Online Consulting

22 Businesses Called and NONE Answered!

Online Consulting, Social Media Advisors, Social Media Training

Yesterday my dad sent me an email and said I needed to watch this video he just saw. I clicked the link and it directed me over to the Think Big Work Small blog which is developed to help real estate agents. The video was discussing the importance of answering the phone. You can watch the video here. They called 23 different real estate agents around Syracuse, NY just to see how many it would take to answer the phone. The one that did answer hung up on them the minute they said hello. If you are like me, you were shocked to see this. Especially after so many sites make these claims of “We’re #1” and “We deliver the best customer service” yada yada…

Before you start branding your business as “We’re #1” or “I’m busy with other clients, but your call is important” you need to first figure out what you want your business model to look like. If you want your clients to talk to you through services like Twitter, Facebook and text messaging, then you need to make that clear on your contact pages. Add statements that say “if you need a quick response or assistance, the best way to contact me is at:” That way clients learn quickly that this is your preferred method. If they do not like using those forms of communication, then they know to move onto another business that will communicate with them in the ways they like.

Will you lose business? Possibly, but you could also pick up some clients that think the same way you do. The one thing you will accomplish is the ability to work with the types of clients you want and have targeted in your business model. For us here at 210 Consulting, we are pretty open to any means. Both Jason & myself are constantly on just about every social media platform there is. Our contact number is listed on the site, and you can email us too if you prefer.

Call me back please!

Even though technology continues to change the ways we do business, the telephone is still one of the most effective ways to communicate for our business. Every day I spend at least twice as much time on the phone with clients as I do emailing, or sending direct messages on Twitter & Facebook. Why? Because when on the phone I can answer any & all questions that person might have. When I just reply to an email, that doesn’t always happen. Maybe the reason you despise the phone so much is that you can’t stand dealing with the difficult phone calls. If that’s the case, read 5 tips to handling difficult calls. You might find something valuable in it.

Whatever means of communication you prefer, the same principles hold true. When a consumer contacts you, they expect responses. And they expect them to come quickly. If it is taking more than 24 hours to respond you run a very high risk of losing them. If this is the case, then you need to either hire an assistant to deal with your incoming messages from consumers.

One of the ways we gain new clients several new clients that write rave reviews about us without us even asking, is because we deliver fast and reliable service. Normally when someone emails me, they get a response within 2 hours. On busy days that might go as high as 12. One thing though I rarely do is leave my office at night with stuff sitting in my inbox or phone calls not returned from the day.

So, how many times would I need to call your business before you answered?

Photo Credits:

Open 24 Hours & Phone

Embracing Change for the future of your business

Social Media Advisors, Social Media Training

I wrote this piece originally in December of 2009 but I think it warrants stating again. I will add a few more comments at the end of this post.

Technology is constantly changing the way businesses act and conduct business daily. How willing are you to adapt to the changes as they come along and incorporate them into your business plan? If you are not, you may want to re-think before your all your business has been captured by your competitors.

The video below started as a movie review of Transformers 2, but since I didn’t care for the movie that much, it turned more into a lesson on how to embrace change for your business. In fact, if you want, you can skip right to around 1:24. That way you don’t have to listen to my babbling about a movie that I felt was not that great. Hopefully the next Transformers will return to the awesomeness that the original possessed.

In the video, I reference Blockbuster Video and how they have not been able to embrace change as fast as competitors like Redbox which are now slowly putting Blockbuster out of business. You need to embrace change in your business and integrate social media into your plan if you have not yet. If you refuse to embrace change, you will end up just like Blockbuster in a few years….an empty building with a for lease sign in front of it. Please take a few moments to watch:

The Moral of the story? Technology is constantly changing the way we handle our day to day businesses. Be alert to these changes and be willing to embrace/implement them into your business plan. Even if you feel you do not like it, or feel it is a waste of time, you need to at least test out the new technology to see if it will help or hinder your business before you form an opinion on them. Assuming they won’t work because of something you hear from somewhere else could be fatal to your business. Plus, we all knows what can happen if we just assume….

Since writing this post originally:

Since writing this post in December a few things have happened: First, more and more Blockbuster Video stores have closed. Also, Redbox locations have grown at a very rapid rate. The other big news since the original posting is that Netflix has noticed the need for changes in there business model and has adjusted for the changes in technology. Now you can simply log onto your computer and download movies directly to your television, computer, or gaming console. By the addition of this technology, you can now watch great movies without the need to leave your home. Also, you have no late fees, or timelines on how long you can keep the video. So with these changes it will force the competitors to change their products more and develop newer strategies to compete. Netflix has been able to once again place itself as one of the leaders in their industry.

Nevertheless, the moral of this post remains the same:

Be willing to make changes to the ways you conduct business on a regular basis or you may end up out of business. Embrace technology and figure out ways to use it to enhance the way your consumers interact and use your services/products. If you decide to fight against the new technological trends and fail to change, your business will start to die off to your competitors who recognized the change and made it will thrive on your lacks.

So I leave you with this question, are you willing to embrace change?

You Don’t Order Steak at a Seafood Restaurant, So Why Buy a Website From Postcard Companies?

Custom WordPress Sites, Online Consulting, SEO, Social Media Advisors

One of the things that we at 210 Consulting love doing is helping new businesses get their online marketing started in the right direction. Unfortunately unless you are always working in the web development, SEO, and online marketing industry, it can be overwhelming to a new company. Also, since you are just starting your new business, money is usually very tight. So, when you go to purchase business cards, accounting software, or a domain name and they offer to get your site up in running in less than 10 minutes for under $100, you are ecstatic to do so because you can now say you are on the internet.

Usually within 10 minutes of a conversation with a new prospective client I can tell if they have one of these types of sites. Why because they have only 5 pages of content, on a standard layout with zero ability of customization, and the adding of plugins or a blog is impossible! When I ask them why they chose this as their website company, the response every time has been this: “Well, I didn’t have a bunch of money to go buy a fancy site and didn’t want to put that much money into something. Once this site makes me some money I will upgrade. Besides my new site looks pretty and will be fine for my online marketing strategy.”

This is when I finally ask the client, Would you order a steak if you were eating at a superior seafood restaurant? No! Because they aren’t known for their great steaks. They are known for serving some of the best fish on the planet. This same principle holds true when you purchase a website from an online postcard company or an accounting software company.

These types of websites are designed to be simple, easy to set up, quick to activate and are inexpensive. But the limitations they possess are huge. My sister-in-law set up a website the other day for her new business and was very excited when she emailed me a link to look at the site. I pulled it up and called her within 2 minutes to tell her to stop wasting her time and that we needed to do something different. We then made a call to one of my connections that was able to create a WordPress Blogsite for her in just under a weeks time, she hired me to do some graphic design work and for under $1,000 we had her an awesome and amazing new site up and running.

So what made her new site that much better & worth the expense? Here are just some of the big differences:

Unlimited Pages of Content versus only 5- The original page had a total of 5 pages of content available. She had maximized that in her first 10 minutes of setup. She could add more, but there was a fee each time she went to add more pages. On her new WordPress.org blogsite, she can now add unlimited number of pages with pictures, videos, links and more. The reason the number of pages is so important is that it is a big factor in how search engines rank your content. More pages make you look more like an authority on a subject and thus the page goes up in the searches.
Power of Plugins- Plugins and widgets are awesome additions to any site. Unfortunately her template 5 page site did not offer any of this. She could not add simple things like a Facebook share button, or a ReTweet button. With a blogsite like WordPress she has the ability to do all these things and much more that not only make it easier for people to share her site with others, but some that also help her with her Search Engine Optimization.
Online Ordering- The template 5 page site also prohibited the addition of any types of online shopping carts or purchase online buttons. Which as her business continues to grow she wants to start offering these features to her clients so that they can purchase her items online and ship them around the world.
True Ownership of Her Content Forever- Unlike the other company, the information is now on her own site. She owns it and nobody else. She does not need to worry about if they decide to raise the price up. Or if they go out of business, or if they move servers and crash things for weeks at a time. The other nice thing is that she has a home base to direct customers to that only her content & products. The customers will not be finding her competition there. While online forums are great sources of online business, you do run the risk of your customer that found you there clicking a link to your competitor that is on the same platform and losing the business to someone else. The same holds true for those those that “have their website on their company site” which is nothing more than just a profile there that drives traffic to your organization and not you. All it takes is one accidental click on a company site and once again your co-worker is getting the sale instead of you.

These are just four of the many reasons why I said she needed to change her site before even really starting. Luckily, she listened to me & took my advice. We worked together with a web developer and built her an awesome looking & highly search engine optimized blogsite. She then did a few training sessions with me to develop her targeted audience and keywords to write about. Since then she has written a few blog posts, added some great content to her site & seen an explosion of traffic. Without this, she would not have known the first thing about what to write about or what types of things people are searching for. Remember, she wants to bake cakes, not become a online marketing expert.

So what are the results?

Well, take a look for yourself. This was an email conversation I had with her today:

Hey Jeremy,

Just got 3 cake orders today for a word of mouth referral! So far since the website has been up I have actually collected about 450.00! Its quite a bit for cakes and chocolate covered yummies….

My response:

Awesome! So how many cakes have you sold in the first 2 weeks now? 5? 6?

Her Response:

8 actually

a gift basket

and 50 chocolate covered pretzels!

As you can see, she is well on her way to regaining the money she spent on building her website and the beauty is that she will continue to profit from the site for a long time thereafter too! So before you sign up for a website through one of these other companies, stop and ask yourself, Would you order steak at a seafood restaurant? Then why am I buying a website through a postcard company?

If your small business needs assistance getting started with your online marketing plan and would like to see this type of results, feel free to contact me to develop your online marketing gameplan. Also, if the picture above has you interested in some delicious chocolate covered pretzels, make sure you visit Vie Bakery. Lastly, if you are wondering what we suggest for a website, we believe you should go with a custom WordPress Site.

14 Reasons Why Your Business Needs To Use Facebook In Your Online Marketing Strategy

Facebook, Online Consulting, Social Media Advisors

I get asked all the time by clients when we are doing an online marketing consultation about why they need to be on Facebook. The typical responses are: “I don’t care about someone going on vacation, or that someone’s dog just gave puppies,” or my personal favorite, “all Facebook is good for is throwing sheep, building farmvilles, and joining mafia wars.” While there are many that get sucked into the giant black hole of Mafia Wars, Farmville and the thousands of other meaningless things to do on Facebook, what most people do not realize is the absolute power that lies within the Facebook platform.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we see roughly 1/3 of our revenue right now come from connections on Facebook. This is a strong source of income for our online consulting business. While drinking Google Juice remains king, social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, & Youtube are gaining traction daily. In case you were wondering if Facebook is something you need to begin integrating into your online marketing plan. Take a look at these stats, it might be time to start mixing in another drink as well.

GENERAL FACEBOOK STATS

More than 400 million active users
50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day (200 million people!)
More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
More than 3.5 million events created each month (half of those invites come to me!)

FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGES

More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
More than 20 million people become fans of Facebook Pages each day
Facebook Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

USER STATS

Average user has 130 friends on the Facebook
Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month
Average user is invited to 3 events per month
Average user is a member of 13 groups

These are some very powerful statistics! While Facebook is an internal network that does not bring you the SEO value that you are used to your website or blog bringing, it is powerful. Think about it like this: In 2009 the population of the United States was just over 307 million according to Google. Facebook ads, show that right now there are 112, 291,180 people on Facebook that live in the US and are 18 years or older. In other words, about one out of every three Americans have a Facebook account, and that 1 out of every 6 is on it daily!

There are many other ways to use Facebook in your online marketing plan for your business. Hopefully by now you realize this is something you really need to start doing. If you need help getting started, feel free to ask me for assistance, I love helping clients get their Facebook Business Page set up & optimizing their efforts on Facebook.

Photo Credit

A Taste of the Future (No Crystal Ball Needed) – Online Consulting Tips

Uncategorized

I’ve been heavily involved in social media marketing for several years, and involved in internet marketing for our company since 1997. I began my own online consulting business in 2009. As such, I’ve seen a lot of changes take place over time.

Here are a few potential surprises, depending on how long you’ve been active online:

When I first started optimizing our website for the search engines, Yahoo was absolutely dominant, with something on the order of 65% market share. If you weren’t being found on Yahoo, you weren’t getting a whole lot of traffic. Was Google in second place? Nope – it didn’t even exist. Other search engines that were important back then included Excite, Lycos, and Altavista. Have you heard much about those lately? Wow! Me, neither.

When I began blogging for business in 2007, MySpace was the dominant social network platform. Facebook existed, but it was sort of a non-factor for marketing. Twitter also existed, but it hadn’t gained much traction. Now, MySpace seems like a giant abandoned playground.

Statistically, people are spending less and less time watching television, or reading traditional (meaning not online) newspapers. Those who do watch TV shows watch a good-sized percentage on sites like Hulu.com and Fancast.

I haven’t looked anything up in an actual Yellow Pages in many years, and I would wager that you haven’t either.

Despite Facebook’s recent privacy concerns, they have edged out Google as the most-visited site online for the past couple of months. Let that really sink in for a second.

Can you guess what the second-place search tool online for raw traffic is today after Google? It’s YouTube.

So, what does all of this mean for the future of your own marketing efforts?

First, don’t focus on the tools and platforms themselves. Instead, focus on having a strategy for engaging people on your own turf and terms somehow. (i.e. Don’t depend on Facebook to always be there for you. It may be a distant memory in 10 years.)
If your business doesn’t have a social media strategy, the time is absolutely NOW (or more accurately, yesterday) to figure this out.

In the next several years, if your business doesn’t have a social component that allows your customers/clients to share their experiences about you along with some type of strategy on your part to “listen” to their needs/concerns/praise, two things will happen:

1. They will be talking about you anyway.

2. You won’t hear them.

The bottom line here is that I wouldn’t waste any time or effort on “snail mail”, TV, radio, or print advertising UNLESS you are planning to tie it into your website/blog/online presence somehow. After all, as marketing becomes one big conversation, you don’t want your business to be the shy wallflower in the corner.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/webtreatsetc/4305344218/in/set-72157623226308089/