Archive for the ‘Social Media for Entrepreneurs’ Category
Friday, April 16, 2010 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Marketing, Social Media for Entrepreneurs |
Tags: blogs, Facebook, social media, social media tips, twitter |
No Comments
As an entrepreneur or small business owner, one of your primary goals in using social media is to keep yourself in the forefront of people’s minds. At the root level, most business transactions occur because of trust. Price is not the sole determining factor. This is especially true in the services industry. My choice in an accountant has more to do with trust than what they charge. I am providing very personal information to them, and I care more that I can trust them than if they are $100 more expensive than another company that I don’t trust.
Since trust is a main force in the decision making process, people are more likely to choose you because of a referral than because of a Google search that leads to your website. So, by reminding people what you do on a consistent basis, you keep yourself in their minds for your particular service or product.
Think of social media as the way to build trust so that someone considers your company or even takes a first step and looks at your website already knowing more about you.
Here are examples of ways to use particular social media sites to keep yourself in the forefront of people’s minds:
- For your personal Facebook account, send a status update every now and then stating a success or product launch. For instance, if you are a web designer, send an update once a month or once every few weeks linking to the new website that you just launched. Your contacts from high school might write you back saying they didn’t know you did web design and their company is looking for a new website.
- At the same time, don’t have all your Facebook status updates be about business. Keep it personal and only do business ones every now and then to keep yourself at the forefront of people’s minds for web design or your particular service.
- If you are going to do all business updates, create a business page in Facebook where people are connected to you only if they really want to know about your company.
- Send updates through the week describing what you are doing for your clients. For instance, send a quick Tweet letting people know you are headed to Coca-Cola headquarters to show your design proposal for their new promotion. After the meeting, send an update on how it went. Just keep in mind your client could also be reading your posts.
- If your finished product is linkable, include a link to the website, song, photo, etc. that you just created.
Blog
- Make yourself human through your blog. Don’t advertise. Tell funny stories. Talk about failures and what you learned. If you discover something that you can’t find elsewhere online and it relates to your business, write about it.
And finally, make sure that all of your social media profiles are connected. On your blog, have links to your Twitter & Facebook accounts. Tweet about your recent blogs.
Your goal is to have people market for you. Your goal is to have your Facebook friend get into a conversation at a party, find out that the person they are talking to needs a service that you provide, and be at the forefront of your friend’s mind so that he recommends you to the person he is talking to.
Keep yourself at the forefront of people’s minds through Social Media.
Tags: blogs, Facebook, social media, social media tips, twitter | Posted under Marketing, Social Media for Entrepreneurs | No Comments
Thursday, March 25, 2010 | Written by Lana Kravtsova
Posted under: Marketing, Social Media for Entrepreneurs |
Tags: brand marketing, building a brand, creating a brand, personal branding |
15 Comments
“If you want to stay relevant and competitive in the coming years – I don’t care if you’re in sales, tech, finance, publishing…retail, service, you name it – you need to develop and grow your personal brand. Everyone-EVERYONE-needs to start thinking of themselves as a brand.” Gary Vaynerchuk, Crush It.
If Facebook was a country it would be the 4th largest country in the world. Youtube is the second largest search engine after Google. Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr, Flickr… What are those social networks all about?
Personal brands.
We live in the era of personal brands.
Your personal brand is what sells your services, gets you hired, helps you develop relationships. Your personal brand is what makes your business recognizable and sets it apart from others.
Here is where a lot of people get stuck. Everyone tells you that you have to create a brand. And you probably have been thinking long and hard what your brand is all about and how you can make it unique and different.
Let me shine the light on this mystery for you.
You don’t need to create a brand. You don’t need to come up with anything unique and different.
Know why?
Because you ARE a brand already.
And this brand of YOU is as unique as it can get. You can try long and hard but you won’t find anything more unique than YOU. You are one of a kind. Don’t look any further.
All you really need to do is embrace your DNA, get clear on your core message and learn to clearly communicate that message to the world.
That’s what authentic branding is all about. And authentic brands are the ones that crush it.
So here are the steps you should follow:
1. Get clear if the business you are in is really the business that resonates with who you are. Are you passionate about what you do? Is it YOUR business? If unsure or if you are still looking for YOUR business idea, you can use hedgehog principle to help you with that.
2. Get clear on your core message. What is unique about you? What problem do you solve? Come up with a compelling tagline that clearly communicates your message. Brainstorm for ideas until you find the one that resonates with you.
I’ve just worked with a woman who wants to start a blog and write a book about people and their stories. That’s all she knew when she came to me. After brainstorming we came up with a core message – Life stories and lessons of those who “made it”.
3. Get clear on your Ideal Customer. The clearer you are on who your Ideal Customer is, the clearer your message is going to be. Getting clear on your Ideal Customer is a whole blog post in itself, so I’ll write about that later, all I want to say here – don’t be afraid to narrow down as much as you can.
The same woman who wanted to write a book, after brainstorming, realized that her Ideal Customer is a woman 35+ y.o. with two kids, who feels stuck and unsure if there is still time to rediscover and reach the dreams she had when she was younger.
Can you imagine how much more clarity you get by knowing exactly who you write your book or your blog post or even Twitter and Facebook updates for. Your website copy, your sales pages – everything is going to be transformed once you know exactly who you are writing for.
After you’ve got those basics covered, it’s time to start communicating your brand to the world.
4. Make sure that everything you do communicates your message in one way or another. When people land on your website they should understand within 7 seconds what you are all about. Your blog posts should communicate that message directly or indirectly. Everything you put out there should be put out with your core message and your Ideal Client in mind.
5. Be consistent. Have the same look and feel on every platform you are on online.
Have the same picture on your Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube etc. accounts. Have the same look and feel in terms of design for your blog, Twitter and YouTube backgrounds. Consistency is the key for people to start recognizing your brand.
6. Start blogging. I don’t care what business you are in, if you are not blogging yet, start. Blogs show the personal (human) side of you and your business. Blog tells your story. People want to buy from people. Stories sell.
7. Tell your story. You have a story. We all do. What’s your story? How did you come to where you are now? Tell us about your failures, about your successes. Why are you qualified to solve the problem that you are solving? Make it personal. Again, people want to buy from people. Put your story on your “About” page.
8. Don’t write from the third person. We all know you are the one who’ve written your bio. Your customers will connect with you much quicker when you write from the first person.
9. Don’t try to please everybody. It won’t lead you anywhere. Speak your message. Don’t apologize for who you are. There will always be critics, but those who connect with you, will follow you everywhere you go.
10. Be YOU. Don’t be afraid to show your personality. Tell people what you like.
I like color red, I wear it on all of my pictures online. I am introvert. I hate small talk. I am vegetarian. I am from Russia and I speak with cute accent. I sometimes make mistakes when I write blog posts (minor) and I don’t ask anyone to check them before I publish (don’t make mistakes if you are a native speaker, it’s not cool). It’s me. Raw and unrefined.
What about you? Your customers want to know YOU.
“Be yourself, everyone else is taken” Oscar Wilde
For more on how to get clear on your authentic Vision and how to communicate that Vision to the world, visit my blog at http://daringclarity.com
Note: This is a guest post by Lana Kravtsova from Daring Clarity.
Tags: brand marketing, building a brand, creating a brand, personal branding | Posted under Marketing, Social Media for Entrepreneurs | 15 Comments
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 | Written by Jacob Dearolph
Posted under: Angels, Government, Raising Money |
Tags: Angel Investor Tax Credit, Angels, Chris Hanks, georgia, Job Creation, Recession, small business |
No Comments
Chris Hanks with the Small Business Development and Job Creation Special Committee
Chris Hanks, a member of The Entrepreneur School’s faculty, testified Tuesday March 16th, 2010 in front of the Georgia House Committee on Small Business Development and Job Creation. Chris talked specifically on the programs and activities that assist aspiring and existing entrepreneurs throughout the state. He was also there in support of House Bill 1001, which is The Angel Investor Tax Credit Bill. As follows is an interview I did with Christ about the Angel Tax Credit and his time with the Special Committee on Small Business Development and Job Creation.
Interview with Chris:
Jacob: What is a brief description of the Angel Tax Credit.
Chris: There is a much longer story to this but basically the Angel Tax Credit is a part of a larger package called the Jobs Act of 2010 that focuses on providing a tax incentive to angel investor to invest in young start-up businesses. [Here's a link to the bill: Official site for HB 1023 - Jobs, Opportunity, and Business Success Act of 2010 - See section 9 for the Angel Tax Credit]. [Here's a link to the Angel Tax Credit Bill]
Jacob: For those who may not know what an Angel is, will you elaborate on the term?
Chris: A company is started with an idea, customers to which to market, and execution. Money is needed to fund each of these steps. Initially, that money comes from bootstrapping, the founder, friends and family, credit cards, etc… As the company grows, further rounds of funding are often needed. Angels are the next step. They are typically high net-worth individuals who invest in early stage companies with their personal capital.
Jacob: What exactly does the Angel Tax Credit provide and why is it in a jobs ‘creation’ bill?
Chris: Basically it provides a tax credit of half of the total investment, up to $50,000 to an angel investor who invests his/her capital in a young startup. There are then stipulations for the tax credit on the investment that keep the new company in the state of Georgia. The idea then is to fund young companies in Georgia and incentivize those who have money to invest in them. Then the companies grow and create jobs for the state.
Forty percent of Atlanta’s high-tech start-up companies leave the state within three years, according to a recent Georgia Tech study. “Instead of building great high-tech companies, Atlanta has become a feeder system for great high-tech companies in other states,” says study co-author Dan Breznitz.
Jacob: What are your thoughts as an entrepreneur and professor regarding the bill?
Chris: Currently, there are 22 other states that have similar incentives, and those states have benefitted from new business creation, and new jobs and new revenue. Competing states also benefit from Georgia innovation as we’ve seen entrepreneur-graduates of our schools leave our state in pursuit of capital in other states. HB 1001 will help to address this.
This bill provides an incentive for active angel investors to become more active and for those angel investors who are the sidelines to get back into game, while keeping businesses in Georgia.
Jacob: Every piece of legislation has people, champions, who are often responsible for the creation of and implementation of the bill. Who are they for the Angel Tax Credit?
Chris: This bill was introduced by TAG (Technology Association of Georgia) and has the support of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, The National Federation of Independent Business and The Georgia Public Policy Foundation. A group was also formed to fund the lobbying efforts associated with this bill. This group is the GAIC (Georgia Angel Investors Coalition).
Jacob: What is the current status?
Chris: This bill has been successfully progressing through various committees of the House of Representatives (the House originally deals with bills related to taxes) following which the bill will go to the Senate. This coming week is a very important week for the bill as two very important committees which will review the bill and then the bill will go to the floor of the House for a full vote. Gaining support of the leadership of the House will go a long way in helping the bill successfully emerge this process in a timely fashion.
Links, Quotes, Facts:
Links:
- How Georgia can fuel job creation with early-stage capital – Mike Eckert: A venture fellow with Georgia Tech’s VentureLab and serves as an entrepreneur in residence with the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC).
- Lt. Governor discusses Georgia employment and Angel Tax Credit legislation – Casey Cagle: Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor
- Job Creation Committee Passes - JOBS Act of 2010 – Press Release
- Angel Investor Op-ed – Casey Cagle: Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor
- State of the Angel Investing Market, Circa October, 2009 – Knox Massey: An Atlanta Angel Investor
- Official site for HB 1023 – Jobs, Opportunity, and Business Success Act of 2010 – See section 9 for the Angel Tax Credit
Facts:
- North Carolina’s angel investor tax credit program resulted in approximately 660 new jobs per year in high-growth companies providing average wages of $58,792. The success and accolades of the program have opened the door to increasing the tax credit cap amount to $7.5 million annually.
The reason North Carolina/RTP is cleaning our clock in funding young tech companies? Tax Credits. North Carolina has had tax credits since 1996 and now has two NEW angel funds of $5M each–all due to tax credits.
- Georgia’s unemployment rate has climbed from 4.3 percent in January of ’07 to 10.3 percent today, tying the record high for Georgia and exceeding the national unemployment rate of 10 percent.
- There are more than a half-million Georgians are out of work.
Tags: Angel Investor Tax Credit, Angels, Chris Hanks, georgia, Job Creation, Recession, small business | Posted under Angels, Government, Raising Money | No Comments
Friday, February 19, 2010 | Written by Jim Beach
Posted under: Marketing, Social Media for Entrepreneurs |
Tags: facebook ads, facebook advertising, social media |
1 Comment
Is Facebook now better than Google for running ads? It’s a big question with lots of implications. How
you present your business to the world and drive traffic to your site is one of the most important questions for your business. Every time I lecture on Google, I ask the question, “Do you click on the ads on the top or to the right of the organic listings?” The answer is almost always no. Has Google simply lost the ability to get the clicks?
There is a rumor on Internet land that Google just cancelled 15,000 ad accounts for life. We are all trying, and spending lots of time, on manual labor traffic, thing s like social media, articles, blogging, PR, and video marketing. But, to me, it still feels like Google controls you and your ads.
So, for the next week or so, I will be blogging about Facebook ads. I have done a lot of research and I want to share it with you. Google says their biggest fear is Facebook, which gets 39 billion views a month – 5 times bigger than Google – and has 400 million members.
Facebook ads are more targeted than Google, cheaper, faster, and with less competition. Facebook allows you to drill down by age, sex, hobbies, interests, location, education, and marital status. By the end of the next week, I hope to show you a whole new way to market.
Tags: facebook ads, facebook advertising, social media | Posted under Marketing, Social Media for Entrepreneurs | 1 Comment
Monday, November 23, 2009 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Marketing, Social Media for Entrepreneurs |
Tags: making money on twitter, social media, twitter, twitter advertising |
No Comments
Does it make you mad when you receive twitter follower requests from people you don’t even know? You look at the number of people they are following and that are following them and the number reaches to the thousands.
Well, these people might be on to something according to an article in this past Sunday’s NY Times.
According to the article, marketers know that a recommendation from a friend goes a lot further than an ad placed on a billboard, tv commercial, or website banner. So they plan to access your network to advertise for specific products. In turn, you can make money from the process.
There are now a number of websites that allow you to send messages to your networks on behalf of advertisers.
- Ad.ly – “Connecting Top Tier Twitterers with Top Tier Brands”
- Izea – “Sponsored Tweets”
- likes.com – “Promote what you Like” – to be live in the next few months
- Amazon – will pay commissions when you refer people to amazon via twitter
- peer2 – “Engage, Share, Earn Rewards”
So, do you currently have a number of followers for a certain topic? Or could you start one based upon a particular idea, movie, hobby, etc? If so, by using the sites mentioned above, you will be able to insert small text ads into your twitter stream that lead your followers to a product or service. These companies listed above will take a certain % of the revenue generated from the advertisement.
This is great if the advertising makes sense. I follow John Mayer on twitter, and if he recommended a particular guitar or microphone, that would interest me. But if he advertised for snickers on twitter, that would likely drive me away.
So if you plan to pursue this for your business or personal twitter account, be wise in the advertisements that you put up on your account.
Tags: making money on twitter, social media, twitter, twitter advertising | Posted under Marketing, Social Media for Entrepreneurs | No Comments
Monday, October 12, 2009 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Angels, Raising Money, Venture Capital |
Tags: angel investors, kickstarter, musicians raising funds, Venture Capital |
No Comments
Entrepreneurs usually seek investments from three groups of people:
- Friends & Family (or FFF – Friends, Family, & Fools)
- Angel Investors – High Worth Individuals Investing their Own Funds
- Venture Capital Firms – Groups investing outside capital in large amounts
Friends & Family have always been the starting point, and are usually good anywhere from a few bucks to some tens of thousands of dollars. The Venture Capital funds are usually reserved for the likes of small companies seeking large investments to go to the next level and are usually in the ballpark of over $1 million. But a group exists in the middle for those seeking investments larger than what Friends & Family can offer, but under what a VC firm would raise.
This middle group is usually referred to as Angel Investors, and they are generally high-worth individuals seeking a bit of action with their money. They either take a small % of the company in exchange for the funds, or just invest out of a sense of adventure with no expected return.
The great thing about the Internet is that it has connected entrepreneurs to Small Angel Investors in a way that was not possible before. I say Small Angel Investors because one does not need to have a high net worth and can invest as little as $5 over the Internet. Take the site Kiva, which connects blossoming entrepreneurs from around the globe to those with extra capital. The returns are not guaranteed, nor are they percentages that VC’s like to see, but if the entrepreneur makes a return on the investment, so will you as the donor.
Also, look at an industry in the midst of dramatic changes – the music industry. In the past, a musician with a small following could approach a record label, and in exchange for their soul, could receive money to record an album, buy equipment, or tour the USA. Now that funds are all but frozen at record labels, they can no longer act as Angel Investors to promising musicians (if you look nowadays, record labels usually only pick artists who are entrepreneurs and have created an album, tour, and following all by themselves).
That role has now gone to sites such as KickStarter. Kickstarter is the self-proclaimed “funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers…” My buddy and bandmate, Tyler Herrin, is currently using this platform to raise funds for his current album. Through Kickstarter, Tyler can raise the necessary funds for his album. And in exchange for these funds, Tyler does not have to give away the rights to his songs or a % of his earnings. What he does is offer exclusive gifts and shows for the biggest backers.
This is really a brilliant way for entrepreneurs with an artistic bent to raise funds. Kickstarter profiles are easily shared on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.
So, whether you are an entrepreneur in Africa, a musician in Atlanta, or a small business owner in Timbuktu, there are many options available for you in which to raise funds for your endeavor. This is really where social networking can play a big part for your business/band/etc. If you have created fans of your idea/art/proposal and have kept people “in the know,” they will be more likely to financially back your endeavor when capital is required.
Tags: angel investors, kickstarter, musicians raising funds, Venture Capital | Posted under Angels, Raising Money, Venture Capital | No Comments
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Social Media for Entrepreneurs |
Tags: auto deaths, indian government, social media, social networking |
1 Comment
When someone returns from a trip overseas, one of the first things that person talks about is riding in a taxi. For most, it is a sobering experience where death seems near eminent the entire time.
I usually respectfully listen as people describe their worst experiences knowing that nothing could top the experience of riding around in India. In all countries, there are walkers, bikers, cars, taxis, etc. In India, add to that cows. And the cows are sacred. No lanes, rickshaws, cows walking with or against traffic. You get the picture.
Amidst this chaos, 313 people die each day in auto-related accidents in India. That’s roughly 100,000 people a year, fewer than 10% of the world’s yearly 1.3 million auto-related deaths.
So, how is one of the most notoriously bureaucratic governments in the world combating this problem? They are tapping the power of social media. In order to reach their 2012 goal of decreasing auto-related deaths by 50%, the Indian government will begin using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in an attempt to reach the growing online population.
How are you using Social Networks to reach your target audience be it an attempt to sell products, attract an audience, or save lives. Linking and Search Engine Optimization are wonderful techniques. But have you considered the power of a fan of yours doing your marketing for you? Someone who loves your product will advertise for you free of charge.
Tags: auto deaths, indian government, social media, social networking | Posted under Social Media for Entrepreneurs | 1 Comment
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 | Written by Jacob Dearolph
Posted under: Social Media for Entrepreneurs, The Entrepreneur School |
Tags: making money on twitter, social media, twitter, using twitter for business |
1 Comment
A bit of controversy is occurring here at The Entrepreneur School. Is it a battle of young (See Erik and Jacob’s blogs) verses old (See Jim’s blogs) or a battle of the naive verses the experienced? It remains to be seen and we need you to help. SEE BELOW.
Read the last 3 or 4 blogs at The Entrepreneur School Blog and look below post to the questions.
Is this True of Twitter:
True?
Or This:
$$
Calling readers of our blog, the blogging community, Twitter users, Twitter Preneurs, ect… to help. If you know of others who have been successful or have experience with the questions below then get them to respond.
So please respond with FIRST HAND accounts of your experience with Twitter in the following ways:
In the positive:
- Do you run a successful cash flowing business with Twitter?
- Do you run a online business where Twitter has verifiably helped you win customers?
- Do you run a different kind of business where marketing with Twitter’s has increased sales, brand awareness, market share, etc…?
- Have you had any experience with Twitter that resulted in an increase of the bottom line?
In the Negative:
- Have you tried to start and run a business with Twitter and it failed?
- Have you tried using Twitter for increased customers or revenues and it been a complete waste of time?
- Have you used twitter for any purpose involving marketing and it resulted in nothing?
Please respond and let us know of your experience.
Thanks,
Jacob
Tags: making money on twitter, social media, twitter, using twitter for business | Posted under Social Media for Entrepreneurs, The Entrepreneur School | 1 Comment
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