Social Media – A Bakers’ Dozen Questions to Ask the “Expert”

Busy business owners BEWARE! There are sharks in the waters of the social mediasphere! As it was in the beginning with SEO, as it is now with the so-called “experts”, “consultants”, and “concierges” all touting their success and ability to make your life easier, to the tune of $50 to $100 per hour.

Yes, most small business owners wear MANY hats working in the business more than on the business. That’s why it’s wading in the pool with so many hungry sharks is so dangerous. I am not by any means saying there aren’t solid social media folks out there, I’m just saying you need to be careful. There are self-proclaimed “gurus” that are clearly not educated or experienced in any form of marketing, selling, or branding.

This is especially true when it comes to freelancers and newbies.  When it comes to social media, it’s almost as if business owners are just so hungry for someone, anyone to help them, they throw caution to the wind and hire the first person that comes along regardless of their track record, resume, or references. You wouldn’t hire a website designer without seeing samples of previous work would you?

Don’t buy the lines: “this is all really, really new” or “I have 5,000 friends on Facebook“. Recently a self-proclaimed expert sold herself on her success on Facebook. Did anyone even look to see that she only has about 200 fans? Or that her blog hasn’t been updated? Is she ranking on Google?  The problem is that there’s no clear measure of success, so anyone who knows how to set up a Fan page, link it to Twitter and save some images seems to be a certified consultant!

Before even stepping foot into social media, ask yourself… is my customer even involved in it? You could be spending precious time and money talking to the wall!
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Online Marketing vs. Traditional Advertising

Okay, so I’m working on business presentations for two different groups that I need to give this month. One is a 10 minute with the option for Powerpoint or other electronic visuals, the other is a 7 minute with no visuals unless I hand them out the old fashioned way. They say that art mirrors life, and in this case I guess it does. The 10 minute business presentation that can accommodate the electronics I have likened to online marketing, and the other business presentation we’ll call traditional marketing. 

In order to chose a topic for the presentations, I start with the questions we often receive from clients and prospects who hope to make the most of their marketing budgets. The top two questions involve Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing.  The tie-in topic that comes to mind immediately is how is marketing changing how people shop, and what makes Internet marketing different than traditional advertising?  SEO and its relationship to Social Media are two HUGE factors in the new world of Marketing. Read the rest of this entry »

Junior Service League of Woodstock has a new website design

Welcome the newest board and newest volunteers at JSL of Woodstock! They’re starting out their fundraising year for Cherokee county charities with brand new leadership, new energy and a new website design. Inspired 2 Design was honored to be given the opportunity to work with this great group of dedicated ladies.

The new Junior Service League of Woodstock’s website design is a Wordpress blog based site using a customized template aimed at matching the colors and style of the League’s members. Use of Wordpress will enable the Public Relations and Communications chairs to make frequent updates to events, needs, sponsorships, activities and success stories of the League as the years progress. Also new to the website is the ability to purchase tickets to the annual Holiday Tour of Homes fundraiser coming in November, or pay for your sponsorship right online. They also can now take monetary donations online using Paypal or a credit card.

The new website should prove to be a great tool for this dynamic organization. Their hard work and dedication to serving the families of Cherokee county with donations of food, clothing, school supplies, shoes, toiletries, money, and caring concern deserves recognition and a big, giant THANK YOU!

› To learn more about becoming a sponsor of this year’s Tour of Homes, click here.

› To learn more about membership in the Junior Service League of Woodstock, click here.

If you know of a group or organization that needs a more professional, polished and functional website, please tell them about Inspired 2 Design’s website design services. We work with groups in Woodstock, Cherokee county, and all the metro Atlanta area. Plus, we often offer discounts to charitable and faith-based organizations.

A worthwhile cause in Cherokee County

Most parents of teenagers are busy planning their kid’s future. College, dorm, apartment, partner, grandkids…. they see it all so clear. But for some parents, the future is not so clear. For them, the future is summed with a single, simple question: What happens to my special-needs child after high school?

Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Lori Baker from Next Step Ministries in Woodstock. We’d been introduced briefly at the Woodstock Community Business Association in the past, but this last time we met at the Canton-Cherokee Business and Professional Women’s meeting, enjoyed a meal, and the meeting, and the more formal introduction from Stacy Bailey of Absolutely Clean, also a client of Inspired 2 Design. We’ve worked together on her cleaning company’s website, her personal blog, and the Canton/Cherokee SALT/Triad website.

Next Step Ministries was in need of a new way to get the word out about the work they’re doing down off Trickum Road and Hwy 92 in Woodstock. They’d recently taken over the space occupied at one time by the Baby & More Thrift Store, (small world, we did their website a couple of years ago).  Now armed with a ton of space for their work, Lori and Jean (her right hand), just needed to let more people know what they’re doing.

So what are they doing down in Woodstock?
They provide parents with moderately to profoundly involved special-needs young adults need a readily available full day program to maintain the functional skills learned during school and to provide a safe and loving environment. Especially when these young adults can’t manage the day-to-day activities we often take for granted like:

• Feeding ourselves
• Communicating with words
• Performing basic activities without supervision
• Going to the bathroom without help…

Next Step Ministries offers several programs for parents and their special needs kids: Therapeutic Day Care, Saturday Respite, Camps. The Cherokee Tribune covered the Next Step Ministries story earlier this year. So if your business is looking for a special place to help via donations of time, money, or supplies, why not start right here in Woodstock, GA?

• Have time? They could use people to come in and read, play music, games, crafts.
• Have equipment? They’re in need of many things including some workout equipment, kitchen equipment, musical instruments.
• Have cash? Enough said!

Inspired 2 Design is proud to have partnered with Next Step Ministries in Woodstock to help support their mission, and help the families of special needs kids in Cherokee, Cobb, Fulton, Bartow, and Pickens counties. Their new website is a project of love and we’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to bless them with this functional and design-appropriate website design that they can use to educate, inform and capture the families that need their services in Woodstock, Canton,  Holly Springs, Acworth, Marietta, Kennesaw, Roswell, Sandy Springs, north Atlanta, and beyond.

A Marketing Plan for Today’s Marketplace

When you have 100% ownership in your business, you have 100% of the ability to define success for your business. You also have the clear responsibility of doing what it takes to get there. So how do YOU define success? What do you need to HAVE to get there? What do you need to DO to get there? How much risk will you need to assess to get there? These questions should be answered before engaging a marketing team or a marketing department.

For year’s we’ve heard that Content is King! And the Internet has propagated that fact repeatedly over the last 15 years. Now it’s 2010 and the convergence of different types of marketing is a growing trend – all based around content. But the message you need to get out there isn’t in a neat little tweet of 140 characters, and people don’t refer you if they don’t know you, if there’s no relationship. So let’s say that success to you means 200% growth in the next 5 years. To grow you need to increase customers, equipment, staff and possibly space. You also need to grow your marketing base.

We’ve heard for a couple of years that traditional advertising is a thing of the past. It used to be that you outspent your competitors to gain market share. The companies with the deepest pockets had the best known brand. That trend changes more each day. Today, your reputation is critical more than ever, and no amount of spending will remove a customer’s bad taste (just ask BP!). Today you need to spend more time on relationships, more time on content, and more time than money basically.

For many of us, time is more important than money. Time to do what we want, time with family, time for fun, time for rest, relaxation, exercise, hobbies, time for work, time for play… so what’s the best way to make the best use of your time? In a word… STRATEGIC PLANNING.

In order to create a strategic Marketing Plan for today’s marketplace, you need to start with the basics and those are your brand (reputation) and your website. These are the two most important elements of building a profitable campaign that’s always looking at the end result – your success (and however you’ve measured that).

Step 1: Discovery
Identify the value of your brand, its effectiveness, its consistency, its differentiation, and its general reputation level. What are the goals for your brand? Are you meeting them?
Identify the value of your website. Your website should connect, impel, and generate. Does your website contain accurate, up-to-date content that is consistent with your brand? Are call-to-actions clear, easy to use, and everywhere they need to be? Are you getting leads from your website? If not, contacting a marketing-based, graphic and website design company should be the place you start.

Step 2: Set Objectives
Since we’ve established you control what success is, the only way to get to that result is to set goals and objectives that clearly define the path. The ultimate goal is to build your brand and increase traffic and conversions on your website because, that momentum is what will drive you toward your success goal.

Step 3: Create Campaigns
The campaigns you create will all be designed to reach the objectives set in step 2 with the ultimate goal of enhancing step 1. These campaigns may include search engine optimization and search engine marketing, social media, networking, content building (blogs and articles), event marketing, and publicity. The success of each strategy creates momentum that drives your organization forward.

Step 4: Set Budgets
Budgeting time and money is critical to success. Make sure you leave room for moving either from task to task as you work the campaigns so you spend time and money on the marketing areas that are working the best. In other words, if your Facebook fans are hot on a subject, engaged and interacting, don’t be rigid and say… “time to work on the blog”. Keep your audience engaged where they are, and be flexible.

Step 5: Measure
You have goals, you have budgets, you have campaign ideas. Now you have to set the times you’ll measure, evaluate and update your plan.

Step 6: Devil’s in the Details
Here’s where it gets sticky. Inspired 2 Design recommends creating a full year strategic marketing calendar for businesses. This is a detailed plan, by month or by quarter. It includes all the above, specific details. What event, what keyword, what blog entry, what Tweet, and the task assignments, responsible parties, time allotments etc.

This 6-Step Marketing for 2010 Outline is critical to success (whatever that means to you and your business). For help getting a plan on paper, contact Inspired 2 Design at 770-781-3452.