How To Take Full Advantage of Social Proof For a Low-Cost Biz Boost
If you can find an old-style sign at McDonald’s, it will boast, “Over 99 Billion Sold.” That’s probably the first example of “social proof” that most of us saw growing up. When Ray Kroc started broadcasting how many burgers his fast-food restaurants had sold, it was decades before the term “social proof” entered the popular vernacular. However, as the McDonald’s sign illustrates, it’s not a new idea. Companies have been bragging about how well received their products are probably as long as there have been print ads. One of Elvis’ early compilation LPs was entitled, “50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong: Elvis’ Gold Records.” However, the Internet Age has greatly accelerated the advancement and importance of social proof. There are more ways that we are able to send a social proof message to our users, customers and clients. I suppose the first fully web-based social proof was the visitor odometer we used to see at the bottom of web pages. The long history of social proof and its rapid proliferation across the Internet serve as testimony to its power and that’s my real message today: If you aren’t using social proof to promote your business, you’re missing out on a very powerful and cost effective way to boost your bottom line. Let’s summarize some of the main social proof tools and strategies you can use: Social shares. There are services and plugins that publish the number of times a webpage or an item on a webpage has been shared via social media. These are simple, inexpensive and most are DIY configurable. Endorsements and testimonials. Publishing quotes from satisfied customers or clients is a powerful way to brag about yourself without having to do the bragging yourself. Be sure to feature these big enough and high enough on your pages for people to actually see them. People don’t drill down in sites very far. Bring them to your home page. They are also excellent on landing pages. Celebrity endorsements. A subset of general endorsements is celebrity endorsements. Few of us are going to get Kim Kardashian on board, but in your local business there are probably community leaders who would serve this role. Expert endorsements. Another subset is to get recognized experts to put in a good word for what you do. This is an especially attractive way to go in the B2B world. The general public might not know Joe Glotz, but in your industry he’s the go-to guru! Online reviews. In ecommerce, honest online reviews are critical. There are services today that hook up to your ecommerce system to verify that reviewers are buyers and that further strengthens the social proof. If you can’t afford to build a robust reviewing platform into your website, spend energy establishing your presence on a third-party site, such as Yelp or Angie’s List. The great thing about most of these social proof strategies is that they are either low-cost or no-cost, yet they can be your most powerful tools for increasing sales. If you aren’t truly leveraging them, bring this project to the top of your “to-do” list. McDonald’s Image: “Pine Bluff McDonalds 1962 Sign” by Bruce W. Stracener (WP Talk:Broooooooce) – Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons....
read moreThree Ways to Score Meeting Room Wins
A friend of mine once worked at a large chemical company and one day everyone in his department was called together for a meeting. A team was arriving soon from their Japan branch and everyone was going to work together for a few months. The point of the meeting was to teach the American workers how to better communicate with their Japanese counterparts. Americans tend to quickly make their major points and then spend some time explaining how they got to those conclusions. The Japanese, by contrast, will take a significant amount of time laying the groundwork for their conclusions before they sum things up. To the Japanese, the American way seems abrupt, perhaps even rude. To the Americans, the Japanese way seems to waste time. The training session made everyone a little more aware of how they presented and participated in meetings and that kind of increased awareness would be good for all of us. The first step is to understand the purpose of any meeting where you are the planner or a significant participant. I’ll look at three distinctly different scenarios here. The presentation This is the easiest and perhaps most “traditional” meeting. You or a group is tasked with sharing your knowledge, ideas or plans with others. Generally, you’re supposed to feed information for others to consume. You might have a marketing plan you want to outline so others can see what tasks will be assigned to them. In tech settings, someone may have solved a problem and the solution needs to be understood by others. We have all been in enough of these meetings to recognize them and each of us also could probably remember some presentations that were terrible, while others have been engaging. Try to emulate the good presenters. The brainstorm With such a high value placed on ideas today, brainstorming sessions are the lifeblood of many businesses. Set the “presentation” approach to the side and think “conversation” here. Have you ever watched “Celebrity Apprentice”? When the losing team is sitting in the boardroom with Donald Trump, there are always several who complain that the team leader wouldn’t listen to their ideas. The same thing happens outside of reality television. Problems arise if you come with a pre-conceived idea and force it on your group. They may acquiesce, especially if you’re the boss, but there’s a good chance you will quash ideas from others. Even if you think you have a great idea, enter these kinds of sessions with the mindset that there may be an idea out there from someone else that will change your thinking. See these kinds of sessions as “productive conversations” where everyone feels comfortable in participating. The persuader Without a doubt there are times when as a business owner you need to persuade people to your position. When very talented and experienced people do this, those who have been persuaded end up believing it was their idea in the first place. However, this is rare. You need good people skills to handle these kinds of meetings. They require a deft balance between delivering your message (presentation) and making others in the meeting feel that you have heard and understood their concerns (conversation), if there are any. Consider these three “meta” meeting categories and how they should be allowed...
read moreHow You Can Fight Intellectual Property Theft and Protect Your Profits
Small business owners may worry about being robbed while they’re leaving their business to make a bank deposit. They will often take special measures to ensure their safety and protect the money generated through their sales. However, there is a related crime that is less obvious but no less serious: the theft of intellectual property (IP). What we’re talking about is the production and sale of counterfeit consumer items. These are usually knock-offs of popular goods, and among the most popular brands targeted according to 2013 figures are: Nike Apple Rolex Samsung Adidas Louis Vuitton Chanel Cialis Many will look at that list and think that it’s a problem for the wealthy global brands to worry about. That is true, but it’s a fact that many small businesses sell these brands so when they are available as cheap knock-offs, it erodes the sales of small business owners virtually everywhere. The global offenders Writing on the topic for the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, Raymond J. Keating quotes ICE Director Sarah Saldaña: “Counterfeiting is a crime of global proportions, and when property rights are violated, American jobs are lost, business profits are stolen and ultimately, consumers are cheated.” The latest figures show that China and Hong Kong are by far the biggest offenders. Of property seized, 63 percent came from China and 25 percent came from Hong Kong. Another area of great concern is the copyright infringement that occurs when media is illegally streamed or downloaded via the Internet. On the federal level, the Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, a position currently held by Danny Marti, is a White House level department created to coordinate enforcement efforts. The local strategies Within your own community you can work with law enforcement when you become aware of illegal activities and counterfeit goods. Additionally, if you’re in an industry that suffers these kinds of losses, perhaps one of the most effective things you can do is to educate your customers. For example, if you sell any of the brands mentioned above, consider producing a series of marketing videos that graphically illustrate the difference between the name-brand products and the counterfeits. For example, cut apart a cheap imitation Louis Vuitton handbag and show its shoddy construction. You can also use videos and other content marketing formats to teach your customers how to identify the real thing versus a counterfeit. Once you highlight some of the details, it will make your customers and prospects far less likely to ever purchase a cheap knock-off. Once they’ve seen the differences, they can’t “un-see” them. Finally, encourage your professional associations to make these issues lobbying priorities. Our nation is always negotiating trade agreements. Pressure our politicians to tighten intellectual property rights as they lower trade...
read moreFeeling Stressed Out, Under Pressure, Stretched Too Thin? Here’s Relief
Brother recently released its annual small business survey and one of the notable results revealed was that small business owners continue to feel stressed out and stretched thin by their work: 35 percent would like to cut back on their roles and responsibilities. 26 percent want to take more time off. 20 percent feel they need to improve their work-life balance. For those owners, it must often feel like “the worst of times.” But I can assure you that with all of the tools we have today, it really is “the best of times” for small business owners who need some relief. I have some practical ideas for you, but first let me suggest an attitude adjustment: Start to see yourself as the orchestra conductor, not as the harried musician that has to run around and play all the individual instruments. As the conductor, you stand above the fray, coordinating each part to achieve perfect harmony. And to get that done, consider these strategies and resources. Just say no. Small business owners are sometimes too accommodating. They can’t say no to anything. Get your priorities straight. Decide what community events and charities you can support and draw a line. Don’t extend yourself on business projects that promise only marginal rewards. In fact, cut loose activities that aren’t contributing sufficiently to your bottom line. Take full advantage of the cloud and apps. Do you have legacy systems that you need to let go of because they take too much of your time? You may have to buy some apps or start paying for SaaS (software as a service), but the time you save by doing this may “save” you by decreasing your stress level and giving you renewed energy and time to put toward productive endeavors. Delegate. Whether you hand off assignments to current employees or bring on some virtual employees or freelancers, offload some of your work. Start with your weakest tasks, the things your struggle with. They deliver the greatest payoff and are holding you back the most. It is difficult for small business owners to let go of various aspects of their business. However, without letting go, there can be no growth. It takes wisdom to be open to evolution within your business, and this kind of wisdom is its own reward. Your business will move forward, you will be more personally satisfied and you’ll be poised to recognize and develop new opportunities. Unplug. All too often when small business owners get home at night they either collapse or continue dealing with business. See your time at home as a time to recharge your batteries; you can’t recharge them if they continue to be drained by work related worries. Set aside time every day to not answer emails, not answer your cellphone and not futz with the business social media. Pick up a book and treat your mind to some simple pleasures. I started this by citing some statistics. Let’s make a commitment to be part of the 65 percent that doesn’t feel the need to cutback on work and take a chunk out of next year’s survey...
read moreNew Google Program May Be Just What Your Small Business Needs
The descriptive phrase “user friendly” was invented because so many processes associated with computers are a pain. Frankly, getting a small business firmly and properly established in Google search results and maps, has been difficult for many owners. A friend of mine does online editorial work with several small businesses and one day about six weeks ago he got a frantic call from one of his clients. She runs a yoga studio in California and discovered that her business wasn’t showing up on Google maps. Although it wasn’t the kind of thing my writer friend usually does, he wanted to help out, plus he had written about the process many times, so he had the general idea about what it required and he certainly knew where to start. It didn’t take him long to get her listing established, but there were a number of not-so-intuitive twists and turns along the way that he needed to navigate to make sure that the information he entered was properly categorized, the right photo would be the main one featured, and several other important details would appear correctly. Check your local listings Does that sound familiar at all? Have you tried to get a detailed business listing on Google and abandoned the process? Many small business owners have. I think Google must have felt your pain – or decided it wanted 100 percent compliance in establishing Google+ business pages – and has launched an effort to guide small business owners through the process more efficiently: the Get Your Business Online Program. Soo Young Kim, who heads up the program, says, “Big businesses and big retailers are centrally managing listings to make sure they’re appearing on Google. Small businesses need to be there – right next to them – when a consumer is searching.” When you head over to the website linked above, you’ll start out by searching for your business. Google’s goal is to create 30,000 city websites where users can search for city-specific information. The search engine giant is also working with local groups, like chambers of commerce, SCORE chapters and business development centers to hold workshops and get small business owners up to speed on ways to leverage online information and search results. Additional program features Along with doing the important work of getting basic business information established in Google’s database, small business owners can: Enhance their listing with photos, Get a diagnostic tool to find ways to improve online visibility, and Get a one-year free domain name and website via StartLogic. Eric Groves, co-founder of Alignable – the premiere social network for small business owners – welcomes Google’s new program. “Small businesses succeed based on their unique personalities, and they need all the help they can get surfacing these up. Unfortunately, many haven’t had the time or resources to develope a great web presence – and Google’s efforts should help in this regard,” he explains. He notes, however, that the relationship between the huge web properties and small business has been rocky at times. “SMBs might be rightfully leery of Google’s efforts to ‘help’ in light of how Facebook first encouraged them to build their presence on Facebook, and is now using those pages solely to generate revenue for Facebook. If Google is aware of this challenge to establishing trust with...
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