Get the New Year Started on the Right Foot.

How to leverage social media to the best advantage, what are the hottest apps coming out and how can they help a small business grow and more are just some of the results from Mashable’s Year End Roundup. While time is tight for any businessperson there are some new ways to get the most out of marketing that may surprise the reader.

Skype is in the running for getting more done in less time with less money and right from the business owner’s computer.

Groupon coupons may be a way to gain customers, re-engage existing and inactive customers and naturally to help with the branding.

Networking with other small businessmen and entrepreneurs is an essential and can generate new ideas and enthusiasm on both sides.

Google accounts can generate business for the small business on a budget, it is all in the know-how. Location based Google ads can help the brick and mortar store or even better the chain store seeking to serve a customer better, knowing a customer’s history can help the store overcome complaints and provide even better service.

Seo Friendly blog posts are a necessity for promoting a site, not only must the blog have useful content, but making it attractive to the search engines is essential.

How to hire a designer or developer is a burning question since all too many new businesses fall prey to being burned or choosing the wrong designer. Along with that essential information the business owner may find they need to think out how they communicate their expectations to their designers.

Branded Mobile applications are the rage right now and some get the idea, and others just don’t “get it”. Be one of those who gets the idea without annoying the consumer.

Recruiting using the iPhone and apps can be a time saver for recruiter and even better it is portable.

One of the newest tech rages is that of accepting credit card payments on mobile devices. This can be ideal for the business that goes to the customer and where space is an issue.

This has been a year of change with many new products coming out and a lot of focus on what marketers do and how they do it. Taking a lesson from large companies that did it right, and those who failed can save the small business a lot of time and money.

Business evolves at such speed these days that we sometimes forget the power of common courtesies. Who has time for quaint little customs?

Who has time for niceties when our competitors are rushing forward?

I found this brilliant article at Microsoft.com about using “thank yous” as a way to actually gain an edge in the marketplace!

Author Joanna L. Krotz writes:

Today, extending old-time courtesies helps you stand out. Yes, boys and girls, saying “thank you” has become a competitive advantage. So few people express appreciation — a Lenox etiquette poll found that nearly five out of every 10 people don’t always say thanks — that remembering to do so is a sales point of difference. It also goes a long way toward forging the relationships that can turn into opportunities.

Then she outlines (in good detail) the following 11 tactics that you can sart using right NOW! Remember: Don’t underestimate the power of saying “thank you”.

1. Throw a bash that boosts their business.
2. Be warm and personal.
3. But know that timing counts.
4. Pass along compliments.
5. Send value-added appreciation.
6. Consider when to send for maximum impact.
7. Be quirky.
8. Appreciate employees.
9. Thank your complaining customers.
10. Don’t go over the top.
11. Feel the power.

Read the rest of the article.

I preach about blogging (using WordPress) for small business – until I’m blue in the face, really. But there is good reason. Let me explain:

Blogging might  very well be the single most important thing you do for your small business online. It’s not the only thing – but it sets the foundation for everything else you do online. What ever you are doing anywhere else online, your blog is what will ultimately capture your visitors’ interest and as long as you are consistently adding new, engaging content, keep them coming back for more.

Consider your blog as your “Relationship Maker” , “Branding Agent” and your “Expert Creation Assistant”. A well written, informative blog will help you accomplish all three of these  things.

Relationship Maker

Certainly you can begin “relationships” on social networks like Twitter and Facebook, but your business mission on these sites is to create enough interest so that your social media “friends” will go visit your website. This is why it is not only important to have a nicely designed site but a well integrated WordPress blog to keep their interest. If your visitors like what they are reading – it is extremely important to give them value – not only will they continue to come back and possibly buy your products, and services or even walk into your store, they will also become advocates for you and your business to their networks!

Branding Agent

Once you get people to your site, your blog can help mold people’s perceptions of you and your business. Branding as a concept means much more than your logo and colors… What you say on your blog will shape your visitors opinions about you in ways far greater than any logo of service mark. This is why it is important to use your blog consistently, relevantly and on message. And above all else: Give your visitors HUGE VALUE.

Expert Creation Assistant

The more valuable and insightful your blog is the more you leverage yourself as an expert – Period.

One of the major reasons to use your blog to establish yourself as the expert in your field is because your competition probably isn’t… Yet.

All that being said, here are 10 things to do to get your blog started:

1. Install and set-up your self hosted WordPress blog (Or hire someone else to do it. Your blog should be fully and neatly integrated into your site and not hosted somewhere else like blogger or WordPress.com
2. Write a list of 30 topics you can write about – just headlines
3. Set up news alerts from http://www.google.com/alerts. Once Google Alert is set up, you can receive daily digests of articles and blog posts on virtually any topic. This is a great way to discover new topics to write about.
4. Write 1-3 Blog posts per week.
5. Always stay Ahead! Write five to 10 posts and save them as drafts in your blog. Do not publish them yet.
6. Send an email to your friends, family and colleagues and invite them to read you blog and ask them to leave comments.
7. Invite people in your online networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) to read your blog.
8. Find 10 blogs that target similar markets (not competitors) – read them, add comments and make friends with those bloggers. The blogging community always seems ready to help other bloggers spread the word.
9. Make friends with 10-20 people who already have strong social networks and ask them to help you spread the word.
10. Stay consistent with your blog posts – write 1-3 blog posts per week.

Good luck and happy blogging. Above all else… Have fun!

Let’s take a look shall we and see how we can apply this to your business. Inc Magazine offers 5 quotes from Aaron. I’ll dig a little deeper into what he said and give you a few ideas of exactly how these concepts can  apply to you and your business.

Create a product that makes the difficult & boring easy & fun

“What set us apart from 95 percent of other start-ups is that we served a real need,” Patzer says. “Personal finance is so complex and too difficult for most people. I was frustrated with the existing tools and found out that others were frustrated as well.”

Volkswagen is using this idea in an ad campaign to help our environment: http://www.thefuntheory.com

How can you attract new customers/clients by making something fun. Adding a coupon to your website or maybe a game or puzzle to solve for a prize discount. Think about this one and get your creative juices flowing!

Choose a market that’s really, really big. What’s the word? (BIG)

“There are 250 million people worldwide who already use online banking,” Patzer says. “With our 1.5 million users, we’ve barely scratched the surface. Intuit made a billion dollars on its tax business alone and that’s a once-a-year thing. People do online banking every day.”

Or target a niche market the is BIG enough. Of course it would be great to score that $170 million home run – that’s why we think big. But if you target your niche thoughtfully – always delivering your value to the marketplace, you can always target a bigger, wider market at any time!

Develop a business model that actually makes you money.

“Our product is free, but we make our money by helping people save money,” Patzer says. “We understand where people spend their money so we can say, ‘You should refinance’ or ‘You should change your auto insurance.’ The only ads people see on Mint.com are ones that will save them at least $50. Financial institutions then pay us for new customers.”

On the surface, this one seems like a no brainer. That is why we are in business – to make money. But if you are spinning your entrepreneurial wheels, not making money, it’s time to get a better model.

How can you improve your model so that it delivers maximum value to your customers and maximum dollars to you?

Don’t pay for new customers/clients. Ever.

“All of our customer acquisition has been free — through social media, blogs, and the press,” Patzer says. “We don’t pay a dime for advertising. We also use business partnerships with Motley Fool and the credit-report companies. And Apple has given us a lot of free advertising as a featured application.”

This is my favorite! I love FREE stuff! That’s why I am active on the social networks and my blogs giving value away. I follow the Universal Law of Reciprocity. In your life how many times has someone given you a gift that you were anxious to repay? My guess – almost every time you receive a gift. We want to give back, return the favor. It is built in us naturally.

“One of the most potent of the weapons of influence around us is the rule for reciprocation. The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.” ~ Robert B. Cialdini, author of The Psychology of Persuasion

Be a extremely careful about who you hire.

“In the last start-up I worked for, hiring was done haphazardly,” Patzer says. “We have a very rigorous hiring process. For tech people, we might screen 50 people and hire one. For all managers, we use a technique called top grading which reveals patterns in behavior. In the history of Mint, I’ve only fired two people and only one has left voluntarily.”

Bringing people onto your team is a big deal and should be treated such. Don’t hire someone just because they are cheap. This is not a good policy. People who believe in your mission will go the extra mile for you – be on the lookout for those people.

If you found this post helpful, please leave a comment or use the “Tweetmeme” button above to tweet it.

Thanks

Check out the advantages for you and your business:

1. They are interactive: Blogs allow for other people to freely comment on your posts, ask a question, or even contribute a different point of view other than the one that you have shared. And don’t fear the seemingly “negative” comments or someone disagreeing with you. That’s great! You’ve got them talking and noticing YOU and your business! It is also a great way to keep tabs on your target market.
2. Super easy to  manage: Need to make a change? Not so hip with HTML code? Not to worry! You don’t need to open up an HTML editor or even understand what that is! Everything is done from a central control panel. All you need is an Internet connection to get onto the blog and update the page. It is really great if you are new to the website world, but even experienced webmasters appreciate its ease and simplicity.
3. User-Friendly Organization:  With the use of categories, pages, and tags,  it is quite simple to put together your blog into a user-friendly website.
4. Plug-ins: What are plug-ins? They are  “little programs that are designed to enhance the functionality of your blog” (well-put by author Gary Ruplinger). An example of a plug-in function is making it easy for readers to “tweet” or “digg” your most recent post. Another acts as an indispensable bookmarking tool. You name it and you can probably find a plug-in for it! And with just a click you can add it!

So there are the basics of why a blog and blogsites are so great. And as many of you know, WordPress is the creator of hundreds of great blogsite designs and makes creating an on-line presence almost a snap. But if you’re feeling as if you need a bit more instruction click HERE and  take a look at this awesome opportunity!

So it is on that note that I would like to share with you this great article form Small business Labs called: 2009 Top 10 Small Business Trends. The article is very timely considering that some economists estimate that as much as 95% of our economy is driven by small businesses.

However, it is number 10 on the 2009 small business trends list that caught my attention:

10. Small Businesses Will Expand Their Use of Online Marketing Tools: Despite the economic downturn, we expect the small business sector to increase its use of online marketing tools and methods in 2009. Online marketing is cheaper and often more effective than traditional approaches. And although online marketing can be complex, many tools and methods are accessible to DIY small business marketers. With small businesses focused on customer acquisition and re-defining their business methods, we expect their use of online marketing to grow in 2009.

Since those in the know realize that online marketing can be far less costly than traditional forms of marketing. Do newspaper ads really get people into your store? The answer: Yes, but… Of course offline marketing works – but even in a small market a newspaper ad might cost several hundred dollars.

If you take into account that a full 50% of your potential customers are looking for your small business online – What if you could be the first option they see when they are looking for your type of product or service online? Well, you probably can!

Utilizing the vast resources of the internet as well as variations of what savvy Internet Marketers use – yes indeed you can. Internet Marketing is a business and chances are you’re not in the internet marketing business. So, would it make sense for you to become a full time internet marketer? NO! You need time to run, maintain and grow your small business.

That being said, there is a lot you can do to market your small business online and chances are that your competition is not.

By blogging, social networking, social bookmarking, even strategically placed video, you can increase your presence on Google and on the web in general.

Hone your message, create multiple gateways to your web presence online, perform great customer service, and watch your small business grow.

John McCrea: There are a few phases to social networking. The first phase was Friendster, MySpace and clones and it was pretty frivolous. Everyone connected as a friend. Strangers came together online. The second phase was about who you knew, maintaining and enriching your relationships. It was a way not to lose touch with people as you changed jobs or moved. The latest phase is an online representation of real world activity. Small and midsize businesses were always people who spent money on their Rolodexes and then on database software. They survive and thrive based on the power of personal networks.

I’ll point to Plaxo as a network address book and “Pulse” as an online service as examples. Plaxo was a precursor to an Internet-based service and it’s composed of members keeping up their contact information on their “implied profile page.” Even then, many users would share birthdates and would get e-mails about who changed jobs, whose birthday it is, etc. It allowed people to connect and send flowers on a birthday or congratulate someone on a new job. It made networking stuff easier to do and made a smaller businessperson appear well organized and thoughtful. Pulse brings the address book to life. Users can connect up with different services on the Web. They can share postings on Flickr or a blog, where getting an audience can be hard.

Truly it is about starting a relationship first. Nothing is more annoying than the guy (or gal) who upon the first meeting immediately bombards you info about the latest and greatest network marking company etc… Get to know me first is my policy.

Getting to know your customers and/or potential customers is the fiirst step in discovering their needs and how you can best assist them, solve their problem or ease their pain.

The Business Value Of Social Networking – Forbes.com.