Small Business

Jan 29

I only want your business if

At this point of my business, I’m in a position where I can hand pick my clients. I feel really blessed for this and only hope that it lasts looooooong, looooong, loooooong. It’s maybe the fruit of dedication and proven knowledge but I also think social media is the right business today because of the momentum. I expect a huge increase in 2010 and it will become steady by 2012. Hoping to have Web 3.0 by then so we can all move on and revolutionize everything all over again. How fun is that?

Back to the title of this post, I’ve had to say no a little too much these last couple of weeks to some projects. Some clients have understood my “no” while others have taken this personal. I feel that if I list my reasons objectively here, it will heal some bad feelings and at the same time, it will give potential clients a clear understanding of how to get a “yes”

I want your business if:

1) You are as passionate about your business as much as I’m passionate about mine

2) You are willing to learn Social Media (regardless of your high position, busy schedule & fears)

3) Your project is inline with my areas of expertise

4) You have a genuine commitment to make this project successful and not just because your boss asked you to do this or because your competitor is doing it

5) Your project does not require a full-time presence on site (this is often the case during a big brand scandal or disaster management)

6) You are willing to work ethically and with transparency (I will not spam for a million dollars)

7) Your field/industry is new to my company and can add value to my portfolio

Your project is innovative, creative and fun

9) Your project adds a value or a service to your users

10) Your project matches with one of my communities (moms, Latino(a)s, entrepreneurs, consultants, small businesses, work-life enthusiasts, developers, young families, women, faithful, multicultural, and so forth)

11) You’ve been a client before

12) Your project will share revenue with a non-for-profit organization

This doesn’t mean that if you are not in one of the above categories you cannot give it a try. Just don’t take it personal when I say no and move on. I’ll write another post about how to select the right social media company in the next days. Slowly, this industry is taking shape and formalizing among professionals. So the jungle era of social media is coming to an end and that is good for all of us. You can find a good group of service providers who have proven results and a healthy portfolio to share.

Tagged with: accept social media projects • Social Media for Business

Jan 11

Shorty Award Nomination – Best Small Business

Community, Small Business, Twitter 5 Comments »

As many of you already know, I’ve been nominated for the Shorty Awards on the official category: Small Business. Apart from being so honored and humbled by all the support that I’ m receiving, I am also thrilled by the power of Twitter once again.
Here I am, a little Latina with a small business in Rochester, NY. Running against the producer of House, a TV show watched by 8 million people.

If you haven’t voted, please do so at http://shortyawards.com/AnaRC and I will be forever grateful. The previous winner told me all the benefits the award provided him and I must admit that I was a little jealous.

I have answered some of their questions on my profile and I would like to share my answers with you:

with AnaRC

What are six things you could never do without?

My faith, my 4 kids, my hubby, my friends, my business & my passion to make the world better for all.

How do you use Twitter in your professional life?

I recruit new clients, build communities of practice, generate buzz & research trends

Twitter or Facebook?

Oh Twitter big time

What feature should Twitter add?

It should add an auto-DM blocker. Or at least not allowed app developers to invade people’s DM box. Real business takes place in DMs

Is there someone you want to follow you who doesn’t already? If so, who?

Not really, I don’t chase celebrities. Twitter must be reciprocal. I only engage with those who are capable of con-versation.

Why should we vote for you?

1) Because I deliver tangible results to my clients. 2) As a social entrepreneur, I share my revenue & 3) I am passionate about my business

Terms you wish would start trending on Twitter right now?

#Latism #Work-Life #BeatCancer #EntrepreneursRock #MomsRock #Consultant #MoveToRochester

What’s the most interesting connection you’ve made through Twitter?

Connecting with my fellow latino(a)s, moms & entrepreneurs has been amazing. Each person brought a unique value to the table.

What inspires you to tweet?

To share, to build community, to laugh, to cry, to fight, to console, to make business, to have a voice, to build consensus & just to BE

How long can you go without a tweet?

I tweet as I breathe

Who do you admire most for his or her use of Twitter?

Other business owners who can make concrete things happen. For example @ChrisBrogan, @Ramon_DeLeon, @GaryVee and many others

Has Twitter changed your life? If yes, how?

It’s certainly opened many doors & many worlds. It’s broken stereotypes. It’s made me aware of real issues lived by real people.

What do you wish people would do more of on Twitter?

I wish people would unite voices (tweets) to build a better world. We’ve seen it happen already with the Twestivals. I want more of that

What are some big Twitter faux pas?

Well, the typical spamming, selling in your face, the me-myself-&-I attitude, building cyber-getthos, the divide & conquer approach…

What will the world be like 10 years from now?

I really hope that we can build a better world for our kids. I want a greener, healthier, friendlier and happier world in 10 years.

Ok, so please let me know what you think and don’t forget to nominate me at http://shortyawards.com/AnaRC

Tagged with: shortyawards • smallbusiness • socialmedia

Dec 08

Social Media: Online Reputation Management

Mid-Size Business, Small Business, Social Media for Business 5 Comments »

image credit to dreamsystemsmedia.com

As any business owner knows, reputation is what really makes a business. You just won’t stay on top for long if no one is happy with your products or services. Online, this is even more certain. You’ll find that there are so many sites where you can post poor reviews that it can be devastating to your business if someone decides to trash you online.

Fortunately, there is online reputation management. Essentially, you keep track of what people are saying about you and make sure that there is more positive than negative in the search results. While you can use something like Google Alerts to find out who is talking about your company, a good old fashioned search will also turn up plenty of information on what people are finding if they do a search on your company name. We often check for keywords, but when was the last time you looked up your actual company name?

With social media, you can help recover some of the rankings. There are two main ways to accomplish this:

Replace it with social media. This is the first method where you would use your company name in tweets or other public forums. Since Google loves these instant update, it will likely pick them up faster and they will rank ahead of the poor reviews, particularly if the review wasn’t at the top of the page, anyway.

Be sure to include your keywords and the name of your business. In many cases, you will want to include the name of the main business owner, as well, which may well be your own name. This is because some people will look for the business, others will look for your name, instead, it really depends on how they know you.

Create links for existing pages. If you have a website and articles or other smaller sites spread out around the internet, you can use social media to build these up so they rank higher than poor reviews or unhappy blog posts about you.

Don’t worry, even if you don’t have a huge web presence, social media can be used, along with bookmarking, to bump positive reviews up to the top positions in Google, effectively knocking any unpleasantness off the front page or two. It does take some work, but this is why you need to be very aware of what is going on and what people are saying about you, as you can start fixing things as soon as it happens.

Online reputation management is a great use for social media, particularly if you already have a good following.

Tagged with: Business • online reputation • reputation management • Social Media

Dec 02

The Real Cost of Social Media

Small Business 23 Comments »

The cost of social media

Everyone says that social media is free and if you just take a quick look, it certainly seems to be. After all, you don’t need to pay anything to sign up for most social network sites and you can enjoy unlimited hours of interconnection for nothing. That doesn’t mean it’s actually free, though. In fact, social media does cost something, your time.

As they say, time is money and when it comes to promoting your business, that really is true! The time you put into social media is a cost and for every minute you spend working on networking, you aren’t working on something else in your business. While the benefits of networking online can be huge, it does take time to see those result and in the meantime, you aren’t being paid for those hours of working on connecting with worthwhile people.

There are, of course, monetary costs, as well, particularly if you have hired someone to take on some of the networking duties for you. Keep in mind that even big companies set aside thousands of dollars for their social networking budgets. You might not need that much, but it is something to keep in mind when planning your marketing budget.

It’s important to understand this ahead of time even before you start your social media strategy, because you’ll need to be consistent with social media, even when it seems that there aren’t many results. It can take months to see the benefits and during that time, you will need to stay on top of things, spending time each day to respond to messages and communicate with other business owners, potential clients, and gurus in the niche you’re interested in. Once you’re prepared to do this, you should be good to go.

Social media isn’t free. You will be paying with your time, even if you do everything yourself. When you’re on Twitter or LinkedIn, you aren’t working on client assignments, so that means you aren’t pulling in money, usually. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be interested in social media or that you should consider dropping it. It merely means that you should be aware of the cost when planning your networking campaign. Make sure you take into consideration how much time will be lost from other areas of your business while you are working on social media.

Tagged with: Business • cost • Social Media • social networking • time