Indeed, in today’s social media-driven world, having a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn profile, and a blog where you can interact with customers — and, more importantly, they can interact with you — are an essential part of customer relationship management (CRM).

To help you get the most out of the leading social media tools, I asked business owners and social media experts to share their most successful tips for using social media to help improve CRM — the top 10 of which appear below.

Use free tools like HootSuite or TweetDeck to monitor what customers are saying about you on Twitter. “I provide community management for 10 to 15 clients at the same time on a regular basis. [And] responding to my clients’ customers in a timely manner and getting good content out on a regular basis is critical to great customer service,” said Lisa Loeffler, Principal, Genuine Media. That’s why Loeffler uses HootSuite and TweetDeck, “to help manage all my clients in one place, so I can respond on the fly to their clients’ needs.”

Create Twitter lists. “I have found creating Twitter lists helps me keep my Twitter audience organized,” said Jillian Koeneman, the founder of Freshlime Marketing. “I can scan any particular list to get a pulse on what [people] are thinking or talking about and respond if appropriate.”

Store Twitter and blog URLs — as well as important tweets and comments — in your CRM system.

Use LinkedIn to ramp up your networking — and find new prospects. Patrick O’Malley, a social media consultant who goes by the name (617) PATRICK, is a big fan of LinkedIn for networking — and generating sales — and claims that this specific LinkedIn tip resulted in over $150,000 in sales (over the course of six to eight deals) for one of his clients, a company that sells insurance to other companies: “If you are going to contact a new company, see if any of your [LinkedIn] contacts knows someone there.” The way to do this, he explained, is to log onto LinkedIn and click on ‘Advanced’ in the upper right-hand corner, then put in the name of the company, and just below it, select ‘Current.’ In the search results, you’ll see names for people in that company. If someone is a first-level connection, you know them. More importantly, if someone is a second-level connection, you have a common contact. (The person will be listed as a ’shared connection.’) “You can now use your own sales techniques to use them as a reference, or use their name to get in the door,” said O’Malley.

Give your Facebook fans and Twitter followers exclusive discounts and notify them of any specials, promotions or sales. “We use social media to improve customer relationship management [by] offering a discount code when a potential customer becomes a Facebook Fan of Rosena Sammi Jewelry,” said Rosena Sammi of Rosena Sammi Jewelry. As a result, the company has attracted many new customers who tend to be very loyal. The James Store, a 64-year-old clothing boutique located in Granville, Ohio, similarly rewards Facebook fans with discount codes. Those Facebook discount codes in turn “drive new fans to our Facebook page, which in turn drives foot traffic to the store,” said Peter Morse, the James Store’s marketing director, who also uses Twitter to alert followers to sales and specials.

Engage your customers on Facebook and Twitter by asking them thought-provoking or funny questions. “One of the best ways that I have found to gain and retain [customers] is to ask fun or funny questions … on Facebook and Twitter,” said Paul Draper, a mentalist, anthropologist and speaker who runs the website www.mentalmysteries.com. Draper says that posting questions on Facebook and Twitter elicits more responses than a normal post does — and “when [people] answer, your question and your page is seen on the pages and in the feeds of all of their friends.” Moreover, when people who aren’t yet fans or followers see how much fun you are, they are likely to become fans — and are more inclined to do business with you. Draper cautions that you need to carefully gauge who your audience is, so you don’t offend people with your tone.

Use Facebook and Twitter as calling cards. Long-time customers and employees of Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan, fondly recall how Wally Bronner, the founder, would spend hours on the sales floor personally greeting customers and chatting with them, especially during the busy Christmas season. Today, employees are keeping that tradition alive with the help of Facebook. “When I see a fan post [on our Facebook page] that he’s coming to Bronner’s, I often post an invitation for him to stop by our reception desk and ask for me so I can meet him,” said store spokeswoman Lori Libka. “That personal touch, that face-to-face, is so important in making your guests feel that they are part of your extended family and you are welcoming them home for a visit.”

Respond to your customers — on Facebook, Twitter and/or your blog — in a timely fashion, even if they haven’t directly asked you for help. “For example, if you are a clothing retailer and a customer of yours has commented about a stain [on a dress] on their Facebook page, offer a solution,” said Carolyn Goodwin, the president of and senior strategist at Cake Communications. “By acting as a friend and advisor more than a product or service provider, you’ll develop a more personal relationship [with your customers]” and engender trust and loyalty.

Use social media to help customers find your products. “My company, Cape Classics, is a New York-based importer of South African wine to the U.S.,” said Courtney Luick. “As we do not have a store locator on our website, we use Twitter and Facebook to inform customers where they can find specific wines, either at a restaurant or retail.” The Nauti-Dog Company, a three-year-old retail dog-apparel business that sells both direct and online, likewise uses Facebook and Twitter to alert fans, followers and friends to where they can find Nauti-Dog products as well as events, such as its dog walks — and offers them free product when they use a code phrase.

Use social media to involve your customers in product decisions. Few things engender more brand loyalty than involving customers in product development decisions. So next time you are working on a new product or service or revamping an existing one, considering querying your Facebook and Twitter followers, as well as asking for suggestions and input on your blog, advised Scott Bradley, the founder of Rapid Results Marketing Group and an expert on social media. Then when the new product or service is released, “give them recognition for helping come up with it, as well as a discount [or other token of your appreciation],” said Bradley.

1. Use a short but informative subject line. “Subject lines, more than anything else, drive views,” stated Dean Levitt, the head of customer relations and marketing at Mad Mimi, a Brooklyn, New York-based email marketing company. “It doesn’t matter if you send the email at 3 a.m. or 3 p.m., it’s only going to be opened if the subject line draws the reader in.” It also needs to tell the reader what is contained in the email, in an intriguing but clear way, and be concise — no more than 10 words, said Levitt, so it will appear in inbox previews. So, for example, if, say, you sell photography equipment and supplies, instead of titling your April Newsletter email just “April Newsletter,” try something like “Phototech’s April Newsletter: 5 Tips for Better Floral Photos” or “Phototech’s April Newsletter, Featuring Our Spring Photography Contest.”

2. Make sure your email is mobile device friendly. More and more, your target audience is likely to be reading your email on a mobile device. So make sure the email marketing service or tool you are using will make your email look good — and legible — on a PDA or smart phone. In particular, said Levitt, make sure your email is not too wide (as it’s hard to scroll left to right on many mobile devices), minimize your use of graphics/images, and do not use Flash or include videos.

3. Keep the design of your email simple. “Write a letter, not a Web page,” stated Levitt, who, like many of Mad Mimi’s customers, gets overwhelmed by emails with multiple columns, multiple colors and multiple fonts. His advice: “Don’t use multiple columns. Don’t use multiple fonts, especially within the same sentence or paragraph. And don’t use multiple colors,” though a couple, say to indicate a heading or a subheading, are okay. “If you continually send customers emails that are visually distracting, you will wind up lowering the response rate and risk people unsubscribing to your emails.” Instead, “use a uniform style and a uniform font throughout your email,” similar to a magazine or newspaper article, which the brain is wired to easily read.

4. Include pictures (if appropriate), but skip audio, videos and Flash. Levitt, like many email marketing experts, thinks it’s fine to include images in an email, as long as the image complements the text (i.e., is relevant ), is appropriately sized (so that the email isn’t rejected by the customer’s ISP and/or doesn’t take forever to download/open) and doesn’t break up the train of thought (i.e., distracts from the message you are trying to convey). Similarly, do not include audio or video or Flash in emails. Not only can email with audio or video or Flash take seemingly forever to download or display, chances are your customers will never even receive or be able to open them as many of the major email services (including Gmail, Yahoo and AOL) don’t allow them.

5. Make sure you have something to say. Don’t just send an email for the sake of sending an email. While it’s important to stay in touch with customers on a regular basis, only write to them when you feel you have something of value - advice, tips, a special promotion, sale or offer - to provide them. Customers are busy. Don’t waste their time with what appears to be or sounds like spam.

6. Get to the point quickly. Got something important to say? Don’t bury it in the third paragraph of your email or save it for the end. State it up front or near the top of your email - and then provide a link where they can get more information or purchase whatever it is you are promoting.

7. Provide value, not a sales pitch. Similarly, said Levitt, don’t hit customers over the head with a hard sell, that is, immediately try to sell them something with phrases like “Act now!” or “Buy now!” or “Hurry, limited time offer!” Instead, take a softer approach, setting yourself (or whomever is sending the email) up as an expert in the industry - someone who knows what she or he is talking about, who is providing customers with helpful, useful advice.

8. Include links, not a novel. Readers have short attention spans, so instead of sending them an essay or novella, if you have a lot to say just include a summary or short paragraph (or two) about each subject or product or service. Then provide a link for readers to click at the end of each paragraph or section where they can go to learn more (or buy whatever it is that’s on offer). “That way you are not overwhelming your readers,” said Levitt, and stand a much better chance of getting them to read the whole email or at least click on a link that takes them to your website.

9. Be consistent. Try to establish a schedule for sending out emails, whether it’s once a month, once a week, or right before holidays - whatever makes sense for your business. If once a month or once a week, try to send your email on the same day each month or week, so customers anticipate and look forward to receiving your emails, much like a regular monthly dinner date with a good friend.

10. Proofread your email before sending it to customers. Before you send any email to your opt-in list, send it to yourself (and maybe an objective friend or colleague or two) first. If you or your friends (or colleagues) don’t find it interesting enough to open or read — or can’t open or read it properly, you have just saved yourself a whole lot of embarrassment. Similarly, make sure to carefully proofread every email before you send it out, for spelling and other errors, which can reflect badly on your business.

Bluehost.com (Click for larger image).

Some of the most common complaints among small business owners about Web hosting companies: the customer service sucked; their Web site went down or was unavailable for an unacceptable amount of time; and all the hidden fees.

So to help you find a good, reliable Web hosting company for your small or mid-sized business, I spoke with over a dozen business owners and Web experts to find out what you should look for — and what you should avoid. I also looked at five of the leading Web hosting companies and created a comparison chart (below).

Some of the most important features to look for when choosing a Web hosting company:

* Look for a good, easy to use interface

* Find out how much bandwidth and disk space are included

* Uptime/Availability

* Scalability (Can the Web hosting company grow with your business?)

* Hidden fees

* How many email accounts come with each plan

* How many add-on and/or subdomains come with each plan

* If the service comes with sitebuilding tools

* If the Web hosting provider offers ecommerce tools and support

For more information, read my article, “SMB Guide: How to Choose a Good Web Host Provider,” on SmallBusinessComputing.com.

Web Hosting Providers Comparison Chart

	BlueHost	FatCow	GoDaddy	InMotion	Yahoo
Price/Month	$3.95	$5.50	$5.59 (for Windows Deluxe Plan, if you purchase 12 mos.)	$7.95 (for Power package)	$7.46 for first 3 mos., $9.95/mo. after if you purchase 12 mos.
Setup Fee	None/Free	None/Free	None/Free	None/Free	None/Free
Disk Space/ Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	150 GB/2 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited
Uptime Claim	99.9%	99.9%	99.9%	99.9%	99.9%
Add-on and Sub-Domains	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Up to 100 included	Up to 1,000 included
Email	2,500 POP3/IMAP accounts	Unlimited POP mailboxes	500	Unlimited	1,000
Customer Service	24/7 phone, email, live chat	24/7 phone, email, live chat	24/7 phone, email, Web	24/7 phone, email, live chat	24/7 phone, email
E-commerce/ Cart	Free/Included	Free/Included	Free/Included (though SSL Certificate is an extra $29.99/yr)	Free/Included	$99.95/mo. For Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Standard Plan, which includes Web hosting
Site Builder Tools	Free/Included	Free/Included	$8.09/mo. For Deluxe 10-page Web site if you purchase 12 mos.	Free/Included	Free/Included

]]> http://schiffandschiff.com/2010/05/17/a-small-business-guide-to-web-hosting/feed/ http://schiffandschiff.com/2010/04/21/tips-for-working-from-home/ http://schiffandschiff.com/2010/04/21/tips-for-working-from-home/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:11:54 +0000 jennifer http://schiffandschiff.com/?p=662 Working from home has many advantages, including a very short commute (which not only saves time but gas) and flexible hours. But it’s not right for everyone.

To decide if working at or from home is right for you, first ask yourself these three questions: 1) Am I okay being by myself for long stretches of time? 2) Am I disciplined enough, or can I be disciplined enough, to make and keep to a work schedule every day? And 3) Can I be firm with my spouse and children about work time versus play time, and get work done when family is around?

If you answered “yes” to all three questions, you have what it takes to work from home. But just in case you are nervous about getting started, here are some tips that if followed can make your work-from-home experience a successful and productive one:

• Create an actual home office, using either a spare or seldom-used room or a quiet nook — away from the kids or action — where you can plug in your computer, a monitor, a printer, have Internet access, and a phone.

• If you are going to be making a lot of work-related phone calls, get a second line — using a service like Skype, which is free.

• Use an online calendar (my spouse, an entrepreneur who often works from home, and I use Google Calendar), so you can plan your work week (or month) ahead of time –- and can share your calendar with colleagues and/or family.

• Set some ground rules with your family, so they understand that even though mom or dad is at home, you are working –- and when and how it’s okay to interrupt. (My daughter knows she needs to knock if she needs me or my spouse, who is an entrepreneur with a home office, and that unless it is an emergency, if we are on the phone she needs to wait or write us a note, or send us an instant message.)

• Get dressed every morning as if you are going to work, which you are.

• Make sure you get up and stretch, or walk around, periodically, as being sedentary for long periods of time is unhealthy and unproductive. (Even better, take at least 20 minutes each day to do some exercise, either at home or at your gym.)

• And even though you have a home office, make sure you leave work at the end of the day.

Thinking about taking your small business virtual and having all your employees work from home? Be sure to read the cover story from the May issue of Inc., titled “The Case, and the Plan, for the Virtual Company,” first.

Until recently, server virtualization was thought of as something that only larger companies — with dozens or hundreds of physical servers — needed and could afford. But times, technology and the cost of virtual servers have changed, and today mid-sized and even small businesses with just a few servers stand to benefit from going virtual.

How to Decide if Server Virtualization Is Right for Your Business

If you are a very small business, with just one server, you probably don’t need to go virtual. However, “anybody with more than one server should consider server virtualization,” said Mike Egmont, a partner at Flagship Networks, a company that helps small and mid-sized businesses go virtual. “And anybody with more than three servers really should.” He also includes anyone replacing or upgrading their existing servers in the should-consider-virtualization category.

“A good candidate for server virtualization would be a company that is going through [or planning] a hardware refresh, an application upgrade or is looking to improve their disaster recovery strategy,” added Mark Bowker, a senior analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group. Server virtualization can also help smaller businesses better control IT costs and free up IT staff for other tasks. Similarly, it can also free up valuable real estate as a single virtual server can replace several (or more) physical servers.

To learn more about virtual servers, read my latest article, “Why SMBs Should Consider Server Virtualization.” It explains what server virtualization is in terms ANYONE can understand, and provides tips on how to choose the right virtual server and systems integrator for your small (or mid-sized) business.

Need a reason to go mobile? How about 234 million of them? That’s the number of Americans who were using mobile devices as of December 2009, and that number is increasing. And while not everyone (at least right now) uses his or her mobile device to surf the web, nearly a third of mobile/smart phone users did as of December. That’s 60 million potential customers you could be missing out on if your website isn’t optimized to be viewed on a mobile device (such as a BlackBerry, an Android smart phone, and/or an iPhone).

And contrary to what you may think, creating a mobile website is not that difficult or expensive, as I found out while researching my latest article for Small Business Computing, “Why You Need a Mobile Web Site.”

Indeed, thanks to services such as Mobify and MoFuse, you can create a mobile version of your website in a day (if you are ambitious and have some experience with HTML and CSS) and maintain it for under $100/month (or for free in some cases). And if you don’t have the time or inclination to create a mobile website yourself, you can turn to companies like Mobile Web Up, which specializes in helping smaller businesses go mobile.

To learn more about the benefits of mobile marketing and how to create a mobile version of your website, check out my article, “Why You Need a Mobile Web Site.”

I can also tell you that my best articles are typically a direct result of a great interview and my worst are the result of a bad interview. (I have also been known to kill articles based on a really bad interview. And I am far from the only journalist who has done so.)

So to help you give good interview and make a favorable impression on reporters, I’ve put to together the following tips on how to prepare for an interview with a reporter and how to conduct yourself during the interview. (Also check out my article “How to get a publication to write about your business,” aka “How to pitch to a reporter.”)

How to Prepare for and Give a Great Interview to a Reporter

1. When contacted by a reporter, always respond within 24 hours, sooner if the reporter indicates he or she is on a tight deadline.

2. Understand what it is the reporter wants to know — or what the article is about — before you say “yes” or “no” to the interview.  If you do not think you can provide the information the reporter is after, be honest. Reporters hate BS and can smell it a mile away. That said, if you don’t feel your business is right for that article suggest some other areas where you can be helpful.

3. Familiarize yourself with the reporter’s publication or news show before the interview. This way you will have a sense of how the information you will be providing will be used — and what the publication/show is after — and will be (hopefully) better prepared.

4. Once you have agreed to be interviewed, ask the reporter to email you questions or talking points in advance. And use those questions to prepare for the interview. Note: If a reporter does not or forgets to send talking points, don’t take the reporter to task — unless you want him to write something negative about you/your business.

5. Practice your answers with a colleague or friend who can give you constructive feedback and/or jot down notes. The goal here is to know what you plan to say in advance, so you don’t ramble during the interview.

6. Wait for the reporter to finish asking each question before answering (even if the reporter rambles).

7. Answer the reporter’s questions — not the questions you wished the reporter asked. (You can provide additional information at the end of the interview.) Put another way, do not provide canned responses that do not actually answer the reporter’s question. Reporters HATE that. If you are uncomfortable answering a question, ask the reporter if you can get back to him or her via email or be honest and say you are uncomfortable answering that question or don’t have an answer. (If you go this route, though, be prepared for the reporter to ask you why.)

8. Be prepared for spontaneous questions — and don’t panic when a reporter asks you something that wasn’t included in his or her talking points. You know your business better than anyone. Look at spontaneous or open-ended questions as a way to educate your audience and/or provide an interesting anecdote that readers or viewers can relate to.

9. Do not ask the reporter to send you a draft of the article before it is published. She won’t. That said, it is perfectly OK to ask to be sent a copy or a link to the article as soon as it is published.

10. Thank the reporter for her or his time and let him know how best to reach you should he have follow-up questions or would like you to clarify something you said.

A final post-interview tip: Do not pester the reporter after the interview has been concluded. To make sure you are notified when the article comes out, set up a Google Alert in advance with your and/or your company’s name and the name of the publication so you will know when the article is published (at least online). If the interview is for a print only publication or a TV segment that will not air online, and it’s past the date the reporter thought the feature would be published or aired, send the reporter a short email with the subject header “Following up: [Name of Article]” and then in the body copy politely inquire what the publication or air date is.

Indeed, according to studies conducted by Forrester Research, having an SEO video on your e-commerce site increases your odds of showing up on the first page of Google in an organic search dramatically — more than 50 times greater than if you just had text on the page. Not only can a good product or promotional video increase your Google ranking, it can increase your sales. Just ask Zappos, which recently revealed that it typically sells between six and 30 percent more merchandise when a product also includes a descriptive video.

But it’s not just large companies that are benefiting from video. HudsonGoods.com, an online furniture store that specializes in vintage-style, environmentally friendly pieces, saw a 25 percent increase in sales after owner Karl Miller added videos to the site (and to the Hudson Goods blog). And Miller is far from alone.

However, simply embedding a video on your e-commerce site is no guarantee of success. Indeed, a bad video (one that bores viewers, has bad production values or is unrelated to your products or company) can do more harm than good.

To learn how you can create a great SEO video on a small budget, check out my latest article for SmallBusinessComputing.com — a fantastic resource for small and mid-sized business owners — titled “How to Boost Sales with SEO Video.”

Beyond that, the book must tell a great story. So I want to know about/will research how this business, product, or service came to be; the people who made it happen (and helped it to grow); how this business, product, or service has evolved; and how it has impacted peoples’ lives — the way they work or the way the shop or the way they live.

And I know a great story must feature interesting characters. That’s why I plan on not only including my own research and observations but filling the book with humorous and/or insightful first-person anecdotes from the people who really know that business, product, or service, which will really grab readers’ attention, make them say “Wow! I didn’t know that. How very interesting,” and start conversations.

(To get an even better idea of the kind of book I want to write, check out The Perfect Store: Inside eBay by Adam Cohen, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World by Dan Koeppel, and The Emperors of Chocolate by Joel Glenn Brenner.)

My problem — and where I could use your help: What should I write about?

So… If you know of a business, product, or service (NOTE: This is not about stroking some entrepreneur’s ego) with an interesting story to tell, which has not been written about or written about recently or by more than one person, that you can envision as a book (as opposed to just an article, though I hope to get some articles out of this project as well), let me know by leaving me a comment (below) OR by sending me an email at jennifer [at symbol] schiffandschiff [dot] com.

Note:  While I write about technology in my articles for SmallBusinessComputing.com, Ecommerce-Guide.com, and EnterpriseStorageForum.com, I am not interested in dedicating a book to the discussion of a highly technical product or service or business, i.e., something that would require me and my readers to have or get an advanced degree to really understand whatever it is.

Thanks for your help. I look forward to hearing from you.

Five Strategies for Attracting New Customers

1. Think locally

2. Blog, blog, blog

3. Make Facebook your friend

4. Become an expert

5. Use affiliate marketing

To learn more about each strategy — and how companies like Jet City Devices, Hudson Goods, Shopmamie.com, Whiner & Diner Eco-Chic Pet Accessories, and Koa Coffee Plantation used them to find new customers and increase sales — read my article, “How Small Businesses Can Attract New Customers” on SmallBusinessComputing.com.

Have a customer acquisition or marketing strategy you’d like to share? Leave me a comment.