Think about it, WOM or Word Of Mouth advertising has been around forever. And what better medium and channel than to Social Media to harness WOM. It’s the ham and eggs of advertising. It doesn’t make any difference if your technical orientated, nitch specific, a shopping B2C or a Manufacturing B2B. You should be collecting the kind of followers that need and want and understand what you do and sell. You can be almost sure that in your collection of friends and followers there is at least 1 if not more people that need to tell everyone the latest news and gossip about you, your brother or your latest Blue Duggers.
These WOM wonders are the virtual influencers of your world. Give them something to talk about. They are asking, no begging you to say something good, new and juicy for them to spread around. They are your hidden virtual marketing team. Your online hidden sales force but how can you put any muscle to this online power house?
1) Find the influencers. There are processes and software (especially on Twitter but also MerchantCircle and Facebook if you’re watching. If you find and locate the leaders of discussions and repostings you stand a greater chance of yours getting retwitted or posted or whatever. Research people as to who does the most retwitting and thoroughly understand who they are and what they cover and topics they like. Then develop a relationship with them online.
2) Listen to them. Ya shut your mouth and listen. You need to listen and understand these top influencers. Track and monitor their online discussions. See if they are positive people or come off as negative or just plain vanilla neutral. Not everyone posts and reposts equally.
3) Find and make your advocates. Some of your best social media WOM marketing examples just simply begin with a company (person) giving a group of influencers previews to their product or service and simply asked them to tell their networks what their ideas and thoughts were and are. You will get great feedback and everyone loves to get the inside scoop first, don’t they?
4) Give them a forum or soap box. You have gone and provided them with the information on you and your company’s product or service, now give them the keys to door. Give them a megaphone. Make them special. How many times have I been a featured person in a Ning? And what do you think I do. I post it on my Facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans which flows into my twitter account which flows into my LinkedIn account and bingo their site is all over my social media sites.
Larson Notes & Satire: Your one person, only one. So am I no matter how bad I want to clone myself it’s just not going to happen. Yet WOM can seemingly make more of you and really get you into new places fast and some you would never get into without out help. People like to help. They really do. There are bullies out there in cyber land. People who have no reason to be in a social network site because they are just not social. All they do is push their way in and take over. Or if you choose to disagree with them they blast you into submission. These you should avoid.
But the good ones? Embrace them and run with it.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Why Are You Doing Social Media?
Why are you involved in Social Media & Social Media Marketing? To pass the time away or to promote and make money for your business? I’m in it for the money. If I pick up a friend or two, wonderful but show me the money.
Social Media Marketing can produce spectacular results in more way than 1 but it needs to be carefully crafted and planned out sooner or later or it becomes a black hole of time and possibly money.
If you can develop a disciplined approach to your social media marketing you can reap in the promising rewards that are out there seemingly just beyond your reach.
The key is engaging people at the critical touch points of the buying cycle; you know the critical spots you engage people in when they are thinking about your product or service.
So when you sit down how can you get all this done and done in a way that lets you touch people in the way that want to be touched?
1) Get your audience right. If I have said it once I have said it a thousand times: Go narrow nitch. If you try to be everything to everybody you will be no one to yourself. Look at your top 5 to 10 customers. Who are they, what are they and why do they buy from you?
2) What makes this group of people buy? What is special and unique that makes this kind of person buy? What triggers them to open up the check book? Emotion? Relevance? Originally? Need?
3) What is the 1 most important touch point? Of all those things what is the 1 most important point of why they buy? Go narrow my friend as narrow as you can. You can’t sell to the entire world but you can sell to those who need what you got.
4) Measure, monitor and do it again. Go on and tally up the numbers. From unique hit numbers to actual sales. Use some of that gray muscle up there in your head.
Larson Notes & Satire: Setting your tag line right Special Site Only Coupons. Special Site promotions. Whatever the mind can conceive you can do on your site. Push it, push it hard. Find what works for you as fast as possible and leave the rest and push hard in that direction.
You can’t and don’t want to be everything to everybody. Think of the inventory or the service line you would need to be providing? Ouch!
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
Social Media Marketing can produce spectacular results in more way than 1 but it needs to be carefully crafted and planned out sooner or later or it becomes a black hole of time and possibly money.
If you can develop a disciplined approach to your social media marketing you can reap in the promising rewards that are out there seemingly just beyond your reach.
The key is engaging people at the critical touch points of the buying cycle; you know the critical spots you engage people in when they are thinking about your product or service.
So when you sit down how can you get all this done and done in a way that lets you touch people in the way that want to be touched?
1) Get your audience right. If I have said it once I have said it a thousand times: Go narrow nitch. If you try to be everything to everybody you will be no one to yourself. Look at your top 5 to 10 customers. Who are they, what are they and why do they buy from you?
2) What makes this group of people buy? What is special and unique that makes this kind of person buy? What triggers them to open up the check book? Emotion? Relevance? Originally? Need?
3) What is the 1 most important touch point? Of all those things what is the 1 most important point of why they buy? Go narrow my friend as narrow as you can. You can’t sell to the entire world but you can sell to those who need what you got.
4) Measure, monitor and do it again. Go on and tally up the numbers. From unique hit numbers to actual sales. Use some of that gray muscle up there in your head.
Larson Notes & Satire: Setting your tag line right Special Site Only Coupons. Special Site promotions. Whatever the mind can conceive you can do on your site. Push it, push it hard. Find what works for you as fast as possible and leave the rest and push hard in that direction.
You can’t and don’t want to be everything to everybody. Think of the inventory or the service line you would need to be providing? Ouch!
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Driving Your Social Strategy
Social Media has come. We know what Facebook is doing number wise, Likewise twitter, LinkedIn, MerchantCircle and others. Social Media is now established enough that it is considered an actual channel in marketing programs, be it so all over the place so that is hard to get a real handle on it.
To establish your Social Media marketing and presence requires an execution of some tired and true practices to get you credibility and trust. This is your investment not so much in dollars (unless you enlist a company like mine to do it for you) but an investment in time.
The key ideas that you need to be following to help you to create this social presence are reciprocity of and open relationship, keeping relevant and commitment to the long term of the site.
When someone chooses (and is a choice), chooses to listen and follow you they are doing it with a certain expectation of what to expect from you. For you to stay on topic and relevant to them. If you digress into other areas you are going to lose them. So stay consistent above all else. Going out and sticking up a profile page does not make you social either. You need to interact on a regular basis to become a “topical” expert in your field, a go to person.
So now what?
1) Interact. Don’t blast your friends with your emails about what YOU want. Enable a sharing attitude of your content throughout your channels.
2) Advertise. Yes you can advertise on and through social media but do it topically. Know your Social Media Place. Social Media by its very nature is supposed to drive people to action. Take a roll in that action.
3) Segmentation. If you are in different topical Social Media sites recognize that and stay on topic. If you are in a board based site, expound, if a narrow nitch site, so narrow, but again stay on topic of who and what you are and can provide.
Larson Notes & Satire: So are you ready, really ready to get involved in Social media or should you be hiring me to do it for you: http://www.larsonassociates.ws/SocialMediaMarketing . I am not what I call an expert. I am an active user that puts forth the effort to be engaged in Social Media. If flows and new things are always happening. Because we are actively involved we can implement quickly trends that are working for us into our clients programs. You can be doing the same thing. But you got to be active and be a player. There are few mistakes in Social Media except 1 and that is sitting around doing nothing.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
To establish your Social Media marketing and presence requires an execution of some tired and true practices to get you credibility and trust. This is your investment not so much in dollars (unless you enlist a company like mine to do it for you) but an investment in time.
The key ideas that you need to be following to help you to create this social presence are reciprocity of and open relationship, keeping relevant and commitment to the long term of the site.
When someone chooses (and is a choice), chooses to listen and follow you they are doing it with a certain expectation of what to expect from you. For you to stay on topic and relevant to them. If you digress into other areas you are going to lose them. So stay consistent above all else. Going out and sticking up a profile page does not make you social either. You need to interact on a regular basis to become a “topical” expert in your field, a go to person.
So now what?
1) Interact. Don’t blast your friends with your emails about what YOU want. Enable a sharing attitude of your content throughout your channels.
2) Advertise. Yes you can advertise on and through social media but do it topically. Know your Social Media Place. Social Media by its very nature is supposed to drive people to action. Take a roll in that action.
3) Segmentation. If you are in different topical Social Media sites recognize that and stay on topic. If you are in a board based site, expound, if a narrow nitch site, so narrow, but again stay on topic of who and what you are and can provide.
Larson Notes & Satire: So are you ready, really ready to get involved in Social media or should you be hiring me to do it for you: http://www.larsonassociates.ws/SocialMediaMarketing . I am not what I call an expert. I am an active user that puts forth the effort to be engaged in Social Media. If flows and new things are always happening. Because we are actively involved we can implement quickly trends that are working for us into our clients programs. You can be doing the same thing. But you got to be active and be a player. There are few mistakes in Social Media except 1 and that is sitting around doing nothing.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
Monday, February 14, 2011
12 Steps To Your Success
If you are an entrepreneur, by choice or by necessity, I have a short list of important characteristics for you to look at, measure yourself and strive to become. Anyone can be a successful entrepreneur. I really believe that, if I can, you can. It might take hard work, determination and unwavering persistence in the face of real and perceived hardship but you can become a success as an independent. Here are the essential entrepreneurial qualities that anyone who is interested in great success should work on:
1. Independence. No more guaranteed paycheck. No more guaranteed anything. This is the most common denominator or all entrepreneurs. We are an independent cuss of people. We tend to want control of our future. We are the captain of our ship, the Grand Poobah of the Lodge, the Head Honcho, the buck stops here guy. We chose to become our own boss instead of working a 9 to 5 job. Now we get to work a 6 to 7 job and smile about it. We have a strong sense of independence and will keep moving forward with a purpose to accomplish something great and meaningful our own lives.
2. Visionary. An entrepreneur has a vision for the future, their future. This vision is for both short term and long term. The accomplishment of greatness rests on their great ideas and accomplishments that are out there sitting to be achieved. We are the ones who paint a canvas of a future, our future. You might call us dreamers but we put those dreams into action.
3. Persistence. Churchill said it best. “Never give up… never give up… never give up.” A very important quality of a successful entrepreneur is the persistence to continue pursuing a goal despite setbacks, despite obstacles, despite nay sayers. We might encounter road bumps along the way but at least we have a road map to our personal success and our personal persistence is demonstrated with our personal action which is followed up by even more action. . We “Never give up.” It's just not in our nature.
4. Determination. If persistence needed a friend, that would be determination. Determination is the inner drive and mindset that pushes you forward that drives you over the top. Determined is not being stubborn it’s the self motivation to claw your way to success when everyone and yes sometimes it seems like everyone is against you, claw you way to achieve your goals.
5. Creativity. Entrepreneurs tend to be curious and inquisitive. As a group we know that the name of the game is not just to fit in, but to stand out. We want to be seen. Creativity is a skill that can be learned and developed. We all have the ability to be creative and think outside the box but as a group we tend to do that more than others.
6. Honesty. Winning and keeping customers is all about being known, liked and trusted, heavy on the trust! This has always been an important characteristic of success. If you are honest with yourself and with others you have mastered this one major ingredient to becoming a great entrepreneur.
7. Self-Confidence. As a group we believe in what they are capable of. Self-confidence is built on wins, tiny wins over and over until we are capable of almost anything we put our minds to. This keeps leading to bigger and bigger wins and is the fuel to momentum. A successful entrepreneur goes after what they want with a strong desire and sense of self worth that supports their efforts and their determination.
8. Risk-taking. We realize that loss and failure are part of any business possibility. An entrepreneur is always ready to make calculated risks and face whatever consequences those risks might have. We know that to win some they have to lose some, but loosing is a life experience to learn from and not do again and again and again.
9. Tolerance. We have the courage to face failure and start again no matter who, what, when, where and how we face life. The qualities of a successful entrepreneur include never giving up, never panicking in the face of obstacles and in picking up the pieces and continuing the journey even if failure momentarily sometimes gets in the way.
10. Perseverance. We never stop moving forward. I am not saying attack, attack, attack but when we know what they want and see what we can achieve in any given situation, we know why they want it will do whatever it takes! We do not give up! There can be no real success without perseverance.
11. Commitment. An entrepreneur will not achieve success if we give up at the first sign of hard work. A 100% Commitment is absolutely essential and that means a willingness to do whatever it takes for the long haul to achieve our goals, not letting the nay sayers have their way. Doing whatever it takes includes all the things we would rather not do or don’t like to do. Not just what we want and like to do.
12. Organization. An entrepreneur knows the value of being organized. Systems, resources, time management and action plans are all part of the organizational process and are vital for success. Being organized both mentally and physically is a skill that needs to be cultivated in order to make significant progress.
13. And don't forget your sigificiant other. They are so imporatant to keep in your mind and heart. Let them come with you.
Larson Notes & Satire: All of these qualities don't mean a thing unless you take action! To think a thing does not make it happen thinking is only the beginning! You must take action and you must keep taking action! Yes you need to believe but without action there is nothing but your thoughts. Do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? This checklist is full of some of the best qualities and characteristics for you to check were you stand. If you can rate yourself at 8 (on a scale of 1-10) or better on these traits then you can absolutely be a success in business.
This is only the start to a world of self determination and entepreneurmentship, It’s not always pretty being the main Person but if you what to live by your rules and can handle the pressure, and there is big time pressure, do it. You will or might make mistakes and you need to be ready to fight thought those mistakes. It's not always pretty, in fact it can be ugly. If this is not for you, you can go back and find someone who will heir you for all your good qualities. You aren’t a failure if you can’t make a go at running your own company. It’s just another way to live.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3d our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howad Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
1. Independence. No more guaranteed paycheck. No more guaranteed anything. This is the most common denominator or all entrepreneurs. We are an independent cuss of people. We tend to want control of our future. We are the captain of our ship, the Grand Poobah of the Lodge, the Head Honcho, the buck stops here guy. We chose to become our own boss instead of working a 9 to 5 job. Now we get to work a 6 to 7 job and smile about it. We have a strong sense of independence and will keep moving forward with a purpose to accomplish something great and meaningful our own lives.
2. Visionary. An entrepreneur has a vision for the future, their future. This vision is for both short term and long term. The accomplishment of greatness rests on their great ideas and accomplishments that are out there sitting to be achieved. We are the ones who paint a canvas of a future, our future. You might call us dreamers but we put those dreams into action.
3. Persistence. Churchill said it best. “Never give up… never give up… never give up.” A very important quality of a successful entrepreneur is the persistence to continue pursuing a goal despite setbacks, despite obstacles, despite nay sayers. We might encounter road bumps along the way but at least we have a road map to our personal success and our personal persistence is demonstrated with our personal action which is followed up by even more action. . We “Never give up.” It's just not in our nature.
4. Determination. If persistence needed a friend, that would be determination. Determination is the inner drive and mindset that pushes you forward that drives you over the top. Determined is not being stubborn it’s the self motivation to claw your way to success when everyone and yes sometimes it seems like everyone is against you, claw you way to achieve your goals.
5. Creativity. Entrepreneurs tend to be curious and inquisitive. As a group we know that the name of the game is not just to fit in, but to stand out. We want to be seen. Creativity is a skill that can be learned and developed. We all have the ability to be creative and think outside the box but as a group we tend to do that more than others.
6. Honesty. Winning and keeping customers is all about being known, liked and trusted, heavy on the trust! This has always been an important characteristic of success. If you are honest with yourself and with others you have mastered this one major ingredient to becoming a great entrepreneur.
7. Self-Confidence. As a group we believe in what they are capable of. Self-confidence is built on wins, tiny wins over and over until we are capable of almost anything we put our minds to. This keeps leading to bigger and bigger wins and is the fuel to momentum. A successful entrepreneur goes after what they want with a strong desire and sense of self worth that supports their efforts and their determination.
8. Risk-taking. We realize that loss and failure are part of any business possibility. An entrepreneur is always ready to make calculated risks and face whatever consequences those risks might have. We know that to win some they have to lose some, but loosing is a life experience to learn from and not do again and again and again.
9. Tolerance. We have the courage to face failure and start again no matter who, what, when, where and how we face life. The qualities of a successful entrepreneur include never giving up, never panicking in the face of obstacles and in picking up the pieces and continuing the journey even if failure momentarily sometimes gets in the way.
10. Perseverance. We never stop moving forward. I am not saying attack, attack, attack but when we know what they want and see what we can achieve in any given situation, we know why they want it will do whatever it takes! We do not give up! There can be no real success without perseverance.
11. Commitment. An entrepreneur will not achieve success if we give up at the first sign of hard work. A 100% Commitment is absolutely essential and that means a willingness to do whatever it takes for the long haul to achieve our goals, not letting the nay sayers have their way. Doing whatever it takes includes all the things we would rather not do or don’t like to do. Not just what we want and like to do.
12. Organization. An entrepreneur knows the value of being organized. Systems, resources, time management and action plans are all part of the organizational process and are vital for success. Being organized both mentally and physically is a skill that needs to be cultivated in order to make significant progress.
13. And don't forget your sigificiant other. They are so imporatant to keep in your mind and heart. Let them come with you.
Larson Notes & Satire: All of these qualities don't mean a thing unless you take action! To think a thing does not make it happen thinking is only the beginning! You must take action and you must keep taking action! Yes you need to believe but without action there is nothing but your thoughts. Do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? This checklist is full of some of the best qualities and characteristics for you to check were you stand. If you can rate yourself at 8 (on a scale of 1-10) or better on these traits then you can absolutely be a success in business.
This is only the start to a world of self determination and entepreneurmentship, It’s not always pretty being the main Person but if you what to live by your rules and can handle the pressure, and there is big time pressure, do it. You will or might make mistakes and you need to be ready to fight thought those mistakes. It's not always pretty, in fact it can be ugly. If this is not for you, you can go back and find someone who will heir you for all your good qualities. You aren’t a failure if you can’t make a go at running your own company. It’s just another way to live.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3d our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howad Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Twitter 140 Letters Of Power
Twitter, what good is it. 140 letters or do you say characters? At any rate that is not a lot of ability to get your point across, is it?
Say you need a very special kind to dooger for a piece of equipment and don’t know where to get it. Tweet it out there and let the power of micro social media do its work. From your friends and followers you will get places to buy it, order it or another approach you might not have even though of and find you don’t even need it. And this can happen in the span of minutes and seconds rather than hours or needed to go to your one key supplier and take to their customer service desk.
Now if you look at my desk top it tends to get a little cluttered (like my desk) they tell me it’s a sign of genius and I believe them. I have my email account up. My Facebook, LinkedIn MerchantCircle and twitter all open. Scanning them once every 30 min to see if there is anything important I need to act on.
Because twitter messages are 140 characters or less there are people out there reading them all the time. You can use this. They are reading them on their PC’s as well as their phones. As a result of this mini message you can push out or grab in small bits of information.
To date Twitter has (only) 7% of the US population, 12 years old and over. That translates out to about 17 million users. That is much smaller than Facebook and its whooping 41% or the US population but the people using Twitter can be valuable because they tend to be more educated and more affluent then the population at large. 30% of Twitter users have a college degree, compared to 27% of the population as a whole. Additionally 51% of the Twitter users are out there following companies. Like I do.
Now the fun.
A somewhat new way a company or retailer can connect with its customers on twitter is to host a Twitter party. Yes you heard me a Twitter party; this is a party-like dialogue within Twitter for a set amount of time. The attendees use a hash mark say something like: #LarsonLeads . Attendees use this “hash tag” as the search term to the conversation thread. You the host keep the tweets flowing by salting the conversation with questions and comments that revolve around the conversation and comments. As you keep customers and prospects engaged weaving in giveaways and tweet only specials, online coupons. Some of the larger Twitter Parties can range upwards of over 700, so we are not talking small here friends. This is big stuff and has netted some companies upwards of over $7,000 for one hour of work. Then there is the aftermath where you have gained new followers you might have never had before. Again it is a building process. Many companies are able to do these parties on their slow days or slow times of the day, making them more profitable.
If Twitter boots customer and prospect awareness it is working for many companies. I’m talking about actual sales, not “involvement”. Sales that translates to real money, something to base your ROI on, real numbers that would make your banker smile.
Larson Notes & Satire: Twitter is a unique online platform that lets you show off to prospects exactly who you are in bite size pieces. If you do it successfully you will be successful.
What are the demographics of a Twitter Person?
College Degree
30% - Twitter
27% General population
Advanced Degree
17% - Twitter
11% General population
Household incomes of over $100,000
13% - Twitter
10% General population
So you tell me. Do those sound like the kinds of customers you want to have?
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3d our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
Say you need a very special kind to dooger for a piece of equipment and don’t know where to get it. Tweet it out there and let the power of micro social media do its work. From your friends and followers you will get places to buy it, order it or another approach you might not have even though of and find you don’t even need it. And this can happen in the span of minutes and seconds rather than hours or needed to go to your one key supplier and take to their customer service desk.
Now if you look at my desk top it tends to get a little cluttered (like my desk) they tell me it’s a sign of genius and I believe them. I have my email account up. My Facebook, LinkedIn MerchantCircle and twitter all open. Scanning them once every 30 min to see if there is anything important I need to act on.
Because twitter messages are 140 characters or less there are people out there reading them all the time. You can use this. They are reading them on their PC’s as well as their phones. As a result of this mini message you can push out or grab in small bits of information.
To date Twitter has (only) 7% of the US population, 12 years old and over. That translates out to about 17 million users. That is much smaller than Facebook and its whooping 41% or the US population but the people using Twitter can be valuable because they tend to be more educated and more affluent then the population at large. 30% of Twitter users have a college degree, compared to 27% of the population as a whole. Additionally 51% of the Twitter users are out there following companies. Like I do.
Now the fun.
A somewhat new way a company or retailer can connect with its customers on twitter is to host a Twitter party. Yes you heard me a Twitter party; this is a party-like dialogue within Twitter for a set amount of time. The attendees use a hash mark say something like: #LarsonLeads . Attendees use this “hash tag” as the search term to the conversation thread. You the host keep the tweets flowing by salting the conversation with questions and comments that revolve around the conversation and comments. As you keep customers and prospects engaged weaving in giveaways and tweet only specials, online coupons. Some of the larger Twitter Parties can range upwards of over 700, so we are not talking small here friends. This is big stuff and has netted some companies upwards of over $7,000 for one hour of work. Then there is the aftermath where you have gained new followers you might have never had before. Again it is a building process. Many companies are able to do these parties on their slow days or slow times of the day, making them more profitable.
If Twitter boots customer and prospect awareness it is working for many companies. I’m talking about actual sales, not “involvement”. Sales that translates to real money, something to base your ROI on, real numbers that would make your banker smile.
Larson Notes & Satire: Twitter is a unique online platform that lets you show off to prospects exactly who you are in bite size pieces. If you do it successfully you will be successful.
What are the demographics of a Twitter Person?
College Degree
30% - Twitter
27% General population
Advanced Degree
17% - Twitter
11% General population
Household incomes of over $100,000
13% - Twitter
10% General population
So you tell me. Do those sound like the kinds of customers you want to have?
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3d our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
What Could Do With A Facebook Fan Page
Do you have a Facebook fan page? No? Why not? Stop right where you are and go make one. I am of course assuming that you are on Facebook.
How do you actually get people to like your page? I started with my friends (yes I have friends) who were or had a business related connection with me. Then I started posing my fan page in various places like social media sites and as a link of my email signature line, again all business oriented of course. If you are selling in the B2C world you might want to start using it on all your emails.
So you have a fan page with a few followers
The first thing you want to do is you want to start to create an offer Facebook. That they can only get on your Facebook Fan Page. What you are doing is to create exclusive Facebook content. To be sued by your Facebook fans.
If you are also on YouTube or if you are also on Twitter (we are going to talk about Twitter parties in another blog) the same thing can be applied, but for the Facebook content here are a couple of things you can do:
Give specific discounts for your fans. These discounts will only come up for your fans and they can use it if they are fans. You can track it that way.
Have fan-only giveaways by running an unofficial contest through your Facebook page and you will give away merchandise.
Have fans submit pictures or videos. Set the guidelines for the contest and have the fans create content for your site. Once they do then you go out there and pick a winner, based of course on the criteria that you set up.
Have exclusive stories, video clips, and things that you mentioned just on Facebook. You won't post it anywhere else so for them to get it they will actually have to come to your Facebook Fan Page.
The more that your content ends up getting liked then of course the more people are going to be watching that or looking at it and it gets passed around. You are in essence making Facebook your own little VIP club room and we know everybody wants to be treated like a VIP.
So go on and create your Facebook (VIP) Fan page today.
Larson Notes & Satire: This for me will be the next frontier. Now that I have most of my different social media sites have enough followers rather than do social media wide special I am going to work on exclusives. See which one gives me the most bang for my time and maybe push a few hard earned Larson Dollars in that direction. No use giving money to a Social Media site that does not produce, but it if does. . .
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011.
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3d our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
How do you actually get people to like your page? I started with my friends (yes I have friends) who were or had a business related connection with me. Then I started posing my fan page in various places like social media sites and as a link of my email signature line, again all business oriented of course. If you are selling in the B2C world you might want to start using it on all your emails.
So you have a fan page with a few followers
The first thing you want to do is you want to start to create an offer Facebook. That they can only get on your Facebook Fan Page. What you are doing is to create exclusive Facebook content. To be sued by your Facebook fans.
If you are also on YouTube or if you are also on Twitter (we are going to talk about Twitter parties in another blog) the same thing can be applied, but for the Facebook content here are a couple of things you can do:
Give specific discounts for your fans. These discounts will only come up for your fans and they can use it if they are fans. You can track it that way.
Have fan-only giveaways by running an unofficial contest through your Facebook page and you will give away merchandise.
Have fans submit pictures or videos. Set the guidelines for the contest and have the fans create content for your site. Once they do then you go out there and pick a winner, based of course on the criteria that you set up.
Have exclusive stories, video clips, and things that you mentioned just on Facebook. You won't post it anywhere else so for them to get it they will actually have to come to your Facebook Fan Page.
The more that your content ends up getting liked then of course the more people are going to be watching that or looking at it and it gets passed around. You are in essence making Facebook your own little VIP club room and we know everybody wants to be treated like a VIP.
So go on and create your Facebook (VIP) Fan page today.
Larson Notes & Satire: This for me will be the next frontier. Now that I have most of my different social media sites have enough followers rather than do social media wide special I am going to work on exclusives. See which one gives me the most bang for my time and maybe push a few hard earned Larson Dollars in that direction. No use giving money to a Social Media site that does not produce, but it if does. . .
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011.
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3d our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
4 Steps To Better Relationships
As in the past not much has really changed. You never know where you will meet your next customer. It could be anywhere from the barber shop to standing in line to get a cup of coffee somewhere. How you choose to begin that relationship with this new contact and future customer does have an impact on how well you well and can stay connected with them. The world of social media opens up an ever increasing way for you to meet people. Rather than at the barber or the coffee shop it can now be twitter or Facebook.
So you want to be a Social Media Business success? Follow these steps to get the necessary information to nurture your relationships and find customers
First thing is to just relax. Take it slow. I really don’t care what kind of business you are in. There is no real rush. Believe me. If you are in business to stay in business for a long long time, just relax. If you want to establish long term customers you need to do things one step at a time. Do them completely and thoroughly and if you’re like me, you can’t do this fast and on the fly. So again sit down have a cup of coffee.
Let’s look at it this way, you need to act online as you would as if you were meeting people F2F. If you exchange an online business card, if you email back and forth a few times, your LinkedIn connections, you need to treat them as if they are real people because guess what? They are real people. Each one is an individual who could and can become a customer.
The next step could be to invite these new prospects to receive your email or join your Facebook fan club. The idea is to get them involved with you.
Side note here is that if your sales cycle is 1 month or 18 months don’t think that just because this is online that it will shirk to half the time and go down to 15 days or 9 months. As in all your sales your cycle was created over time and the channel you are choosing to work in for your marketing is not going to change that.
Second thing is to use the information you are collecting wisely and keep it clean. Housecleaning might seem like a never ending task (and it is) but if you want to have data you can use keeping it clean and up to date is a primary task. What you are achieving here is making your database a prospecting pool to work though your sales cycle as you would any sales prospect.
Next and here is where most people mess up, contact people in the way that they want to be contacted. That’s right if you really want to connect you will contact them as they wish not as you wish. IN this kind of contact (which takes work) you start to stand out from the crowd and become a valued connection. The more value you are the closer you become to being on the “short” list. Why not be so bold as to actually ask how someone who you have exchanged a few threads with would really like to be contacted. Talk about finding a way to get noticed!
As in all sales you need to know when and how to ask for the sale. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that just because you have online interaction you have a done deal. You wouldn’t think that if they were in your office of store so why do you think that if they are in your online office or store? If you do, shame on you! Like any kind of sale you need to know when and how to close it. Use your sales skills.
If all this seems like a lot of work, your right, it is. Success does not and has never come easy for a sales person. We are not selling snake oil here where everyone with a slick tongue and a golden throat and sell anything to anybody. So as you march down the online marketing social media path, you might just want to remember that behind all those names are real people.
Larson Notes & Satire: I started with the request for you to sit down and have a cup of coffee. Now the fun starts. Stop collecting all those names and followers for a day or two and digest what you already have. Find those nuggets you have already laying on the ground. Now go on and read “Acres of Diamonds” it’s a good book.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011.
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3d our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
So you want to be a Social Media Business success? Follow these steps to get the necessary information to nurture your relationships and find customers
First thing is to just relax. Take it slow. I really don’t care what kind of business you are in. There is no real rush. Believe me. If you are in business to stay in business for a long long time, just relax. If you want to establish long term customers you need to do things one step at a time. Do them completely and thoroughly and if you’re like me, you can’t do this fast and on the fly. So again sit down have a cup of coffee.
Let’s look at it this way, you need to act online as you would as if you were meeting people F2F. If you exchange an online business card, if you email back and forth a few times, your LinkedIn connections, you need to treat them as if they are real people because guess what? They are real people. Each one is an individual who could and can become a customer.
The next step could be to invite these new prospects to receive your email or join your Facebook fan club. The idea is to get them involved with you.
Side note here is that if your sales cycle is 1 month or 18 months don’t think that just because this is online that it will shirk to half the time and go down to 15 days or 9 months. As in all your sales your cycle was created over time and the channel you are choosing to work in for your marketing is not going to change that.
Second thing is to use the information you are collecting wisely and keep it clean. Housecleaning might seem like a never ending task (and it is) but if you want to have data you can use keeping it clean and up to date is a primary task. What you are achieving here is making your database a prospecting pool to work though your sales cycle as you would any sales prospect.
Next and here is where most people mess up, contact people in the way that they want to be contacted. That’s right if you really want to connect you will contact them as they wish not as you wish. IN this kind of contact (which takes work) you start to stand out from the crowd and become a valued connection. The more value you are the closer you become to being on the “short” list. Why not be so bold as to actually ask how someone who you have exchanged a few threads with would really like to be contacted. Talk about finding a way to get noticed!
As in all sales you need to know when and how to ask for the sale. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that just because you have online interaction you have a done deal. You wouldn’t think that if they were in your office of store so why do you think that if they are in your online office or store? If you do, shame on you! Like any kind of sale you need to know when and how to close it. Use your sales skills.
If all this seems like a lot of work, your right, it is. Success does not and has never come easy for a sales person. We are not selling snake oil here where everyone with a slick tongue and a golden throat and sell anything to anybody. So as you march down the online marketing social media path, you might just want to remember that behind all those names are real people.
Larson Notes & Satire: I started with the request for you to sit down and have a cup of coffee. Now the fun starts. Stop collecting all those names and followers for a day or two and digest what you already have. Find those nuggets you have already laying on the ground. Now go on and read “Acres of Diamonds” it’s a good book.
Remember our 3 new programs for 2011.
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3d our Virtual Business Consulting Program
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
P.P.S. Take the Larson Challenge to double your sales this year and get listed on our web site @ http://www.larsonassociates.ws/Larson_Challenge . Email us your company name and web address to get listed. Make this year your best ever!
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