Part II: Inspiring Story

Inspiring Story: Team RadioShack

Don't Get Carried Away on Social-Media

There is a lot of hype out there on how social-media can help your business grow. While this is true in some respects, it is very important to realize the effort required to maintain a social-media campaign is quite extensive. The appeal of social media is quite enticing to many businesses, and for good reasons. Social media is the only medium in the electronic world that provides the exposure that some advertisement mediums can never promise. Moreover, social media is a tool that you can initiate instantly with minimal costs. So what’s not to like? While social media can provide a great marketing platform for a business, the demand of maintaining it for a reasonable return is not negligible. The most common misconception about a social media campaign is that it will operate with minimal involvement from internal resources of your business. So as you consider the social media as a tool to promote your business keep the following in mind:

• Dabble Most of us probably have an account with one of the social-networking sites, but if you have limited exposure go ahead and explore. This will at least provide you with an idea of what is involved.

• Develop a social-media plan Don’t just jump straight in, but DO evaluate and develop a plan that captures your goals and objectives with a timeline.

• Who’s in charge? Are you going to directly manage the social media efforts (ie tweeting, responding to Facebook fans, blogging, etc.). To be effective, you must spend considerable time on all the mediums that you select, so it is crucial that you have someone allocated to be the social media manager. Otherwise, like anything else, if it is not assigned, it will fall through the cracks.

• Topics Establish your topics for the at least the next month. You can maintain the same topic over a period of one day to one week, but it is essential that you change it up. Keep in mind that your fans or followers are looking for something interesting that can impact their day.

• Measure Think of a few ways that you can measure success. This can be the number of fans you have on Facebook, level of interaction on your wall page, followers on Twitter, conversion to purchase from any of the above, etc.

• Measure again Now that you have a lot of followers, how many are buying, what revenue if any is being generated from your efforts on social media, do you need to make an adjustment. Or maybe you don’t have a lot of followers, what do you do next?

It's Not an Overnight Thang

We are creatures of immediacy. Our world today has been intricately developed to cater to our incessant desires of “NOW MATTERS”! The less time we spend somewhere and the quicker we can receive the service or product, the more satisfied we become. UPS and FedEx can deliver a package practically to any point in the world overnight. We can purchase almost anything we want without ever taking a step outside of our home; scratch that, you can purchase anything you want in the world, anywhere you are in the world, as long as you have an internet connection or a smart-phone. When using your credit card, you no longer have to sign for some purchases. The fact is, we are evolving with an infrastructure that serves and conditions our expectation of instantaneous return. While this is rewarding as consumers, this concept and expectation becomes problematic for business owners.

For business owners or entrepreneurs this concept of immediacy is in direct conflict with the reality of growing and nurturing a model that realizes return over a period of time, which may not be aligned with our conditioned expectations. This is problematic within a majority of circumstances in the business world, and we have to ensure that our strategic plan does not integrate objectives and goals that are unrealistic in relation to the timeline.

At the highest level, your planning should consist of short and long-term objectives and goals. This categorization should provide a means in simplifying your expectations for your tactical initiatives. Furthermore, it provides you the ruler to measure your progress and helps to calibrate your expectations and minimize the tendency to react to situations which were previously perceived as a threat.

Within each short and long-term objective, ensure that each is practical and achievable. With marketing activities, it is essential for a small-business to consider budget and resources. A simple evaluation of activities in regards to impact and ease-of-implementation is beneficial, as it provides a process to prioritize your marketing. Practical and achievable, this will set the tone of your expectations.

Change: How Will You Get Noticed in 2010?

My wife considers me “Metrosexual”; I won’t define it but you can look it up at Wikipedia. I am no longer as concerned about my appearance as I used to be(okay maybe a little), primarily because I live in Central Oregon (being athletically fit is more of a concern here), have four children and have now been married to my beautiful wife for 13 years! However, in the last few months, I have decided to engage in a little experiment. I have been making a few changes to my fashion and appearance without going “over-the-top”, all the while keeping tabs on how my family, friends and acquaintances react or do not react. Keep in mind that in the last four years I have maintained a fairly simple approach to my wardrobe; however, with a little bit of flair that is not always within what is considered normal in Central Oregon, thus... metrosexual.

The changes I made were to wear a scarf more regularly, a hat that is not of the baseball variety (duckbill), ankle boots that would not be considered formal in metropolitan cities, and a hairdo that is not my typical style. I, of course, wore these at varying times in different combinations, and never all at one time, so as to minimize the “make-over” impression. Needless to say the reactions were plentiful.

The most interesting observation I made were the repeated comments to the changes. Even after two to three weeks into the change, my circle of family, friends, and acquaintances continued to comment. The hat of course was probably the most popular, garnering the most comments, while my wearing the scarf and changing my hairdo were not far behind. The shoes certainly made an impression but were not nearly as successful in soliciting praises as the previous three. I could go into detail into each one, but the take-away from the story is that change gets attention. No matter how minor the change, your audience takes notice.

Integrate an element of change into your business in 2010 and get noticed.

12 Tips for Social Media Marketing

Social networking is an investment for the future. Sites such as Twitter and FaceBook could be a nonprofit's dream market - millions of users engaging in activities and all interconnected.. But just setting up shop and collecting "friends" will not necessarily result in donors and supporters.

1. Pick the social network that is right for you. Don't just pick sites based on the fact that everyone is on them. Pick a site if it makes sense for your organizations. And if you have time to manage the interactions. It may pay to start small, with one or two social networks, rather than trying to take the entire virtual world on at once.

2. Find an 'expert' to help you. Look around your organization, the web or your community for someone who has experience with social networking. Apogee Marketing Partners offers an excellent and affordable Social-Media start-up plan. For a reasonable price, we can get you started and train your staff on how to keep the ball rolling.

3. Extend your reach. Select a social network and then use a 'scattershot' approach. Go beyond a standard profile and create a group as well to generate multiple channels to market your business. On Facebook, for instance, you can be a group and/or an event. Just make sure you understand the site's Terms Of Use. For a fee, some social sites will allow you to become an official sponsor of a group or community. Many large companies, such as Victoria's Secret and Apple, sponsor groups.

4. Prepare for negative feedback. There is no way you can control every word of every person who wants to be your friend or join your social networking group. If you or your lawyers are not comfortable with that fact, social networking probably is not for you. You can set up an approval process for 'comments' that people post but if you go this route, make sure the process is reasonable and efficient.

5. Search for similar groups. There may be Twitter or Facebook groups for your organization that you did not set-up such as unofficial profiles created by enthusiastic supporters. If you locate such a profile, reach out to that person. He or she may be a committed supporter who might be willing to promote your content.

6. First impressions are everything. Try to make a good impression right out of the gate with your social network. Make your profile visually exciting. Control what your organization will look like on other people's friend lists--pick a great picture and title that will get you the attention you want that is appropriate for your organization's personality.

7. Be edgy! And post your most viral content. Social networks are at their best when people are retweeting or linking content to their network. However, they will only pass around topics that are fun, interesting, topical or exciting. Come up with fun profile names, use video or Flash animation. If it does not make you think 'Cool!' then it is probably not viral and you need to go back to the drawing board. You might do better with a campaign or a specific gimmick rather than just a generic page plugging your business. Try to plug something that is timely or is action requiring. By action I mean, ask them to respond to a request for a survey, perhaps a re-tweet. It gets your friends involved and committed.

8. Find out which of your clients are already on social networks. Survey your clients and find out who has your network accounts. Send them an e-mail inviting them to become your friend or to join your group.

9. Communicate on a regular basis. Update your pages with new content as often as possible. If you send email updates, or news feed updates, do so in a regular basis and keep it to a weekly or bi-weekly event. You don’t want to have people “tune you out”. On Twitter, this doesn’t apply, more tweets the better. As long as the info is useful, people will be interested and follow. Use common sense.

10. Get staff involved in making your social networking effort a success. Assign a staff person to accept friend requests, post comments on other people's pages, and invite others to become friends. That is what social networking is all about.

11. Engage your social network supporters. Eventually, you will want to start turning your 'friends' into customers, activists, donors, or volunteers. Make sure your social networking pages always feature lots of opportunities to get involved. If you are a nonprofit, include donation opportunities on your social networking pages. Even if you do not raise much in the short run, it helps to set expectations for the future.

Be specific when you do ask your friends to do something for your organization. And always let people know what happened at an event or with a campaign even if they did not participate. They might get involved the next time.

12. Social networking is an investment in the future. Many of your friends on these networks will take time to develop into financial donors and supporters of tomorrow. Get into the game now and learn how to use social media or you might be left behind for good.

For more information on Social Networking , please contact Apogee Marketing Partners www.apogeemarketingpartners.com for more help. info@apogeemarketingpartners.com

Manage a To-Do List

Do you work with a To-Do list? Whether you realize it or not, most of us work with some form of a To-Do list to manage our business. However, we probably don’t manage this list enough strategy to ensure focus.

I admit that I have fallen in the trap of the “busy-ness” of managing life, but it is very important that as a small-business owner that our efforts are focused. And this can easily start with our To-Do lists that we utilize to check things off. Some of us may use these ritually, others not so much, in either case, here are some helpful ways to contain that To-Do list.

Define Strategy and Objectives for 2010

After all, we can’t begin to put together a meaningful list of To-Do’s if we don’t have a goal for 2010. Keep it simple if you have to, but ensure that your business is operating under a strategy to maintain that focus, otherwise, you will find yourself wandering for most of the year and it will yield only a series of frustrations.

To-Do List

Let this list be a product of your strategy and objectives planning for 2010. However, be very careful and ensure that this list is distilled to only about 3-4 main To-Do’s. If you have any more than this then it is crucial that you evaluate each and ensure that each item on your list contributes greatly to the advancement of your objectives. This is where focus is crucial.

Start a To-Don’t List

Your list will likely start to be longer than you expected. And that’s certainly okay, but go over it one more time with the idea that there are such things as a To-Don’t list. Try identifying a few of these off your list and determine how each one can qualify for your To-Don’t list. Chances are you have a lot of ideas for 2010, however, these ideas need to be closely reviewed for their applicability in achieving your goals. Notice a pattern here? Your goals and objectives are paramount, only list items in your To-Do list that pushes this!

Prune Your List

Review your list every time you put one together! Continue with the concept of a To-Don’t list. They do not necessarily need to be eliminated but simply categorized as less urgent items. This behavior of prioritization will immensely help your day to day activities within your business.

Marketing Lessons from Susan Boyle Stardom

If you have not seen it yet, go to YouTube.com and find the Susan Boyle video. This is the very first time that she appeared on the UK version of the America’s Got Talent show. I did not really pay attention to Susan Boyle and her signing talent until last week when a client urged me to view the video. Incredible talent, needless to say!

I have recently been doing a little work on uncovering her journey since that evening with UK’s Got Talent and her statistics are some that most artists covet. Her video on YouTube has been viewed over 3 million times, a feat that 99% of videos uploaded on YouTube will never achieve, a true viral phenomenon. Susan Boyle has reportedly sold over 700,000 copies of her album in the United States and over 3 million globally (Source: Nielsen Soundscan). Her album “I Dreamed A Dream” is expected to remain in the top 10 for the remainder of the year.

Why I am talking about Susan Boyle? First, what an inspirational story! As we focus on planning for 2010 look back to the initial phase of your business. Recall the inspiration that fueled your motivation. I am sure that for the most of us 2009 was not a stellar year and as a result, it probably emptied most of our motivational tank. Incorporate some key objectives that are achievable and will provide you the appropriate runway in setting the tone for a great 2010.

Second, focus on your strengths. Susan Boyle had one-key strength, her voice. And she capitalized on that in one evening in front of her target audience. For 2010, focus on one or two strengths and integrate it into your planning. Create a marketing communications plan around it and launch it to your market.

Forgotten Marketing Tool

Contrary to traditional advertising thinking within the small-business world, there are actually many opportunities out there that exist that do not break the bank. And one of those options is press-releases. This is probably one of the most underused tools among small-businesses, primarily because they are not well understood.

Press-releases, if used properly can be a powerful tool to boost the presence of your business in your target market. With most press-releases you can target an audience locally or globally. With the ubiquity of the internet, you are able to target with precision on who you want to hear about your new business or product. It is most effective, however, to target your audience with specificity as your press-release will get more attention from the media, whereas if you cast a wider net and attempt to capture all markets and regions, the likelihood is that visibility will decline.

There are several reasons for utilizing press-releases and this may include the announcement of a new office, new product or service, an event involving your business, new employee or better yet any business awards that your company has been recognized with for the year. Ensure that the press-release is one that will capture the eye of the media as they have a slew of releases that stack on their desks to review and it is essential that you keep your message dynamic and exciting.

Here are a few websites that provide you with a portal for Free press-releases. Take advantage of these and put a plan together for your company to integrate press-releases in 2010 as a component of your marketing plan.

• PR.com
• i-newswire.com
• Free-press-release.com
• PRlog.com
  

Email Marketing Opportunities

Email marketing, certainly something within my background of medical devices and diagnostics that has not been employed. But in looking at it as an opportunity for other industries that are not as highly regulated as the medical arena, the following statistics are intriguing and certainly should support some thought into developing a strategy in evolving your efforts in possible employing an email marketing campaign.

Marketing Tip #1: Business cards

Chances are that you have a stack of business cards that you have collected in the past, either from a networking function or a meeting. Do you remember what you have done with any of them? This stack of business cards is a gold-mine for your business...how you say? Out of these cards may be new clients, strategic partners, new vendors or maybe a new employee.

Start out by making a few categories that you can put each card into--strategic partner, prospective client, vendor, etc. There will probably be a few others that you can include but begin to place the cards that belong to each category. In each category, pick the top five candidates that you have the greatest chance in achieving your objective. In the strategic partnership, these five may be contacts that can help you expand your service or product offering. The vendor category may be contacts that can help you optimize your cost. An so on and so forth...

This will afford the ability to identify some "low-hanging" opportunities that you may have not previous been aware until you took a look at your contacts.

Visit our Tools section to peruse through some of the tools that we can offer to your business.

Apogee Marketing Partners Launches

After a lot of late nights, we have now completed the website for Apogee Marketing Partners. Once the dust settles...oh wait...we can't wait until the dust settles! We have to get working now...this is where the true work begins. And I will post some key learnings here about the journey of designing the site and optimizing it to be found on the vast world wide web.

In the meantime, let me speak about the memberships and services that Apogee Marketing Partners offers on our site. The concept is simple...as it stands in our economy, small-business and non-profits have very small, if not, non-existent budgets for marketing. Therefore, their ability to plan for growth is very limited. Our goal is to provide our marketing expertise available to companies with limited resources and budget. Obtaining access to experience like this is not readily available at an affordable price.

Visit our website to learn more about Apogee Marketing's memberships. We are confident that there is a membership that will fit your budget.

Apogee Marketing Website Overview

My first attempt at utilizing iShowU. Not quite the best quality as I imported into iMovie, but I will get better at doing this I am sure. Enjoy the overview of our website.