Introducing: Stylo Small Biz Toolkit

 We are very excited to launch our own Small Business Toolkit. Support of small business has always been a strong personal interest of Stylo founder Julien Sharp, who firmly believes that small businesses are the backbone of a prosperous society.

To that end, Julien combined her 17 years of copywriting and content management experience with the technical backup of SmartSourcing Global, managed by founder Smita Yedekar, and the support of Stylo's own Minister of Technology, Mohd Rafie Kamaruzaman, to create a full array of services aimed at helping small businesses thrive in any economy. 

The Small Business Toolkit includes everything a business needs to:

• Build a Brand
• Promote and Build Recognition of that Brand
• Grow that Brand Online via Social Media
• Optimize Business Workflow/Productivity

We are all so happy to be able to help small businesses make a big-business impact!

New Year’s Resolutions for Communicators

It’s January again, a brand new year, and it’s time to create that well-intended set of goals for 2010. Whether it’s a list you prepare in the private recesses of your mind, or a list that get stuck on the office bulletin board, we all should take time to reflect on the year that’s past and decide what we will do to make this new year more successful.  2010 is the Year for Improvements!

For all the procrastinators out there, we’ve set out to help you: Here’s a list of strategic resolutions with your organization’s marketing, communications, and branding goals in mind.  It could help chart not only your own professional growth in 2010, but also guide your company’s success for the next 50+ weeks:

1. We will revisit and adjust our Goals for 2010.

Every marketing, reputation building, or social media plan should be traceable to your overarching goals.  What do you want to achieve with your communication to your target market? What do you want to achieve via Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube?  Set projections.  Before writing a blog post, or updating your status this year, consider if it will bring you closer to achieving your main goals?  And importantly: is your company’s reputation and brand aligned with your entire communication plan?

2. We will redefine our strenghts and weaknesses.

It doesn’t hurt to do an audit at the start of a new year.  If you have a well-defined SWOT-analysis, do everything you can to successfully promote your strenghts across all platforms, re-define your value proposition to prospective clients, and differentiate yourselves from the competition.

3. We will strive to Practice Better Web Etiquette than in ‘09.

Remember that there’s no “advertising” in social media.  It’s a cliché’, but it is called “social” media for a reason.  Engage in conversation, listen well, and provide content of value.  Do not push sales to your followers and fans.  They won’t return.  In a recent study reported by Bulldog Reporter  93% of online users now expect companies to have an online presence. To keep them coming back, you’ll have to come up with creative content and be engaging.  Recognize that it is a big deal for someone to “fan”, friend or follow you – make it worth their while.  Set up automatic “Thank you”-messages, provide exclusive content, or other creative ways to reward their decision.

4. We will strive to be year-long Learners.

The communication landscape changed more in 2009 then in the previous decade.  It’s the communicators job to stay abreast of new developments.  Nielsen reported that two-thirds of the global Internet population now visits social media sites regularly.  Communicators have to incorporate ever-improving social media tools into their traditional arsenal.  There are so many new developments and new methodologies every month – you owe it to your clients to stay on the cutting edge so they can reap the benefit of your knowledge and application.

Two quick examples of important new developments:

-         Search engine changes are influencing online marketing and communications and you should know how to use this knowledge to maximize the ROI for your clients.

-         The new Twitter Lists are a way of tracking your target markets, building group relationships and more.  Find out how it can make your job easier.

5. We will strive to have genuine dialogues with our constituents.

Famed Social Networking expert Gary Vaynerchuk often says that he is successful because he cares.  That’s the essence – instead of selling, have real conversations with those you are trying to reach and influence.  What do they want?  Who are they?  Really caring and real dialogue will create loyal followers that can be seriously effective advocates of your message.

6. We will ask for client Goals before accepting new accounts.

Go to greater lengths to persuade your clients not to jump into the social media arena without first agreeing with you on their objectives, identifying their target audiences, and defining reasonable measurements of success.  E.g. strongly discourage a client wanting to launch a new product from creating a promotional Facebook Fan Page days or weeks before a launch date.  They are setting themselves up to fail.

7. We will continuously look for ways to Improve.

Constantly seek to improve your brand and reputation and everything related to that – including your website, your social media relationships and conversations.  Revive your customer service, improve your client communication, increase your productivity by working smarter and not more.

8. We will strive to expand our Brand.

We will put renewed focus on our own online contributions.  We will update our company’s blog, Facebook Fan Page, and all other social media sites with regularity and use these channels more deliberately to drive traffic to our website.  At the same time, valuable contributions such as an expert blog post at the right time, can build credibility and establish you as an expert.  The same goes for contributing to industry-specific online discussions, e.g. answering field-specific questions on LinkedIn.

9. We will focus on enlarging our network.

No-one works in isolation and networking with your peers can be invaluable.  This can lead to collaboration opportunities, helpful discussion, referrals and more.  Join a business networking group such as BNI, your local Chamber of Commerce, or a Social Media Club in your area.  And don’t underestimate the power of social media – we met our Minister of Technology at Stylo Creative Communications via Twitter!

10. Remember to have fun!

It is easy to get burned out by the information overload.  Remind yourself why you are working in the communication field – reignite your passion, revisit successful past projects and don’t take yourself to seriously.

By Marco Bouwer

11 Types of Tweets

Clients we’ve introduced to Twitter as part of their communication strategy often ask us what they should tweet, and even more frequently how to write a tweet.

If you are a business or an individual wanting to brand yourself for business reasons, your tweets should be in line with your goal(s) for tweeting.

So too should the people you choose to follow be aligned with your goals. WHO you tweet for will have an influence on WHAT you tweet. Be selective in who you follow. Following as many people as you can is not always the wisest strategy – and it is all about strategy.

So let’s get back to what to tweet. I’ve categorized the basic types of tweets – here’s the list:

The Hello-World-Here-I-Am Tweet:

What do you say in your first tweet? It doesn’t have to be anything profound, you are new to the medium, so relax and announce yourself. Or introduce yourself. I’ve seen some fun first-time tweets!

The Introduction Tweet:

It’s good to introduce new people to your following. Importantly, mention why they are worth following. It has great value to yourself, your followers, and the person in question. E.g. “Do follow @marcobouwer for helpful tips and advice on effective Social Media strategy for small business.”

The Connection Tweet

This tweet follows the introductory tweet. People do business with people they know and trust, right. Or with friends of friends they trust. As entrepreneurs and business people we all belong (or should belong!) to business networking groups in our cities.

These groups are great for obtaining referrals, receiving testimonies within a circle of likeminded, trustworthy people, and gaining momentum for our businesses. Social Media and especially Twitter works the same way – follow likeminded Tweeters, mingle, engage, follow through.

The Networking Tweet

Twitter has made it possible to have a global real-time conversation on just about any topic with anyone and everyone across the globe. Sure, text messaging is convenient and instant, but it only works well between 2, 3, or maybe 4 people. Twitter is instantaneous and anyone can join the conversation or make a comment.

A networking tweet is basically making a comment on a tweet of someone you follow. It can be seen as – and certainly used as a networking opportunity with those users interested in the same topic as you. Commenting establishes you as someone either with an opinion on a topic or with good knowledge of a particular topic. Many working relationships are established this way.

The Information Tweet

This is why Twitter became so popular so quickly – telling people who don’t really care what you are doing right now, real-time. E.g. “I’m scratching my ear while watching the grass grow.” Yeah, who cares?! But there is much more to it than this.

If your information-sharing adds value you are on to something. Look at tweeters like @guykawasaki who tweets constantly (that’s not him tweeting), but shares interesting and sometimes valuable information. This is why this is valuable to business wanting to share new developments with their audiences, especially things that are not breaking news, but helpful everyday information, e.g. “Our store will open at 5:00 AM on Black Friday for your shopping convenience”.

The News Tweet

Sharing news with the world – e.g. “Michael Jackson has died.” The reason newspapers are not particularly fond of Twitter – tweeters can share news before it is printed. However, it’s only news if you are the first one who has heard about it, or if it was very recently reported. Otherwise you should rather assume that it is known news and comment on it.

News about your business is always value adding. Sharing that you have a brand new promotion running is not news and should not be treated as such.

The Tweet of Wisdom

This is usually a statement of truth (or wisdom) about the industry you are in, e.g. “Business success is measured by the cash flow, not through profit.” You are trying to position yourself as a credible expert in the field, but not everyone succeeds. The teenager who’s Twitter Bio states that he is a “Call of Duty” war game-junkie, should not expect awe and respect when he posts Business Leadership tips. Marketing guru Seth Godin can!

Alternatively, this could also be in the form of a nice quote e.g. “What lies before us and what lies behind us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. – Ralph Waldo Emerson”. This is what you tweet when you have nothing much to say. However, people love to read it and there is value to it – you are contributing to the Twitter-sphere.

The Re-Tweet (RT)

If someone you follow post an interesting tweet, or one you feel adds value, re-tweet it. You do this by resending the post and by adding RT (retweet) in front of it and by indicating who originally sent it. This way you are complimenting the author on a great post and you are sharing it with the world. Pay it forward.

The Testimonial Tweet

If you are not RT a tweet, but want to let the world know what great service you received, or what a wonderful job someone has done, or book someone wrote, this is the place. It’s effective because it is a global forum. Praising another user is also a great way of stacking up on your own business brownie points – pay it forward and I guarantee it’ll come back to you and your company.

The Question Tweet

Twitter’s huge user base is a fantastic resource that must not remain untapped. Asking a question could ensure quick-time, near-instantaneous answers, solutions, and opinions from your chosen audience and can help you gauge if you are going in the right direction. In addition, your posted questions is interactive due to the nature of Twitter, which means you can act as catalyst for a discussion, giving your brand more exposure if you can kick-start the conversation.

The Marketing Tweet

E.g. “Here’s my latest blog post about the benefits of Facebook for small businesses.” It’s a great way to promote your blog, website, service, and business among like-minded people. Don’t overdo it. Be sure to engage your audience and build trust. Your active presence is already a marketing act.

Do not spam your followers, e.g. “Click this link now and get 5% discount on our new sleep-easy pillow”. That’s a quick way of seeing your numbers dwindle. If you are a retail store or sell a product, send these tweets, but make very sure that they are mixed well with some of the other tweets mentioned before.

Add value to the conversation – as @garyvee puts it, Twitter is like a cocktail party, if you try and sell, you will be sipping your champagne alone! Remember, you are trying to be part of a two-way conversation. If your followers want one-way advertising they can watch TV.

It’s About Time: Planning Meetings in a Global Conference Room

As creatives and computer technicians, globalization is very much a part of our industry. One of the challenges of having clients and staff all over the world is evident when trying to schedule meeting times that work for everyone.

Today we share with you a web service that can help you arrange a meeting time regardless of your time zone. It is very practical and easy to use, and is called WorldTimeServer.com

It allows you to see the time corresponding to your location in table so you can set the best time possible for your clients or team around the world.

Be Aware of the Legal Considerations When Using Social Media

Advertising lawyer Brian Heidelburger wrote a great post for Advertising Age: The 7 Biggest Legal Risks to Your Company When Using Social Media

It is a great take on the pitfalls to avoid – while giving the valuable warning to corporations that they should not be too “Draconian” in the the rules they set for use of social media.

Considering that Facebook just hit 300 million registered users, this article is very timely. Social media is here to stay.

Five Google Tools No Small Business Should Ignore

Stylo Creative Communications’ Mission to to allow small businesses to enjoy big-business impact through the intelligent use of integrated digital technology and the application of savvy marketing consulting.  The following Google tools, for example, are a must for any small business and we love to watch our clients experience amazing business impact from using them.

1.0 Google Docs – http://docs.google.com/

These tools are completely free to use as you wish. You can create a Word, Excel, or even PowerPoint presentation online. This is especially especially convenient when you are on-the-go. You won’t want to disregard the “form” feature, which allows you the ability to build customized forms to collect useful information. Once the user submits the form, the information will be stored in a spreadsheet on your Google account. For example, take a look at this Event Feedback Survey form built on Google Docs, or browse the template directory.

2.0 Google Analytics – http://www.google.com/analytics

I encourage everyone I speak with to read what Matt Cutts said about Google Analytics. Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness (from Google Analytics website).

Would you like to learn more with a tour of Google Analytics? We certainly encourage it!

3.0 Google Webmasters – http://www.google.com/webmasters

If your company has a webmaster who manages your website, he or she should be using this tool. It is a useful tool that helps you to make your website more search engine friendly. It is not a magic button to  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) greatness, but rather a measurement of how your website is doing. On the other hand, this tools also has a YouTube channel and share useful information regarding optimizing your website. As an example, take a look at the video below.

Random Thoughts on the Eve of a Book Launch…

My passion is social media, particularly in the way it has changed – or really expanded – the way people communicate. I have been a writer for many years, gravitating toward sales, advertising, and web copy, as well as interview-based reporting. In 2003, I completed received my MS in Psychology, where my focus was on systems theory. I studied how people behave in systems, from family systems, to social/friendship systems, to work systems (such as work teams or departments).

In 2004, I had the opportunity to work with Ivan Misner, the founder of BNI, an international business networking organization, who wanted to replicate a study he had done on networking in 1985. We surveyed BNI members from all over the world, and got thousands of responses, which allowed us to publish some very accurate results of the state of networking at the time.

In the study, one of the questions we asked was “How involved are you in online networking organizations?” When Dr. Misner mentioned wanting to add this question, it was my first real introduction to the growing trend of online networking. LinkedIn was really in its initial phase, Ecademy was more well-known in the UK than the US, and there certainly weren’t the number of online networking opportunities that exist today. However, from that introduction, I became very active in a few of these networks.

Then, in 2008, Entrepreneur Press approached me to write a how-to-book on launching an online social networking business. I’m really excited that it is coming out this month. Normally, a “techie” book would be written and published very quickly. In this case, the publishing date was extended, in part due to production schedules, and in part due to the economy. While that was initially frustrating, it turned out to provide an incredible opportunity: The chance to truly study the trends of social networking for over a year.

The changes in that single year were – in a word – astronomical. When I was first contacted by Entrepreneur Press, MySpace was still at the top of the heap. By the time the book went into pre-production, Facebook had far overtaken MySpace, and this month the former giant announced it was laying off 400 employees. In early 2008, Twitter was still for the geeks, SXSW attendees, and early adopters. Today, nearly everyone has at least heard of it (especially after the celebrities started “tweeting”), and its role in helping keep information flowing about the Iranian elections has certainly taken the platform to its highest level yet.

As more and more people “socialize” online, so is there more and more discussion of how “healthy” is it to spend so much time with “virtual” relationships. This is a particularly fascinating topic for me, given my graduate studies of social systems. It is also why I covered the topic of bridging offline and online networks in my book. I revisited this topic in an article just published on Entrepreneur.com:

As most of the country’s top networking experts agree, an online network can grow faster and have longer life if the network offers its members face-to-face meeting opportunities, making the networking more “real” at a fundamental level. And those networks that have traditionally only met in person can extend relationships by adding an online component.

I am curious to hear from our readers: What has been your experience in online/offline networking – do you participate in both? Do you find you do most of your networking (for jobs, for business development, for fun) online or “in person” these days? If you have a story to share, please leave it in the comments or contact us – we’d like to revisit this in a future post!

Julien

(crossposted at DigitalMindshare)

Julien Sharp is the author of Design and Launch an Online Social Networking Business in a Week, and a contributing author to Masters of Sales: Secrets From Top Sales Professionals That Will Transform You Into A World Class Salesperson by Ivan Misner, PhD and Don Morgan, MA, both available from Entrepreneur Press.

Why Should We Launch a Business Presence on Twitter?

Twitter is still a mystical word for many. If you haven’t heard of it, or if you don’t know what it is, don’t be discouraged. At this stage you’re still in the majority.

What is Twitter? It is a free micro-blogging service allow the user to post short messages of 140 characters or less (why 140 characters?), similar to Facebook’s profile updates. These messages are read by followers, other users that make a conscious effort to subscribe to your blurps. In essence, it is instant communication to others that are like-minded.

Although Twitter does not release official numbers, it is estimated that there are between 4-7 million users. Compare this to Facebook’s 200 million users and the question becomes “Why bother?”

Twitter users are very different from the average Facebook user. Tweeters are movers and shakers, they are opinion makers and influencers. Many of them keep an active blog with high readership and they are effective communicators. The successful Twitter user is very well connected.

If you can attract these opinion makers and gain their goodwill, half your battle is won. A loyal Twitter following is a strong viral marketing tool, if you have the right message.
Start utilizing it. Or ask a communication expert to forge your message.

Effective business uses for Twitter are:
- Generate traffic to your website with links to helpful, interesting information on your website.
- Provide regular interesting and helpful tips, professional advice, and industry-related information.
- Improve customer relations through interaction.
- Promote and broadcast live from events, workshops, seminars.
- Send out alerts of new products, specials, blog entries, developments.
- Generate additional revenue.
- Use it as a research tool.
- Conduct surveys and polls.
- Gain real-time feedback about specific topics.
- It increases your credibility, social reach.
- Strenghtens and enhances your brand.
- Puts you ahead of the competition!

The Results Are In: Great News from a Client!

One of my favorite clients is one with whom I have worked since early 2002 – Toby Rose’s College Prep. I am their Consulting Writing Specialist. When I lived in Miami, I taught writing classes to high school and college students, and helped applicants to undergraduate and graduate schools with their essays. Since moving to NYC in 2006, I have maintained the client relationship, working with the students on their application and scholarship essays every season. I just got an email from my client that we have had one of the best years ever as far as acceptances to schools – from Florida state schools to Ivy League, and other prestigious institutions all over the country!

Continue below the fold for a full school list. (S) means the acceptance came with a scholarship and (H) means an acceptance into the school’s Honors program.

The Power of the Cellphone…

Earlier this month Google launched its location-aware friend-finding system Latitude in 27 countries.  It allows you to find out exactly where your friends are, and other usefull information e.g. locating that restaurant you’re looking for.  As with existing social media it will help you stay in touch with friends and help parents keep track of their kids.

John Markoff, covering technology for The New York Times since 1988, recently wrote a thought-provoking article about the increasing importance of cellphones.  According to him businesses and researchers will use Latitude and other similar programs to learn more about the whereabouts of their customers.  The possibilities are huge for companies – studying consumers’ travel patterns – which routes they take, or where they have that weekly Wednesday business lunch!  Imagine the value of this information for marketing purposes…

Preceding Google’s Latitude were Loopt, a social mapping application that displays the user’s location on cellphones.  Although the business and social value of these fantastic tools are obvious, Markoff raises an interesting point: What about privacy issues?  Do I really want ad agencies or the government to be able to keep track of my every move?  Do I want my boss to know I’m sitting in an Ale House over lunchtime?!

Markoff argues that this new generation, adapt at using an i-Phone blindfolded and used to sharing personal information on social media sites might not mind.  Time will tell.

One thing is for sure though, social media and mobile hand-held devices has changed the marketplace forever.  Are you connected to your audience?  Do you know how to effectively communicate with them using these tools?

(Read the full article in The New York Times.)

By Marco Bouwer