Great Company Culture Essential to Small Business Success
This post brought to you by MetLife Small Business. The content and opinions expressed below are that of Susan Solovic. The Internet has had two very interesting, and important, impacts on small businesses. First, it has lowered the barrier to entry for entrepreneurs and second it has raised the bar for customer service. If you aren’t among the businesses offering the top customer experience today, your bottom line suffers and your long-term viability is doubtful. And while this may seem counterintuitive at first, the single greatest strategy for creating happy customers is to create happy employees – and that starts with the culture you create in your small business. In a moment, I’m going to pull a snippet from a white paper MetLife has written on this topic and when I originally read through the white paper, one example they use jumped out at me, and I think it illustrates this point very well. The MetLife folks “name names” and one of the companies they mention is Southwest Airlines; it’s well known as one of the top places to work. But this great work environment didn’t happen by accident at Southwest. Its employee-centered culture stretches back to company founder Herb Kelleher. Here’s how Kelleher explained it in an article he wrote back in 1998 for the Journal of Leadership Studies: “Years ago, business gurus used to apply the business school conundrum to me: ‘Who comes first? Your shareholders, your employees, or your customers?’ I said, ‘Well, that’s easy,’ but my response was heresy at that time. I said employees come first and if employees are treated right, they treat the outside world right, the outside world uses the company’s product again, and that makes the shareholders happy. That really is the way that it works, and it’s not a conundrum at all.” So then the question becomes, how do you “treat employees right”? There are a number of dimensions to be considered when answering this question, all of which deserve a lot of space. However, for now let’s touch on some general principles. Hire right. Honestly, not every individual is suited to work in every position in every business. Recruiting the right people for your team is the critical first step. If they don’t align to your mission and management style, making them happy will be a supremely difficult hurdle to overcome. You need to look beyond the resume and discover the environments in which prospective employees are happiest and most productive. If your style is to give employees a lot of freedom, don’t bring someone on board who needs more structure to flourish. Take responsibility. Your small business culture starts at the top. For better or worse, your organization will reflect your approach to business and your personality. The only way to avoid this is to be a “hands-off” absentee owner and if you do that, you’re gambling with your company culture and its future. This means you have to be conscious of how you treat people and the approach you take to projects and problem solving. They say that “more is caught than taught.” You can’t tell people to be kind and courteous and expect them to fall in line if you aren’t modeling those qualities yourself. Communication. The need to be heard and understood is in...
read moreWill Snapchat’s Three V’s Spell Marketing Victory for your Small Business?
They won’t give you the shirt off their backs, but they’ll sell it to you! That seems to be part of the philosophy behind some of the first forays into selling via Snapchat. While Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram are putting “click to buy” buttons on social media posts, the road between posting a post and posting a sale is less direct on Snapchat. Usually it’s trendy art films that make their debuts at Cannes, but this year Snapchat rolled into town and introduced its 3V advertising strategy…product…concept – I don’t know exactly how to label it. The three V’s stand for “vertical video views.” This is in contrast to the horizontal video view you enjoy on your television. An early advertiser to try this out is ShopStyle. They are getting popular fashionistas to wear apparel they are featuring in a Snapchat video. Next, fans, as they view the video, are supposed to click on a link that takes them to a “Shop Snapchat” store at ShopStyle. Obviously, there are a few hoops to jump through before it’s possible to make a sale. This runs counter to conventional ecommerce wisdom that puts a premium on eliminating actions and streamlining the sales process. No Goof Off needed The company is also rolling out “geofilters” to advertisers. These are digital “stickers” you can slap on your Snapchat photo as a way of identifying where you are. In the old days, people would put a “Grand Canyon” bumper sticker on their Buicks. Today, people can put a “Disneyland” – or now “McDonalds” – emblem on their Snapchat digital social social media posts. (Hey, at least they don’t leave behind any adhesive residue!) Snapchat has some 100 million users, but what it lacks are ways to monetize what it’s doing. Its value is somewhere between $10-20 billion and that must be almost entirely based on its size and growth rate. CEO Evan Spiegel says that they are planning an IPO. This Snapchat news is interesting for two reasons. First, small business owners need to keep an eye on the social media platform and experiment with marketing strategies. Even before the new features, some businesses were finding ways to use Snapchat for branding and marketing. Will the bubble burst? If you’re an investor, Snapchat’s IPO will be interesting to watch. There seems to be a growing consensus that we’re in the middle of a tech bubble. As I’m writing this, Facebook shares are up about 30 percent so far this year and Apple has gained nearly 50 percent. A correction could knock the platform out from under Snapchat’s current estimated value. In any case, this trendy social media platform will need to face the monetization monster soon, which means there will probably be more ways for you to promote your small business there. The platform trends young. For your small business to enjoy sustained success, you need to reach this group of consumers. Ignore Snapchat at your own...
read moreBe Heard by DC: Join Our Tweet Chat Thursday
I love it when things can do double duty and that’s what I have for you today. Here’s the deal: Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, and I are doing a Twitter chat at 1 p.m. Thursday, July 9 at #smallbizhillreport and I urge you to participate for two reasons: We’ll have a member of Congress on hand so you can truly get your small business concerns heard by a lawmaker, and If you haven’t participated in a Twitter chat before, this is your chance to get accustomed to the medium and the format. Both of these points are important. The first because as small business people, we often feel like no one really hears our concerns. The second is important because Twitter and Twitter chats are a fantastic way to connect with your customers, prospects and industry authorities – and engaging each of these groups can give your marketing efforts a major boost. Master the fundamentals Let me give you another quick, two-item list. To prepare for Thursday’s Twitter chat you need to: Get your questions and comments organized into 140-character tweets, and Familiarize yourself with the best apps to use to participate in a Tweet chat. If you have a burning question you want to pose or a killer point you want to make, type it out now and count the characters. It’s terrible to have something to say and find out that it’s too long for a tweet. Then you start struggling with editing and miss part of the online conversation. Using the right software can be a big help. Check out Tweetchat.com. This online-app makes it easy to follow and participate in Twitter chats. I suppose I also need to mention that if you want to contribute to the conversation, you need to have a Twitter account. By the way, not only will participating in our Twitter chat get your name out there a bit more, participating in others will also help you build your online reputation and following. You can find lists of Twitter chats at the places listed below. They are also useful to check when you get around to scheduling your own to be sure there’s not a major conflict: Tweetreports has a twitter chat schedule (can also schedule your chat). Twubs has a list (can also schedule your chat). Calendar where you can view by topic/category. Chatsalad lists chats that are about to start or are in the near future. I look forward to seeing you online on...
read moreSmall Business Apps Set to Double; Is a DIY App in Your Future?
The Starbucks mobile app is one of the biggest success stories in the app world. It has been a huge hit with the Frappuccino® crowd because it improves the customer experience two ways: It simplifies payment, and It rewards loyal customers. Enhancing customer service is the primary reason small businesses are planning to launch their own apps, and we should be seeing a lot of this in the coming months and years. A survey taken earlier this year by the software and professional services site Clutch showed that 15 percent of small businesses already had a mobile app and another 18 percent were planning to develop one. If that holds true, the number of small business apps lurking in smartphones and tablets will more than double. On the other hand, 40 percent of the respondents said they probably wouldn’t be working on a mobile app anytime soon. Here’s is a snippet from an infographic that summarizes the survey. Click on it to see the entire infographic. DIY app development If you think an app would be a good fit for your business, you might be surprised how affordable developing one can be. Not long ago, you had to find an expensive coder to develop an app. Now there are several DIY app development services, not unlike the well known DIY web-design services, such as WIX.com and Weebly.com. These services range from free – your app will display third-party ads – to several hundred dollars a year. Typically you design an app and pay between $10 and $40 a month to keep it in circulation. If you’re all thumbs at app development, these DIY services have people on board who will do it for you, sometimes this is free, sometimes it’s an added fee. Push notices, loyalty programs, coupons, website integration, scheduling, maps, user reviews, and mobile commerce are among the common functions available for your app. I expect to see movement in this sector, but here are some of the DIY app building services available today: Appsbuilder Appsme App Factory Appery.io AppMachine Appmkr Appsbar Como BuildFire There are more, but others are targeted for enterprise users. If you browse through this group, you’ll see that several have templates for various business categories, which will help you get off to a fast start building your app. However, even drag-and-drop, template-based design services can be tricky to get just right. And if you don’t have an eye for layout, colors and the proper use of typefaces, you can easily create something closer to Frankenstein’s monster than Starbuck’s app. As I said above, some of these services have help available. You can also find freelancers who have experience in this area by posting in one of the online freelance...
read moreLearn From How the Top Brands Use Social Media
For the last eight years Tenet Partners has published its list of the “Top 100 Most Powerful Brands.” The variety of brands on this list is always remarkable and there are certainly a wide range of industries represented. For example, within the top 10 you have a soft drink maker (Coca-Cola at number one), a couple of tech firms (Apple at number five and Microsoft at number seven), a financial services company (American Express at number nine), a healthcare company (Johnson & Johnson at number six) and a motorcycle manufacturer (Harley-Davidson at number 10). While their industries are very divergent, they do share one very important attribute: They are great at building their brands. With that in mind, let’s look at some of the strategies they use in their social media marketing programs. Our sample will be somewhat selective, but let’s start with the easiest to capture: Apple Apple doesn’t really do anything on social media…and word on the street is that it seem to be working for them. Harley-Davidson The motorcycle maker is probably the biggest example of an American “social” brand. It has long depended on word-of-mouth and lifestyle marketing so it would seem a natural for social media. However, so far its efforts haven’t paid off. Its buyers are aging and it hasn’t been able to back fill with the younger generation, which should be reachable via social media. The lesson here is to not wait too long when you know full well that you need to start targeting a new market. Harley may still be in the top 10, but it won’t be in a decade from now if it can’t shift the core of its business to a new demographic. American Express The financial sector in general is very well represented in the social media and American Express is pretty much at the top. It is a master of the social media-based couponless deal according to Mashable and that’s a strategy many small businesses can adopt. Further, its OPENforum is a very useful social media property for small businesses. Coca-Cola None of these brands may go better with social media than Coca-Cola. It has used hashtags and contests to great effect and has taken one of the most important principles of social media to heart: it’s a conversation! A huge percentage of Coke’s monthly tweets are direct replies. They don’t leave their followers out there hanging. Coke has also found creative ways to bring its traditional branding together with its social media campaigns. During the 2012 Super Bowl, Coke had its famous polar bears engaging with fans via Facebook and Twitter. Don’t overlook “hybrid” campaigns. Johnson & Johnson This health care industry giant is well known for its use of videos via YouTube. The company was one of the first “Big Pharma” companies to have a channel on YouTube. Johnson & Johnson is using this channel to inform and this is a great lesson for social media. Further, the company informs by telling stories via these videos and that’s another concept we should all embrace in the social media. I also need to mention that Johnson & Johnson got a lot of great publicity out of a campaign that used social media for charity fundraising. Along with RED.org, it pledged to donate $1 to the Global Fund...
read moreThis Week in Small Business: Text and Email Marketing Showdown, Why You Need a Vacation, and more
Among this week’s curated articles, it’s great to see someone size up email and text marketing and see which one would emerge the victor in a cage fight. But maybe my favorite article of the week is the one that tells me exactly why I need to go on a vacation this summer. That’s advice I’m sure to take. You should too! Marketing and sales In this corner we have the reigning champion: Email Marketing, and in this corner we have the feisty challenger, Text Marketing! Which packs a bigger punch? The sales funnel guides customers through a journey. This article outlines ways to “disrupt” your sales funnel for better results. Whether you’re a marketing pro looking for a job or you’re looking for a marketing pro to add to your small business team, here are three skills that are required for the job today. You’ll find the latest social media marketing data from surveys, studies, and industry predictions in this article and they should help your small business decision-making process. If you think that social media is your prospecting golden ticket, you’re wrong…at least according to Mark Hunter. Can a “mom and pop” small business land a contract with a national chain like Best Buy? The answer is yes and when you read this, you’ll see that SEO was the key. Do you run a retail small business? If so, here are six strategies for marketing your business online. Videos will be 80 percent of all Internet traffic by 2018, says Cisco. But more importantly, it’s crucial for your marketing automation strategy. Leadership, management and productivity Okay, not that I need a lot of convincing, but here’s an article that tells us why we need to take a summer vacation this year! Not every business needs its own app, however a good app can offer tremendous benefits to your small business in customer service and marketing. And with today’s DIY app building sites, it is easier and less expensive than ever before. The best things in life may be free, but that doesn’t mean they won’t take time, sweat, and perseverance to acquire. For example these 10 skills that are hard to learn but pay off forever. At the heart of an amazing customer experience, is a team that is amazingly aligned with each other and your company’s goals. Shep Hyken shares two keys to keeping your organization well aligned. The secret for successful projects may be in “free range developers.” Learn how to get the most benefits from a remote workforce. You may have noticed little shiny chips on some of your customers’ credit cards. Come October, you’ll be seeing a lot more of them and you need to be ready to accept EMV payments! Here’s how to do it. Entrepreneurship, startups and innovation Vitaliy Rizhkov says that raising money from family and friends is a very bad idea and he has a personal tale to tell about it. Politics, government and the economy No matter how you align yourself politically, the news out of Washington D.C. has been interesting. Small business owners see this Supreme Court ruling on the EPA as a win. Image: Muhammad Ali, © 2009 benyupp, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike...
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