Why Small Businesses Need to Embrace Social Media

Caught this todayfrom Alain Thys's post on Marketing Profs regarding the importance of Web 2.0 - a.k.a. social media - on marketing relating to "brands" - it only serves to highlight the importance of a web presence for every small business looking to succeed.

When anyone can post anything about anybody - anywhere and any time, you as the marketer of your business are no longer in control of the conversation. If you have no web presence, you have no voice to influence the conversation about your business that may be going on online.

Embrace social media and embrace the future!

Caroline

clipped from www.mpdailyfix.com Social Media Participation is Not Optional for Brands For traditional marketers this is worse than a nightmare. In the old days, you could still control a conversation by throwing enough money at it or outsmarting the media. I remember tactically forgetting to appear on the evening news in the middle of a PR crisis. Then, 24 hours later the media had moved on, and so did the water-cooler conversations. Faced with the same crisis on the Web today, I'd need to blog, write and influence my heart out to contain the message. And even if I was especially fast, truthful and professional about it, I would probably fail because Google footprints cannot be erased. That is why - in my opinion - anyone involved in sales or marketing has no other option but to accept the social media reality and manage every contact as if they were the editor-in-chief of the WSJ himself.

Google Alerts for Your Small Business

One of the neatest ways to keep track of what's being said about you and your small business online is to use Google Alerts. You simply put in terms that you want Google to alert you about - and then determine how often you'd like to be alerted.

I use Google Alerts to track where my company name is being mentioned online, as well as my website and my own personal name. This allows me not only to find out where my marketing is being most effective (press release and article sites that Google crawls frequently) - it would also alert me if someone where saying something "not so nice" about me too, and give me the chance to do something about it.

You can set Google to alert you "as it happens" or on a once-a-day basis. You'll receive an e-mail with all of the mentions of your specified terms online.

One thing I noticed recently was that my Google Alerts had seemed to stop coming. I knew this was odd because I know my company has been mentioned (positively!) in many places online - but also because even if Google weren't picking up links to my site it should be picking up links for the generic terms I have alerts set for such as "internet marketing" for example.

I went in to my Google Alerts account and deleted - then re-scheduled - all of my alerts, and that seems to have done the trick.

Check out Google Alerts and keep track of your small business name online!

Caroline

Search, Locate and Buy - Business is Done Locally!

New services such as NearbyNow and Slifter allow you to search online for what you want - either from your computer or your mobile phone - they will show you the store location nearest you with the product you want in stock.

I tried a search for "Wild Fire" - a book by one of my favorite authors, Nelson Demille - and was promptly presented with inventory and pricing at my local home town bookstore just minutes from my house.

The gap between online and bricks and mortar retail is getting more narrow every day. Check out this article (albeit a bit dated) about the impact of local search on local brick and mortar small businesses.

StartupJournal | E-Commerce

Caroline

Check out my Slide Show!

This looks like the height of vanity or ego here, but I really just wanted to show you what Slide can do with any photo you want to upload. For small business owners who sell products and tangible goods, this would be a neat, free way to add interest to product photography on your website or blog.

You can click on the link below the photo to go check it out and get your own "Slide" show!

Caroline

Tracking and Measuring Your Small Business Online Success

I was delighted today to see Luke Newton's post over at Skatterbox on the 10 Best Analytic Blogs - one of the greatest things about online marketing is the fact that so many marketing techniques are measurable and quantifiable - yet, measurement is often where those of us who run our own small business tend to fall short. I can certainly measure the basics, but I'm no analytics expert.

Luke's list is the best resource I've seen for pulling all the great info on analytics in the blogosphere together - check it out on his blog at www.Skatterbox.com today!


Caroline

A Handy New Blogging and Researching Tool

My new friend and fellow blogger, Janet Green (of the Marketing Idea Blog) clued me in recently to a handy tool. It's called Clip Marks and it's great for when you want to save something you are reading on a website to your blog, or e-mail it to someone else. You can check it out at: www.ClipMarks.com.

Thanks for the tip, Janet!
You can check out Jane'ts Marketing Idea Blog by clicking the link in the Blogroll to the right.

Caroline

7 Things You Can Do Today to Make Google Fall in Love with Your Small Business Website

Creating your own small business website can be a scary thing to do. It requires some planning to get it right and make Google sit up and take notice of your site at first glance. Small business website search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the keys, but all too often, astute business people leave the creation of their websites up to a family member or a friend who happens to know something about it. This is strange, for they wouldn't dream of letting the same people build their bricks and mortar store or office.

Of course, getting an expert who fully understands small business SEO to build your website is not likely to come cheap, but it may be the best solution if you are starting out from scratch. However, this article is aimed at those small businesses who already have a website, but are disappointed at how poorly it performs. If you’re frustrated because your website appears on page 42 of the Google search results, and no one is visiting your website, here are 7 things you can do to quickly improve your results.

1. Create an Effective Website Title Tag, Description Meta Tag,
and Keywords Meta Tag

The most important part of any website page (in the eyes of the search engines) is the title tag. The title is enclosed between the opening title tag and the closing title tag. It is located in the head section of an HTML document, or web page. You should use your page's main keyword in your title. Try to use your main keyword near the beginning of your title, and perhaps again near the end. But always strive to make your title readable, and not obviously keyword stuffed.

Your description tag plays an important role in SEO for your local small business. This tag is used by most of the search engines in their listings, so you need to spend some time getting this right.

Something brief such as, "Acme Incorporated, Makers of Blue Widgets," gets the message across, but you could do much better. Try to list benefits rather than features, and use your main keyword in your description as well. Keep your description reasonably brief, but not too short. Something like, “Acme, Inc., Makers of the Strongest, Most Powerful and Affordable Widgets on the Planet” is better.

Like a headline for an ad or sales flyer, your description may take time to develop. Start with a list of all of the benefits your product or service offers and then try to write 20 different descriptions for your site based on those benefits. Test your descriptions by reading them to your customers, employees or others familiar with your business. You’ll find out which description resonates most strongly with your potential prospects - and that’s good for the search engines and for your sales.

The keywords tag, again found in the head section of your web pages. The keywords you choose for your page are important, because they tell the search engines what should be found on the page. Google and all the other search engines present search results based on relevancy – how relevant your web pages are to the keywords and phrases your prospects are searching for.

Keep your keyword phrases to less than seven and don't repeat the same words. For example, if you have two keyword phrases, which are, "blue widgets" and "bright blue widgets," you should only include unique words after including the first "blue widgets" keyword.

Curious to know what your Title, Description, Meta and Keyword tags currently look like? Here’s a simple tip – just go to any page of your website, then click on “View Source” or “View Page Source” from the “View” menu. There you’ll be able to see exactly what your tags are telling Google when they crawl your site.

2. Optimize Your Website Copy

Your website copy consists of the words on every page of your site. Try to make it interesting and informative. One simple way to arrange your articles, or informative pages, is to use a simple three-step format. Begin with an introductory paragraph that tells your visitor what you are going to tell them. Then in the next two or three paragraphs, tell them. Finally, wind up the article by telling them what you just told them.

This may seem overly simple, but it works. Speak to your website audience as you would to a seven-year-old child. Don't patronize them, but lay it out clearly in simple steps using straightforward language that anyone can understand.

When writing your copy for each of your pages, make sure to focus on one or two keywords per page. If you are selling widgets in all colors and you also sell thingamajigs, then widgets should be on one page and thingamajigs on another. Keep it simple for your customers and the search engines by focusing on one idea per page and your customers will thank you for it, and Google will thank you too.

3. Establish an Acceptable Keyword Density for Your Website Copy

While optimizing your website copy you also need to establish a keyword density that is acceptable to the search engines. Opinions differ, but somewhere between 2% and 5% is probably about right. This means that for effective small business SEO, your main keyword phrase should appear around three times for every 100 words.
Where your keyword appears is important too. Try to use your main keyword or phrase twice in the first paragraph, once in the second paragraph, once around the middle of the article, and once again near the end of the article. Try to start and end the first paragraph with your main keyword if possible, but don't force it. Always aim for copy that is readable before copy that has perfect keyword density.

4. Create Quality Back Links to Your Website

Increasingly, the search engines are giving added weight to the number of quality back links your website has. It used to be that reciprocal linking was quite acceptable, and it still is, but now Google and the other search engines give higher credibility to one-way back links as far as your search engine rankings are concerned.

And it's not just any back links either. You need to have quality back links, or back links from sites that are similar to yours. It's not much good getting a back link from a site about butterflies if your site focuses on racing cars. With Google, it’s all about relevance. You should also strive to get back links from so-called authority sites. These are sites that the search engines deem to be an authority on their chosen subject. They tend to be quite big and to have been around for some time.

5. Use Local Directories Effectively

If you are marketing to a local market, then make use of local directories. How do you find them? If, for example, you are located in New York, then go to Google and search for, "directory" + "new york". This will return a list of all the local directories in that city. You could even try searching for, "blue widgets directory" + "new york", if you are marketing blue widgets.

Once you find a suitable directory, submit your website to it. People do search on local directories, so even if your product has worldwide appeal, there's a greater chance that you will get the sale if someone finds you in a local directory over someone else located in another continent who can deliver just as cost effectively or as quickly.

6. Create a Proper Site Map and Google Site Map

Every website should have a site map. This is merely a directory of all your site's pages with links to every one. You should have a link from every page of your site back to your site map, and your site map must be updated whenever a new page is added.

A Google Site Map is also a site map, but one that is in a special format that Google can easily spider. It has the great advantage of allowing Google to instantly "see" your site and evaluate it. It can be a very useful tool in getting Google to index your site more quickly than otherwise. For more information on creating a Google Site Map, go to: http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/.

7. Add Fresh Original Content to Your Website at an Acceptably Measured Pace

Your website should never be considered finished. It should always be a work in progress that is constantly expanding with fresh and original content. The easiest way to do this is to add new articles on specific subjects on a regular basis. One article a week is the least you should aim for, but don't add content too quickly either. Dumping 100 articles a day into your site will ultimately work against you, because the search engines look for organic growth – in other words, growth that seems natural. Since it’s not likely that you were able to write 100 articles in one day, Google and the other search engines will see this as unnatural and will count it against you in your page ranking.

Another great way to add content to your website quickly, easily and at an acceptably measured pace is to start your own blog – stay tuned for next week’s article where I’ll tell you how amazing a blog can be for your small or medium sized business and why you need to have one!

SEO for your local small business is easier than you might think. Getting Google to fall head over heels in love with your small business website is not rocket science. You only need to implement a few simple things on a regular basis, and over time Google will notice and your page rank – and your placement with the search engines – will start climbing.

Caroline

New Podcast - The Biggest Challenge Facing Small Business Marketing

Just when you thought your job as a small business owner couldn't get any tougher, along comes the giant elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about - and while you probably don't know it yet, it will have a dramatic impact on YOUR small business. Listen to today's podcast to find out how...

The Biggest Challenge Facing Small Business Marketing

Enjoy!
Steve Melberg

Small Businesses Shouldn't Discount Direct Mail as a Viable Sales Tool

As a small business owner, it's easy to get caught up with online marketing and to forget "the basics" of traditional direct mail. There are a lot of reasons for that - cost being one of the largest! The ease with which you can reach people online, coupled with the reduction in cost (compared to traditional mail), makes online marketing very attractive.

But according to a survey by Vertis Communications recently:

- 72% of adults surveyed said they have replied to direct mail with a 'buy one, get one free' offer in 2006
- An additional 63% said they have responded to direct mail that offered a percentage discount, up from 54% in 2005.

What this proves is that you can't depend on solely one or the other - online or traditional marketing. A good solid marketing plan includes a variety of approaches to appeal to different types of your potential customers. Don't forget "the basics" of traditional direct mail when you are putting your marketing plans together, along with all the great online campaigns you are planning!

Caroline

Your Small Business Online Marketing Funnel

Marketing your business online is all about showing that you have something to offer your visitors that your competitors do not have. It means reaching out to your current customers as well as prospective customers and setting yourself apart.

Successful small business Internet marketing is all about establishing relationships. Just as customers in your brick and mortar store have a chance to come in and get to know you, online customers need to be given the chance to learn more about what you do and to decide that they want to do business with you.

This is where the concept of your small biz online marketing funnel comes in. Your small biz online marketing funnel is a means by which you can - over time - find new customers and increase your small business sales.

Your small biz online marketing funnel is not unlike the local small business marketing that you undertook when you first opened your business in its physical location. First you needed to choose a location and to get that location ready. You ordered the supplies you needed. Then you started advertising. On opening day, it's likely that you had a product giveaway - a keychain, a coffee mug or maybe even a t-shirt - as well as a coupon giveaway, something that would entice your customer to come back.

Your small biz online marketing funnel works in much the same way: you choose a domain name and build your website, or have your website built for you. You'll get everything that you need in order - including a free or low-cost giveaway. And then you will begin marketing your small business online.

It is important to remember that your website is your virtual business. All of the Internet ads that you place will bring traffic to your page, so be sure to use the page wisely.

Use your homepage to tell prospective customers about your business - share your mission statement, share customer compliments. Use a page of your website to let your current and prospective customers know more about who you are and what you believe in. Focus both on your business and on establishing a relationship with your customer.

Drawing prospective customers in to your website brings them into the widest part of your small biz online marketing funnel; allowing them the opportunity to get to know you begins to draw them down into the funnel.

However, you do not want them to make it to the second level of the funnel and stay there, just as you do not want customers at your physical location to walk in and walk back out again. This is why you should plan - as part of your small business Internet marketing campaign - to draw them into the next smallest area of your small biz online marketing funnel.

You do not need to offer a physical giveaway. Instead, continue to build relationships with your site visitors by offering them something of value. Offer them free articles about products and services that your small business offers. Set up a newsletter that will allow you to communicate valuable information (as well as special offers) to them at specified intervals.

Doing so allows you to take an important step towards increasing sales: it allows you to establish a relationship. By consistently providing your subscribers with information or coupons that are valuable to them, they will begin to recognize you and your company as a company that they want to do business with, and they will look forward to hearing from you.

You will be able to encourage them to do business with you by promoting low-cost front-end products. Now, rather than a free article that gives your prospective customers a little bit of information, turn them into your new customers by offering low-cost products. Low-cost front end products such as e-books that provide useful information about important topics within your industry - and further establish your credibility and the customers' trust - will help to draw those customers down to the smallest level of your small biz online marketing funnel.

For instance, let’s say you own and operate a local floral shop. A perfect low-cost front-end information product that you could offer to your customers to draw them further into your sales funnel would be an e-book with planting tips for growing flowers in your local area. Customers who purchase your low-cost e-book will find value in the information, increasing the likelihood that they will purchase additional, higher priced products from you as well.

The last level of your small biz online marketing funnel is the place that you want your new customers to be: it's the stage where your free and low-cost front end items, along with your newsletters and other marketing, will increase sales of your high cost, back-end products and services.

This is the goal of your small business Internet marketing: to find prospective customers, establish a relationship and increase sales. To recap, your small biz online marketing funnel works like this:



• Build and Market Your Website to Draw in Prospective Customers

• Engage the Prospective Customer

• Establish Trust with a Giveaway

• Establish a relationship using a newsletter and special offers

• Encourage small, low-cost front-end sales

• Make the big-ticket sales of your products and services

Through this process, and by continuing to market your site to new prospective customers, you will find that your small biz online marketing funnel is a technique that allows you to consistently and reliably get new customers and increase sales for your small business.

Caroline

Small Businesses See Sales Surge in Wake of Corporate Crisis

As a dog owner and lover, I've been saddened by the recent "Pet Food Crisis" which has resulted in the illness or death of potentially thousands of pets in this country.

From a marketing standpoint, the crisis has revealed to consumers that a majority of "high end" brands including Iams and Eukanuba (the largest customers of Menu Foods, the Canadian manufacturer of pet food containing tainted wheat gluten from China), are made by one company - quite a shock to consumers who thought they were purchasing a high quality, exclusive brand of food for their pets!

What's really been interesting, though, is to watch smaller players in the pet food business grow their sales by some smart positioning in the wake of this crisis.

Blue Buffalo Company, a maker of pet food that is gluten-free, began a PPC campaign shortly after the crisis broke in the news, and according to the head of the company, Bill Bishop (one of the founders of SoBe beverages), sales are "through the roof and traffic to the brand's websites are up '50- or 60-fold' since the crisis began. The ad campaign that was planned for later this year called "Feed them Like Family" was moved up in the schedule to start shortly after the crisis emerged (see the photo below).

According to AdAge, "Vladimir Fernandez, a Miami field distributor of Life's Abundance pet food, which also bought Google search ads last week, said sales are up 300% since the crisis. Waggintails.com, an online retailer of specialty pet products, has upped its PPC budget and has seen sales climb more than 30%."

This all serves to drive home a point I've been making for awhile - The Web has changed the game for all businesses - the opportunity that small business owners have to compete has never been greater.

Even though Proctor & Gamble's Iams and Eukanuba brands bought search ads against their own brand names when the crisis broke (selecting negative keywords for searches on their brand, so that a search online for "Iams" would not produce results for "pet food recall" for instance), they were quickly overwhelmed by smaller players entering the market with their own PPC campaigns.

Smart small business owners know that using the web to get the word out about their products and services is powerful, and it's never been easier to level the playing field with larger competitors than it is today, when the proper use of web strategies are put in place.

clipped from adage.com A natural-and-organic petfood segment made up largely of small-time entrepreneurs has seen a sharp spike in sales. Click to see organic petfood ad

Smart Small Business Owners Eyeing "The Third Screen"

First there was television, then came the computer. The "Third Screen" in marketing circles is the mobile phone, and I predict it's going to be an incredible opportunity for small business owners who want to get their message in front of local customers who are looking to buy right now. Mobile search is immediate, and allows you to put your products and services in front of prospects who are not only looking for what you sell, but who are most likely out driving around trying to find it. This clip from AdAge shows that already "49% of all mobile phone users are using their mobile phones" or more than voice calls. That is onlly going to increase as new devices are released (like Apple's cool iPhone) that make it easier to surf the web from your mobile phone.

Mobile search is a trend that small business owners can't afford to NOT pay attention to.

clipped from adage.com One in 16 Some 49% of all mobile phone users are using their mobile phones for text messages, music and other uses besides simple voice calls, but, at the moment, only one in 16 mobile-phone subscribers are using the devices for audio features. Of those, almost two-thirds have transferred either music or other audio content from another device, such as a PC or MP3 player. The study found that most mobile-audio users are in those sought-after, hard-to-reach males aged 25 to 44, with a larger proportion of them African American, Asians and Hispanics. Surprisingly, the study found 31% listened to music on their mobile devices -- not at on the go, but at home, where the phone served as a "personal third screen entertainment platform."

Are You Making These 5 Common PPC Mistakes?

Because of the ability to specifically target your unique prospects based on interest as well as geography, the ability to tightly control your ad spend and to precisely measure results, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is probably the greatest breakthrough to come along in advertising since the launch of television. And, because of those same benefits, it’s much more affordable for the small to mid-size business owner to leverage for their business (as compared with television and many other advertising alternatives).

That being said, PPC is not as easy as it seems at first glance. Business owners looking to launch their first campaign will quickly discover how easily they can spend hundreds – and even thousands – of dollars in wasted efforts while they learn to navigate the PPC waters.

While entire books have been written on the ins-and-outs of pay-per-click advertising, there are 5 common mistakes that I see business owners making when I’m asked to evaluate their pay-per-click campaign strategies. These mistakes are easy to fix, and doing so will dramatically increase the effectiveness of your pay-per-click campaign!

The 5 most common PPC mistakes are:

1. Using your home page as the landing page. No matter which search engine you use for your campaign – Google, Yahoo!, MSN or any other – you can decide where to direct your new customers when they click on your ad. The most common mistake I see business owners make when they launch their PPC campaign is directing those clicks to their home page. The thinking seems to be that their home page is equivalent to the front door of their business, and they want their new customers to walk through – but that’s where they go wrong. With PPC advertising, your prospect is searching for something highly specific – that’s the “keyword” they’ve entered into the search engine. Having them land at your home page is the equivalent of having them ask you for a specific item in your store, and you telling them – “it’s in here somewhere, it’s up to you to find it.” Obviously you wouldn’t do that in person with your customers – and you don’t want to do it online, either. By designing what’s known as a “landing page” – the place where visitors “land” when they click on your ad - you can present your customer with exactly what they are looking for when they come to your site. Your landing page should be tightly focused to the keywords you are using for your PPC ad, with no other links or distractions to confuse your prospect. This dramatically increases their satisfaction with your site, as well as the likelihood that they will make a purchase from you.

2. Not customizing your landing page to your prospects’ keyword searches. The way an ideal PPC campaign works is something like this: a prospect enters a search term – for my business it might be “e-mail marketing.” They are presented with my PPC ad with “e-mail marketing” in the headline AND the ad copy. My prospect clicks on my ad and is taken to my landing page that is all about e-mail marketing. (I will have bid on both “e-mail marketing” and “email marketing” to capture searchers entering it both ways). The likelihood that my prospect will become a customer is high, because there is no confusion about what the page is about – no wondering if he’s in the right place or if we offer what he is looking for. A common mistake I see business owners making with their PPC campaigns is to try to combine several products or services into one landing page. This leads to frustration when your searcher clicks on your ad and lands on a page that they aren’t sure offers what they are specifically looking for. Make sure your landing pages are customized to the keyword your prospect is searching for – and quickly turn prospects into customers.

3. Using generic ad copy in your PPC ads. The tricky thing with PPC ads is you don’t have much real estate to work with. Google allows just 70 characters; Yahoo allows 190 characters (with spaces) in a text ad. When every single word counts, you can’t afford to use meaningless words like “high quality service,” or “established in 1903.” While these statements may be true about your business, they don’t target the specific searches your prospects are entering to find the products and services they are looking for. A mistake I see clients make in their PPC ads is to include these type of generic statements that don’t set their business apart. When you are writing your ad, you’ll want to include specific keywords that your prospects will likely enter to find what you have to offer. Your headline must be captivating and should include your main keyword. The next line of your ad should contain the single biggest benefit you offer to your customers. What sets your company apart from your competitors? That’s what goes in your PPC ad. The 3rd line of your ad should contain a feature of your product or service or an offer – special discounted pricing or something free work well here. By making your ad specific to the keywords that your prospects will likely enter, you’ll be well on your way not only to increasing clicks, but to turning clicks into cash as well.

4. Not securing high enough placement with your bids. All of the search engines use a slightly different method for determining the position for your ad. Google and Yahoo use a combination of ad relevancy (how relevant your ad is to the keywords you’ve bid on and the landing page you present to your visitors) and bid price. A big mistake I notice my clients making is not targeting their keywords tightly enough and specific enough to their product or service to allow them to bid high enough on those keywords to secure top placement on the search engines. It’s estimated that 85% of all PPC clicks occur on ads that appear in one of the top 3 positions on the page. That means, if you aren’t working hard to find keywords that are specific enough to your niche and not bidding high enough to secure a top spot, you are missing out on a good portion of the clicks that could be yours. Use a keyword tool such as Wordtracker to research keyword possibilities that you may not have considered. Look for a Keyword Effectiveness of 10 or greater – meaning that the keyword has sufficient search queries with the engines to result in significant traffic, without a lot of competitors bidding on the same keyword. When you place your campaign, use these keywords and bid high enough to secure a top spot, ensuring that the people searching for what you have to offer find your website – instead of your competitors.

5. Not testing your ads to determine their effectiveness. While there is a “formula” for crafting an effective PPC ad, slight changes – even changing one word – can have a dramatic impact on your click-through-rate (the percentage of people who click on your ad as compared with the number who see it). A mistake I see business owners making with their campaigns is to choose their keywords and then write only one PPC ad to display. All of the major search engines offer the capability of creating ad variations so that you can test different ad copy to determine what works best. This is known as “split testing” or “A/B” testing, as you are comparing the results of two different ads for the same keywords. Google will alternate the ads for you, and you’ll easily be able to see which ad performs better by looking at your click-through-rate. When you find an ad that outperforms another, that ad becomes your “control” – or the ad to beat. Put the under-performing ad on “hold” and create another version, changing one or two words or possibly just the headline. Then test that ad against your control. This is a continual process – you are always trying to beat your control to improve your number of clicks. Not surprisingly, advertisers who test their ads in this method are more successful with PPC, as they tend to know their customers better and are able to target their prospects with captivating ads that turn into an increasing number of clicks – and customers – for them.

Pay-per-click advertising has enormous benefits for the small to mid-size business owner. Avoiding these 5 common mistakes will help you save money and quickly turn clicks into customers – and increased profits – when you launch your next PPC campaign.

Caroline

Great New Site for Local Small Businesses

More proof that LOCAL is where it's at! In an effort to help local content (read: information about your business) become searchable (read: findable by your local customers), useful and plentiful online, a new site has emerged. Outside.in aggregates content from across the web based upon Zip code - so when you enter a specific Zip code, you get localized content including blogs, news, information and other user-submitted info - all in one place.

As a small business owner, why should you care? This is a great opportunity for you to post press releases, stories about your business or anything that is related to your local area that can serve as a link back to your business website. The site is just getting started, and does not have an advertising model as of yet - but they expect to launch one next quarter.

Steven Berlin Johnson, one of the founders of the site, envisions "an ad system for big adevertisers who want to target handfuls of fat-net-worth neighborhoods, but also something 'designed so that the local pizza place can target their ZIP code and the one next to them and spend $100 a month."

Mr. Johnson also says that "70% of new visitors are coming direct from search," meaning that their content is ranking high in the search engines - also a great bonus to help people find your site when you register with Outside.in.

Registering is easy and free, and if the site continues to grow as I anticipate it will, it's going to be a great way to reach new local customers for just about any small business.

Go to: http://www.outside.in and check it out for yourself today!

Caroline

Small Talk Tips for Networking Your Small Biz

Have you ever been invited to a business networking meeting or luncheon, or thought about going to your chamber of commerce’s networking events, but decided not to because you never know what to say to get the conversation started?

I’ve been there – and here’s the simple trick I learned to help me feel comfortable with the cocktail party small talk. Most people who know me wouldn’t think of me as “shy” – and I’m not – most of the time. When it comes to “networking” though, I used to struggle with making small talk.

That is, until I learned the F.O.R.M. trick.

F.O.R.M. works great because it works as a memory tool for when you are in social situations and you want to get to know the person you are talking with, and you want that person to remember you – and your business. Instead of talking about the weather, use FORM to make your conversation count.

F.O.R.M. stands for Family, Occupation, Recreation and Message – four areas you can use as conversation helpers in just about any social situation.

Family – asking whether they live around the area, if they are originally from the area or have moved there recently, if they have a family – all of these are great conversation starters. This gets the person talking about themselves and gives you a chance to learn about them.

Occupation – what do you do for a living? When they tell you what they do, you have a great opportunity to ask them about their job – if it’s in an industry you are familiar with you can comment about how competitive it is, or how challenging. If you are unfamiliar with their industry, here’s your chance to learn about it.

When they ask what you do, have your “30 second elevator speech” ready. This is a description of your business that you can say in just a couple of sentences that articulates what it is that you do.

For instance, for my business I would say that “I help small to medium sized business owners market their brick-and-mortar businesses on the Internet, finding new local customers, increasing their sales and growing their businesses.”

Recreation – this one’s easy! What do you do for fun? If they participate in a sport or hobby that you enjoy as well, you can swap stories and really build a memorable relationship with the person.

For instance, if I meet someone and they tell me that they love to travel – then I can talk to them for hours, learning about the places they’ve visited. I can also share with them my passion for photography and how my camera has gotten me into some interesting adventures while we’ve been on the road.

Message – when you feel the conversation winding down, or you want to move on to meet other people in the group, have your “message” that you want this person to remember about you ready to go. It’s something like your elevator speech, but much more personal to the individual you are talking to.

For me, my message is simple. “It was great to meet you, Bob. If you ever need help marketing your business online – or you run into someone who does – you know who to call.”

If your business is selling plumbing supplies, just change it up a bit: “It was great to meet you, Bob. If you ever need a new faucet, I’m your guy!”

Of course, it’s implied that when they give you their card, you will refer business to them as well – and you definitely should. Rising tides raise all ships, and the more referrals you can send to others, the more they are likely to send to you as well.

You can skip some of the first 3 steps, or cover them in a different order – but your message is key. First and foremost, you want to build a relationship with the person you are talking with, and you start to do that with the first 3 questions. Your message that you give them as you get ready to leave helps them remember who you are and what you do – which is an incredibly powerful way to use networking to grow your referrals and your customer base.

Give F.O.R.M. a try the next time you are stuck for a conversation starter, and watch your network – and your customer base – grow as a result.