marketing – Page 8 – Michele Christensen

Using Facebook as your Facebook business page

If you use Facebook for business, you’ve probably heard about the feature they introduced a few months ago that lets you use Facebook as your page. For example, instead of using Facebook as Michele Christensen I can use it as Michele Christensen, Business Strategist. Any comments I make, things I like, content I share, etc all are attributed to my page name not my personal name. At first, I didn’t think much of this feature but now that I’m fully using it I think it is genius. This ability to change how you use Facebook allows you to do some great things.

First, it allows you to separate your business and personal use of Facebook. For some business owners, there’s a lot of overlap between their personal and business use. For me, I the two worlds only have a little bit of intersection. On my personal page, I post the not-so-interesting minutiae that my friends and family are interested in, and just once or twice a year I might post a business item if it would seems relevant. On my business page it’s just the opposite – almost all business with a little bit of personal news tossed in for interest. Being able to do almost all of the same functions as your page instead of your profile lets you pick how much your two Facebook circles overlap.

Second, you can like other business pages as your page now. This is great because I can keep my personal likes – restaurants, vacation spots, causes I’m involved with, etc. on my personal page and my business page can like businesses that I’m interested in. It’s great to be able to focus exclusively on business or personal when I’m looking at my news feed. It’s also a great way to share with your fans the businesses you think warrant a like.

Third, you can comment, like, post and share all under the name of your page which means great exposure for your page just for doing what you would do anyway. If you’ve made an interesting comment, someone can click right over to your page and see your professional presence rather than pictures of your pets and last vacation.

I’m probably more in favor of separating personal vs. business use of Facebook than a lot of people are but I’m sure there’s loads of ways for anyone with a business page to benefit from this new feature. How do you use this feature? Do you think it’s important to separate your personal and business use of Facebook?

Why I love my email newsletter service

Today is the first post of many on services that I recommend for your solopreneur business. I’ll also be introducing a brand new resource that will allow you to get a comprehensive listing of all the products and services I use. Today I’ll tell you about the email newsletter service I use and why I love it. If you want to get on my email newsletter and test the service I use for yourself, use the signup box at the right.

I’m going to start by assuming you already know the value of an email newsletter for your business. If you’re not familiar with how an opt-in email newsletter can benefit you, stay tuned because I’ll be discussing that in future posts. If you want to have a newsletter, than you need a newsletter service. Don’t try to do it from an email provider like Outlook, Gmail or from the email address provided by your hosting account. You’ll save the service fee, but in the long run it will probably cost you money because you’ll have to handle things like subscribe and unsubscribe requests by hand. Since I’m committed to giving you good information for you business I feel compelled to tell you that not using a service makes a poor impression as well.

I use Aweber for my email newsletter service. I’ve been with them for over a year, and I’m very happy with the service. They do well with the basics like stats, reports, subscribe and unsubscribe requests, social media blasts, list segments, web forms, etc but that’s not why I love the service as much as I do. On top of the basics, there are 2 things that make Aweber stellar in my opinion.

First, they have a strong anti-spam stance that is woven throughout the entire customer experience. It’s not that you get one anti-spam message in your introductory materials and then it’s done. They obviously value preventing spam greatly so they do all sorts of things to encourage you not to spam and to make sure you don’t do it accidentally. Numerous times, I’ve been added to a newsletter by someone who assumed because they had my email address it was okay to add me to a newsletter and this has never happened to when the sender used Aweber. When I’ve done live events, I manually enter the names of people who fill out a form stating they want my newsletter and even in that situation the software reminds you to only send to people who want you to.

Second, they have great customer service. Their online information base is great, but when you need a person you call or live chat their Pennsylvania offices during business hours and get a live person right away. They figure out who you need to talk to and get you to them without making you jump through hoops just to talk to a person.

These features have made it easier for me to have a spam-compliant newsletter that goes out regularly which has been a boon to my business. Oh, and yes they have an affiliate program and yes the links here are affiliate links!

This is the first of many resources I plan to share with you. If you can’t wait for the rest of them to be revealed, you can grab my entire rolodex by clicking here! This is a brand new resource and as you can see I haven’t even set up a proper opt in page for it but you can still grab it right away. It is updated for 2011 and contains 32 resources I use and love.

Picking a niche – scary but oh so worth it!

One of the first things I often tackle with a new client is the question of who they serve. For so many reasons, getting clear on this is one of the most crucial factors in whether your business succeeds or fails. For starters, here are just some of the benefits of picking a niche:

It makes it clear to anyone you communicate with whether you’re a good fit for them or not, and makes it easy for people to refer business to you
It allows you to establish yourself as the go-to person for that niche
It helps you find the people you want to market to
It makes writing your marketing copy much easier because you know who you are trying to reach
It narrows your focus for your own training and research

There are loads more benefits, but I think just the points above make a solid case for picking a niche. So why are we solopreneurs so hesitant to do it?

Quite frankly, it can feel really scary. Especially when we are first getting started and clients are scarce, it might feel foolish and risky to declare that you only work with certain people. It feels like you’re cutting off the vast majority of options and leaving only a tiny sliver for yourself.

This thinking isn’t really accurate though…. there’s no law against serving people outside your niche, but if you don’t pick something you might not have a business. In a way, you are cutting off a lot of options in that you will no longer be reaching out to everyone but only to your niche. The thing to look at though is not the huge number of options you are cutting off but in the number left. You don’t need an infinite or even a huge number of people in your niche to build a successful business. You need some, you need enough, but you don’t need everyone in the world.

I invite you to take a look at your business and see if you chosen a niche. If not, think about doing it. If it feels scary or risky, consider the impact that not doing it may have. If you need help in this area, I’d love to work on it with you. Click here to schedule a call with me.

Leave a comment telling me about your niche, how you picked it and how it’s worked out for you.

Do you know what your website is for?

What purpose does your website serve? Do you know?

Thinking strategically is one of the most important things you can do for your business. It means having clearly defined goals, a path to get there and way to measure if your actions are working. Every action you take should be a fit for your strategic plan. Sometimes I’ll hear someone in the early part of their business make a comment like “I have to start tweeting!” This seems to be true since many successful business owners are tweeting, but my response is always “Why?” or “What do you hope to accomplish by tweeting?” If it’s early on in our work together, it sometimes throws the person for a loop or they think I’m being sarcastic (I’m not). Nothing is a given in my business world and everything has to pull it’s weight.

The same is true of your website. You know you need one, but what’s it for and does it perform that function well? A website can serve very different purposes depending on the business. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

gather leads through a form
build newsletter subscriber list
encourage people to call for an appointment or consultation
sales of product right on website
provide basic information (the online version of a brochure)
give potential customers an easy way to get to know you
provide customer support or help

Which of these functions should your website be serving? Does it? What changes would help your website function better? What other functions does it serve?

Using Facebook for business – a range of options

When I started to write this post, I began with with all the stats and numbers to support the idea that you should be using Facebook for your business. It was turning into a big proof for Facebook rather than a backdrop for what I want to say, so I’m going to start from the assumption that you already know all the benefits of using Facebook for your business. I wanted to write this post because I’m amazed at how often I hear people in heated arguments over the one right way to use Facebook for business. I’ve heard everything from use only a business page (what used to be called a fan page) to use only your profile and everything in between. The truth is, like may business issues, there isn’t one right answer and the best choices depend on the situation, the individual and the desired outcome of using Facebook for your business.

I’ve seen people get great results using only their profile for business. The two broad categories would be people that only use their profile for business and don’t do any personal interacting on Facebook and people whose business is so closely tied to themselves, their lifestyle, values and personality that their business is indistinct from the person.

I’ve also seen great results from people making full use of a business page. This is pretty much what I do. When I first got onto Facebook, it was before it was used much for business so I made all sorts of personal connections there. Since I focus on a small niche, my work isn’t relevant to most of my friends so I don’t post it on my profile. Similarly, my business community probably wouldn’t find the mundane details of my life interesting. Those people are part of my business contacts because they trust me to bring them valuable business information, not because they care about the killer parking spot I just found.

Then of course, there are myriad ways to use both your page and profile to promote your business. Some people are very comfortable mixing both.

The bottom line is, Facebook is a great free resource to get the word out about your solopreneur business in a forum where people already are. The important point here is that there is no one right way to promote your business on Facebook except that which fits you best. I would avoid the extremes though – don’t post too much information about your work to your personal connections if it doesn’t apply to them, and don’t inundate your business community with mundane details of your personal life if it’s not interesting to them. Above all, don’t make your Facebook strategy choice based on someone else’s advice unless that person is a trusted advisor with a proven track record.

Every day, do something to build your business

As a solopreneur, it’s so easy to sucked into working on what’s in front right now rather than what will help you build the business you want to have later. Always “firestomping” may keep the business from burning down but probably won’t help you get ahead. A certain amount of time to crank out some tasks is really important, but make sure to spend time every day doing something to create, grow and build the business you dream of.

What are these activities? They vary from business to business, but here’s some ideas to get you thinking:

Building your community of people interested in what you offer. This includes social media, real life and your newsletter.
Planning your next projects and long-term projects
Brainstorming
Educating yourself
Creating new products or services to sell

That’s just a few of the things you could be doing to build your business. What else do you do to build your business? How often? Leave a comment and let me know.

What to do about spam email

On the heels of my recent post How not to build a mailing list and my recent newsletter article on clearing your email inbox, I thought I’d give you some information on what to do about those pesky spammers.

First, use the “Mark as Spam” button on your email service provider (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or through your hosting account). Every provider I’ve ever seen offers a way to mark messages as spam so you never have to see a message from that sender. It’s also an important public service because your provider will use that information to improve spam filters. I wanted to include this tip because so many people struggle with getting too much email and with this one step you can help reduce your email volume permanently.

Second, if you feel it’s warranted, report the spammer to the FTC. This is done by forwarding the entire email to spam@uce.gov (link to FTC information HERE). I have done this on occasion, when I’ve felt the the sender was particularly egregious in their violation of the spam laws or they continued to send to me after I requested to be removed. The FTC accumulates this information to build possible cases against spammers, so your forwarded email contributes to their efforts to reduce the spam in the world.

What do you do when you get spam? Have you ever reported it? Leave a comment and let me know.

How not to build a mailing list

Throughout 2010, I did a lot of business networking. My efforts paid off in loads of new contacts, which was great, but not so great was the unexpected side effect of SPAM in my email box! About once a month, I got added to a newsletter without giving verbal or written permission (being in possession of someone’s business card does not mean they want to be added to a newsletter). These SPAM messages usually came from directly from someone’s email address without the use of an email list management service like Aweber (affiliate link). This meant that there was no “unsubscribe” button, and I had to email the person directly and tell them to remove me. If the spammer was on top of their email, I sometimes got removed. Often, it took more than once and I sometimes got added repeatedly after being removed.

This is SPAM as defined by the CAN-SPAM act (easy-to-read guidelines here), and is a great example of how not to build an email newsletter mailing list. It looks unprofessional and slapped together. If people aren’t opting in, the sender has no way of knowing if the newsletter is of value to the recipient of not. Only the recipient can determine that, and if they don’t want the newsletter then the sender is just being a pest by sending it.

There’s loads of reasons why this type of spamming isn’t a good idea, but the main one for me is that I’m irritated that the sender presumes to know their newsletter is good for me even if I don’t think it is. The way to avoid this is simple and not very expensive. Use a newsletter service like Aweber, and only send your newsletter to people that have expressed clearly that they want it. The rewards are huge – I’m still in awe every time I hit send that I have a community of people waiting to hear from me.

Update profiles regularly when using social media for business

First of all, if you aren’t using social media for your business you probably could benefit from it. How to use social media for promoting your business is more complex than can be covered in one article, but watch for future articles explaining some of the benefits of using social media to promote your business. For starters, it’s mostly free of monetary cost and has a huge reach. No matter what your business is, your customers are probably hanging out somewhere on the social sites.

If you’ve been reading my articles or been in my community for any time, you probably know I love processes and systems. Any time you have to do a task over and over, it pays to create a simple system for doing it. Make sure to also include an automatic reminder so you don’t have to remember to do the task. I use this strategy for updating the profiles I use to promote my business.

I recommend you keep a simple, clickable list of the social media profiles you use for business, including any you use mainly for personal use and update (or at least review) them monthly. It should take under half an hour unless you have a very large number of profiles you are using for social media. If you aren’t in the habit of updating regularly, this may seem like a lot of updates. I hardly ever looked at my profiles when I first started using social media for business. It seemed like something to do once and then the goal was to provide regular content. Once I started checking monthly though, I was surprised at how often I changed my language, tag lines, current service array and activities. I’m learning constantly, so often I take a look and realize I haven’t put my newest bit of knowledge into a profile. Your profile is a really important piece of your social media strategy, so it’s important to keep improving it.

One month is a good interval to use for updating the social media profiles you use for business. It’s long enough that you’ll have a fresh outlook every time you look, and short enough that you won’t have information out of date for very long.

When using social media for your business, don’t treat your profiles like a one-time task – they are business asset and the first impression your new connections have of you.

Want to connect? I’m on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.