Marketing with Linked In

Have you noticed the changes to LinkedIn recently?
Although changes to LinkedIn are less frequent than on Facebook, they can have significant marketing implications.
Read further to find out how the recent changes to LinkedIn impact your social media marketing.

What’s New With LinkedIn?

Recently the LinkedIn Homepage had a significant makeover. It’s now more sleek and modern. It also feels faster with an almost instantly updated user interface.

Read on...

Your Short and Sweet Marketing Plan Strategy

Your Short and Sweet Marketing Plan Strategy

• 
• 

Created on Wednesday, 01 August 2012 18:28

Written by Patty Cisco - MBA, President and "Creative Catalyst"

I can't tell you how many times I ask to see a client's marketing plan, and they don't have one.  Typical responses are, "It takes too much time," "We don't follow it anyway, so why bother,"  "No one looks at it other than me, so what's the point."  Sound familiar?  Unfortunately, these comments carry a great deal of validity to them.  Maybe in planning your strategies for 2013, it's time for a different approach to a marketing strategy - one you will actually use and others will value.
First realize it's difficult to measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategies without a plan.  Rather than create a one-year marketing plan, consider a 90-day plan.  Using a short-term approach you can easily:

• Monitor progress
• Analyze data to create a baseline for tracking and comparing results
• Quickly make changes
• Eliminate spontaneous decision-making and force proactive planning

To help you get started creating your 90-day plan, evaluate and answer the following questions:

Read on...

9 Tips for Running Successful Facebook Contests

Have you considered using a Facebook contest?
These days, it seems like just about everyone is giving away something on Facebook.
iPad or $100 gift certificate, anyone?
Keep reading to learn nine tips for making Facebook contests more successful.

Do Contests Really Work?

Some business owners recognize that contests can increase the number of people who Like their business, and even more importantly, they realize that contests can provide valuable customer information. Then there are the business owners who complain that Facebook contests “just don’t work.”
So do contests work or not?
They do—but only if you do them the right way, with a reason for your fans to want to interact, a good prize and a clean design like Pocono Mountains features in their latest contest.

Read on...

Grand Spirit of the Entrepreneur

“I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon – if I can.
I seek opportunity – not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, - humbled
and dulled by having the State look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk, to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for the dole:

I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment
to the stale calm of Utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my
dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any
threat.

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid, to think and act for myself,
to enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say:

This, with God’s help, I have done.

All this is what I means to be an Entrepeneur.”

Richard Branson's Tips for Growing Your Small Business

Over the years we’ve started many Virgin businesses out of frustration at the way things were done in established sectors. Whether it was airlines, mobile telephones or financial services, we’ve stood out by focusing on ways to improve people’s lives through better service, innovation and value.

Sometimes a small detail, such as more transparent pricing or a friendlier staff, gave us our edge. Our humor and tone also helped attract and keep customers. I try to keep bureaucracy to a minimum and remind my teams that business, as well as life, should be fun.

When you’re starting out with a small business and an enthusiastic team, it’s relatively easy to keep the focus on details and high-quality service, with a light touch. But how can you retain the passion and attention to detail after your business becomes established, successful and larger?
In past columns, I’ve mentioned how we grew our music businesses by splitting them, creating smaller units so we could maintain that vibe and hunger. By the time we sold to EMI, Virgin Records was made up of several small independent labels, which fostered healthy competition among them for new bands.

Read on...

Awesome Image by Virtual Business Coach- lead on...

Aug 20

Entrepreneur Value Chain™: Turning Activities Into a Competitive Advantage for Entrepreneurs

Every morning I arrive at work I have the pleasure of walking into a room full of aspiring entrepreneurs.  The possibility in the room is palpable.  The energy in the room is intense.  Some strive to develop their entrepreneurial skill set.  Some focus on conquering their next venture milestone.  Most are struggling to turn a profit for the first time in their life.  Entrepreneurs are an interesting bunch; they are refreshing to be around because they’re doers - my kind of people. 

When I tell people I teach entrepreneurship, the majority respond with some variation of “how do you do that?”  While I am still not convinced that entrepreneurship can be taught, I do know that success in an entrepreneurial endeavor requires interconnectedness between two critical forces.  In entrepreneurship, it is the entrepreneur and the venture.  These are not opposing forces, but complementary opposites, working together to create value.  How do they do this? What does it take?

Most of my students drink the Michael Porter juice and get value chains.  I like value chains too – really I like anything that uses visual representation to simplify something complex.  So when the 1VBC team set out to create entrepreneur superstars – I naturally suggested a visual representation of what it takes to be a superstar.  What it takes is the Entrepreneur Value Chain. 

Becoming a superstar entrepreneur is a process with multiple moving parts that often occur in unison, so it lends itself perfectly to a value chain.  Starting at the bottom, the primary activities are segmented into two main cycles: the Entrepreneur Cycle and the Venture Cycle.  Working our way up the diagram, each cycle is sustained by a core group of characteristics.  Then, the entire process is supported by critical activities.  Taken together, the Entrepreneur Value Chain is the visual representation of the activities and characteristics that create a competitive advantage for entrepreneurial superstars.

Read on...

What you need to Know to Prevent Embezzlement

by Suzanne Kearns on August 20, 2012

If you’ve ever talked to business owners who’ve dealt with embezzlement, you likely detected their astonishment that the perpetrator was someone they trusted. That’s what makes the crime so heinous. Yet it’s a real threat that few entrepreneurs know much about — until it happens to them.
What do you need to know about this crime?
First: Embezzlement is on the rise. In a report by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, “Occupational Fraud: A Study of the Impact of an Economic Recession” (PDF), 54 percent of the certified fraud examiners surveyed said that fraud has increased in the past year (and about half of this group believe it’s due to increased financial pressure). Some 48 percent of survey participants said that embezzlement in particular was on the rise. Ninety percent expect that fraud, especially embezzlement, will continue to increase.
Embezzlement doesn’t just happen at large corporations. A separate report conducted by the ACFE, “2012 Report to the Nations,” states that smaller organizations suffered the largest median losses between 2010 and 2012, mainly because they had fewer anti-fraud controls in place. The report concluded that occupational fraud is a “significant threat to small businesses.”

Read more: http://blog.intuit.com/money/what-you-need-to-know-and-do-about-embezzlement/#ixzz24bOzZ02z