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!

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

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

It’s a marketer and advertiser’s dream – a captive, easily reachable audience meeting in a central location.  Not only that, but FB’s search options enable you to zoom in on extremely specific target audiences, or FB groups.  In addition, what makes social media – and FB in particular – so unique, is the “place” - or psychological mindset of your audience – where you meet them at.  “FB is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family, and coworkers…”, states the official FB Company Factsheet.  Visiting FB is like relaxing on the couch and watching a TV sitcom after a day of grind at the office.  Your mindset is different.  You are ready to meet people.  You’re relaxed and more accepting of outside influences and suggestions.
 
From a business perspective FB presents a definite paradigm shift with regards to marketing and brand management.  FB is a platform that facilitates the sharing of information through social interaction, in a trusted environment.  It is certainly not an advertising and marketing platform.  It is also not a tool for listening to and tracking consumers of your brand.  It goes beyond that, it is about engaging your audience and becoming one voice in a thousand.  It’s about putting the “social” in front of “marketing”.
Apart from some remarkable responsive corporations like Coca-Cola and BMW, the corporate world is too slowly waking up to FB’s possibilities.  Everyone wants a part of it, and no-one wants the competition to have the first say in the global discussion forum that is FB.
 
But fools are rushing in.  Many companies, large and small, are setting up their business presence on FB, instead of tasking expert communicators with the job.  The wrong message could cost you, and public opinion (read FB-opinion) is a fickle thing.  Let the experts take care of your online corporate socializing.  You’ll thank them.
 
Contact SCC for a free consultation.

By Marco Bouwer

Posted using ShareThis

The above links (the announcement that I have hit a 97 out of 100 Twittergrade*) is an example of a complete integration of several social media tools: Twitter, TwitterGrader, ShareThis, WordPress…all working seamlessly together to help me build my social profile across several platforms, not to mention in front of many potential new clients!

This is also the way everyone will be communicating sooner than you may think! At Stylo Creative Communications, we can help you build your social footprint!

* Yes, I am a Twitter Geek, and you should be too. More on that in a later post but, for now at the very least, visit Twitter and secure your name – or your business’s name – it’s free! And if you follow me, I’ll follow you right back! Don’t worry, it will make sense after you use it a bit…)

This was my first experience dealing with the great Generational Technology Divide.  Realize, I was not a techie, and I certainly didn’t do anything technology groundbreaking. And certainly I was not one of the first people to have/use email. In fact, I was very happy to admit that I was in the “second wave” of adopters, a bit behind the true “technorati.” But…I learned from this experience that while there were a lot of people who were using it as a very helpful business tool, there were hundreds of thousands who were still completely in the dark about what an impact email would have on every aspect of our professional and personal lives…the “third wave.” With that in mind, I helped quite a few clients in the early 90s learn to embrace email.

And that is how I feel today, with the gaining popularity of social media. Sure, there are a lot of social media “superstars” and I learn from them every day. But – also every day – I realize how many people out there are not even sure what social media is, exactly, much less how to use it to their business advantage.

When they ask why they should bother with all of this “stuff” and worry that it is is just time-consuming chatting, etc, I simply ask them to take a look at the numbers; an excellent example of these lies in these stats:

LinkedIn

Nearly 60% of LinkedIn users have high personal incomes and hold executive-level or consultant positions, Nov 10th, 2008, LinkedIn, Anderson Analytics.

Stats from CEO: 8 million to more than 30 million, while the staff has expanded from 60 to 370 employees, CEO alludes (but doesnt confirm nor deny) that revenues are $75 (million) to $100 million, The average age is 41 years old. The average household income is $109,000; 76 percent of them have a college degree or a graduate degree. It’s pretty evenly split between men and women, slightly more men. Forty-eight percent are outside the United States, from 07 to 2008. Nov, SFGate.

Facebook

Facebook usage skyrockets from election activity: Includes specific usage numbers, fans and supporters, Nov 5th, Source: Zdnet

Facebook 18 Million Unique Visitors in UK, top 5th overall web property, Sep-Aug 08, Source: Comscore

More than 120 million active users (does not indicate measure of active), Facebook is the 4th most-trafficked website in the world, More than 400,000 developers and entrepreneurs from over 160 countries, Over 52,000 applications are currently available on Facebook Platform, Nov 2008, from Facebook Stats Page

If the numbers are right, Facebook’s online users have grown by 30 million in the last four months, up from 90 million users in early July 2008. That means that Facebook is growing much faster than the 250,000 new users per day that the company had previously estimated, Nov 3, 2008, Epoch Times

Twitter

Global visitors to Twitter rose almost fivefold to 5.57 million in September from a year earlier. Nov 12, 2008, Comscore via BBC.

The numbers speak for themselves.  People are online…and they are going to stay online. The time is definitely now to begin to establish your social media presence. Whether you are working in one of the world’s largest companies or a solo entrepreneur, everything is equalized in the social media space.

My tip to you today is this: The second wave of adopters is moving full force. You really don’t want to wait to be in the yet-to-come MASSIVE third wave. You’ll be missing on the earlier opportunity to build your social presence online ahead of them all.  

Please fee free to forward this tip to your colleagues, clients, and others in your network. Stylo Creative Communications is happy to help by providing written content for blogs, profiles, and other social media outlets, and by growing our clients’ online social media capital through relationship building and reputation/community management.

We’ll see you out in the social network sphere!

(Start by following us on Twitter – we’ll happily follow back!)

This article will also appear on the blog of SEM-Group, and will be featured in the online magazine NetworkingNow.

Did you know that 77% of all Internet users read blogs? Well, they do.

As posted on Brandtracks (emphases from Stylo):

Take a look at these stats as of March 2008:

• There were 184 million blogs worldwide
• In the US alone, there were 77.7 million unique hits compared to 41 million visitors for Facebook and 75.1 million to MySpace
• 77% of all Internet users read blogs
• Over half of all businesses in North America don’t have a blog. That means that just under half of all businesses do. If you don’t, guess who’s talking to your customers?
• Blogs offer a channel for you to provide an instant voice to the conversation. While a personal blog can share the latest pictures of a newborn baby instantly to friends and family all over the world, a business blog works on the same premise.
• 46% of all bloggers are professionals. They are writing a corporate blog or about their industry or offering opinions about products, even the ones you sell. This equates to just over 84.5 million bloggers that are business bloggers. That’s 84.5 million businesses talking to your customers.
• Online sales in 2007 totaled $260 billion. Blogs are known to increase awareness of new products and services. That means 1 out of 2 companies are losing a large part of $260 billion dollars of online income.

Blogging is a great way to reach your audience. Stylo Creative Communications writes for blogs. We match writers experienced a specific industry with clients in that industry looking for writers! It’s a win-win.

My assignment, should I choose to accept it, was to create, In a well-organized and easy-to-follow format, a book that would detail everything an entrepreneur would need to get an online networking business (think of a LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Fast Pitch, Ryze, and other similar sites, but with more of a “niche” target audience) ready to go in the course of a single week. The book’s purpose was to be a primer on the revenue opportunities of social and business networking sites, written on the assumption that the reader would use a hosted, software-as-a-service provider (as opposed to licensing or creating social network software), in order to have the site up and running by the end of a single week.

I accepted the assignment. The book is written, and will come out early next year.

This book is for the person who is very interested in starting and running a business – particularly an online business – but does not have a clear idea of how to start, and doesn’t have much time – or doesn’t want to take the time – to set it up.

The reader may be ready to start, but wants a lot of the ‘research’ done for him in advance. The target reader of this book will want a concise, quick step-by-step guide to lead right up to a successful launch.

This book will cater to the entrepreneur who is not backed by a large amount of capital – and who doesn’t necessarily possess the highest level of technical expertise.

More on this later….