How to Increase Customer Confidence with the Right Privacy Policy
The following article was submitted by Heather Wills from TRUSTe, who reminds us that customer confidence can lead to more sales…and gaining customer confidence starts with ensuring their privacy.
Privacy – It’s Your Best Policy
As a small business, you may dismiss the idea of having a privacy policy. However, with identity theft on the rise, affecting almost 10 million victims in 2008 (Javelin Strategy & Research: www.javelinstrategy.com), privacy has become highly relevant to both consumers and businesses.
A privacy policy is a legal document that discloses how a party retains, processes, discloses, and purges a customer’s data. Such examples could be the instance of a website providing information about the use of personal information – particularly personal information collected via the website – by the website owner. (Source: Wikipedia)
Gain Confidence to Gain Customers
According to a Yankee Research study, 55 percent of consumers surveyed said they had experienced online incidents, which caused them to consider a possible security issue when visiting a Website.
With more people online now than ever before, the number of cyber-criminals trying to exploit consumer information has also grown to record numbers. This makes third party trustmarks an essential tool for both consumers and businesses, irrespective of their size.
Ensure that your Privacy Policy addresses the following issues:
- The information that will be collected: email addresses, date of birth, etc
- What will be done with information collected?
- Whether a third party will use this information?
- Measures undertaken by the company in order to protect the information
- How the privacy policy is in compliance with the law
- Contact information
A privacy policy needs to be simple and friendly. It should disclose all points pertaining to the information collected from customers and how it is going to be used.
About TRUSTe
TRUSTe provides companies with simple, iconic, and easy-to-read privacy statements that reflect and protect the businesses they serve. You can opt for professional help from TRUSTe, which provides industry-leading complaint-handling services for small and medium businesses. These services can help you simplify privacy issues and protect your reputation. This also means that you will not have to approach a lawyer for a simple privacy policy.
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Seven Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Social Media Expert
“Where facts are few, experts are many.”
This quote couldn’t be more true than with social media experts today, it seems everybody is one – just ask them.
Well, in today’s guest post by Ola Ayeni, Chief Idea Officer at Mobile Dialog, reminds us that before we are quick to hire an expert in social media, we should be asking a few important questions.
Seven Questions To Consider Before Hiring A Social Media Expert
I recently received an e-mail from a fellow entrepreneur, the CEO of Fanminder, Paul Rosenfeld about a recent Wall Street Journal article titled “ Firms Get a Hand With Twitter, Facebook, Entrepreneurs Hire Consultants to Promote Business on Social-Media Sites, but the Extra Cost Is Big Question”.
After reading the article which was written by Sarah Needleman, I decided to also read the comments section. The comment section is filled with people who are doing social media consulting for others and individuals who feel that entrepreneurs and business owners should approach social media as a DIY.
Two Sides to Every Story
I believe there are to sides to the story for this to make sense. Both are entirely correct. First, no one knows your business more than you do. So when it comes to connecting and engaging customers. The owner or manager you come out on top not a consultant. But what do you do when you do not know what to write, post or tweet. That is why you need some help. Either through an experienced coach, training of some sort or hire someone to get you up and running and then take it from there.
On the other hand if time ( which is something we all don’t have ) to commit to social media marketing is what you don’t have, then you need to hire someone to help you with it. The biggest cost of doing social media is time needed to get things going. In order words time you have to spend to tweet, post, engage and talk with people. That time can be better spent managing your business.
In the same article, many things were said about whether it makes sense for small businesses to hire a consultant/agency to help with starting a social media marketing campaign.
It All Depends on Two Things
1. Do you have the time to do it yourself ? If the answer is no. Then you can consider using a marketing company to help you. The help can either be to train you on how to do it or be an extension of your in-house employee/service.
2. Do you have employees who can do social media for you? If yes, you don’t need to hire anyone to help you do anything. May only need to ask for helping you with training. and showing how to do it. Ask for a customized workbook to follow.
You see the biggest expense in social media marketing apart from the know how is the time needed to do it right.
Where to Start?
I work for a restaurant marketing company that provides social media and mobile marketing services to restaurants, franchise businesses and small businesses. The number one question we get from operators is what do I even write and how do I start it without making people upset . The second question is we know many of our traditional media is no longer working right or delivering results.
What should we expect in terms of results (ROI or foot traffic ) with this social media program . Thirdly what is the cost? This is the most important question.
Many have unlimited questions and are afraid to loose money to many so called social media marketing experts out there. Everyone, agency, and my cousin is now a social media guru because they read mashable.com, follow Chris Brogan and read a recent social media book by Tim Oreilly.
So as a small business owner, you need some real world common sense approach to this .
Ask These Simple Questions of the so Called Consultant
1. What is your track record in doing this social media and how long have you been doing it
2. What should success or result look to you?
3. What have you done in the past that I can see? Verifiable clients. Not just on the brochure.
4. Do you have references I can check?
5. How much and for how long are we going to use your service? Is there any retainer?
6. What guarantees should you give me? Some people will take your money and run…
7. If you are going to hire an expert…Ask others who they are presently using and why?
My two cents..
Disclaimer, our company mobile dialog does social media marketing for several clients as well. But with an integrated approach. I am not by any means opposed to companies who are now experts in social media overnight. All I am saying there should be a measuring stick to determine those who are genuinely out to help entrepreneurs or just helping their pocket only.
About:
Dr Ola Ayeni is the Chief Idea Officer of Mobile Dialog, a new media marketing and consulting company in, Naperville , Illinois that helps restaurants and small businesses increase revenue and engage their customers using mobile and social media tools.
He can be reached at email: Corporate@m-dialog.com, phone: 1-888-424 9666, Website: http://www.m-dialog.com, on twitter @olaayeni.
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Photo Credit: Phillie Casablanca
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A Simple Three Step Method to Dominate Online
I’m happy to have David Gurevich back with another guest post today. David wrote the wildly popular article 9 Powerful SEO Tips for your Small Business Website, for us a couple months ago, and today is back to thoroughly expand on his thoughts regarding SEO and what it takes to dominate online.
Be sure to check out David’s free 44 page special report detailing his core rules for business, available for download at the end of this article. Enjoy!
The Gurevich MCA Model
MCA is a simple, three step method to come up with products and content that will help you dominate online. It is the most basic concept of business distilled into three words, so it doesn’t necessarily seem useful – until you try applying it.
It’s based on competencies. The theory of competencies is basically that firms and people aren’t competitive because of what they produce. Rather it’s their unique combination of skills, knowledge and capability that lead to outperforming the competition. Ask yourself, what are my competencies? Taking the time to answer that question will help you think on a strategic level, not a tactical one.
Instead of thinking, how can I make my widget cost less, you’ll start to think, am I using my skills to compete in the right arena?
The MCA approach encourages you to take a step back, see what the market already wants, then use your competencies to respond appropriately. It’s proactive. When you come up with an idea, you have to find a market for it, which is a pain. When, instead, you listen first to the market then create your idea, success is that much easier.
MCA: Market, Content, Advertising
Market: Before there can be any product, there needs to be a need.
What do people want?
For most of history, figuring out what people wanted was extremely hard and one of the biggest limitations to starting a business. Most small business owners had to rely either on their gut instinct, limited market research, or what info they could get from larger sources, like magazines.
The internet, however, makes figuring out potential markets so easy. Here’s how.
Imagine that your small business is dedicated to providing dog toys. You know how to get high quality dog toys, but you’re having real trouble figuring out what lines would be profitable, and how to develop an appropriate portfolio.
Head over to the Google keyword tool, and plug in “dog toys.” And voila, you discover an amazing variety of market opportunities: Christmas dog toys, indestructible dog toys, latex dog toys, and more.
With increased sophistication and research, you can soon develop a list of product ideas that there is an existing need for. When you pay for the most detailed keyword data, and it’s not that expensive, it’s almost like getting a report detailing exactly how many people are interested in just what. Market research becomes super easy.
Keyword tools also work for creating great content pages. They fundamentally tell you what people want, which is always useful.
Content: Talk to me about what I’m interested in – I’ll listen.
People want “indestructible dog toys.” Now you create content centered around that idea and phrase. Content doesn’t just mean a page dedicated to selling indestructible dog toys, however. It also means developing useful resources and material for readers. You’ve targeted a niche, now you want to dominate it by being the best there is on the web in that area.
If that sounds hard, well, yes, it isn’t easy. But you’ll find that niches are specific and small enough that being one of the best in that area is not particularly hard either.
The search engine optimization section of the free guide discusses more about this and why it’s so important, but building great content does three extremely important things.
First, it helps your reader learn more about the subject, about who you are, and what you think. This builds trust, a connection, and makes you stand out. Second, it builds presence in search engine results. This means more traffic, more customers, more money. And third, it is the only way to generate links to your website, which are essential for the long term health and growth of your site.
Advertising: How come I’ve never heard of you before?
You’ve successfully found out what people want, indestructible dog toys, and have created a product that meets their need. Not only that, you also wrote/obtained some great articles about what makes a dog toy safe and why it’s important to have indestructible dog toys. Success is imminent.
You open a deluxe bank account to hold all the moola you’re going to be getting.
Then you realize that no one cares. You’ve done everything you’re supposed to, but no one is coming to your website! And without appropriate advertising no one will.
Advertising your content means getting it to the people who care about it. Once you do that, and if the content is as high quality as it should be, you’ll generate links and traffic. The traffic will stop when you stop paying to get the word out, but the links stay. And that’s a huge win.
The fundamental goal of advertising online is to get people to link to your site. The links do not go away and will generate good search engine results, meaning free traffic.
Why the Internet Means Almost Infinite Markets
“The firm is constrained by the size of the market,” – Adam Smith
The great economist Adam Smith wrote this hundreds of years ago, and it’s still true today.
Look at small cities. In them, you tend to get fairly boring and basic products and services. But in larger cities, like New York, some pretty cool stuff happens. You can, for instance, find a store dedicated to ceramic dolls made in the Ukraine next to a Macy’s. What makes things so different?
It’s All About the Size of the Market
Let’s say 1 out of 1,000 people are interested in ceramic dolls, a number which I’m making up, and which I hope doesn’t offend any readers. With that rate of interest, in a city of 100,000 people you have about 100 ceramic fans. But in New York City with its 8,000,000+ people, you have 8,000 ceramic fans.
The more people there are, the cooler and more precise products can be. That is one of the main reasons people flock to big cities, despite high rent and congestion.
What would you get in a city that is more than a hundred times bigger than New York?
Pretty much anything. Take a product so bizarre that only 10,000 people a month in the entire world search for it online monthly. If you target it properly, it’s not too hard to dominate that market, and if you, say, just get 10% of that market, you have 1,000 new customers. (This type of analysis, despite its allure is highly flawed, but the general idea is true).
No matter what it is that you care about, no matter how strange your combination of skills and interests is, there’s a market for it. If that doesn’t inspire you, then it’s hard to imagine what will.
Get David’s Free Report Now: The King’s Rose: How to Compete Online & Win (.pdf – 44 pages – instant download)
About:
David Gurevich has gotten on the first page of Google for multiple brand name drugs. It’s easy if you follow the core rules of business online, which you can read for free in The King’s Rose: How to Compete Online & Win.
David also blogs at Health and Life, a Medical Blog. If you have any questions, he’d be glad to help – if he can – and you can email him here.
Photo Credit: visualpanic
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20 Surefire Ways to Use Twitter for Business
How to use Twitter for business is the #1 question I receive. At last count I had 642,379 questions this week on the subject, and it’s only Monday!
Luckily I found a super presentation that walks you through how to use Twitter for your business, and gives you 20 simple examples of how you can incorporate Twitter into your marketing and promotion today!
This saved me a lot of time answering emails, and surely spared me carpel tunnel syndrome from emailing you all back!
20 Ways to Tweet for Your Business
The following presentation is packed with 20 easy ways you can tweet for your business. Here’s a couple examples, then be sure to click on through the presentation for the entire 20 tips.
1. Highlight What’s Special
Twitter gives you a great platform to share what’s special about your company in 140 characters. But like using a highlighter in a book, only highlight the important things. Otherwise, your followers won’t be able to read anything because there are too many colors.
2. Ask Questions
One of the biggest benefits Twitter can deliver to a business revolves around branding. If your tweets create anticipation, that will brand your company with a consumer in a very effective way. Just make sure you’re actually creating anticipation, and not just tweeting to tweet.
3.Please, oh please share Twitpics
Twitpics are an incredible opportunity to showcase why you’re company is cool. Plus, the twitpic links are the most opened links on Twitter.
For the other 17 tips, check out the rest of the presentation below:
Want More Twitter for Biz Information
I put together a free report for you on how I use Twitter for Business, and I encourage you to get a copy by following the link below.
Maximize Twitter for Your Business Report
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One Little Secret About Risk Nobody Ever Told You
You’re starting a business, you must be crazy that’s so risky! You want to start a business, how much risk can you take? You’ve got to be nuts to quit your job and start a business, why take the risk?
Ever heard these kinds of comments from others, either about business or any aspect of your life. It usually goes like this
YOU: I’m thinking about doing ________.
THEM: What? Man, I wouldn’t do that if I were you, just too risky!
Whatever the topic may be, from starting a business, to wearing white after labor day, others are quick to give you advice about what you should do that is largely a part of what they perceive to be “safe” or “risky” behavior.
That Pesky Four Letter Word
Risk, or the perception of risk, has probably kept you from doing quite a bit in your life, I know it has mine. More often than not, this perception has been shaped by what others have told you is risky, and coming from trusted confidants you’ve probably believed them.
It doesn’t take much to be high on an idea one minute, and have somebody smash our dreams the next by using that little four letter word – R.I.S.K
But here’s the little secret about risk that nobody has ever told you…
Risk Is Relative
That’s right, risk is completely relative. So when somebody tells you that you shouldn’t do what you want to do because it’s too risky, what they really mean is that it is risky relative to their situation, their own biases, or outlook.
Risky or Safe, You Tell Me?
Ever seen footage of the guys who do free climbing? I’m talking about the people who set off up the face of a 1000 foot shear cliff, with no ropes, no safety harness, and only their feet and hands to keep them from plummeting to their death? If you’re like me you say to yourself “Wow, that’s risky!”
But, to the free climber who’s been doing it for 30 years, learned how to climb a rock face before they could walk, and have 1000’s of hours of climbing under their belt – ascending that mountain is safer than driving in a car, flying in an airplane, or riding a roller coaster at the fair. Activities that you or me probably think of as fairly safe.
When NASCAR star Jeff Gordon flies around the race track at 170 miles per hour, that looks pretty risky. But as one of the best drivers ever, and with years of practice under his belt, driving that track is about as risky as me walking my dog.
What Does This Mean To You?
Simply put – you define your own risk. Your background, personality, expertise, education, and essentially everything that makes you goes into what is risky for yourself!
When people tell you something is too risky, they are saying that it is too risky for them. Given their makeup, their situation, they wouldn’t try it. But what does that have to do with you? Nothing!
This goes for business as well as life. Risk is relative, don’t accept someone else’s risk profile for you, or live a life based on what others think is risky.
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