you really do have lots to say about you, your passions, and why those passions turned into your second career! Folks do want to hear stuff like that. They have dreams and passions as well and your stories help them to breath life into theirs.

I truly believe if more people defined themselves and their passions and then lived those passions, told stories of those passions and built their lives/businesses around those passions, the world would be a much better place.

This, my boomer friend, is where blogging comes in!

Once you have determined what your second career is going to be, you need to talk about it to as many people as possible. Blogging affords you that option. Whether you use words written, video presentation, or even podcasts, the place to find these things ought to be your “home base” which is your blog. With so many blogging platforms to choose from and so many easy ways to get started, this is a free (or nearly free) way to make yourself stick out from the crowd. To provide your potential customers with the information they are looking for and to provide access to your new businesses products and services.

Three things you need to understand as you begin the blogging process:

  1. Be yourself! I remember watching the movie Aladdin with my daughter many years ago and hearing the Genie remind Aladdin to “Be Yourself” as he sought to win the heart of the princess. In the end that is what won him the hand of his bride. Be yourself.
  2. Tell your story! In being yourself, tell stories about what has brought you to the place of offering your products/services. Many people become very health conscious after undergoing some major health challenges. Others find a particular hobby that really brings them to life. Some “have always known” that what they are offering now is what they wanted for others. Your story is unique, tell it!
  3. Bring good information to the forefront. Always provide information that has great value to those who will be reading your blog. Don’t just write sales letters or tech manuals. Tell people what you know and how that will help their lives/businesses just like it has yours.

When I first started my blog, I had all the questions that I listed at the top of this post, but what I have discovered is that there are lots of people in this world who are craving real, valuable content that will help them make the right choices in their lives about virtually any and every thing imaginable. All you have to do is commit to the process and you will find a niche looking to hear from you!

 

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Social Media and Baby Boom Business – 2

July 9, 2011 by 4 Comments
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Today I want to talk about the five social media tools necessary to create a powerful online presence for your Baby Boom Business. These tools are ones that I use personally and can make your business “pop” as you set out in your second career.

  1. A blog – it will become the central location for all of the information/answers that you provide your customers.
  2. Facebook – it is like a “back yard barbecue” for your business. A place to invite people to come, talk, and create/establish relationships. (Not a place for direct sales!)
  3. Twitter – this tool acts like your online billboard. You provide short messages, tips, new finds, and “specials” for current and prospective customers.
  4. YouTube – this tool is your own video channel to let people see what you have been talking about. If you can provide people with “tips and tricks” to make better use of your products or training materials about your services, you are more likely to gain/retain a customer.
  5. LinkedIn – while this tool is considered by most a business to business tool, it creates a great platform for keeping your eyes and ears open to the new and exciting things that are going on in your industry. Don’t over-look this great tool.

A word of caution here. While all of these tools can be launched at no cost and with no real difficulties, there are ways to use them the benefit of your business and to its detriment as well. You need to understand these tools and how they all fit together into a successful marketing strategy. Learn them one or two tools at a time and add others as you are comfortable with the ones you are already using. Order is also important, just be careful.

Starting next week we will look briefly at each of these social media tools and how they can bring success to your Baby Boom Business!

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Making Use of the Social Network

June 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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This is part three of my five part series: Five Steps to Business Success. Today we are going to delve into the world of the social web and the benefits that online social networking brings to your business. Part three: Making use of the social network!
Most business owners these days know about social networking and the social web. Many have even tried to incorporate some aspects of these online networks into their businesses. Some blog, some have LinkedIn profiles, some have Facebook fanpages, still others make some use of Twitter and even YouTube. Yet, the vast majority of business owners who are making use of the social web cannot point to how do so makes their businesses stronger or more successful. After a while the intensity of their efforts in these areas diminishes and the taste in their mouths becomes bitter to anything online/social media based.

The problem that seems most prevalent among businesses discouraged by their foray into the social network is that, because it is free and easy to get started, most business owners do so without creating a strategy or ways to measure the success of their efforts. Then to make the situation even more difficult, there are tens of thousands of people claiming to be “gurus” who provide advice in such generalities that know business can begin to know what is best for them.

Let me give you five suggestions that might help you in making use of the social network:

1. Find someone who can help you understand the whole social network landscape. Trial and error works, but it usually is very frustrating and can be detrimental to your bottom line desires.
2. Do not attempt to be an expert in all areas of the social network all at once. Your best bet is to learn each of the primary business components one or two at a time. (The primary business components are: a Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.)
3. Create a social networking strategy and stick to it, making adjustments only when they will better serve you, your clients, and your business goals.
4. Be consistent in your online presence. Don’t start and then stop. I have done this and if there comes a time to “re-start” you will find yourself further behind the proverbial eight ball than if you hadn’t started in the first place.
5. Live your essence online. What I mean by this is that you need to be the same person online as you are offline. The social web gives you a lot of opportunity to create an online persona that is really not who you are. Don’t get caught up in this. Just be yourself and live your essence online. People will become loyal to you when they know the you online is the you everywhere else.

When you get comfortable with the social network, you will see how easily it can work for you to make you business much more successful than it would/could be without it!

How do you use the social network? What have you learned that you could share with newbies? How has your business become more successful because of your place on the social web?

 

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Making “Local” Stand Out Online

February 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

About ten years ago, I was sitting across the table of a Village Inn in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was in a meeting with a businessman who was trying to convince me of the need to invest in a start-up company that was working to create local search engines for the new technology that was the internet.He and his company had noticed that there was really no place online to narrow a search for a product/service down to a local area. They had set out to find a way of making “local” stand out online.

Fast forward to today. Local search is one of the fastest categories of growth online with approximately 20% of all searches today being local in nature. My friend from ten years ago may have been too far ahead of the curve for the times, but he was right on as to the direction a growth of internet searches.

So, in this age of growing local searches, what is necessary in making “local” stand out online? I think that there are three basic things that are absolutely essential:

1. Get online! Now I know that this seems obvious, but really very few locally owned businesses have any kind of real online presence. Some may have a website, but most do not know what to do with it, or how it can bring in revenue for their businesses. Even fewer local businesses understand Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or any other method of extending thier business outside their brick and mortar walls.

2. Get found! Now that you have an online presence, you have to know how to get found. This includes things like “online” specials, local search engine optimization, and offline introductions to your online presence. Get people looking for you, tell people about your “online” locations, and do things for your “online” followers that are exclusive to them.

3. Get consistent! Too many times local businesses will have a spark of inspiration to get online. They will get started and get found, but after a couple months, they will get too busy to keep things up and current. Once this happens, they will quickly fall back to their previous default position and their online presence will at least suffer if not just come to an end. To have long term online success you must make your online presence as important to your business as unlocking the door everyday to welcome your current and new customers.

If you will take these simple steps to making your “local” stand out online, more people will find you, more people will refer you, and you will grow in ways you could only before dream of.

Talk more later ….

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