Author Archive

Today's Cool Tool is all about  improving website conversions. That's when people who visit your website sign up to receive your newsletter or ezine or whatever else you send them so that you can keep in touch, keep marketing to them and ideally sell your products and service to them.

The 5-Minute Conversion Health-Check Scorecard is a simple 20 question YES or NO Questionnaire that you can complete in 5 minutes or less that lets you know where your website landing page(s) may be letting you down.  

The great thing is that it comes with a simple, easy to follow 12 step rehab program for what to do about it.   I hope you enjoy the article and good luck with your website rehabilation program.  You can get the full article and questionnaire here. 

How does your website stack up?  We'd love to hear what you learn and how it improves your website effectiveness. 

I It was a busy week in the Networking World Office last week.  We launched our new 12 week social media implementation program. I'm really excited about this because we're not just teaching participants how to use particular social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogging etc). Far more important I'm going to be working with participants over a 12 week period (and beyond) to plan, implement and test and measure a social media strategy for their business.. If it sounds like something that you'd like to do there are still two spots left  for the program that starts on Wednesday.  you can check out the Social Media Implementation Program here

We also released 150 places in the pre-launch version of the new Strategic Alliance Success Good Karma Alliance. If you are a small business owner and you want to be part of a team of like minded people working together to help and support each other. Oor if  you are passionate about helping small business owners succeed then there could be a spot for you in the Alliance.  Check out the SAS Good Karma Alliance here.

Plus if you're in Melbourne and you want to spend a fun couple of hours with great company coming up with creative strategic alliance ideas for your business make sure you book into the next Business Mum's Dinner on 2nd September.

Finally here are my top 5 favourite  Blog posts and videos from last week.  Whether you are looking for networking tips, alliance ideas or how to find those elusive business connections using social media there's something for everyone.   ENJOY!

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This week's question came from Jessica and it's a VERY important question every business owner needs to know the answer to.

Jessica asks
"With a small business, I don't have time to constantly monitor twitter for what people are saying about my business. I. e. When someone twitters something negative about Vodaphone there is someone monitoring to counter the criticism all the time. I don't have these resources, so is there a risk in using twitter where being time poor means not having the time to address any negative comments and therefore no one to counter twitterers false or damaging comments (if they choose to make them)?"

 Unfortunately what many business owners don't realise is  that it doesn't matter whether you have a Twitter account or not, people can still make false or damaging comments about your business.  The good thing is that they can also rave about you, and they can ask their friends for recommendations that might be relevant to you.

The risk with not using Twitter is that you don't see the false or damaging comments, or the positive ones, or the ones that could bring you business. So you can't do anything about them.

And it takes less than 5 minutes a day to monitor what is being said on Twitter to see if people are talking about your business or about things that are important to your business.

 I ran a test through my demo account, which has no friends and no followers,  to show you what I mean. See what happened ...

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  We saw it happen in the debate between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott.The worm went up whenever either speaker presented a strong, well articulated policy direction and down every time they indulged in a bit of knocking the other side. Yet how many political adverts from both sides of the fence are full of what the other side has either done wrong or is going to do wrong?

Imagine if we did that in marketing? No accurate statements about what the product or service contains and will do for you, no benefit statements, no testimonials,   no really strong guarantees...  just a rant about how bad the competitions products and services are.  Oh and some bonuses thrown in.  but will you receive them or will they be out of stock by the time your products and services are delivered?  

  When was the last time you asked your clients or potential clients for feedback? How long is it since you asked them: What do they want? What they think about your products and services?  What they would like you to be doing more of better or differently?  What would they like more information about? What new products, services, varieties, flavours etc would they like you to produce?

Market research and knowing your audience has never been more important than in the era of social media.  If you're not communicating with your clients and potential clients you can guarantee it someone else will be!

Today's Cool Tools are three simple and mostly free tools to survey your clients and potential clients (all three have both free and upgraded options).  We use all of them at Networking World. Read the rest of this entry »

I had a great time talking about SMART Networking and creating WIN WIN alliances at Manningham Business Womens Network and  Womens Business Network in Ballarat last week. Thanks to both groups for making me so welcome.  Plus it was a busy week catching up with all the follow up from ABITE the week before. 
 This week I’m focussed on:

1. Information sessions for the new Networking World Strategic Alliance Success Good Karma Alliance.  Learn more here

2. Finalising the details for the twelve week SMART Social Media for Busy Business Owners Program.  Watch out for more information tomorrow!

Not a lot of  time for reading but I did manage to find 5 articles that I think are really worth a look. Read the rest of this entry »

 

Networking is all about building quality relationships but how many times have you had a coffee meeting that goes absolutely nowhere? 

You know how it is … an hour wasted while the other person tells you all about themselves and their business with no mention of how they may be able to help you.. Or worse still they try to sell you something whether or not you are even in the market for their products or services.

Or perhaps you meet in the hope of creating a strategic alliance, you agree that you may be able to refer business to each other, but nothing ever happens.

And then there are the ones who are there to pick your brains and you find yourself in free consulting mode.. “Hang on a second” you find yourself thinking, “My clients pay me for this information and I am buying you coffee while I give it to you for free.  What is wrong with this picture? “

If any of this sounds familiar then you may enjoy Brenda's SMART coffee Recipe

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I was just reading a promotion for a Networking Event: "you will meet at least 50 people! Bring lots of business cards and come prepared with a 30 second introduction about you and your company. " Now I have to confess that that sound to me like one of my networking nightmares.. Second only to cocktail style party events where everyone knows everyone (except me) and I find myself hiding in a corner talking to the only other person who doesn’t know anyone and slinking off home as early as possible. Not exactly a great investment of time or money. Read the rest of this entry »

Many small business owners approach networking with a plan that typically looks something like: “Attend one networking event a week and connect with five people at each to create a quality relationship” But which people do you want to meet and why...We recommend you network with your strategic plan clearly in mind.  Networking is simply a strategy to help you achieve your business goals  - it is not an end in itself. Knowing clearly what you want to achieve in your business is a critical first step in SMART networking and one great time to get your SMART networking plan in order is at the start of the new year.. So lets get started…  Here are three simple steps to creating a SMART Networking Plan Read the rest of this entry »

1. Xmas parties Christmas parties and celebrations are a fantastic opportunity to develop your network as long as you remember “networking is NOT about making a sale”.  Nobody wants to be sold to at any networking event and even less at a Christmas party. But now is the time to show genuine interest in the people you meet.  How has business been over the past 12 months?  Are they thinking of doing anything new or different in the new year?  Is there any way you can help?  Perhaps there are ways that you can work together to develop both your businesses in 2010? Read the rest of this entry »