Last summer Google made SMBs owners very happy by releasing a new business dashboard for sites that claimed their Google Business Listing. The addition put actionable data and stats directly into SMB owners’ hands so they could learn about the folks visiting their site and act on the information provided. Well, now it’s FourSquare’s turn to grown up. Yesterday everyone’s favorite location-based social network revealed new plans to provide SMBs owners a free dashboard and analytics tool to give them  important stats about the people who check-in and visit their establishment.  It’s FourSquare 2.0. According to the New York Times , the analytics features have been available in alpha for a small number of businesses for a week now. The selected businesses are able to see, in real time, who has checked in to their businesses (on a daily, weekly, 30/60/90-day or all-time basis), when they arrived, the male-to-female ratio, what times are most active for certain customers, and they get the ability to offer instant promotions. FourSquare will also offer a Staff page so that employees can interact directly with customers using the site.  It makes things significantly more interactive for business owners, which may increase a Twitter-esque adoption. Early shots of the dashboard look like this: And that’s just the beginning. According to FourSquare’s Tristan Walker, the social site plans to up the information they’ll be providing. Things slated to be added include correlations between check-ins and weather to help merchants offer better rainy day incentives and the ability to tie purchase information to check-ins. What FourSquare is really doing is taking everything up a notch. Over the past year, SMB owners have learned to use Twitter as a medium to reach out and connect with customers. We’ve used it to have real conversations, to find people talking about our brands and to encourage them to come visit our store or Web site. However, with the new analytics from FourSquare, we actually have an ability to track users and tie them to specific actions. It’s a much more interesting conversation when you can identify a former “regular”, and look at their behavior to see they haven’t been in the store for weeks.  Knowing this means you can use the Staff pages to then interact with that specific customer and give them an incentive to come back in.  It’s as much about retaining customers as it is attracting them with new deals. And whether you’re a FourSquare user or not, yesterday’s announcement is something you should be aware of because it signals that location wars are very much upon us. On the heels of FourSquare’s launch Twitter announced it will be turning on geolocation for tweets and Facebook will also allow users to share their location . With everyone going in the same direction, it’s probably a sign you should be paying attention. We understand social media, now what can you do to make it more locally-focused and to connect with your current customers. FourSquare is giving SMB owners a great way to look into the habits and actions of people who frequent them, and so are many of the other social networking sites. The more data you can use, the smarter decisions you can make.  Start figuring out how you can use it. From Small Business Trends FourSquare Adds Analytics, Real Business Value

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FourSquare Adds Analytics, Real Business Value

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by Venessa Miemis A few weeks ago, I entered a contest to receive a free entry to the Social Business Edge conference coming up in April in NYC, and a chance to share the idea on stage. I just found out my entry is one of four that was selected. I’m copying it here, but I’d love to build it out with you: How can the power and scope of social networks, combined with a human capital inventory, be used to facilitate shared creation and innovation? It wasn’t that long ago that society was a byproduct of an industrial era, characterized by assembly lines, processes, and efficiency. Like the machines they operated, people were not expected to think, but to conform and become a cog – a replicable, interchangeable part of a machine. The problem is, humans weren’t designed for mechanization. We were designed to create. With the rise of social tools, we’ve been publicly reclaiming ourselves – publishing blogs, joining social networks, and connecting and sharing information with each other on a global scale. As a result, a shift in values is underway, where privacy, gatekeeping, and the preference for information silos is being replaced with new expectations of publicy, openness and transparency. We’re still exploring the implications of this transition both for our personal identities and for the role of the business organization, but there’s the potential to redesign the system in a way that’s fair, participatory, and human. But how? A part of it is in understanding the composition of our social networks, and the skills, strengths, and relationships that are embedded within them. At the organizational level, knowledge is often separated by department, and at a larger scale it’s separated by the notions of producer verse consumer. These barriers no longer make sense. In order to take advantage of hidden insights and innovative ideas, there needs to be a way to understand who’s who and how to get the information flowing through the proper channels. A tool that would map the connections within a network combined with a ‘human capital’ assessment could aid in this process. By mapping the network, one would understand the relationships between individuals and groups, how knowledge flows, and spot areas where communication channels could be opened and new connections made. A human capital inventory would be like a resume, but with context. It might show an individual’s past experience and affiliations and skills, but also include things like social capital, sphere of influence, reputation, inherent strengths, and personality type. This information would give clues as to how to create dynamic teams and at what stage of a process an individual’s skills would be best applied. By creating transparency and open channels, a social learning environment is created, where managers become leaders and facilitators and everyone else becomes participants. This is opposite to being cogs in a machine – rather it encourages creativity, collaboration, and shared creation. It’s become apparent that a vast amount of knowledge exists within the structure of the network itself, and by creating the proper conditions for information to be shared and built upon, we can devise solutions that are better than zero-sum. Approaching problems with this mindset would have an amplifying effect that would scale beyond the limits of the organization. Taking the Idea Further So there’s the premise. The ideas are not new, but seem to exist currently in different places in different stages. For instance, the idea of measuring influence is currently being tested with services like Klout , and Tweetlevel . The Whuffie Bank is trying to devise a currency that’s built on reputation that could be redeemed for real and virtual products and services. And I was just alerted to a new startup, Jostle , that’s trying to help companies “harness and engage their human capital.” On the other side, you have the people who are trying to understand how knowledge flows within an organization, and how the learning process works. I’ve picked up a lot of ideas about social network analysis from Valdis Krebs , the concept of Wirearchy from Jon Husband, and ways to bridge the gap between a networked enterprise and social learning from Harold Jarche and Frederic Domon . Plus all the people doing work in Knowledge Management, ( David Gurteen and Dave Snowden come to mind), Design Thinking ( Arne van Oosterom ), Social Business Design ( David Armano , Peter Kim , Jeremiah Owyang ), and the ‘big shift’ that’s impacting business strategy and innovation ( John Hagel & John Seely Brown ). Plus all of you who make this blog worth visiting by adding your insights and comments to every post. I feel like all the pieces are out there, we just need to imagine how to bring them together. I’ve been throwing out this idea on Twitter, and getting some interesting thoughts, but 140 characters is too short, so I wanted to put it here to see where we could go with it. I’m imagining some kind of a social tagging system that would travel with you, like a “live” version of your resume – which is currently a static and vague document that lacks the rich context that tells what you’re really all about. What would this look like? Could we somehow have a ‘human capital inventory’ that would list some of those inherent strengths that we possess? Descriptive words like adaptive, flexible, catalyst, playful, critical thinker, methodical, etc. Or some way to tag the contributions we made to specific projects or initiatives at work? And then could that be combined with a visualization of our social connections, both strong and weak ties, and the value we add to those various networks? And along with that, recommendations or compliments or testimonials, or some way to have individuals give you props. How would this look? We’ve gotten so good at tagging the world around us, of creating folksonomies to understand everything around us. Isn’t it only a matter of time before we start tagging ourselves? Don’t miss an article – Subscribe to our RSS feed and join our Continuous Innovation group! Venessa Miemis is a Media Studies graduate student at the New School in NYC, exploring what happens at the intersection of technology, culture, and communication. Connect with her at www.emergentbydesign.com and on Twitter @venessamiemis .

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Tapping the Network to Facilitate Innovation

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A couple of weeks back I raved about Google Alerts and all the different ways that I used them . I mentioned that I use them to track keywords, identify content theft and even to track links coming into a site. I look at Google Alerts as a great multi-purpose tool that can help you track lots of different things. However, when you’re serious about finding a tool to monitor your social media presence, Trackur is where Google Alerts go to grow up and one that SMB owners should really be aware of. You may remember that I interviewed search expert Andy Beal about Trackur back in September and he chatted about the importance of protecting your brand as a SMB owner, what to track and how his tool Trackur could help. Well, last week Trackur released a free tool for SMB owners that I thought was worth mentioning sharing. The new tool is called Trackur Free and the functionality is the same as you’d find in a paid Trackur subscription. With it, you can set up a search and Trackur will look for mentions in traditional and social media, scouring through mainstream sources, blogs, tweets, images, videos, etc and deliver you the results via the Trackur dashboard, RSS, email or CSV export. What separates Trackur Free from the paid product is that you can only track one keyword . That said, if you’re a small business owner who’s already using Google Alerts for the “other stuff”, it may be worth using Trackur to keep an eye on that one money term that you’re really focused on. Where Trackur Free trumps a simple Google Alert is that it runs every 30 minutes and graphs mentions over time so that you can easily see if buzz is growing and how sentiment is changing. As I mentioned, it’s a bit more mature than a simple Google Alert. Personally, I like the idea of using Trackur as your “specialty” tool and Google Alerts to pick up the easier to find stuff or terms you’re just casually monitoring. I use Google Alerts like a fire house to give me lots of different information in different areas, Trackur is considerably more refined. Worth noting is that Andy has chosen to make the tool retroactive. So if you read our interview back in September and signed up for a free trial, your account has already been moved over and you can start using it. If not, you can sign up for a free trial to give it a look. If you’ve resisted because of the associated price tag, now’s your chance to look under the hood. The importance of knowing what people are saying about your brand is going to diminish anytime soon. In fact, it’s only getting stronger. From Small Business Trends Trackur Gives SMBs A Free Social Media Tool

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Trackur Gives SMBs A Free Social Media Tool

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Our daily roundup of today’s headlines about small businesses….  Tracking what people are talking about today in the world of small businesses and entrepreneurs. Credit Jeff Cornwall. Current Small Business Problems Will Not be Solved Solely by Focusing on Lending, Says Report . The Entrepreneurial Mind Martha C. White. Obama Administration’s Small Business Loans: Will They Really Work? The Minnesota Independent Phyllis Furman. Loans Remain Tough for Small Business, Startups . NYDaily News Paul Davidson. Credit Unions Want Congress to Lift Limits on Small Business Lending — But There are Two Sides to That Story . USA Today Healthcare Samuel Gregg. Why More Regulation Probably Won’t Save the Economy . National Review Online NFIB. Small Business Owners Want Less Political Drama Over Healthcare, More Solutions .  NFIB.com The Cato Institute. Why a Free Market Can Cure the Health Care Crisis . Healthcare.Cato.Org The Quincy Cove. Small Businesses Interviewed About High Insurance Costs . Quincycove.com Hiring Intuit. Small Business Shows Signs of an Economic Rebound . Small Business Trends Scott Shane. But Hiring Has Not Bounced Back According to the Discover Small Business Watch .  Small Business Trends Marketing Niccolinas Soto. Capitalizing on Social Media: A How-To Guide . Smallbiz Central John Janstch. Standing Out with — of All Things – Rockabilly .   Duct Tape Marketing Becky McCray. How to Track Your Daily Marketing Activity . Small Biz Survival Martin Lindeskog. A Great Big List of 100 Small Business Podcasts .  Small Business Trends Radio Tech Steven Andrés. Big Fish or Small-Fry, Don’t Wind Up on a Hacker’s Hook . NetWorkWorldAsia.net Financial Web. Small Business Accounting Programs Can Create a Simpler Life . Internet Brands Hewlett Packard. Elite 7100 Small Business Desktop Increases Productivity . Small Business Trends Operations Seth Godin. I Don’t Feel Like It. Inspiration for the Business Leader . Seth’s Blog U.S. government. Business.gov Collects 2010  Small-Business Tax Information in One Handy Place .  Business.gov Startups Adam Toren. Too Much on Your Plate Can Kill Your Startup (and So Can 4 Other Things) . YoungEntrepreneur.com Dharmesh Shah. The 10 Most Tempting Software Startup Categories. On Startups. From Small Business Trends Small Business News for March 1, 2010

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Small Business News for March 1, 2010

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This year I thought I would experiment with a Top Ten list at the beginning of each month, profiling the ten posts from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Blogging Innovation. So, without further ado, here are February’s ten most popular innovation or marketing posts: Two Biggest Mistakes in Social Media – by Mike Brown Radical Innovation of Meaning – Apple iPad – by Hutch Carpenter Four Models for Competitive Crowdsourcing – by Hutch Carpenter Aligning Social Media, Marketing and PR – by Matt Heinz 56 Reasons Why Innovation Initiatives Fail – by Mitch Ditkoff Bill Gates Coming out of Retirement? – by Anonymous Microsoftie Reverse Innovation a Popular Trend – by Yann Cramer Innovation Metric of Leading Companies – by Stefan Lindegaard Are MBAs becoming irrelevant? – by Idris Mootee Ideas Are Core to Enterprise 2.0 – by Hutch Carpenter If you’re not familiar with Blogging Innovation, we publish 2-3 new articles every day built around innovation and marketing insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Join our Continuous Innovation group or subscribe to our RSS feed to follow along. Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation , a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

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February’s Top 10 Innovation and Marketing Articles

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Don’t miss out on these great upcoming events, especially the Small Business Summit on March 16th – which features an appearance by Anita Campbell, Founder of Small Business Trends. (Note that several events in this week’s list have upcoming early bird deadlines.) This list of events, conferences and webinars for growing small businesses and entrepreneurs is brought to you twice a month as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com . – * * * * * Facebook For Business March 2, 2010, 8:00pm EST, Webinar This 75 minute class will cover: How to use your profile for business, Joining groups, Emailing through facebook, Creating and monitoring a business page, and Social networking etiquette. This web class is designed for you, the small business owner. If you are looking for ideas on how to market on the web or are just getting started, this 75 minute web class will give you the tools you need to understand and get you motivated about marketing on the web. Think BIG Kansas City March 3, 2010 Join us for one jam packed day of experts who have “been there, done that.” Experts who are willing to show you how they did it and how you can succeed as an entrepreneur. Our rapid-fire presentation style will leave your brain overflowing with ideas – and you ready to take your next step. We’ll provide the Inspiration, Education and Motivation. You provide the Aspiration and Perspiration. No one ever said it was easy. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. But if you are serious about 2010 and becoming more successful as an entrepreneur or starting up a new company, this conference is for you! Using Technology to Operate your Business March 4, 2010 6:00 PM — 8:00 PM, Queens, NY Need Help Jump-starting your business? Don’t know what tools you need to run more efficiently? Not sure how to get started or what to spend your money on first? If so, this session is for you! Whether you are in the concept phase of your business or recently started a few years ago, this workshop will enable you to run your business more efficiently through the use of technology. In this session you will learn: – Different E-mail Systems – Pop accounts, iMap, Exchange, and Gmail – Software Applications – The different kinds that every business should have to manage their customers and money. – Decision Making Tools – Deciding what will work for you, your budget, and your future growth. Cost: $15 fee in advance, or $20 at the door. to register: email fmora@queensny.org or call (718) 263-0546 (There is no ability to register on the Institute site.) The Five Factors of High Performing Sales Teams March 4, 2010, 11:00am EST, Webinar In this free 30 minute webinar you will discover the five factors that can impact a sales team’s performance. Though often overlooked in many companies, these factors, when measured and cultivated correctly, can make an immediate difference in areas such as increased revenue, market share and new market acquisitions. Many business owners struggle with marketing simply because they don’t know how to put together a strong strategic marketing plan that builds and sustains their business. This bootcamp walks them step by step on creating a marketing plan and offers a consultative review of their individual plans. BLAST Marketing Plan Bootcamp March 4, 11, 18, 25, 8:30pm EST, Teleseminar Many business owners struggle with marketing simply because they don’t know how to put together a strong strategic marketing plan that builds and sustains their business. This bootcamp walks them step by step on creating a marketing plan and offers a consultative review of their individual plans. Turn Clicks into Conversations & Relationships March 10, 2010, 10:00AM PT, Webinar It takes more than a tweet to turn a follower into a customer, and a customer into loyal advocate. This webinar featuring Brent Leary will cover tools and techniques needed to turn content into conversations, conversations in the exchanges, and exchanges into long lasting customer relationships. Areas of focus will include tools for social listening, automating content creation and distribution, and steps for enhancing your customers’ experiences with your company by facilitating opportunities for them to connect with each other. InfusionCon 2010 March 10-12, 2010, Montelucia Resort & Spa, Scottsdale, Arizona InfusionCon 2010, which is completely free and open to Infusionsoft customers, is geared toward providing entrepreneurs and small business owners with proven marketing strategies to help them accelerate the growth of their business using Infusionsoft’s solution. This year’s event is expected to bring more than 1,000 entrepreneurs together for two full days of networking, keynote speeches from industry experts and informative workshops. Keynote speakers for this year’s event include Harry Dent, a noted economist and founder of the a long term economic forecasting technique known as the Dent Method and best-selling author and small business expert John Assaraf. Long-time entrepreneur and Small Business Trends LLC CEO Anita Campbell will also be on hand to lead an InfusionCon session. Updates can also be found by following the #infusioncon hashtag on Twitter. GROWCO Grow Your Company Conference March 14-16, 2010, Orlando, FL In 2010, Inc.’s GROWCO Conference pulls together a dynamic program with a curriculum designed specifically for the nation’s rising entrepreneurial stars, including smaller organizations that want to make an appearance on the Inc. 5000 and Inc. 5000 honorees that want to break into the higher ranks of the list or repeat their success in years to come. High-profile growth experts teach seminars that will give attendees actionable information with which to develop or maintain their own growth initiative. Cost is $895. Fifth Annual Small Business Summit March 16, 2010, NYC The Summit is for small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to meet the challenges of the new economy head-on and THRIVE in 2010. The theme this year is Business & Technology: Strategies for the New Economy. We have some incredible speakers lined up for this year’s Summit, including Seth Godin, who will be talking about being indispensable to your customers. The Summit is always about generating great ideas from some of the best talent in the business world, but also about networking, making profitable connections and having fun. New this year is the Small Business Strategy Award. One attendee will be recognized for entrepreneurial strategic excellence that has led to significant increased profits, expanded market and/or improved market position. Apply directly online . Early bird registration (before March 1st) is $149 for the all day event. Western Regional Business Matchmaking March 16, 2010, Los Angeles, CA The Business Matchmaking Western Regional Face-to-Face Event will be hosted at the Marriott Los Angeles Airport Hotel located in Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, March 16, 2010. Participating firms will receive advance education and tools to prepare for face-to-face meetings with buyers from federal, state and local government agencies and major corporations. * Individual business counseling and guidance provided by SCORE, SBDC and other resource partners * Access to the Business Matchmaking System in advance of the event to be matched with participating procurement representatives and setting a schedule for appointments with buyers * Face-to-Face meetings with procurement representatives of federal, state and local government agencies and major corporations * Small business specific and topical workshops available throughout event day * Exhibits and networking with regional small business resources including access to capital, SBA loans, insurance, federal qualification requirements, women and minority business tools, certification, etc. * On-site Internet access and email capabilities provided at the HP Tech Center * Access to representatives from private sector co-sponsors for information about their companies E-3…Engage, Empower, Energize March 18, 2010, Newark, NJ A no charge full-day conference for experienced business women seeking to grow their businesses. Breakouts, individual consulting, “Pitch-it” contest, keynotes, etc. This will be at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and will include breakfast and lunch. Sponsored by New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners’ Women’s Business Center. How to Present Your Business Plan March 18, 2010, Providence, RI This interactive presentation will feature two veteran business developers who have worked with companies throughout New England on growth, turnaround, and acquisition strategies. This workshop is part of a series leading up to the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition starting in April 2010. Astoundingly Simple Secrets to Making Social Media Work for You March 23, 2010, Webinar Can you really turn garden-variety online acquaintances into a supportive network who will help you spread a message or build a career? Do social media sites like Facebook and Twitter offer the opportunity to extend your brand and message or are they just a colossal time-suck? Learn the ins and outs of social media, where it intersects with old-school marketing, and how you can use them in tandem to build your network, strengthen your personal brand, and spread the word about your business to the people who need to hear it. You will learn how to come up with your core marketing message, translate it into the language of social media, and evaluate which social networking sites will work best for you. The Mobile Office with Ramon Ray: Productivity Anywhere! March 24, 2010, 10:00AM PT, Webinar Navigating the technology acronym soup of mobile technology can be daunting these days, not to mention expensive if you don’t make smart decisions around your technology and service choices. You will learn about mobile technology and how to simply safeguard your very important business information. Social Reputation Management: Protecting and Strengthening Your Brand Across the Social Web March 24, 2010, New York City This conference that will share the best case studies on how communicators and marketers listen to conversations, monitor and comprehend what is being said, and engage through the social web. The case studies will be followed by moderated interactive roundtables. Use promo code SBT to receive a discounted rate of $155. Brooklyn Business Expo 2010 March 24, 2010, Brooklyn, NY The Brooklyn Business Expo 2010 will bring together the brightest business leaders from the most dynamic companies throughout Brooklyn and the adjoining counties. The Brooklyn Business Expo 2010 provides an environment for businesses to enhance their relationships, research the market for the leading products and services, and learn about the latest best business practices. This will be the largest biz-to-biz expo in Brooklyn. The Stimulus Package: Update 2010 March 24, 2010, Brooklyn, NY This seminar, moderated by CNN contributor and president of Optimum Capital Management, Ryan Mack, is designed to show you how you can still benefit from stimulus funds. Panelists include Ann Kayman, CEO at New York Grant Company; Bruce Niswander, director of the Office of Innovation, Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship at Polytechnic Institute of NYU; and Michael Williams, dean at the Graduate School of Business at Touro College who will discuss the following: * The Stimulus Program: What’s the impact on the economy so far? * How can I still benefit from the Stimulus bill? * How will the government’s proposed three-year spending freeze effect small business and how can businesses plan now? * What are smart, “hidden” ways that businesses can save more money in the “new” economy? MarketingSherpa’s Email Marketing Essentials Workshop Training Multi-City Tour Theory works well in a classroom, but how does it translate in the real world? What makes MarketingSherpa’s Email Marketing Essentials Workshop unique is our trusted Case Study approach to learning. Using Case Studies and research as a basis, every tactic discussed during the course has been proven. This one-day workshop is based on MarketingSherpa’s Best Practices in Email Marketing Handbook. You’ll receive a FREE copy ($497 value) to be used as your textbook during the course that you can take back to your office for future reference. Use it as your on-the-job reference guide to build a ‘best in class’ email program that will meet and exceed your marketing goals. Register now to get $100 off regular price of $995. March 25 , New York City April 6, Philadelphia, PA April 20, Washington, DC May 11, Denver, CO May 13, Seattle, WA June 21, Chapel Hill, NC June 25, Atlanta, GA July 20, Minneapolis, MN August 10, San Diego, CA August 13, Phoenix, AZ 10 PAGE BUSINESS PLAN DESIGN WORKSHOP April 16, 2010, New York City This workshop enables leaders to prepare Complete, Convincing and Compelling business plans to obtain grants, VC and corporate finance, partners and customers for start ups, spin-outs and expansions. We leverage the ‘10 PAGE BUSINESS PLAN DESIGN FRAMEWORK’™ built on a proven track record of raising over $300 million of financing. 140 Characters Conference April 20-21, 2010, New York City The 140 Characters Conference: New York City (#140conf) provides a platform for the worldwide twitter community to: listen, connect, share and engage with each other, while collectively exploring the effects of the emerging real-time internet on business. The format at the #140conf events is unique. Individual talks are 5 and 10 minutes, keynotes are 15 and 20 minutes and panel discussions are no more than 20 minutes. During the course of the two days more than 140 people will share the stage in about 70 sessions. “Early Bird” registration of $100 ends on March 5th. OSDBU Procurement Conference – Procurement Matchmaking April 21, 2010, Chantilly, VA The 20th Annual OSDBU Procurement Conference is a national conference fostering business partnerships between the Federal Government, its Prime Contractors, and small, minority, service-disabled veteran-owned, veteran-owned, HUBZone, and women-owned businesses. More info and registration here . New Marketing Experience 2010 April 13, 2010, San Francisco, CA Imagine a world where you can take your One Big Idea™ and tap over 100 other participating conference attendee and experts and each of their One Big Ideas. All in a structured, fast-paced and highly interactive one-day program under the direction of Chris Brogan and the team from New Marketing Labs. Unlike other programs, this event will facilitate you working directly with your peers in a group of 15-20 professionals to explore in detail the topics covered in the program. In addition, each attendee will leave with one book from the conference with all of the big ideas from the attendees as well as the results of the deep dives on the topics discussed. The 11th Annual Department of Energy Small Business Conference & Expo May 10-12, 2010, Atlanta, GA The Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, is proud to present The 11th Annual DOE Small Business Conference & Expo, at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA, May 10-12, 2010. The event will feature plenaries, educational workshops, an Exhibit Hall with 200+ exhibitors/sponsors, as well as business matchmaking sessions. Over 1,600 attendees will represent all levels of federal, state, and local government agencies, the small business community, large/prime contractors, and many more! Creative Freelancer Conference June 5-6, 2010 The Creative Freelancer Conference is the first and only full-scale business conference for self-employed creative professionals. The goal? To help you maximize your freelance income by sharing best business practices and sage advice from seasoned solopreneurs who’ve learned through experience what works, and what doesn’t. The program is geared toward freelance graphic designers, copywriters, illustrators and photographers, as well as solo practitioners of interactive, interior and industrial design. Anyone who makes a living selling creative services on a freelance basis (or would like to) will benefit. Early bird pricing through March 12 . To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit our Small Business Events Calendar . If you are putting on a small business contest, award or competition, and want to get the word out to the community, please submit it through our Events & Contests Submission Form (We do not charge a fee to be included in this listing — it is completely free to list your event.) Only events of interest to small business people, freelancers and entrepreneurs will be considered and included. From Small Business Trends New Conferences, Webinars and Events for Small Business

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New Conferences, Webinars and Events for Small Business

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We’ve all seen the power of having strong evangelists and how they can help build a brand. But just because the Web is getting increasingly social with more sites sprouting up new communities doesn’t mean that you need a community on your site. The problem with following the community craze is that too many are launched without any clear purpose. And you know it when you see it. It’s the blog that’s quickly thrown on the site even though there’s no one to write content or manage comments. It’s the social voting site you tack on but have no idea what you want to do with. It’s the community that was started with high hopes…but now just holds cobwebs. Before you make the decision to add community elements to your site, know why they’re there and how you plan to use them. Because it’s often a greater disservice to your brand to have a blog you ignore than to not have one at all. Below are a few questions you should ask yourself before you invest the resources in adding community elements to your site. Why are you creating the community? If the answer to this is “because [competitor name] has one”, then you need to rethink your efforts. Part of your community planning process should be to determine your goals and to lay down measurable objectives. When you create a community with no plan in motion, it shows. Your community members can feel when you’re just “winging” it and everyone feels a little lost. Know what you want and the reason behind it before you build it, otherwise the people won’t come. This is the Internet. Not Fields of Dreams. People need to feel safe in the home you’re establishing. Part of making them feel safe means creating an environment that “makes sense” and has a clear purpose. What’s your POD or why will people join your community? What do you have to offer your audience that other communities, or that just being your customer, can’t provide? Why will people invest time participating on your site and not just become silent lurkers? It could be that you provide great content, that you house important discussions, that you offer the opposing view, that you offer deals, etc. Whatever it is that will make you unique, you want to put that at the forefront and build it into everything that you’re doing. There are tons of communities on the Web. You need to generate a compelling point of difference that’s going to help you to stand out and assert yourself. Why would someone invest their time in you over an already-established community? Figure it out and then promote it. Do you have resources to support the community? You may want a community on your site, but are you ready to support one? Whether it’s a blog, a forum, a place for user generated content – someone is going to have to build and manage the community you want to host. If you can’t do it yourself, do you have the resources to outsource it to someone else? There’s a lot more that goes into supporting a community than simply getting someone to build it. Once it’s there, it needs to be staffed. Employees need to be trained on how to manage it and how to promote the brand while keeping the peace.  Time needs to be allocated to answering questions, responding to complaints and offering customers support when necessary.   When you’re deciding whether or not a blog or forum would produce a positive ROI, all of these other time and resource elements need to be taken into consideration. How will you promote the community? As unique and great as your new community may be, you’re still going to have to do some promoting to get the word out. Self promotion is often a hard thing for SMB owners to swallow, however, it really is vital.  The tactics you’ll want to use for promotion will depend on what you’re launching, but you should know what you’re getting into. For example, if you’re adding reviews to your site, you’ll have to find ways to contact people using certain products and maybe consider seeding reviews at first. If you’re adding a blog, you may want to form a partnership with other bloggers, write guests posts, seed comments, start commenting on other’s blogs, network with influential bloggers, etc. If you’re creating a voting site, you’ll want to look for cross promotional opportunities with other sites, advertise on related blogs, and get an active street team going to build buzz. In the early days, it’s up to you to be your community’s biggest promoter. Are you ready for it? How heavily will you moderate your community? This can get a little touchy. In a perfect world there would be free speech and we’d never have to step in to edit someone’s words or steer a conversation in a different direction. Unfortunately, this is the Internet where manners sometime get thrown out the window and where flame wars can have lasting consequences . Before you release your fledgling community to the world, you need to decide how much leeway you’re going to give people when talking to one another. What kinds of actions will you moderate? Will you just moderate the content or watch behavior that takes place offsite, as well? Your community is yours. Yes, it’s nothing without the people who choose to participate, but you’re the one responsible for being the adult in the room and keeping it productive. You can’t be afraid to moderate people when they’re out of line and threatening the spirit of the community you created. How will building the community support your other efforts? Essentially, does it make sense for you to add a community to your site? While it’s a noble effort to create a community so that your audience has a place to connect, ideally this community should be helping you with your other site goals. How will this new community take strain off customer service? Will it shorten your sales process by giving you more trust and brand awareness? How can you tie it into the rest of your marketing efforts? Nothing in the organization should be created in a vacuum. You want to carefully plan out how your new community will work with everything else you’re doing to give you the biggest benefit. There’s a definite Shiny ADD complex that often strikes the Web. We see that a competitor has created something and we jump to create an exact replica without knowing why we’re doing it. And that can often come back to bite us. Before you invest time and resources building a community on your site, know why you’re doing it, what you’re going to get from it, and how much time you’ll really spend managing it. That’s the only way you can determine its value. From Small Business Trends Ask Yourself: Do You Really Need That Community?

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Ask Yourself: Do You Really Need That Community?

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We make marketing blunders when we don’t know who it is we’re marketing toward or when we try to treat all of our customers the same way. The truth is that our customers are not the same. They don’t take to marketing the same way, they don’t want the same things and they’re not equal in what they mean to our business. By segmenting customers into different “buckets” or personas it allows us to create a more targeted experience, while also helping SMB owners to better manage internal resources. How Narrow Should You Segment? How Many Groups? The simple answer is to create as many as make sense, whether that means creating two or twenty. Segmenting too broadly will take away your ability to customize service to the segment, while segmenting too narrowly may reduce profitability. You want to segment customers by the common characteristics shown to affect conversions. For example, if you’re a local hardware shop, you may only find that you have two customer types – Commercial and Non-Commercial. If you’re a florist, maybe you want to create an entire segment for marketing at Special Occasion customers or Men Buying For Wives. Once you get into the data, your segments should become fairly obvious. What Kind of “Data” Should You Collect? You already have most, if not all, of the data required to create your customer buckets. All you have to do is organize it and put it together in a way that makes it usable. Here are just a few different areas you can look at to help form your segments. Demographic Info : Look at age, gender, location, profession, lifestyle decisions, Web savviness, browser type, referral information, etc. This info typically isn’t that useful on its own, but it becomes more important as you’re able to tie it into other factors. Buying Behavior : How often do the customer place an order? Do they identify as first-time, regular customer, or a special occasion purchase? What is average order size? What do they buy? What are their preferred brands? Do they buy via online/in store/phone? Product Inventory : Note product purchased and associated profit margins with it. Customer Service Level : On a scale of 1 to 10, how much time/effort does that customer require? Some are notorious for quick and easy purchases, while others require quite a bit of hand holding. You should know associated ROI. Influence Level : As you capture email addresses, start capturing information regarding social media influence, as well. Identify who these people are online in order to understand how large their social networks may be. Your Influencers may require attention different from “regular” customers. When SouthWest recently made headlines for kicking director Kevin Smith off a flight , you can be sure he got special attention because of his social influence and because he was Twittering as things were unfolding. Create your Personas The information you collect should be used to tell a story about the different groups of customers who seek out your business. Once you can identify the “type” of customer you’re dealing with, it will help you understand the ROI associated with each bucket and provide insight on how to better address their needs. For example, you may find that you’re losing money by focusing on a segment that fails to convert or that you’d increase your ROI if you handled customer service via social media rather than email. To help you tie everything together, create tangible personas around your buckets. For example, meet Joe and Sarah. Joe is a 37-year-old male who considers himself “average” on the Web. He prefers to research online but make the actual purchase offline. He’s brand loyal and is willing to pay more in order to get service that he trusts. He owns a home in the nicer part of town. He doesn’t have an active social network and identifies as a Special Occasions Purchaser, spending several hundred dollars with each visit. Sarah is a 19-year old female who identifies as “very savvy” on the Web. She does all of her shopping online and prefers not to shop instore. She makes frequent, small purchases about once a month and is very vocal with her social network about what she buys. She has 3,000 Twitter followers and has ‘fanned’ more than 100 brands on Facebook. Put Your Buckets To Use Once you’ve created your buckets, use them. If you know that Sarah and Joe shop differently, then it doesn’t make sense to send them the same email newsletter. Instead, craft two that speak to their different needs. Sarah may be interested in weekly sales, however, Joe forgets about your company until the holidays roll around. It doesn’t matter how many emails you send him, he’s not going to buy. Segmenting also allows you to treat first-time customers differently than you do everyone else to increase your chances of getting that second sale. You can even segment emails down to particular product types. If Sarah has a history of purchasing a certain type of album, you may want to let her know when her favorite artist has a new release in. You should also take your segments into account when dealing with customer service issues. Do this by assigning ROI to each customer type. Once you know the profit margin for each group, you’re able to make smarter decisions when assigning time and resources. If Joe and Sarah both have a customer service issue and you only have the resources to fix one, who’s going to bring you the most ROI?  No one likes picking favorites, but sometimes resources only flex so much. Knowing who your customers are, what motivates them to buy and ROI in earning that sale, puts you in a better spot to market more effectively and customize what you’re putting out. When you get to know customers on a more personal level, it becomes easier to spot what will and will not work when talking to them. And, of course, by assigning certain personas to ROI groups it will help you to “fire” bad customers who become more of a resources drain than anything else. Not that we have customers like that. From Small Business Trends SMB Owners: Are You Segmenting Customers?

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SMB Owners: Are You Segmenting Customers?

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by Matt Heinz I’m moderating a panel on the alignment of marketing & PR in a couple weeks at Dan Greenfield’s PR + Mktg Camp in Seattle. Should be a great day of discussion. Earlier this week Dan and I talked how marketing and PR teams have traditionally worked together (or not), and how those relationships are evolving now – especially with the maturation of social media as a cross-functional tool set. Excerpts from our conversation are below: Question: Are PR and marketing more aligned or less aligned because of social media? Matt: The idea of separating marketing teams and functions is a remnant of the “old way” of doing marketing. When most marketing was one-way (i.e. customers couldn’t react, respond and create messages of their own), it was more acceptable to separate PR from product marketing, and even lead generation activities. Now, especially because the customer has so much control and such a strong voice, it’s critical that brands act as one. That means PR, advertising, social media, lead generation – they all need to work from the same playbook in a coordinated fashion. Easier said than done, but that’s exactly what today’s most successful brands are doing. Social media has enabled the consumer to talk back in a powerful way, which is accelerating the need for this consolidation and integration of marketing strategy by products, services and brands today. Question: PR is generally about placement, reputation, messaging, impressions and storytelling. Marketing is generally about transactions, click throughs, key words and web applications. How is social media changing that, if at all? Matt: Everything is about getting the sale. It always has been, but now it’s easier to see and map the progression of a customer from awareness, consideration, intent, trial, purchase – then repeat, renewal, referral, etc. Social media is blurring the distinction between customer engagement stages. Ten years ago, it was easier to segment the functions – PR talks to the customer at the beginning, then product marketing takes over and offers demos, free trials, etc. Then once they’re a customer, your loyalty/retention team takes over. That approach doesn’t work anymore. The way we measure different marketing elements, by function, probably still works. But it has to be put into the context of a more immersive, cohesive customer engagement strategy that blends messages and tactics across stages of a customer relationship. Question: What disadvantages (inefficiencies, lost opportunities, customer confusion) and advantages (integration, cost savings) are these shared tools like Facebook and Twitter creating for PR and marketing? Matt: The sales cycle has always been far shorter than the customer’s buying cycle. Five years ago, the customer buying cycle was a black box for marketers. We had no visibility to what was happening, what prospective customers were thinking or asking, who they were even considering. Now, thanks to social media, we have insight into how customers are thinking well before they engage directly with brands. But this isn’t an opportunity for selling. It’s an opportunity to engage and become part of the community – add value, answer questions, provide valuable content. Earn trust, respect and credibility. Community engagement and social media are at the very top of the buying cycle, before the sales cycle, and it doesn’t really matter which part of the organization manages and executes there, as long as the approach is right. Question: Should social media ultimately be the responsibility of PR who manages reputation and conversations or marketing who is in charge of transactions and sales? Matt: It doesn’t really matter. Everyone in the organization needs to understand the customer, what they want, what they need, and how to address them – with or without a paid relationship current or pending. Every member of your organization should know how to address customers in a respectful, value-added way. Social media has accelerated the tearing down of walls between customer and provider. There’s more transparency, less formality. Brands need to be accessible, approachable and authentic to be accepted. The social media strategy doesn’t end when a customer enters a selling cycle. They aren’t going to stop talking to their friends, and using Facebook, or commenting on Twitter, just because they’re talking to a sales rep. Their interaction with and reflection of your brand continues across functional sales & marketing groups. That’s why ownership of the social media “voice” within one marketing function or another is problematic. Today, that strategy (and especially the execution) is a job everybody has. Enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and join our Continuous Innovation group! Matt Heinz is principal at Heinz Marketing, a sales & marketing consulting firm helping businesses increase customers and revenue. Contact Matt at matt@heinzmarketing.com or visit www.heinzmarketing.com .

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Aligning Social Media, Marketing and PR

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The Samsung Wave offers a AMOLED 3.3″ display that makes the screen truly come alive, a Social Hub to bring users closer to contacts and connections, and TouchWiz 3.0 for an intuitive and hugely customizable user interface.

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Samsung Waves in first Bada based mobile

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