Leadership on Speed

tech tuesday

Unbelievable!  Not more than three months ago I said to my husband...

"I wish there was an app that would allow me to print from my crackberry."

And voila! The crackberry gods have spoken.  If you ever wished you had that kind of flexibility from your phone check out this Blackberry app from Cortado that allows you to wirelessly print e-mails, appointments, contacts, tasks and memos from your phone.  No file atttachments yet, but it has to be coming.

You also get to test it out for free.  If you like it, you'll end up paying $39.95.(via BusinessHacks)

You were born to be great.

YES, you can!

the social media trap

MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo etc, etc.....

Once the exclusive haven for friends and family, social media (Social Media 2.0) is now growing as a marketing platform for businesses.  You can follow, update and tweet (i.e. microblog) your status as often are as little as you choose.  The idea is to build your tribe - a natural community of followers who are drawn to your message, service or product.  As you communicate items of interests, your tribe passes that information on to their circle of influence and some of those folks may also choose to become a part of your community.

Sounds cool, right?

After all, you post a few things a day to your social media sites and customers just show up! 

Hmmmmm.....

Maybe.

I know I'm treading out on the skinny branches here,  but don't get me wrong. What I love about social media is that I get invited into others lives in a more personal way.  I get the privilege of getting good information but I also find out who has kids, or who is into sports or other tidbits that allow me to see glimpses of the "person" and not just their work.  

The trap is that the allure of the tribal customer community can also defocus entrepreneurs from actually running their business.  I see businesses tweeting twenty, thirty, forty times per day just to "be seen" by their community.  If you're "business" is social media, that may work well.  If not, not so much.

What happens is that in an effort to be "seen", businesses sacrifice genuine and authentic information for quantity and ultimately the valued information they once provided becomes watered down and invaluable to the members.  Business owners also become so focused on growing the tribe that they forget to be human first.  Ultimately - the tribe is lost or credibility is lost.  As folks figure out more and more ways to monetize social media outlets, this phenomenon will only get worse.

If you aren't in the social media business but you are spending 2 hours or more per day posting and following, then you've most likely taken your eye off of the real ball. Don't forget that social media is  just one prong of a marketing strategy and cannot grow a young or start-up business as effectively as you can when you get out from behind the keyboard.

By the way, if you haven't jumped in the social media pool at all, I do invite you to come on in.  The water is fine - just don't visit the deep end before you're ready! 

If you're active in social media, do you find yourself getting distracted?  Is it helping to grow your business?

You were born to be great.

YES, you can!

have more fun with voicemail

 

I must admit that I'm a techno geek.  I LOVE technology and I'm especially fascinated by anything that will help me organize, manage or otherwise help me create greater efficiencies in my work day.  The amount of "stuff" out there just amazes me.

I recently came across something called YouMail.  It's a visual voicemail app (apparently similar to something available on the iPhone) that allows you to do a whole host of voice mail related fun stuff, like:

• Record different voicemail greetings for different callers.  You can have different greetings for your mom, dad, spouse, siblings, work colleagues, best friend, etc.  Theoretically, you can have a different message for every person that phones you! How cool is that?
• You can "see" voicemail on your computer!  It provides an online listing of all your calls and provides more information on those "hang-ups" that you can't get through regular voicemail.  The online feature also allows you to listen to voicemail in the order you choose.  If your boss calls and it's call number 5, you can check that call first and get back to the others when it suits your schedule.
• You can actually block and "reject" callers
• It's free and you can be up and running in less than 5 minutes

It seems to have a whole list of neat features but here's one that isn't so neat - especially if you are a Sprint user like me.  In order to use YouMail, you have to forward your calls to the YouMail system.  Since Sprint charges $0.20/minute for call-forwarding (where many companies forward for free) you'll incur extra charges on an otherwise free service. 

Otherwise, it looks pretty cool.  Click here to check it out.

If you're already using YouMail, I would love to hear your thoughts.  Do you think it's worthwhile?

You were born to be great.

YES, you can!

improve your website success - tip #4

It's time again for the weekly website tip!  This week I'm giving you one of my absolute favorite tips..

TIP#4 - HAVE RELEVANT QUOTATIONS ON YOUR WEBSITE!

I'm a great fan of quotations.  I find them inspirational and motivational and the right quote mixed in with your copy can really help connect the reader with your content.  Obviously, you don't want to overdo it and risk having more quotes than copy, but the right quote can make all the difference in the experience of your reader.

If you're looking for some online resources for quotes that I like, take a look at Quoteland.com, About.com:Quotations and QuotationsBook. I would love to get some of your favorites as well (a girl can never have too many quote resources!)

So, I leave you today with this quote from Lee J. Colan in Sticking to It:

"You don't have to be great to get started, but you do have to get started to be great." 

You were born to be great.

YES, you can!

improve your website success - tip #3

Well it's "tip time", that time of the week where I give you my latest tip for improving copy and/or content on your website.  For some of you, these will seem pretty basic but believe me when I say that I have reviewed enough websites that didn't contain some of the basics (let alone the basics plus) that I was inspired to begin these tips!  That being said....

TIP #3 - INCLUDE A PICTURE OF YOURSELF ON YOUR WEBSITE!

Now, I have had many discussions on whether or not this is a good idea (especially from those who are having conversations about their level of attractiveness).  Listen folks, the picture isn't about showing the world you are (or are not) a beauty queen/king.  The picture is so that people who visit your website have someone they can connect too. 

This is critical...especially if you are an entrepreneur or small business owner. 

As a coach, 98% of the business I conduct with individuals is via the telephone.  The one place my clients can connect to face is on my website.

The "cons" that I have heard basically boil down to one thing:

The business owner believes that they will in some way be prejudiced in putting their picture on the site.

Here's the deal: 

As human beings, our interactions with one another are all about connection.  Either we connect with folks on some level or we don't.  If someone visits your site, feels you have great content, believes that what you offer is perfect, they're ready to buy, they see your picture and decide NOT to do business with you, I have just one question for you...

Do you really want that person as a client?

If you don't already have a picture on your website - get one up there! 

You were born to be great.

YES, you can!

Improve your website success - Tip #2

Tip #2 - SPEAK TO YOUR TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC

All too often I review websites that are clearly designed for "all comers" and in so doing, speak to no one at all.  It is critical...critical....critical that you identify the market you want to speak to and design your website copy to draw and speak to that audience.

Do you know who your audience is?  Some things to consider:

Race,  age, income, disabilities, mobility (in terms of travel time to work or number of vehicles available), educational attainment, home ownership, employment status, and geography.

You were born to be great.

YES, you can!

Improve your website success - Tip #1

In working with business clients, I often get asked to review websites and give recommendations for improvements.  Because of that, I've decided to do a series of tips to help you improve your conversion rate when a potential client visits your site!

This first tip is so basic and so often missed that you'll either have an immediate ah-ha moment or you'll continue to do what you've always done (with the same results)..

With that being said...

TIP #1 - REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF OUTBOUND LINKS ON YOUR WEBSITE

Let me explain.  Often, in our quest to demonstrate our credibility, we set-up links to the professional organizations to which we belong.  The problem with this thought process is that the organization usually has a database of your colleagues that do exactly what you do! So the potential client clicks away from your site to investigate your organization and finds even greater resources of people you compete with! Now I ask you, does that make sense? 

Another tendency is for business owners to offer a resources page full of reasons for potential clients to leave your site. After all, we want to be a resource to current and potential clients, right? And of course, there's nothing wrong with that except that every resource link is another opportunity for the client to exit BEFORE they get the value of doing business with you!  Here's the exception: It's OK to keep link exchanges because that site is also sending potential customers to you. 

It's sort of like having a grocery store and when a customer shows up, you send them across the street.

The bottom-line is this:  When you review the links on your site, the idea is that every link (other than link exchanges) should lead the client down a funnel to do business with you.  If the link isn't going to result in business growth, get rid of it.

You were born to be great.

YES, you can! 

Make booking your services easier!

Pretty soon coaching clients will have the ability to book consults with me online...

Most of us have experience with on-line scheduling services especially in the lab arena, right?  You go to a website, enter some basic information and then view a calendar of available appointments.  It's a great time saving tool for both the client and the office.

Now the same type of service is available to you (and me)......affordably.

There are a couple that I recommend:

Genbook has a free service but if you want credit card capture, calendar synchronization or want to create a customer database, you'll have to pay $39.95/month.  For the extra fee, your customers can also book appointments up to a year in advance instead of the 6 weeks lead time with the free product.

The other is Appointment Plus.  There's no free product so you'll pay $39/month after a brief 15 day trial but it has some really robust features that Genbook lacks depending on what type of business you have and a pretty impressive client list.

Another nice thing about these on-line scheduling systems is that you can use them internally or externally.  Meaning that if you want to give the public the opportunity to book their own appointments, you can but if you have an assistant and need a centralized, on-line calendar, this fits the bill as well.  A potential/current client can phone your assistant, they can set-up the appointment and you can go on-line and check the calendar so you're always in sync!

As usual, I'd love to get your feedback if you give one of them a try!

You were born to be great!

YES, you can!

entrepreneur magazine's top 500 franchises

If you've always dabbled with the idea of owning a franchise, check out Entrepreneur magazines list of the current top 500 franchises!  The website allows you to not only see the rankings but view lists such as top 10 overall, fastest growing, newest etc.  Enjoy! 

Click here to be redirected to the Entrepreneur Magazine website.