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Tag: 2011

  • Best Black Friday Chaos Videos 2011, There Will Be Towels and Blood

    To successfully attend a Black Friday sales sweepstake, a person must develop a certain set of skills. First is learning how to box out and use elbows to keep away all the competition going after that Twilight blu-ray on sale for $4 (not an actual sale). One new tactic which might be useful going into next year is building up an immunity to pepper spray. Oh, and don’t go after the towels on sale unless you’re built like a linebacker.

    Enjoy all the chaos recorded during Black Friday 2011, where the joy of the beginning of the Christmas season was uploaded for all of us to see on YouTube.

    The first set of videos shows that it’s not just the big ticket items people were going crazy over. Towels for $1.28!!!

    Along with the random bouts of chaos, there was some extreme physical consequences. Not just for people, but all the Wal-Mart displays as well.

    This one actually has some character, and plot development as well…

    One of the new trends during the Black Friday 2011 season was the use of police force and pepper spray. No, this isn’t related to the meme.

    (Warning: this one is bloody, and a step above the others on the disturbing ladder)

    Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, and enjoyed some great Black Friday sales. Time to start training for next year.

  • Four Simple Steps For Better Online Marketing

    Four Simple Steps For Better Online Marketing

    2011 is being touted as the year of the website, so the start of the New Year is the time to get your online marketing campaign started.

    The key is to plan your strategy so you don’t become overwhelmed or fork out too much money.

    I have outlined below some areas to consider when creating your plan:

    1. Know Your Customer

    Its no use starting an online marketing campaign without knowing who your ultimate customers is. They are the ones you want to target your advertising at, after all. Some questions to ask yourself in order to define your ultimate customer are:

    • What is the net household income of my customer? Can they afford my products/services?
    • Where does my customer look for my product/service? Both online and in physical locations?
    • Does my customer work out of the home or in the home?
    • What is the job profile of my customer – an executive, manager, worker, entrepreneur, stay-at-home parent, etc.

    Defining your ultimate customer will give you a good idea on where to advertise/market your business and how to write and what to include in your message copy.

    2. Know Your Marketing Options

    Step 1 will have given you an idea on which areas to target your marketing. A coordinated effort across several sites and avenues used by your customers will be the most effective. Don’t underestimate the value of repetition – If your business is seen across sites numerous times, your message will be remembered by the site visitors (your potential customers).

    When considering how to market your business there are a number of options – PPC advertising, Local business listing in websites and directories, newsletter advertising, display advertising on other website or social media – the possibilities are endless.

    3. Budget

    Set a budget level that you are not willing to exceed. By doing so, you will limit the areas that you can concentrate your marketing efforts on. For example, PPC advertising can be expensive if you are targeting a popular keyword, whereas a local business listing can be very cheap or cost nothing at all (expect for your time).

    Another consideration when setting your budget is whether you are going to outsource your marketing efforts to an expert or do-it-yourself. There are pro’s and con’s to each. Obviously by outsourcing you will pay more than doing the work yourself. However the time it takes y

    ou to setup a PPC campaign (for example), write ad copy and maintain the campaign could be better spent concentrating on other aspects of your business, so the cost to let someone else take care of all that could actually save you. Also, by leaving the work to experts you have the peace of mind that your campaign is in safe hands.

    4. Measure what matters

    Develop key metrics for the marketing plan – gross sales revenue, (marketing) cost per sale, and ROI by each marketing campaign. Also, don’t under estimate the value of customer feedback, even if it’s informally via forums or blogs.

    Online marketing campaigns are within the reach of any business, no matter what your budget. The key is to commit to a marketing plan and see it through to the end. Good luck!

    Originally published on ineedhits.com

  • Watch: New Year’s Celebration from Times Square Online

    If you want to watch tonight’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square live online, you’re in luck, because The Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment have partnered with Livestream to stream the event. 

    The stream is scheduled to start at 5:50pm Eastern and run until 12:20. It will feature three co-hosts, hourly countdowns, a ball raising ceremony, and stage performances/special guests like aio Cruz’s live rendition of John Lennon’s "Imagine," and a performance by Grammy award winning Elvis Crespo.

    You can check it out at TimesSquareNYC.org or Livestream.com/2011. Or, you can just watch this page, courtesy of a widget being provided (just keep this window or browser tab open):

    If you want to embed the event on your own site or blog, you can find widgets of varying sizes here. 

    Happy New Year!

  • Make Your Company’s Site a Social Hub in 2011

    EyeforTravel published their 2011 Trends and their number one pick is the increasing need to integrate social content and activity on your corporate website.

    As budget freezes start to thaw, it’s time for them (companies) to consider how to integrate social media functionality, for example, incorporating the power of Facebook comment boxes on site to provide a feedback loop for consumers onto their main site. Sites will become a hub to aggregate and explain activity on social networks, and add long-form value.

    I totally agree that this is an important trend for 2011 and here’s why:

    • 93 percent of people active in social media say they expect companies to have a presence in social media and networking sites and 85 percent of them want the companies to communicate and interact with them on those sites.
    • The rate of content sharing on Facebook has increased 500 percent in the last six months.  the average Facebook users now shares 12 pieces of content a week.
    • Shared news content links  in Facebook send three times more traffic to news websites than Google News does.
    • The UMass Social Media adoption surveys presented at the SNCR Symposium at Stanford University in November showed that while the adoption of social media by companies and organizations in many sectors is rising fast, there is still a large disparity between those active in social media (60% of the Fortune 500, 75% of Inc 500) and the number that connect that content and activity to their corporate websites (less than 30%).
    • In June 2010 the Washington Post interviewed thought leaders in the social media and marketing space and asked for the 10 mistakes companies make in social media.  Debbie Weil, author of the Corporate Blogging Book warned that companies that rely solely on external networks relinquish a certain degree of autonomy. She recommends that organizations and companies using social media have a hub on their primary Web site where users can find links or feeds to blogs, Flickr photo galleries and other third-party Web sites. This also gives customers or constituents a single go-to URL. (There is that word hub again.)

    How do you integrate social content and activity on your site?  Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group published this roadmap that lays out the steps you need to follow

    Social Corporate Website Framework

    By my own observation of the corporate websites of the Fortune 100, top 100 hotels, Inc 500 and Entrepreneur 100, of the 70-odd percent that have not yet integrated their social content and activity most are still at step one, or at best, step two.

    The PR version of this dilemma is the corporate newsroom.  Most companies now have one, but they are definitely at the bottom of this ladder.  And there really is no need to languish down there –  social media news hub services like PRESSfeed can catapult your site to number five on this ladder in a few weeks.  (Disclosure: I am a partner and helped to develop this social news hub)

    DoubleTree Destination

    DoubletreeDestinations.com

    You can of course work with your IT department to develop a social news hub, like Intel did. It’s likely to take a lot longer than a few weeks, but the tools are readily available.

    Step 6 and 7 on this ladder are where this trend is heading:  Users stay on your site using a social log-in like Facebook Connect and that log-in triggers sharing of the content onyour site.  Content shared in this manner ends up in their social news stream, is seen by others and usually gets shared again by 5 of their friends or followers. According to Facebook’s Developer Network Director, Ethan Beard, more than 100 million users started logging into Facebook Connect on third-party sites in the last 12 months.   And it is spreading – it’s already been integrated with YouTube.

    A social registration and log-in helps your visitors – they save time and keeps them connected to their friends.

    It helps you because you become part of the their social graph.

    Which step are you on now? Do you have plans to upgrade to a social hub in 2011?

    Originally published at ProactiveReport

  • 7 Tips For Improving Your Business in 2011

    Holy cow! 2011 is right around the corner. This is the time when entrepreneur’s thoughts (aside from those focused on preparing for the holidays, of course) turn towards growing or changing their businesses in the New Year.

    Smart. Because unless you want to be exactly where you are now, doing exactly what you’re doing today, you need to do something different. Otherwise, you’re guilty of insanity. And, to paraphrase the great ski film maker, Warren Miller, “…you’ll be one year older when you do.”

    So today I thought I’d share a few powerful thoughts, ideas and resources to get your planning on the right track…

    1) Set a few, specific goals.

    Once you know where you want to be, reverse engineer a plan to get there. For example: decide you want to earn $x per month by a certain date. Then figure out how many clients or sales you need per week or per month to reach that goal.

    2) Make a plan of action for achieving those goals.

    To go back to my previous example, knowing how many sales you need to reach your goal is just the first step. You still have to make it happen. So next figure out what steps you need to take to get a client or make a sale. Then get to work.

    3) Go big or go home.

    While taking any action is good, if you really want things to start hopping in your business you need to take massive action. So this year make a New Years Resolution to dive in with both feet and get cracking.

    This year I attended five conferences! And I was a sponsor at two!! My visibility has gone way up. And it’s amazing to see the opportunities that have come my way as a result. Especially compared to what would have happened if I’d just gone to one or two like usual.

    4) Schedule time to work ON your business.

    Treat your own business like it’s your best client and give it the time and attention it deserves. If you don’t do, you’ll always be too busy working IN it putting out fires and taking care of clients. And you’ll always be chained to it.

    Every Monday and Friday time is blocked out on my schedule for focusing on my business. I write marketing copy, handle project management, do planning, and more.

    5) Do one thing a day to market your business.

    Call past clients, respond to posts on online forums, comment on blogs, write a blog post, submit articles online, do email follow ups, create an ad…Whatever. Just do it every day—ideally first thing in the morning so you don’t put it off.

    I first heard this tip from Dan Kennedy years ago, and it does wonders for growing your business. Because most entrepreneurs don’t even do one marketing task a week. So if you do something daily you’ll be way ahead of your competition.

    6) Put new information in to get fresh ideas out.

    It’s hard to come up with fresh ideas and solutions to problems if you’re always sitting alone in your home office working. Instead commit to getting out, and getting a new perspective.

    How? Commit to reading at least 4 new business books next year…Subscribe to a new magazine even if it’s not related to your business…Take a workshop or two locally…Read other successful entrepreneur’s ezines and blogs…And go to at least one big seminar or conference on business-building, marketing or Internet Marketing.

    7) Admit that you aren’t superhuman—and be okay with it.

    The way business and marketing have gone, you simply can’t do it all yourself. And you shouldn’t try. You’re only going to end up exhausted, overworked and frustrated.

    Most people who are able to get tons done aren’t doing it alone (myself included). They have coaches, mentors, Mastermind groups or partners to help them problem solve and launch new ideas.

    More importantly, they outsource to experts and teams of Virtual Assistants to get everything done—especially their online marketing. It’s the only way to go. (learn more about finding, hiring and working with Virtual Assistants at http://www.getstartedoutsourcing.com )

    Follow these seven tips to make 2011 your best, happiest and most profitable year yet!

    What are you doing differently this coming year? Got any thoughts on these suggestions? Please do share by leaving a comment below…

    Originally published on TheUnchainedEntrepreneur.com