Michael Grosheim : Tshirt, Jeans & Tourettes

Poor communication is worse than no communication. If you are providing information to your audience through your website, blog and social media that is misleading, unimportant or unwanted, you run the risk of losing your audience's trust and your brand's credibility.

Creating quality content goes far beyond your website and blog articles. It includes the information you share through ezines, social media outlets (like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) and in the emails your send to your subscribers. So, what is the correct way to engage your audience?

In order to create a profit by engaging with your website visitors, blog readers, Twitter followers and Facebook fans, you need to provide content that influences their thoughts and actions. I'm not saying that you need to blast out 140-character tweets geared at brainwashing your followers. What I am talking about is creating content which provides a call-to-action, a simple message which creates a response from your audience and creates a conversation.

The Internet has become a vital part of every business model. From selling homemade crafts to electronics, marketing your local landscaping business to selling shoes online, and everything in between, your business is on the Web because that's where the customers are. These customers use the Internet for three reasons; access, content, and communication. And, you should be using the Internet for the same reason; to provide meaningful, memorable content that influences market behavior, create brand awareness, deliver service support, promote positive public relations, generate leads, and increases sales.

There are two types of business models on the Internet. One type focuses on creating profits through advertising by providing niche content and using third-party advertisements as a revenue source - this generally includes a combination of article marketing and affiliate marketing. The other focuses on a website which sells a product or service. Many businesses are combining the two models by having a website to sell their product/service and a blog to provide rich content - and this is something I strongly suggest to any business. As different as these business models are, they do have one thing in common. In order to create a profit, they need a steady stream of eyeballs.

So, how do you engage your audience and drive visitors to your website or blog? Believe it or not, it is very simple. There is no magical catch phrase or secret formula to increase your profits. Your customers and prospects aren't only looking for the product you, and your competitors, sell; they also want you to communicate. People are naturally social and want to be involved, they want the feeling that they matter, that you care. Your website should provide information on your product/service and content that pulls visitors in to make a purchase. Your blog should provide content that readers actually want to read and influences them to comment and share the content with others. And, your social media accounts should be used to create conversations.

Will social media make or break your company? Probably not. But if you are using social media as a tool to engage, actually talk to your customers (not at them), you are placing yourself above your competition. Use this tool to share information about your market, share information about other markets or blog posts that may interest your followers and fans, get to know them and understand what interests them as a whole (you don't necessarily need to focus on each individual customer, but you should know what causes the majority of them to buy your product) and talk to them about them.

Many businesses fail on that last one - talk to them about them. It shouldn't be all about you; drop the look-at-me buy-this-now attitude, stop hard pitching your product and start focusing on them. Do you need to comment on every post or tweet form your followers? Absolutely not. And if you are engage with them the right way, you should have so many followers that it would be impossible to comment on all of their psots/tweets. But, you can browse through their comments, posts and tweets and write back to answer their complaints, provide your feedback, ask questions and create a relationship.

The next time one of your followers tweets out something about their personal life, for example, "Little Johnny isn't feeling well, shoot them a message back and wish Johnny well. Engaging your audience means creating a personal relationship, not giving them the hard sales pitch.

Business blogging has become a mainstream tool used by companies large and small. Unfortunately, writing great content does not come natural for most people. Blogging is also very time consuming, especially if you want it to have any impact. In order of your blog to be successful, to attract new readers and repeat visitors who are eager to hear what you have to say, you must have an action plan that includes updating your blog with fresh, original and insightful material on a regular basis.

Again, this is a very time consuming process, but this should not scare you away from starting a blog. Instead, the entire process should inspire you to learn something new or polish your abilities. Following a few steps before your launch and while maintaaining your blog will help to reduce any stress and ensure your success.

Identify Your Audience. Before you post your first blog article, make sure you understand who your target market is. In basic terms, you want to write articles that will engage your readers and bring them back day after day. You can identify your readers by answering 3 questions: Where do your readers come from; what type of content will they find useful; and, where do your readers spend most of their time online?

Establish A Social Media Presence. Social networking sites are the best marketing option when just starting out. If you haven't done so already, create an account on Facebook and Twitter. You may also want to consider LinkedIn and YouTube, depending on your audience. Utilize these accounts to post links to your blog posts, to engage with your readers and to establish relationships. Establishing each account is as simple as following/friending people with similar interests and talking to them. Listen to what people are saying and reply with insightful comments that will help them find what they are looking for; and, draw them to your blog.

Use The Tight Keywords. Search Engine Optimization seems to scare the heck out of some people. But, it isn't as daunting as you may think. If you have a website, a blog can help your website to rank higher by placing your business blog within the website. In this case, you will most likely be using the same keywords in your blog that you use for that site. Luckily, a blog can place well in search engine without a website. Take a few minutes to use a keyword research tool to find keywords that will help you stand out. If you choose to have a blog that is separate from your website, invest in a custom domain name that is brandable and easy for your readers to recognize.

Plan your posts. Once you have decided the direction you want to take your blog in, the type of articles and content you want to bring to your readers, pick a topic and write a few articles about it. The articles don't need to be spectacular at first – they will get better over time – but you need to stay ahead of yourself. Strange things happen in life at unexpected times. If you have a few articles waiting to be posted, you won't be running around like a chicken without a head when something tears you away from writing. From personal experience, I suggest having at least one weeks worth of posts ready to go in case the unexpecte strikes. And, if you are stuck on what to write about, there are several article websites that can give you ideas. Just do a Google search.

Network With Influencers. Once you have launched your blog, take a look at some of the influential bloggers in your industry. Take a few minutes each day to read their latest blog post and leave comments. This will help you to establish a relationship, help to spread the word about your blog that other readers may be interested in, and these influencers will be compelled to visit your blog and leave comments as well. This type of networking creates credibility and respect.

Promote, Promote, Promote. While social media is an amazing tool to spread the word about your blog, not all of your potential readers use social networking sites. Include bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg to link to your articles. Another easy tool to help manage all of your accounts is Ping.fm which will update all of your social media and bookmarking accounts in one step.

Measure Your Results. The end result for any blog is to market a brand, product or service. Even if you don't have a website, you will monetize the site with relavent affiliate links at some point. Using analytic tools, for instance Google Analytics and Google Alerts, you can gather useful information on your audience, influence and readability. This information can help you to make small changes that make your blog bigger and better.

Like any project in the business world, creating a successful blog is all about preparation. Using these suggestions will help you to lay a foundation that will produce results. The process can be slow sarting, so try to remember that nothing is an overnight success. Engage with your readers, build relationships and you will watch you blog grow!

Realistically, not everyone is a good writer, nor can they afford to hire someone to write articles for them. If that sounds like you, let's focus on a few areas of concern when writing articles that will help to draw customers to your website or blog. The goal of article marketing is not necessarily to generate more sales.

In some cases, it can be used as a tool to increase brand awareness and enhance your search engine optimization efforts. And, if your "hell bent" on creating a profit from every piece of content you write, you may be monetizing your articles with affiliate links to programs or services your are discussing.

Regardless of why you are writing your specific article, there are a few key areas of importance that you must focus on in order to draw in readers. You don't need to be a master story-teller to become a great marketer. You simply need to create an article that grabs the readers attention, tells them why they should listen to you, and provides a call-to-action that drives them to your website or another product landing page. Your focus should be on:

The Article Title. Many people will argue me on this, but it is not necessary to include key words in your title. There is plenty of room for those keywords in your article. Your title needs to be a brief sentence that captures a reader and compels them to read your article. Remember that your article will be read by a human and not just a search engine.

The Opening Paragraph. This is your one shot to engage the reader. Unfortunately, most readers will stop at this point and move on to the next article. Take this time to tell your reader why this is a "Must Read" article. Do it in a few sentences that build excitement and hits them with something great; especially if it will save them time and money.

The Article Itself. It may seem like dumb advice, but your article needs to be just as engaging as your title and opening paragraph. Some people just don't understand that and drift off and fail to continue engaging the reader. Keep your article short, sweet and to the point. Excite the reader with bells and whistles and draw them to your website or a product landing page. Try to keep in mind that your article is not a tool to sell your product; instead it is an opportunity to educate people and create conversation or "buzz" about a brand, product or service.

Beyond using your article to capture a readers attention, there are two additional areas that you should be focusing on. Every blog or article submission website offers an Author's Box - this may be worded differently depending on the site - where you can provide information about you. Just like your article itself, this areas should not be used to sell a product or service. This area should be used to tell people why they should trust you, tell a little information about your experience, and most importantly, what you can do for them. This area should also create a call-to-action which drives them to your website, blog or another landing page.

The landing page itself is where you should be selling your product or service, or should be the website for the brand you are discussing in your article. All of the work you have done this far, attracting readers through your title, engaging them with the bells and whistles in your article, and creating a call-to-action will pay off if your landing page is as strong as your article. Your article will only be as successful as your landing page, so focus on your design and plan for success.

Earlier this week I discussed how CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) effect one another. While most people understand SEO, there are a few roadblocks that can keep you from succeeding in your CRO design. Optimizing your conversation rate requires one thing; changes to your website.

Most companies will outsource the majority of the steps necessary to create a capturing website that converts visitors into customers. If you are working on a budget, break out your many hats. To optimize your conversion rate, you will need content that engages the visitor, the time to test and tweak changes and the ability to constantly adjust the way people interact with your site.

Although CRO is not an easy task, it is certainly not impossible to do by yourself. What keeps small business owners from a success CRO campaign and how do you overcome the obstacles?

Most Small Business Owners Don't Have The Necessary Skills. Optimization requires a diverse set of skills that run the gamut from marketing, eCommerce, copy writing, visual design and web development. Without a decent understanding of, or experience in, any of these areas, the result will consistently be the same. Failure.

Unfortunately, there aren't any quick tricks, secrets or tidbits to teach you every aspect of CRO. However, if you can dedicate some time to tracking down industry professionals who are willing to guide you with free information, they are out there (hint, hint: Melissa Galt and I share information about our individual expertise quite frequently), you can quickly learn the basics and have an excellent starting point.

They Don't Have A Flexible Design. I understand the financial constraints on many small business owners. If you are using a free website template, community hosting, an off-the-shelf shopping cart or limited-use content management system, you will definitely cut the upfront costs of starting and running a business online. But, if - and when - you are ready to take your business to the next level you will constantly run into brick walls and be forced to upgrade or start from scratch.

The quickest solution, if you are in a position where you are forced to upgrade or if you are just starting your online venture, is to start from scratch. There are several low-cost options that will provide you with the flexibility to design, test, tweak and perfect your website. Intuit is one such company that provides everything from soup-to-nuts that you will need, from very easy to use drag-and-drop design software to advanced HTML, XML and Java tools and options, hosting to tracking, and everything in between.

They're Not Willing To Accept The Risk. There are two things I want you to understand. First, business is a risk. Everything you do and say will directly effect how people react to your business, product or service and if your business will succeed or fail. And, changes to the way you, our your website, engage with people will not provide overnight results. If you are unwilling to take the necessary risks and allow changes enough time to take effect then your business is dead in the water.

Once you have implemented a change to your website design, your content or any other part of your CRO or SEO plan, sit back and wait. If you panic after day one or two because you are not seeing results and quickly change back, you are not providing enough time for any real results to take place. If you decide you are not happy with the results after a few days, try something new. Don't be afraid to change something, add or take away. It can always be fixed. Once you have tested different plans pick the one that works best, stick with it for a while and test it again in the future - maybe a month down the road. Then, make little tweaks as needed.  Even if you are seeing results, remember to change your CRO plan frequently to meet the changing needs of your visitors.

Focusing On The Future. Once your CRO plan is in place, has been tested and is providing results that are turning visitors into customers, you must continue to look towards to future. As the economy, technology and the needs of consumers change, your plan must have the flexibility to change also. The team you develop to help with future changes is just as important as the plan itself.

Having a team of knowledgeable people doesn't require you to hire or pay for freelance consultants. What you will need is a powerful leader; if you are a small business owner, that person will be you. As the leader, you must have the ability to prioritize the needs of your business, SEO and CRO plans. Start by finding people who are willing to share their information for free. Look for and attend free seminars - online and off - that will help you to constantly change your plans and strive to maximize your profitability. Without a clear list of priorities and a group of people to reach out to for assistance and training, your are committing business suicide.

Let me start off by saying I am not an SEO Guru. However, SEO and CRO deeply effect the way I promote brand development and awareness; and, I have learned the hard way that one effects the other. Regardless of the debate on which is more important, any business on the Internet needs, among other things, a great SEO plan and an equally incredible CRO plan. The best place to start out is knowing exactly what each of these terms mean, since each has a different approach searching for the same result - new customers and profits.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): The science and art of creating an experience for a website visitor with the goal of converting the visitor into a customer.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (”organic”) search results.

Both CRO and SEO deal directly with your website visitors. SEO is the tool that you will use to draw them from any point on the web directly to your website, while CRO is the tool that you will use to keep them there and keep them coming back for more. Where these two tools overlap is in creating quality traffic to improve your online business results and maximize profit.

Opinions on any topic are always different. Some argue that these tools are a science and data-driven while others believe it is an art that requires talent, experience and creativity. Personally, I couldn't care less about the numbers. I am a prove it person; don't show me a computer print out with hundreds of numbers on why your chicken wing business attracts the most customers in your neighborhood, instead show me the people piling into your store because the guy jumping up and down on the side of the street in a chicken costume told them to.

Turning to the Internet, that chicken costume and your delicious recipe are replaced by SEO and CRO. And, just like a great product and beautiful advertising need to compliment each other, these two tools must intersect through search engine results, your website landing page and keywords, in order to successful. They really do go hand-in-hand.

So, how do you merge these tools as a part of your marketing plan? Instead of focusing only on increasing your search engine rankings to drive more traffic to your website, create a persuasive meta description of your site to drive in high-quality traffic. Then create a website that is fun, engaging and capturing. Your website, the content that speaks directly to your visitor, should contain a balance of keywords selected to describe your business and the needs of your visitors.

Quality traffic and keywords equally effect SEO and CRO. How you design your website, include keywords in your content and reach out to your potential customers is the foundation that will allow your SEO plan to explode with success. From there, CRO can further optimize your visitor's experience - as well as add to your organic SEO needs. And this is where one effects the other.

With an overwhelming amount of information on both tools floating around the Internet, where do you start? That depends on the amount of traffic you currently have; there are four options. If you have a high number of visitors and few sales, it is time to focus on your website itself (CRO). On the other hand, if you have very little traffic but every visitor creates a sale, it is time to take a serious look at your meta description and keywords (SEO). If you have a high number of visitors and a high number of sales, don't do a darn thing. And finally, if you have very few visitors and don't remember the last time you had a sale, contact me immediately and let's figure this out together!

Once you have an SEO plan that is driving customers to your website and a CRO plan that keeps those visitors engaged and turns them into customers, you will have the perfect blend needed for your business to succeed.

Social Media has become an ever growing, constantly morphing, marketing platform that is beneficial to any business or personal brand. However, the effectiveness of a social media campaign is only as profitable as the person running the campaign. I know I can sometimes be long winded, but I try to give as much information as possible so you can make a responsible and profitable choice for your brand. That said...

Social Media marketing is the new medium used by hundreds, if not thousands, or businesses across the globe. In order to maximize their ROI, businesses are turning away from mediums of yesteryear - television, radio and press - and focusing on thier social media campaigns. Unfortunately, there are many less than reputable companies that are willing to make a profit off of your social media marketing failure.

With a growing number of social media "experts" pitching their products and services, there are a few critical factors you must consider before handing over your money. There are four areas you should seriously consider when starting, or enhancing, your social media reach and marketing campaign.

Experience. Social Media experts with marketing experience are prepared to work in any situation. If you are a new business, expanding from brick-and-mortar to an online business or trying to recover from recent bad press, for example, a true expert will have several options to help boost brand awareness and manage your brand's reputation. The experience does not need to include hundreds of companies, but must focus on the ability to change gears as new obstacles arise.

Expertise. True professionals in any field will have a portfolio they are proud of. This is certainly true in marketing. Browsing a social media marketers website for recent and past campaigns will give you and understanding of their expertise. If you have a speciality product or service, you may want to consider the types of campaigns a marketer has worked on in the past.  And, someone who has worked with several different businesses types is probably more equipped to handle different obstacles.  A look at the portfolio of the social media marketing agencies can help you to understand their proficiency in the field. Check out their accounts in Twitter, Myspace or Facebook, their following and search engine rankings to analyze their popularity before selecting them.

Effectiveness. Your campaign will only be as successful as the person you hire for the job. Your goal is to find someone with a great track record, prompt delivery and professional clientele. To judge that person success, visit their Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts and check out thier following. There is no need to have 100,000 friends and followers if they have an engaging audience. It is very important to consider a marketers reach; and, their positioning on search engines. Do a quick Google search for the person or company you are considering and see where they place.

While there are several areas that you may research before hiring a social media professional to create a profitable marketing campaign, these are the basic "must." One other suggestion I have is to hire an individual rather than a company. Freelancers may be taboo in some industries, however, with social media they are quick to change as obstacles arise and are not held back by a company's rules.

The goal of any company's search engine focus should be obtaining the top ranks for their targeted keywords on Google. Ideally, your website and brand information should show within the first 5 results, but it is better to be on the first page of Google than to be buried by your competitors.

SEO is not some elusive, secretive or magic formula heavily protected by marketing firms. It includes some very simple steps everyone can do to get those top rankings, most of which you should be doing every day.

Some people will tell you that content is king, others say traffic is king. In many ways, both sides are correct, but what if there was a way you could conquer both content and traffic. There most certainly is, by engaging with your audience. While there are many automated programs and great social marketing platforms available, the engagement process is time consuming; it is important to remember that you will need to devote some time each day and put your fingers to the keyboard – if you follow a simple routine and incorporate some of the ideas below, that time will pay off.

Patience. If you are just starting a business, or run a small business from your basement or small storefront, expecting to become the next Zappos overnight is unrealistic. Building a steady following, growing your website's traffic and increasing income each month takes time and dedication. If you are not in it for the long haul, you are defeating yourself before you even start.  Building your business can take months, even years, so don't expect an overnight miracle.

Blogging. Every company should have a blog. If you believe that content is king, then you will need fresh, quality content on your website. Since most businesses don't update their website daily – in most cases you are selling a product or service and it is not possible to update your website every day – a blog allows you to share information with your visitors and target audience, and creates content that will be indexed by search engines. To improve your search engine rankings, include key word strings in each article (more on keywords below).

Article Marketing. Share your blog articles everywhere. There are thousands of free article directories - like EzineArticles, ArticleBase and GoAticles – which provide steady traffic looking for articles in your niche. Share your blog articles in these directories with links directly to your website. Even if only 1 or 2 people read the article then click-through to your website and make a purchase, you have generated a sale or sales without any marketing cost.

Email Marketing. With every piece of content you put out on the web, either located in an article itself, in the 'About the Author' footer or in the 'Bio' section on websites and social networks – for example, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – include a link to your newsletter or email sign-up. Allow your subscribes to opt-in to either weekly or monthly emails (or both) and create a separate list of recipients for each. Use these emails as an opportunity to soft pitch your product, but more importantly, use them to share information from your blog, information about your niche that maybe of interest to them and as a way to inform your subscribers of new products/services, general information about your company and exciting promotions or special offers. The most important thing to remember about email marketing is that this is NOT an opportunity to cram your product down their throats – it's an opportunity to connect and remind them that you still exist.

Social Media. Of all the players in the social networking arena, Twitter and Facebook excel in terms of search engine rankings. If you haven't noticed, Tweets appear on page one of Google and Facebook pages also appear in many of the results. This is an amazing opportunity to keep your brand ranking high, especially if you are selling a product or service sold by many other companies or if you are a small business offering a product sold by a multi-billion dollar company. By using a social media account, you have the opportunity to engage with your customers, actually talk to them and have the results of that engagement included in search results.

Keywords. In all of your efforts – blogging, article marketing, social media – use keywords specific to your niche and product. Your best bet, in terms of SEO, is to use keyword strings. Instead of using 't-shirt' for your t-shirt business, describe your product in a string of keywords (ideally 3-5 item specific words); like, 'funny dilbert t-shirt.' Search engines will index the entire string as well as individual word combinations. And, stop including the same exact keyword or keyword strings on every webpage. Use different keywords that describe the content, product or service on that page. The more pages, the more individual and unique keywords you use, the better your chances are on ranking higher in the search engine results.

By incorporating a few of these ideas into your daily routine, you will be creating that fresh content everyone is talking about. Will you start seeing sales tomorrow? It is possible, but probably not enough to retire on next month. Your focus in online marketing should be the long haul, creating content and increasing visitors over time. Keep in mind, however, that in many niche markets major companies are now hiring writers, SEO services and webmasters to get those top spots. If you are not willing to invest a few hours each day into your online marketing efforts, your competitors will crush you. By incorporating these ideas into your marketing plan, and working on them every day, you are solidifying your long term success.

I run into this so often, I finally had to do an article on it. For some reason, I’ve never had the challenge of not being able to charge what I am worth. In fact, I am very comfortable with my rates, packages and programs because I know that the value I bring is much greater. Yet so many creatives I know struggle mightily with this issue. This is particularly challenging for design professionals, stagers, organizers, coaches, and service based professionals. Here are three simple techniques to get what you are worth!

1. KNOW YOUR ROI: Get very clear on the benefits and outcomes of the service you provide. List these clearly and succinctly and rarely are they what you think. I urge you to dig deeply on this and really look at what your service brings at the end of the day. What is the Return on Investment for your clients and customers? Is it security? Is it peace of mind? Is it time with family and friends? Is it an environment that fosters loving relationships, great health, and career success? Detail these on a sheet of paper and keep it handy for daily reading and use in your sales copy.

2. STOP DEFENDING, START SHARING: This is vitally important. When you quote your rate, when you aren't comfortable you will immediately start explaining, justifying, rationalizing, and defending it. This makes the prospect entirely uncertain of your value and gives them the opportunity to negotiate. Instead state it and be quiet (shut up.) When you have led them to this point in the conversation by sharing your value proposition, your rate should come as no surprise. When you fail to share your value accurately then there will be a disconnect.

3. LOOK YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR: I mean this literally. When you determine a fair rate, then you need to practice stating this in the mirror without flinching, without looking down or away, without giggling, without blushing. Just look yourself straight in the eyes and state your rate. How did that feel? Scary? Then do it again, and again until you feel confident and at ease with it. And until you lose the urge to defend it.

Most small business owners can't afford to pay for a publicist. At least not for one who can actually provide results that you would expect from a very expensive PR expert. Nettie Hartsock has just the answer to help you succeed in your own PR campaign. In "Kiss Your Publicist Goodbye," Netti Hartsock gives a very detailed description on her 7 suggestions for successfully acting as your own PR rep.

Her suggestions on taking the necessary steps include: making your site a mini-magazine, linking outside your blog to other news sources and stories by journalists, building a set of Google alerts, not constraining the news, and having a Web2.0 press page.

Hartsock is a former journalist with some great insights. "Look at your site as though it's a real publication for both your peers and the media to source for news," she says. "Build an editorial calendar for all your online tools including Twitter, Linkedin.com (status updates), Facebook and make sure you're congruent in your content and your expertise."

A major key in creating a successful PR campaign is to link to news sources that relate to your product or service. By using flattery, as Hartsock explains in her article, you can put yourself on the radar as a potential expert in your field. "I can tell you that all journalists love to have their names or links to stories, surface in Google alerts and they really love to show those to their editor as well."

This is not only a great way to create a blog for your website, or to add fresh content to your blog for other sources, but it will also help your SEO. What most small business owners fail to understand is that every "campaign" - marketing, advertising, public relations, search engine optimization - effects one another. Think of it as a house of cards. If one card falls the entire business falls.

It is certainly a lot of work to run your own PR campaign. But, following Nettie's suggestions and strategy can help you (in the words of Gary Vaynerchuk) "Crush It" when it comes to being your own PR Rep. Take a minute to follow through and Nettie can help you "Kiss Your Publicist Goodbye."

If you don't know where you're going, how do you know when you get there? Seems like common sense, right? Yet so many companies go along without any kind of road map at all. Or they use the "we'll know it when we see it" method. Still others know where they want to be, but have no idea how to get there. Then, of course, there are those who do strategic planning and have their way laid out before them. Which category does your company fall into?

In this competitive era, where even small companies are selling globally via the Internet, you need to know what your company does best, who your customers are, how to beat the competition (or at least stay out of their way) and how to excel at what you do. Basically, you need a strategic plan. There are a lot of ways to create one. The best way is to hire an outside firm that does it well. Not only do you get their expertise, you get an outsider's view of your company. That's important because, while the company's views of itself are crucial and key personnel should be involved deeply, having someone there to say, "yeah, but what about this?" is also important.

There are a lot of companies who have robust strategic planning services (including The Yaffe Group's own Yaffe/Deutser) and if you can afford to go full boat with one of the best, you should. But, what if you're a smaller company with limited resources? It's still something you need to do. That's why we developed l "13 Days" - an intense, smaller-scale process that delivers a plan in 13 business days. So, there are other options out there, if you need a good plan but think you can't afford one. It doesn't have to be through us, others are bound to have developed smaller-scale processes, too. All you have to do is ask them.

How does it work? In our 13-Day process, we plan 3 days of meetings with our strategic team and key personnel in your company. Each day is devoted to a different circle of influence on your ability to do business. Day one focuses on your company, it's product, people, strengths, weaknesses and internal culture. Day two focuses on your customers: who are they, what do they want, how can you find more of them, etc. Day three focuses on the competition and external factors that affect your business. The remaining 10 business days are devoted to going through all the data, developing the strategies and writing the report.

The benefits of going through this process are:

Definition of your brand portfolio’s architecture

Identification of your constituencies and their influencer networks

Alignment of organization and constituency value systems

Definition of your and your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses (tangible and intangible)

Identification of your constraints e.g. industry/government regulations, capacity

Identification of opportunities for achieving strategic and competitive advantage

Development of a brand vision that defines the role your brand plays in achieving organizational goals

Creation of a competitive brand position for your brand

Development of a brand-driven integrated marketing and communications strategy

Creation of a customer appropriate brand image

All of these things are very important in getting a leg up on your competition. And they're able to let you know if you're going in the right direction and when you've arrived. So, if you haven't done strategic planning for your company, start now. Hire someone good who can help you. There's a plan out there that you can afford. Because, really, you can't afford not to. If you're spending all your personnel and resources marching in the wrong direction, the end results could be much more costly.

You must have content in order to succeed online and you must know how to simply and easily repurpose that content and distribute it for sales and exposure. Content (aka product) will free up your time and enable you to deliver more to more people with less effort.

The greatest part about the advent of the internet is that any single content can be easily repurposed multiple ways, allowing you to capture a greater share of the market. By repurposing you not only extend the life and reach of your content but you also appeal to a variety of learning styles - visual (webinar, video, ebooks, ereports), auditory (teleseminars, audio recordings, podcasts), kinesthetic (transcripts, manuals, tangible goods).

Distribution of Your Content. Your content isn't valuable no matter how many ways you repurpose it unless you distribute it. This is often overlooked. It is like doing a teleseminar and repurposing it with MP3's and transcripts and then stopping the process by failing to distribute it by offer to your market.

For our purposes today, let's consider that you have content (aka a product) that you want to repurpose and distribute, in fact we'll consider that you have the simplest of content and it's an article. Here are 21 No-Brainer Ways you can simply and easily repurpose that readying it for distribution.

Blog Posts - Use your article intact or break it up into smaller chunks

Ezine Articles - Post your article to ezine articles with a resource box to drive traffic

Article Email - Share your articles with your list, grow your traffic with value content

Special Report - Collect 3-5 articles on the same topic or related and turn it into a special report

Ebook - Collect several articles on the same topic and turn them into an ebook

Ecourse - Create an ecourse based on your article

Audio CD - Record your article and share it on a CD

Booklet (take one article w/ 7 points expand on each point)

Flashdrive - Create a flashdrive with a collection of your articles

Workbook/Manual - Turn your article into a HOW TO

Twitter - Leverage your article as content to share on Twitter.

Articles by . . . Create your own web library for your articles.

Traditional Book - Your articles can be the basis for a hard print book.

Video Article - At the push of a button you can turn your article into a video.

Newsletters - Use your article in your newsletter or ezine.

Signature Speech - Craft a signature speech based on your article.

Teleseminars - Create a teleseminar based on your article.

Autoresponder Series - Create an autoresponder series with a collection of articles

Facebook - Share your article in a teaser post on FB (use 3 over 2 days for best effect)

Slideshare - Put images to your article and turn it into a slideshow

Social Media - Use your articles to feed your social networking sites like Posterous, Squidoo, Digg, and more.

(Note: For purposes here an article is a minimum of 250 words and contains your keywords and is based on your topic of expertise.)

Now while I do want you to keep your comments and language online clean, that isn’t what I mean here! I’m talking about keeping your followers, friends and connects on the various online networks clear of spammers, pornsters, and dead weight. So here are some quick tips in Twitter this week to keep it clean.

In the coming weeks I’ll address simple techniques to do the same for LinkedIN and Facebook. Twitter is the easiest with the following sampling of tools.

www.refollow.com: Go check this out and follow the directions at the top to simply and quickly purge your list of followers from dead weight, Tweeps no longer Tweeting, Tweeps without a face (always suspect), Tweeps not following you (how dare they not follow you back, it’s polite protocol on Twitter!), and others. The choice is yours, the process happens in minutes.

www.twitchuck.com: This is also self explanatory and I opted for the proversion for less than $1 a month (yes, you did read that right, under $12/year). This keeps tabs on your followers and regularly purges spammers and pornsters from your following. It saves a lot of time and aggravation with blocking.

www.twitterkarma.com: You may need the back door for this (of course I know it!) This was a gift from a fellow Twitter giant back when I got started. It is only effective to under 10K followers but you can dump dead weight en masse (remember that 70% of those who climb on Twitter, fall off within 3 weeks, sad but true).

I prefer to keep my list of followers cleaned up because I am interested only in those who are going to be active, engaged, tuned in, and turned on. I certainly want to keep out the spammers and pornsters and blocking can be a full time job! Happy cleaning.

Do you have any tips for cleaning up your twitter followers list?

As a business owner, or if you are developing your personal brand, a Facebook fan page is a must. Fan pages are similar to personal pages, however, they allow you to connect with customers and prospects on a much larger scale. But once you have your page set up, how do you maximize the reach of your page, increase your fan base and get the most out of your page?

Fan pages allow you to grow without a restriction on the number of fans you can have, grow as big as you want, send an unlimited numnber of messages and updates to fans and provide a number of tools to help keep your visitor's focus on your brand.

As social media continues to engulf our daily lives, "old-school" marketing techniques are quickly becoming a way of the past - switching from the business books to the history books. People are looking to connect on a more personal level. You must turn away from the hard pitch sell and focus on connecting with your visitors and fans by creating an engaging relationship.

Before you can begin creating those personal relationships with your visitors and fans - turning them into friends and customers - you must create a marketing plan that gives you an edge. So, what are the most successful business on Facebook doing to get ahead? Their proven marketing techniques are simple.

Advertise Your Page. Just because you build a fan page does not mean people will flock to it.  They must first know about it. For starters, include a link directly to your fan page on your website, blog, twitter account etc. Show people the way. To maximize the effectiveness of a link form your website or blog, use a Facebook icon or place the link near the top of the page. If you have a budget for advertising, a Facebook Ad will also boost visibility.

Send Out Direct Invitations. If you have a personal page then you have a great starting point to build your fan base. Send a page suggestion to your friends and ask them to become a fan of your new fan page. This can be done by selecting the "Suggest" link on the left side column of your fan page. Don't be afraid or think you're being pushy. Be proud of your fan page.

Build Your Facebook Brand. Most people put a link to their website or blog on their business cards, receipts, brochures, direct mail and e-mail signatures. This is a great place to add a link to your fan page also. Put your fan page address on everything - and consider a memorable address.

Company Information. On every fan page, there is a tab which allows you to include information about your business or brand. At a minimum you should include a link your website or blog. Enhance your visitor's experience by including information about your company mission, information on products and services, and any other information your customers may be interested in. If you use Twitter, include a link here as well.

Create A FBML Landing Page. This may be for the advanced user. In the application directory, there is an option to add a FBML page to your fan page. You can also set your fan page to load on this new page instead of your wall. FBML is very similar to HTML, and with a little work, you can create a landing page that draws in more fans. You can also use this page for advertising purposes.

Add Fresh Content. Nobody wants to visit a page that is never updated. Post new material to your wall every day. The more information you provide, the more people you will attract. The information can be about your business, special offers and promotions; but, consider educating your visitors with information about your industry, another website you like or just some random information they might enjoy.

Research Your Fans. The Insights tool allows you to see the who, what when and where about your fans. It also provides information on the quality of your content, comments and interactions with fans, and a variety of tools to chart your progress. Monitoring your actions, showing what works and what doesn't, can help you make adjustments to draw in new fans.

Take Full Advanatage. Facebook has hundreds of tools for sharring video, importing blogs, creating events, conduction polls, building converstions and just about anything else you can think of. If you are stuck on how to expand your fan base further, consider a new application that you can add directly to your fan page.

You don't need to be a marketing genius to be successful in social media. Every business, product, service and brand is different, so you will need to test the waters. Try new things, be bold and have fun. And, when you find something that works for you, stick with it - regardless of what the Gurus tell you!