3 Tools to Actively Control Your Online Reputation
There is not much in contemporary business that deals on more equity than your business reputation. Stock prices rise and fall because it, and the media boiling point is reached at surprising speed for either good and bad praise or hostility about businesses worldwide. The first step to managing your online business reputation is to be able to keep track of what is being said about you, by whom and how often. If it’s all great, it’s all good friends. Business worldwide both large and small duel every day using the double-edged, sword of Internet power. You need to know about the negative comments too, and naturally, if nothing is being said about your business online, well, that is a problem all in itself.
Buzz or Sting?
From a marketing perspective, we have the ability to reach more people in remote corners of the world than ever before, making use of the remarkable reach of the Internet to connect with our blogs, videos, and shopping carts that have no physical limitations. The flip side of that coin is that we now inhabit a world where anonymous people can go for their 15 minutes of fame as impromptu authors, video producers and critics, and that can spell trouble for your company.
Google, Yahoo and other search engines give tremendous validity to sites like Wikipedia and RipOffReport.com in the spirit of full disclosure, especially on big business. Trouble is, fact checking ain’t what it used to be if indeed it happens at all. Loud online voices providing great buzz on your goods and services can give a fantastic bump albeit unjustified by reality. Bully for you! The sting of acrimonious haters can cost you prospects, customers and dollars to an incredible extent also.
THE Keyword for Small Businesses
What do you think is the most often used keyword today in business? This isn’t a trick question or a trick. It is in fact the word, “keyword”. Think about it. There is so much instruction about SEO and online marketing that revolves around how people browse the web, particularly, Google. That means regulating what keywords you use to advertise your webpage and be found, trying to mirror what people are searching for and in a unique enough way to minimize competition. Consequently we have long tail keywords which are phrases like “How to winterize your boat” so that when someone does ultimately look for that, our page or Adwords ad is right there to be discovered.
To keep track of your online reputation, keywords are also what you use to determine who and what is being said about you. The easy way to do this to begin with is obviously to Google your company name. You’re going to find your web pages surely, but if there’s bad stuff out there you’re going to see that too. If it falls on page 1 of Google returns, you have a developing situation.
Remembering to do that weekly or every few days is something that just isn’t top of mind. Here are three devices you can use to effortlessly check out the real-time chatter.
Google Alerts
Google alerts enable you to select keywords relative to, in this case, your business name and Google will email you instances when they come up online as indexed by the Google browser. Go to www.google.com/alerts to set this up. Depending on the size and online notoriety of your organization, you can adjust the frequency of these email alerts from daily to weekly. There are a couple of refining options. Picking type = ‘Everything’ will monitor all the buzz about whatever keywords you type in, comma delimited. For most small businesses, a weekly notification should be sufficient.
Here are some points for what you might want to monitor to see what your customers might find:
- Your business name, including any divisions or alternative names as it applies
- Your competition
- Frequent misspellings of your organization name
- Your flagship product names, part numbers and trade names
- Your key executive names– bad juju on your top people will reflect badly on your company
Social Oomph
Google Alerts monitors the Google database. Social Oomph (www.socialoomph.com) allows you to track tweets. You should create a free account and then go to Monitors\/Keyword Alert Emails on the left hand menu. You are allowed to set up to 50 keywords or phrases to rake the tweet-o-sphere for and email you summaries either daily or every twelve hours.
The keyword tips are the same as for Google Alerts. The cool thing about monitoring Twitter chatter is that it has a very real-time element to it. If hostility is being spread, you may have the capability to join the current conversation and correct the record or counter the conversation when it is at its most harmful and influential to your business reputation.
LinkedIn Signal
Signal is a tool currently under development by LinkedIn in conjunction with Twitter, using a similar search on discussions groups, shares and posted answers. Access it by logging into LinkedIn and going to www.linkedin.com/signal. This is a bit cumbersome with the filters and for most results, search for your name and company without the filters box checked. This is specifically useful for product launches or branding efforts you might have to see if there is a buzz on LinkedIn among professionals. Unfortunately the search box appears to have no Boolean capability to add multiple search terms separated by commas or expressions like’ +’ or ‘OR’.
If you’re in the consulting or professional services field this may be one where you save your searches and check routinely back, as these are folks who traffic LinkedIn. This is still in beta and isn’t particularly advertised by LinkedIn, and has a limited universe of professionals (those in LinkedIn who allow public view of their conversations) and will tell you more about trending topics than give you an overall analysis about what is being said relating to your business. I’d recommend playing with it to see if it is useful to you, but use the alerts in Google and Social Oomph to monitor the bulk of chatter.
Now that you’ve set up ways to more simply keep track of the online discussion about your business, you need to develop a strategy to displace and counter inaccurate dialogue and tell your company story. More on that next time. In the meantime, post the tools you use to take the online pulse about your company.
Author Bio
A hate page, Ripoffreport or Wikipedia lie can sink your business reputation. If your company needs strategies to fix yours, check out business reputation management services. Karl Walinskas owns Smart Company Growth, a firm that helps businesses grow through sparking sales and controlling expenses and cash flow. He’s been published for years on better leadership, communication, and marketing practices for small business and authored the book, “Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership”. You can read the Smart Blog for small business growth to learn more tips you can use today.
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5 Ways to Stay Organized With a Work-from-Home Workplace
With the economic shift from going to work daily at a job site to people finding ways to work from home, one of the solutions for many small business owners has been to hire virtual assistants and other workers to work in virtual office settings. Virtual employees are an excellent way to expand your business and get assistance with the various tasks needed to successfully run a business; from office assistants to sales associates, virtual offices are a way to keep overhead down. However, one of the challenges to this business structure is staying organized and employees on-task.
1. Use Virtual Calendars
Many office programs offer virtual calendars that can be utilized by groups. One way to manage your virtual employees is to schedule tasks and assignment deadlines using this technology. A virtual calendar is one way effectively conduct project management. It allows all parties involved know what their deadlines are and what tasks are needed to complete their assignments on time.
2. Have Regular Staff Meetings
One of the things that many virtual offices suffer from is lack of communication between staff members. Working in a virtual office can be somewhat isolating for staff because they do not have the regular interaction with other staff members. You can use virtual meeting technology that allows your staff to see each other on the screen and use chat functions to ask questions or participate in a meeting agenda. It is also helpful to have regular staff meetings in order to announce upcoming important events. Additionally, virtual staff meetings help make the working environment more “real” for staff members.
3. Assign Deadlines
Many people find it hard to work without hard deadlines and an idea of specific expectations and metrics to determine success. When you assign tasks, include hard deadlines for completion. If it is a large task that you are assigning, assign benchmark milestones that break the assignment into smaller manageable segments.
4. Utilize Email
Email is an excellent method of regular communication for virtual office members. Daily or weekly emails that outline deadlines and tasks are helpful to keep employees on track and aware of tasks and expectations. It is important to monitor email regularly in order to answer questions or address issues that may come up across the work day to help virtual employees with their assignments.
5. Utilize Chat Technology
Another method of communicating with your virtual employees is to utilize chat functions that may be available to you. Have regular office hours scheduled in which you expect your employees to be available for you to talk to and for you to be available to answer any questions they may have or to offer clarification on assignments. Encourage your staff to talk to you in order to avoid misunderstandings or miscommunication that lead to wasted time, effort and money.
Running and working in a virtual office definitely has advantages over the traditional office. In many cases, business owners are able to save money by not having to provide office space and access to technology that virtual staff members provide on their own. While working in a virtual office can provide many benefits of freedom for employees, it is important not to forget that you are still running a business and have certain expectations and needs for professional conduct. Provide venues for staff to communicate with you and each other regularly, be clear about assignments and deadlines and be willing and flexible to address issues that may come up while staff members are completing their assignments.
About the Author: Stacy Gianakura writes for Brainloop, a company specializing in secure document sharing and online collaborative solutions
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5 Sales Techniques for Small Businesses
Every small business’ lifeblood is sales, regardless of the product or service it provides. Contractors need customers. Retailers need customers. Architects, landscapers, glaziers, salons, sports bars, graphic designers, and antique shops all rely on local, regional, and even national consumers to stay in business.
With so much competition, small businesses must take advantage of every opportunity to increase sales and expand their customer bases. With an expanding customer base come more retained customers. Retained or repeat customers often are the difference between existence and extinction.
Because there’s no magic bullet, small businesses must take a multi-pronged approach to sales. Even without a master’s degree in business, the basic techniques are accessible and fairly easy to implement:
Cold Calling
No one likes this technique, but it gets results. If it didn’t work, no business would ever use it. Though cold calling is typically associated with insurance salesmen and stock brokers, contractors use it as well. Reaching out to the general public one phone call at a time might seem like a waste of effort, but one happy paying customer builds a bridge to more happy paying customers. During a cold call, a business can grab a person’s attention, and inexpensive promotional items can lead to big results.
Enticements and Promotions
Customers love getting good deals. The success of two-for-one deals, buy-one-get-one programs, free promotional items, or just saving a significant percent makes customers feel they really are getting more for less. In fact, the cliche “the more you buy, the more you save” is rooted in this phenomenon. Simply promising customers a token gift for just visiting an establishment results in more sales.
Internal Analysis
Few business owners care for going over monthly reports. Even fewer will actually assess those monthly figures meaningfully. However, this little-used technique has huge sales potential. Business owners who keep in the know about the intricacies of their operations will realize more net sales than those who don’t make the commitment. Identifying trends takes out a lot of guesswork out of the sales equation.
Talk Up Your Sales
Sales is as much of an art as a science. It’s using a combination of experience, gut instinct, business analytics, and industry knowledge to make a sale. Three things are paramount to getting more customers to commit: attitude, due diligence, and demeanor. The first is acting as though business is thriving. Customers won’t tolerate begging. The second is knowing your customers’ business well enough to speak the jargon. The third is not using negative language during any portion of the sales presentation.
Incorporating Technology
Tablet computers aren’t just for reading digital books and playing games on the go. Using social media to reach more customers is one way to break down geographic barriers. Technology can be a small business’ best sales weapon if used correctly, and is increasingly necessary for any business to stay afloat as more and more consumers and clients do their shopping and conduct their business online.
By using a multifaceted approach, small businesses can grow and prosper for years to come. Even big companies can’t afford to overlook multiple methods of bolstering sales, especially when it comes to learning how to use new communication technologies to connect with more customers. Small businesses have little to lose and everything to gain by using all avenues available to support their sales.
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5 Credit Card Processing Must Knows
Here are 5 critical questions you must ask your current or prospective processor to make sure that you are not getting completely ripped off! It’s hard enough out there folks, you don’t need to give money away.
1. What pricing model am I on? Tiered (Bundled) or Interchange Plus (Pass Through)?
- If they say tiered, move on to the next processor. This pricing model is the most costly.
- If on Interchange, you will receive your proper credits from the Durbin Amendment and exchanges, unlike with Tiered pricing.
- Also, if the processor does offer Interchange Plus, what is the markup? This is the one portion cost that can be negotiated. Processors may hide exorbitant processing markups within this pricing such as their transaction fee and their rate.
2. Do you have an early termination fee/policy? What is it?
- Contract terms will likely be in 1-3 year increments. Should you terminate your contract early, you may be susceptible to a flat fee of say $300.00. In some cases, the processor may take the average processing income they made off you in the previous 3 to 12 months and multiply that by the number of months that you have remaining on your contract.
- If you are already on a tiered pricing model and you have a low flat fee to terminate your contract, do it. You’ll make up the loss in no time by switching to an Interchange Plus pricing model with a low processor markup.
3. Do you rent your equipment or sell it?
- This is a big one. Many processors will try lease you a credit card machine for a low flat rate of $30 per month. The problem is that you may have to sign a 3 to 5 year lease when the unit sells for only $100.00!
- It’s always better to purchase equipment rather than leasing it.
- Also, do not buy proprietary leasing equipment that will only work with a particular processor. In the event that you want to change processors in the future, you want to make sure that you have a compatible setup and don’t have to buy all new equipment.
4. How long are my rates good for?
- Processors may coax you in with great rates, but what they fail to tell you is that the rates may increase in a few months. Once the magical hour of midnight hits on your last contract day your “real” rates will kick in and there will be nothing that you can do about it.
5. What are your rates?
- It’s best if you are in the driver seat. Get organized and create a spreadsheet before you start making calls to processors.
- Research what rates are acceptable per your industry and come up with a list of demands for your processors.
- Let them know what your terms are. The following items must be on your demand list.
- I will only consider interchange pass through
- Give me your best rate up front as you will only have one opportunity to do so
- I will not lease my equipment
- I will not pay an early termination fee
About the author: Jason Ezzo helps businesses save an average of 45% on credit card processing services at CardFellow.com. CardFellow is a free Web site that allows businesses to receive multiple interchange plus quotes from leading processors instantly. We’re ready to help you keep your credit card processing fees to an absolute minimum.
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