Web Marketing: Moms In Business – Enter Competition, Maybe Get Free PR

Are you a mom with a business? Enter Startup Nation’s new competition and maybe get some free PR.  The Leading Moms in Business Competition is “the one and only ranking focused on those ‘can do’ moms who run families and businesses at the same time.”  Parkers Markers has entered, and so should you.  (You can vote for Parkers Markers here.)

The competition will rank the top 200 mom-run businesses across America as determined by popular vote.  It’s open to U.S.-based businesses only.

Benefits of Entering

Publicity. StartupNation will choose moms from among the finalists and create editorial feature stories about them.  “Winners of the Leading Moms in Business Ranking will be part of a very high profile list that will be published and promoted widely in traditional media such as national and local TV, radio, in newspapers and magazines, and on some of the largest, most influential websites on the web, MSN and StartupNation among them.”

Engagement. When you enter, you can post your entry on your website and mention it in emails.  This deepens your engagement with customers and prospects.  “By encouraging them to vote for you and support your quest to be a winner, you provide them with an engaging and fun way to participate in your success. This can help you create deeper loyalty and affinity, which ultimately can lead to business opportunities and increased revenue.”

Credibility. If you win, you can display their emblem on your site.  This is a point of pride and adds credibility to your business. “It’s a huge achievement to be selected from among the millions of moms in business, and your customers will recognize and respect this immediately.”

How to Enter

“To enter you must be a mom and be a majority owner of a business. You must also have a website for your business. No matter what industry, what business model, what size and stage, if you meet those three requirements, you are encouraged to enter.”

Enter here: Leading Moms in Business Competition

Selection Process

Enter by March 31, 2009.
Winners will be announced in early May, 2009.

Is it tough to be a mom with a business? Leave a comment & tell us how you do it.

-Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
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Web Marketing: 34 Links On How To Promote Your Small Business on Facebook

Should your business have a presence of Facebook? What does it take to create a Facebook page or group for your biz? What do you do next to promote it?

First, let’s be clear that Facebook users log on mainly to hang out with their friends. They aren’t necessarily in a buying mood. But you can promote your business with low key networking or ads targeted at different demographics.

Here’s my latest roundup of links to posts and videos on how to do it. I include dates because Facebook’s software changes.

Web Marketing: Polite Promotions — What’s Naughty and Nice in Business Etiquette on Social Networks

Cake made from ZandaPanda Mold

How should you promote your product or service politely on social networks?  That’s in essence Sandra’s question.  Here’s how this ZandaPanda bakeware owner expresses it:

What bothers me somewhat is that everyone agrees that it’s bad form to try to market directly, but to me it also feels a bit deceitful not to. I very much like the idea of trying to offer something useful and being open and transparent, but then pretending that I don’t want people to buy my product feels a little false or manipulative. Sometimes I’ve just admitted that I’m shamelessly promoting my website or Facebook page and please become a fan.   That feels a little more ‘honest’ even if it might also be a bit rude. What do you think?

I’ve surfed around and pulled together this advice for her, and for you too, as you network to promote your business.  (If you’re a Web 2.0 pro, please weigh in on this advice.)

Managing: From Strategy to Execution – You Need An “Actionable” Strategic Plan to Get It Done in 2009

Want a strategic plan that you can understand? Need one that will actually help you run your business? Do you lack benchmarks to see whether you’re going where you want to go in 2009?

SCORE Counselor Bob Paul teaches a practical approach to business planning. Here’s his take on strategic plans for an existing business. He assumes you’ve got a business plan laying around somewhere that you’d like to dust off and put into action.

1) Reaffirm Your Mission, Vision, Values – “Choose the mountain you wish to climb,” Bob says.

2) Review and Update Your SWOT analysis - Define your products and your target customers. Analyze your internal strengths and weaknesses of your business, as well as the external opportunities and threats that you see when you review the economic climate, the industry and your key competitors.

Life Balance: Catch It Before It Falls to the Floor

I’ve just watched a video in Stanford’s E-Corner where Carol Bartz of Autodesk talks about balancing life and career.

Carol’s advice? Don’t expect short-term balance.  She reminds us busy women that there is always see-sawing, that perfect balance is not sustainable in the short term.

“Just catch it before it falls to the floor“ she advises.  If you’re conscious that you’ve ignored one aspect — your mother, your flowers, whatever, “just go do some of it.”  If you’ve neglected your professional literature, sit in a room with the door closed for a half hour and read.

In the long-term, balance is important. Carol urges us to aim for a healthy mix between work and life over the longer run.  This clearly requires setting priorities and regular planning:  Sundays with the kids and no email.  Tuesday afternoons for followup calls to propects.  Improve order processing by January 1st.

Listen to Carol Bartz’ entire 43 minute interview, or see short videoclips of its segments, organized by topic, such as Managing a Balanced Life.   In the Stanford E-corner, you’ll find more video and audio interviews with many big names, like Carly Fiorina, formerly of HP, and Marissa Meyer of Google.   Men too, of course.

What do you think about short- and long-term balance? Share with me in a post, please.

-Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
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Web Marketing: 52 Links on Twitter for Business, with Brief Descriptions

Like a good ex-librarian, I’m going to point you to links on using Twitter in your business, and give you a brief summary of each. (If you don’t know what Twitter is, watch this short video or click this intro link.)

Here are the categories I used: Why Twitter for Business? Getting Started with Twitter, How to Use Twitter Better, Community Building on Twitter, Local Twitterers, Getting Followers, Deciding Who to Follow, and Other Links.

Why Twitter for Business?

17 Ways to Use Twitter:  A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners These 17 ways, from Dosh Dosh’s blog, are:  personal branding, get feedback, hire people, direct traffic,  read news, make new friends, network for benefits, use it as a ToDo list, business management, notify your customers, take notes, event updates, find prospects, provide live coverage, time management and analysis, set up meetings, and acquire votes.

Making a Business Case for Twitter Connie Benson’s case is:  customer relations, crisis communications, crowd sourcing, brand building and communications, lead generation, customer references, announcements, and professional networking.

Is the Entreprise Ready for Microblogging Tools like Twitter? Business uses are:  emergency broadcast system, knowledge management, training, expert identification, seeing the connectors, inclusion of external stakeholders.

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business Chris Brogan gives us: first steps, ideas about what to tweet, some sanity for you, negatives people will throw at you, positives to throw back.  Specifically “Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.”

Affiliate Marketing on Twitter: Does It Belong? This blogger’s answer is no.

The 10 ways I learned to use Twitter in 2007… (aka Why and How I use Twitter) As a news source, knowledge network, virtual water cooler, way to stay up to date with friends, travelogue, track conferences, pr/marketing tool, learning tool, as fun, daily lesson in humility and brevity.

The Evolution of Brands on Twitter. Jeremiah Owyang describes baby steps, walking and running for brands using Twitter. 

Web Marketing: Why Web 2.0 Marketing Is Hard for Us 1.0 Marketers

web 2.0 marketing

Web 2.0 marketing is messy, inefficient, slow, and sometimes painful. It requires lots of typing, some self revelation, and a vastly expanded playing field.  On top of that, when you get a bunch of customers together, you can’t focus on selling them.

Yesterday’s article in the Wall Street Journal describes “The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World.” They provide the standard outline of how it’s done, and how it’s working.  I’m now going to tell you why it’s hard.

As a SCORE counselor, I see many startups and small businesses struggling to figure out how to market online.  So I decided to take 2008 and try these new techniques myself to market on behalf of our chapter, SCORE Chicago. By standing in the clients shoes, I thought I could provide more practical advice.

I started blogging, I podcasted, I joined Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.  I created Flickr and YouTube accounts.  I created online press releases and set up social networks.  And I wrote a series of blog posts which gather how-two links on web 2.0 marketing techniques in my Online Marketing Series. I’ve written 18 posts on How to Start a Social Networking Website.

So people say to me, “I’m now on Linkedin.  I’ve set up a business profile on Facebook.  Nothing happens.  What’s going on?”

Here’s the problem, the challenge. All this requires an uncomfortable shift of mindset and focus. Take it from one who’s been drinking the web 2.0 Kool Aid and trying to adapt.

Web Marketing: 4 Steps into Social Media

David Friedman of Razorfish

Many businesses are living in the old media world, but other businesses, which already have a social media presence, see customers and markets in an added dimension. So said Dave Friedman, president of the central region of Razorfish, which helps companies build great brands by creating great experiences for customers. I heard him speak recently in Chicago. He’s got 4 steps a company can take to move into social media, into that new dimension.

1. Give customers a voice. Your customers are talking about you. It’s either behind your back or to your face. How do you find out what they are saying? He mentioned subscriptions to Neilson’s Buzzmetrics and JD Power’s Umbria. Another example which I just set up for SCORE is the CompanyBuzz application in Linkedin. But what Friedman really means is to create ways for customers to talk in your space — on your website, in blogs, maybe in your own social network.

2. Set your content free. Let customers rate your products, the editorial content on your website, your videos, your ads, everything. Fix items with the lowest ratings, the 1’s and 2’s. And show ratings, both individual and consolidated, to everyone. One of Friedman’s examples was something I had not noticed — the New York Times encourages readers to add social bookmarks to articles and incorporate the headline and first sentence on blogs and websites. The Times also lists articles most emailed and most blogged.

Marketing: 5 Ways to Get Journalists’ Emails for a Targeted Press Release

By querying PR experts Mike Keaton and Gordon Mayer, I learned of four ways to find journalists, and their emails, to target with your press release.

1. Buy contacts from online sources. (The best way, but it costs.)

Mike Keaton, the PR and Communications Director of SCORE’s national organization, explains: “you can find names and emails but you are most likely going to have to pay for them.”  Gordon Mayer, Vice President of Community Media Workshop (CMW), concurs in his post On Press Releases and Pitching, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch or even free milk and cookies when it comes to accurate up-to-date contact information for journalists. This is one of the single biggest barriers to a democracy of information, and if you think about it, it’s an outrage that contact info for journalists is so hard to come by.”

Marketing: Pitching Products with Press Releases

Cake made using ZandaPanda bakeware

“How do I reach lifestyle journalists to pitch my ZandaPanda bakeware line? Do I use online press releases or track down individual journalists in my niche and pitch them in custom emails?” That’s the question Sandra raised in a comment on my blog post Online Press Releases: Intro, Video and Links.

Contact Journalists Both with Email and Calls

PR experts I know all agree that Sandra should both do a press release AND call journalists.

Michael Keaton, SCORE’s national Director of PR and Communications, states: “If you’re offering a new product or service, I suggest you try a news release. It’s a cheap and often effective method of building local awareness and word-of-mouth about your business.” Then use personal contact, he urges. “Call the journalist directly, ask them for a few minutes of their time, and talk to them about your product. Writers at small and mid-size newspapers would probably be more apt to take time to talk to you about this.”

Gordon Mayer, Vice President of Community Media Workshop, responded to my question with a post entitled On Press Releases and Pitching. He observes that in drafting the press release, “you create a script for your phone call.” The reverse is also true, he claims. “If you put together a great release, you should also pick three or four journalists and deliver the message personally.”

What Should be In a Press Release for a Product like ZandaPanda Bakeware?