Jeff Korhan - New Media and Small Business Marketing

The Social Media Stakes Are Going Up

The wild west days of social media will soon be behind us.

In addition to LinkedIn going public this week, Facebook has announced that their public offering is inevitable too.  

Resources Always Attract the Highest Value

Remember the series of privacy issues with Facebook last year and the infamous Twitter fail whale over the past several? Those are the type of things that happen to young companies that are exploring uncharted waters. If you operate a small business you have no doubt experienced similar challenges.  

As of today, LinkedIn's valuation is just under $9 Billion. Facebook will unquestionably fetch a price that could be as much as 10 times that. With those kinds of dollars floating around, you can bet that investors will demand a return on their investment.

What This Means for Businesses

So, now I'm trying to imagine what the future of social media will now look like. I don't think everyone will be wearing a suit and toting a briefcase like we did when I was in the corporate world, but I do know the stakes are going to go up as everything becomes more professional.

Resources attract money, and money attracts better players, and that means we are all going to have to play this game better, smarter, and with a renewed commitment. Social media will continue to influence the business environment, so you will have to accept the fact we will all have to redesign our businesses around a social web that is moving to the next level.  

Plan Ahead and Find the Best Partners

On Monday I'll be launching a brand new version of JeffKorhan.com - the first since its inception five years ago. It's something that I have been thinking about for at least a year, and seriously thinking about for the past six months. I'm pleased that I found the best partners to help me make it happen.

When the stakes go up you realize you cannot do this yourself. I expect we'll soon discover the same for building and managing our Facebook pages, and possibly some of our other social channels too. 

No matter how small your business, I suspect you have a CPA that files your year-end taxes.  That's where this is going. The big boys are coming to town, so you need to align yourself with experts that can help you. 

The Internet has enabled us to partner with folks around the globe.  The logo for my new blog was designed in the Philippines.  Some of my blog work was done in Vienna, and more in Las Vegas.  I live in Chicago. Interestingly enough, I found all of them via the social networks.

We're entering a new chapter for social media - one that may take some by surprise. 

Surprises can be good if you are prepared for them. Though preparation requires planning, learning, analysis, and an eye on trends - what's coming next for your industry, your business, and everything that affects all of it.

Other than the economy, I cannot think of anything that has impacted every industry in the past several years more than social media. Look for more of the same moving forward.

Please share your insights with a comment - and share this with your friends by clicking on the Facebook Like button.

If you are new here, consider subscribing to JeffKorhan.com to learn more ways to profitably grow your small business.

Enjoy your weekend. I'll see you again on Monday -- Jeff  

Photo Credit: Ben Stein

An Unconventional Focusing Technique that Works

I recently happened upon a link to a study in Japan that sought to prove an hypothesis - that just a few minutes of meditation prior to a learning exercise can significantly and positively improve the results.  

It turns out that the results were quite astonishing.  Here is the article from Successful Meetings online magazine that documents some of those results.

As a former meditation instructor who happens to now be a full-time speaker who is responsible for the ROI of meetings, I was indeed curious.

It turns out that others were too. My friend Jenise Fryatt, the Community Manager at Engage365, suggested I write an article to show others how meditation could be used to improve the outcome of meetings and events.  So I did.

First, I reached out to James Kent at the Kyoto Convention Bureau to learn more about the study. Then I applied my experience as a meditation instructor to show how this could work for meetings - or any other event for that matter - including your next project.

In Looking For Ways to Enhance Meeting ROI?  Try This Guided Meditation, I explain a few things about how meditation works that will demystify a simple practice that provides a number of benefits - including greater focus, comprehension, and memory retention.

If you are willing to try a technique that while unconventional, has proven to deliver practical results, go ahead and give the article a read.

Better yet, follow the step-by-step guided meditation to experience the benefits.

If you have enjoyed this or otherwise found it to be valuable, please leave a comment and share with your community using your favorite share button below.  My favorite is Facebook Like.

Until tomorrow, Jeff

Photo Credit: Clearly Ambiguous

Tell Me Something I Don't Know

Human curiosity is driven by the desire to learn something you don't know.  

The Web is The New School

Where do you go to learn what you don't know?  My guess is the Internet and your friends.  Isn't it interesting that social networking enables you to go to one central place to combine the best of those two worlds?

In addition to what you don't know, you are probably curious about what your friends know.  In fact, a common conversation opener used to be this simple query - What's new?

Even if it is not verbalized, this is what most of us are thinking?

There isn't a lot new these days when information is readily available online, and often in real time.

However, there is one reliable way to have something to share that others don't already know - and that's by having an original perspective that is not common knowledge.

This is what attracts fans, followers, and new prospects and customers. 

Google Wants to Know What You Know

This is why Google also wants to know your perspective, and why they scour the web looking for this kind of information.  

The more content Google indexes, the more likely people will use Google instead of the other search engines, and the more ads they will be able to sell as a result.

Thus, when Google finds your original perspective your small business benefits.

So, your job is pretty simple.  Tell Google something they don't know by posting it on your blog, on Twitter, Quora, and anywhere else where they can access it. 

To help them further, be sure to have an up-to-date Google Profile that serves up all of your social content where they can easily find it. 

The web is going social and Google knows and respects that.

If you want to enhance the discoverability of your business online - and who doesn't - all you have to do is tell Google what it doesn't already know.

The World is Full of Problems Looking for Solutions

Solve problems for your community with original solutions that only you can provide because you know your customers and understand their challenges.

Google will take it from there.

Tell your customers what they don't know and Google will do your marketing for you.

If you know your business and your customers, this should not take a great deal of effort.

You've got it in you, just challenge yourself to get it out there on the web where it is readily accessible.

If you have enjoyed this or otherwise found it to be valuable, please leave a comment and share with your community using your favorite share button below.  My favorite is Facebook Like.

Until tomorrow, Jeff

Photo Credit: warrantedarrest

My Amazing Experience with 99 Designs

For the past several months I have been planning to upgrade my online presence - especially right here at JeffKorhan.com.  

My commitment to helping small businesses make the most of their online marketing has been and still continues to be my 100% committed focus. 

Nevertheless, for the five years that I have been dedicated to this craft, I've learned quite a few things that when put into place will enable me to more effectively help more entrepreneurs and small businesses like you. 

More on that later this month.

Working With 99 Designs

One of my first steps in this process was to create a new logo that reflected my purpose and vision. John Hawkins at 9Seeds.com (no relationship to 99 Designs) recommended I swing on over to 99 Designs to get some expert help.  I did - and what I got in return was more than I could have imagined. 

The way things work at 99 Designs is pretty simple. You select the type of design work you are looking for, load up your desired specifications, pay the minimum fee (or more if you want to attract more designers), and then guide the process by actively responding to the conceptual designs your receive. 

Almost immediately I began receiving some nice quality designs, many of which would have worked out fine. However, what tipped the scales toward one designer in particular was a comment I made on the day before the seven day contest expired. 

Just as a coach asks his players to finish strong, so did I - by simply asking everyone to stop looking at the work that had already been created - and maybe even some of my comments as well, and draw on their unique capabilities.

I was really hoping someone would break out of the pack.  Sure enough, one did.

Understand Your Customer and Trust Your Expertise

Jefferson Pasqual, a young man from the Phillipines, was the only one that took my comments to heart. While I absolutely loved one of his early designs, he had the courage to explain that while he also loved that design, he intuitively knew from my last comment that it wasn't right for me. 

That's something we all need to do more of in our businesses.

My final comment emphasized that the new logo had to be simple - consistent with my endeavors of simplifying online marketing for small businesses who are already stretched thin, and who may be challenged with this technology.

I was also hoping for a human touch that communicated my belief that all marketing, and especially social media marketing, is first and foremost about people - building mutually beneficial relationships that serve the needs of everyone in a community. 

If you take a close look at the icon to the left of Jeff Korhan in the logo above, you may be able to discern my initials - JK are a creative abstraction of a man jumping for joy.

That's a human touch.  Brilliant!

Even if nobody else notices this - I do.  

This is an amazing example of what happens when you listen to your customers and apply your expertise to give them what they don't even know is possible.

If you would like to see more of Jefferson's work you can do so by viewing his portfolio of winning designs here at his profile on 99 Designs. BTW, there he uses his nickname Peper.

What made this experience amazing?  Small businesses put their heart and soul into their work.  When you can capture some of that magic in your marketing, it brings out that passion - for you and those you serve.

A big thank you to Jefferson and 99 Designs.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think of my new logo.

If you have enjoyed this, please leave a comment and share with your community using your favorite share button below.  My favorite is Facebook Like.

Until tomorrow, Jeff

3 Ways to Celebrate National Small Business Week

President Obama has officially proclaimed May 15 - May 21, 2011 as National Small Business Week.  Here are three ideas for celebrating - two for small business owners and one for their customers. 

 

For Owners

Schedule Your Free Time First

Small businesses start with an idea that is fueled by a passion for doing something well for a specific community.  Even if you are not the founder of your small business, when you took the reigns you did so with thoughts of making your mark.

That passion is lost when the business begins to own you, instead of the other way around.  It's easy to fall into this trap, and I'm one that is just as guilty as the rest of you.  Take some time off - and do this regularly.

When I was in The Strategic Coach program we learned Dan Sullivan's Entrepreneurial Time System.  It's very simple and it works.  

Free Days - Every quarter you schedule your free days first - those days when you do no work and enjoy activities that energize you.  That's where you start.

Focus Days - After that you schedule your work into two additional types of days - focus days and buffer days.  Focus days are those when you are intensely focused on what you do best - your highest value, revenue generating activities.

Buffer Days - This leaves the remaining days to prepare for focus days.

Pretty simple system that works wonders for keeping you as fresh and passionate about your business as the day you started it. 

Appreciate Your Team 

I just returned from consulting with a client whose present challenge is finding skilled professionals that share his vision and core values.  This indeed is the challenge of every business, though one that has greater impact on small businesses where the ranks are thin.

In looking back on my 20 years as a landscape contractor I had a lot of talented people that gave me their best.  While I tried to thank them as often as possible, I'm pretty sure I could have done more - and so can you.

I've also worked for 10 years in a corporate environment and I can tell you that working for a small business usually demands a lot more - namely because the support systems are not there. Everyone is expected to do more with less.

So, take a moment to thank your staff - with the goal being to do so every day.

For Customers

Thank The Owners of Small Businesses You Patronize

Life can be messy and the same goes for business.  Nobody feels the pain of things going wrong more than the owner of the small business. They are accountable for it all - the well being of customers, employees, and a number of others in their communities that depend upon their success.

If you have the time to make a personal visit to shake the hand of your favorite small business owner and thank them for their service, you now have a reason thanks to National Small Business Week.  If that isn't possible, just send a short, hand-written note.  

You will have just reignited that spark that makes being a small business owner worthwhile.

Thanks for reading.  If you have enjoyed this, please leave a comment and share with your community using your favorite share button below.  My favorite is Facebook Like.

Until tomorrow, Jeff

Photo Credit:  jmacphoto.com

The End of Privacy is The Beginning of Better Choices

It's time to stop worrying about how social media is eroding your privacy.  

Game over - social media won, or nearly so.  At the very least, social media is (with all due respect to Charlie Sheen) ... duh, #winning!  

Social Media is Not the Problem

Many blame what is revealed about their personal or business affairs on the social networks.  Is that fair? 

This is much like celebrities blaming the paparazzi for revealing their behaviors in compromising situations.  Yet, they bask in the glow of media publicity when they are winning awards.

You can't have it both ways.

Make Better Choices

The solution for both celebrities and ordinary people like you and me is simple - make better choices.  This is the challenge.

Everyone makes a poor choice once in a while.  However, if you have made a lot of good choices, you build up enough credits with your community to earn a break - a hall pass - a second (or third) chance.

Every Day and Everyone

Each and every day we all make choices.  If you are challenged with making better choices, you only have to ask yourself one simple question: Is this choice the right one for everyone concerned?

I know - everyone is a pretty big audience.  However, social media has the ability to reach everyone, so we all need to get better at making the choices that serve the highest need of everyone concerned.

What are Your Choices

For now, let's just look at this from a business perspective. What are the choices you make?  

You choose which customers, employees, and vendors to work with. You choose the products and services to offer to your community.  And you choose when and and where you will serve your communities.

That's right, you choose who, what, when, where, and how.

And Why?

The most powerful question anyone can ask is why?  Why is a focusing question that leads to clarity. If you are desperate for new business or to fill a key role on your team, you may make the wrong choice.

The only one that can answer why is you.  

Yesterday I was consulting with a green industry client who was looking for my guidance with respect to making some key choices with about new and current employees, as well as the direction of his company. 

My response was to simply be open and honest and trust his gut.  

The best choices are made when we are honest with ourselves and everyone concerned. 

Please share your insights in a comment - and share this with your friends by clicking on the Facebook Like button.

And please consider subscribing to JeffKorhan.com to learn more ways to profitably grow your small business.

Enjoy your weekend,  Jeff  

Photo Credit: alancleaver_2000

Free, Freemium, and Space Oddities

Will free wi-fi influence your decision for choosing which airline to fly?

It does for me, which is why I was very excited to have my first experience with wi-fi at 40,000 feet on my Southwest Airlines flight tonight - even though there was a cost of five dollars.  

Realistically, you have to expect the unexpected when you fly, and weather delays resulted in plane changes that negated the promise to provide wi-fi on my two hour trip home from Baltimore to Chicago.

I understand.

Nevertheless, I wrote this post anyway - offline.

Ground Control to Major Tom 

In David Bowie's classic tune Space Oddity, he captures the peculiar experience of flying - one that tends to focus your attention on the present moment.  This is why many of us know flying to be one of the best times to write.  

There is something about being enveloped within the cocoon of the airplane that brings out our best work within a specific period.  In many ways it works much like the Pomodoro Technique.

Free Wi-Fi and the Rejuventation of the Bus Industry

Free wi-fi was a major influence in the rebirth of the motor coach industry, with Megabus and Bolt being two of the most notable players. When my son Zak takes Megabus between our home in Chicago and The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, he has six hours of free wi-fi use.

This is one reason why many commuters between Boston and New York city are opting to travel by bus instead of air. Business travelers know there will always be delays, regardless of the mode of transportation.

If taking the slow road by bus means having Internet connectivity during that journey of unknown duration, it suddenly becomes a viable, if not preferred alternative.

Free and Reverse Freemium

Free wi-fi on motorcoach travel helped to transform the bus industry, just as free or freemium services did for the social media and technology space.  Southwest Airlines currently charges for the use of their wi-fi service, which may just be an experiment to determine how many are willing to pay for it. 

This is sort of a reverse freemium approach. Why give any of it away if the majority is willing to pay for it? Freemium provides basic services for free and charges for premium or higher value services. For the most part, wi-fi is wi-fi, so maybe charging for all of it is a good plan.

However, hotels tried this and it only aggravated their best customers.  This is why most chains now offer free wi-fi to their best customers - those enrolled in their rewards plans. They use the free wi-fi for a purpose - alignment with their brand.

What is the Value of Wi-Fi

Consumers now determine value.  Social media gives them a voice and they use it.  My hunch is that once travelers recognize wi-fi can be provided during air travel, they will expect it - and for free.

Why?  Because wi-fi is now as universal as a glass of water. Nearly all of us use it.

This will become more evident as devices such as the iPad become more prevalent, and as the the Facebook generation enters the workforce. 

The Competitive Nature of Your Industry

Like so many other industries, air travel is competitive. Offering a valuable service such as free wi-fi gives businesses an edge.  This is probably why Southwest Airlines plans to have wi-fi in all of their planes by the end of the summer.

The question is whether or not they will continue to charge for it.  The answer lies within the fact that there are two types of air travelers - the business travelers that are loyal to a specific airline, and the many casual travelers that will always take the least expensive option.

What does this mean for your business?

Are there extra services that you could (and should) be offering for a fee to attract new customers?

Or should you offer them for free to maintain a competitive advantage?

These are decisions that you should always be considering if you expect to be competitive and relevant to the markets you serve.

You don't want to be like Major Tom - getting the bad news from ground control while you are floating out in space. In many ways businesses are floating in space if they are not aggressively seeking to communicate with ground control - their customers.

Leave a comment below. And feel free to share this with your friends by clicking on the Facebook Like button.And please consider subscribing to JeffKorhan.com to learn more ways to profitably grow your small business.

Until tomorrow,  Jeff

Innovators, Implementors, and Business Systems

Business systems are a double-edged sword. Some can't live with them and some can't live without them.

Innovators

Innovators will resist bureaucratic systems that inhibit their creativity.  

The key to building systems for roles where innovative is essential - such as design and sales professionals, is using them to manage the administrative details that actually get in the way of creating better solutions. 

For example, salespeople cannot focus on innovative solutions for their customers if they have to worry about keeping customers sufficiently aligned until they develop those solutions.

Build your sales process around holding customers accountable to your process and watch your salespeople excel at creating innovative solutions to their problems.

Implementors

Implementors love to work.  They enjoy seeing the fruits of their labor.  So, the best thing your business can do for them is to create a process that guarantees results from their efforts.

As you can imagine, the challenge is differentiating between innovators and implementors.  When I began my professional career in selling over three decades ago, the common measure for potential success was hiring a sales candidate that was a self-starter.

A self-starter is an innovator.  They don't need a system - they will build the plane as they fly.  That's an innovator.

The implementor, on the other hand, wants to take your plane for a ride.  They enjoy the challenge of pushing the envelope - going faster and farther than those that preceded them.

Business Systems

One of the mantras for business success is that you need good systems.  That's usually an implementor that says that. When you are creating systems for your business be sure you are clear about who you are creating them for - you or those that will be using them.

There may be a big difference, one where the new system could undermine your previous success.

Are you an innovator or an implementor?

There is no right or wrong answer, but the answer will give you clues about the type of systems you should be creating to enhance your business success.

Leave a comment below. And feel free to share this with your friends by clicking on the Facebook Like button.

And please consider subscribing to JeffKorhan.com to learn more ways to profitably grow your small business.

Until tomorrow,  Jeff

Photo Credit:  nyoin

Build Customer Loyalty Into Your Business Structure

This evening I spent a couple of hours at the Apple Store getting my iPhone replaced and synced with the saved data on my Macbook Pro.  This didn't cost me a dime because I previously purchased the extended warranty plan with this iPhone.

The technician at the Apple Genius Bar methodically progressed through the possible reasons for the loss of functionality. After finding only a partial solution, he took the final step of providing me with a new phone.

This is what makes it a pleasure to deal with Apple. Their products are exceptional, though nothing is infallible. So, the wise move is to spend a little extra on the warranty and know you are covered.

No questions asked.

My thought is that companies should consider building this into their business model - by not even making the warranty an option.  Sure, some customers may take advantage of it, but then that comes with the territory.  I'm sure the percentage is pretty small.

Zappos is another successful company that does the same thing, only differently.  They trust their customers not to take advantage of free shipping - both ways. If you don't like the merchandise or it doesn't like you, you simply send it back. And you have a full year to even do that! 

No questions asked.

What made me link these two successful companies together in my mind is the fact that I've noticed they have very similar cultures. First, the staff is friendly and respectful of each other and customers alike.

Though more significant is how they do customer service.  It's not something that they do for their customers - but with them.

You would think that cutting edge technology and selling shoes are about as far apart in terms of business models as you can get.  

Think again.

How could you use these ideas or borrow from other companies to build customer loyalty into your business structure?

Leave a comment below. And feel free to share this with your friends by clicking on the Facebook Like button.

And please consider subscribing to JeffKorhan.com to learn more ways to profitably grow your small business.

Until tomorrow,  Jeff

Photo Credit: wooly matt

The 3 Step Cure for Writer's Block

If you are a talented writer who occasionally cannot produce the quality or quantity of work you know you are capable of, you can easily get back on track by identifying which one of three essential activities may be holding you back.

1. Have a Visual Plan

Recently I was watching the film The Karate Kid.  While having viewed it more times than I care to mention, I have evidently seen it from the beginning only a few times because I barely recalled the scene where the karate kid is taught the art of bonsai by Mr. Miyagi.

Mr. Miyagi gave Daniel-san a bonsai tree and the proper pruning tools and just told him to get a clear picture in his mind and then start pruning. Daniel-san responded, "How do I know I can trust the picture?"

Here's what Mr Miyagi said: "If picture come from inside - always the right one."

Brilliant!

Writing is a process of sharing your unique perspective on a particular subject.  Your perspective is what is most relevant, and because only you can share what is uniquely yours, it has to be the right one. 

If you do not have a plan for what you want to convey to your readers then you cannot have a picture to accompany it.  You must have that picture - and you must trust it.

2. Trust Yourself and Your Reader

If you are writing for an online reader, such as in your blog, there are three audiences you are writing for:  you, your community, and the search engines.  

Writing for the search engines is a matter of awareness.  It only requires being mindful of keywords, links, and things of that nature.  Here's a comprehensive article I wrote on blogging that describes how some of the pros keep their work relevant for the search engines. 

The challenging part of writing in any form is trusting yourself and the reader. When you write well, everything just flows. That's because you are trusting your capabilities and that picture in your mind.

When you let doubt creep in you are not trusting your abilities. This is usually a result of not trusting your community to find your work valuable.  Just know that they will.  

3. Be Willing to Do the Work

Creating great content does not always come easy.  Writers know that writing well requires rewriting. Sometimes your best work comes at a point when you are willing to make the effort to start over.

The truth is you aren't starting over.  You are merely rewriting a piece with a different attitude and a great deal more knowledge about what didn't work.  

There is a flow to writing that you have to respect.  When you attempt to piece together separate paragraphs from work that you have previously written, you will often end up with a disconnected mess.  

A better approach is to just read and understand the material you plan to use and start from the beginning with renewed energy - trusting yourself to deliver.

Trust me.  You will.

Feel free to share this with your friends by clicking on the Facebook Like button.

And please consider subscribing to JeffKorhan.com to learn more ways to profitably grow your small business.

Until tomorrow,  Jeff

Photo Credit:  sakocreative