I’ve written on this subject some before, but I believe it deserves another touch because it represents a major shift in the mindset of consumers.  When I first started getting involved with social media, one of the most prevalent questions was, “How much should I share about my personal life?”  This question still lingers nearly two years later.  Different people will share different perspectives and you hear all kinds of theories of ratio: 50% Business to 50% Personal, 80% Business to 20% Personal, etc, etc.  I suggest that we step back from all of the analysis and mathematical formulas for a  moment and consider the human element.

Often this question comes down to what we feel comfortable with being squared against what we think that we should be doing/advice that we trust.  We have to build our networking strategy based on what we feel comfortable with, all else be damned.  I know I started this post with a social media example, but lets look to face to face networking events for inspiration.  Anyone who’s spent some level of time in these environments knows that the same questions that exist online exist in real life.  Different people take different approaches to networking events.  Some folks are like walking encyclopedias of their product/service/brand.  They rattle off statistics, details, solutions and examples in an impressive display of knowledge that can build trust.  Others rarely talk business, preferring to strike up conversations around subjects that have common interest.  These people may skirt around their area of expertise, or tease their fellow conversationalist with interesting little tid-bits of their business life, heightening interest and curiosity.  Still others may try to straddle the fence, demonstrating an expertise in their field, while also mixing in details of their personal life to build relationships.

If you stop and think about it, which one of these three types do you gravitate towards?  Chances are, this is the type of networking that you’re “comfortable with”.  Take a little time to reflect on what you like to see and hear.  It’s worth the time to discover your personal networking style.  Knowing and owning your networking style is crucial, because you will never have a strong appeal with every single person in the room.  The best use of your networking time is finding and connecting with those who you will have a strong appeal with.

But as I mentioned at the outset, we are witnessing a major shift in the mindset of consumers which cannot be ignored no matter what your personal networking style is.  Simply put, people want more out of their business relationships.  In business to business circles there’s always been a high standard to facilitate the exchange of business, but I would argue that as consumer demands have increased, so have the standards that businesses hold their referral partners to.

The truth is, people are no longer satisfied with being talked at.  They want to talk with those who provide the solutions to their problems.  Being accessible, approachable, and exchanging information are top priorities of those with the power to help our business.  These facts shouldn’t change the way your style of networking however.  There’s just some caveats to keep in mind.

If your networking type is “Walking Encyclopedia” make sure that you’re also responding to what others have to say.  Find ways to demonstrate the value of your knowledge by assisting others.  It won’t take long before your expertise and helpful reputation start reaping financial rewards.

If you prefer to focus on “Social Networking” as a gateway to business relationships, or if you’re the style is “Straddling the Fence” you’ll have to work hard to stand out from the other social butterflies.  You can achieve this by delivering more value through either directly assisting your peers, or by building deeper relationships with your contacts.  Turning contacts into friends is always good for business.

So what’s your networking style? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comment section below!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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Every Sunday I make a habit of listening to the Mountain Stage program on my local public radio station 88.5 XPN.  I always end up becoming a fan of an artist that I had never heard of before.  This past week was a really great show.  I was blown away by Ruthie Foster. (Be careful, music is on autoplay and loud when you click the link.) What an incredible voice and talent!  I love soulful singers.  This last Sunday’s show was packed with them.  The other artist that blew my mind (You’ve got to listen to this Mountain Stage show!) was Martin Sexton.  This guy is awesome!

His song Black Sheep really moved me.  It reminded me of the struggle that we face as entrepreneurs, chasing our dreams, following our heart and not always getting the support that we would like.  Martin really sang to me on this one, so I wanted to share it.  The video isn’t crystal clear, but the audio is the clearest out of the performances that I could find on YouTube.  Let me know what you think of this song.  I’ve posted the words below the video.  You can buy Martin Sexton’s music on iTunes by clicking here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPPuiy0ihng

Sittin in this lonely town wonderin when things are gonna change
Dreamin my life away and it seems them dreams they turned into a bunch of dust clouds
Gettin my nerve up but my past is pullin me down
Wonderin how long this black sheep can stick around

Somebody told me once before
You can never go home again once you leave
Say anything just to steer me away from the truth of  who I am and what I believe
So I thanked him for his two cents
With a shake and some sympathy
And I packed up my blue jeans and I headed for the big prize
Of my freedom

Bye bye black sheep
Black sheep of the family
Bye bye black sheep how that means so much to me
Bye bye to my friends and to my family
Bye bye black sheep goin off and set my soul set it free

Times they were changin I did just a little re-arrangin
Take a couple chances my progress it advances
To that prize of my freedom

It’s written in the stars that steel bars never will a prison cell make
Once I find that sweet home or a place I like to call home anyway
Some people will say I’m crazy singin out loud like I do here on the street
When I got A song I sing it out loud and if you don’t like that my friend
Well I’m gonna say to you

Bye bye black sheep
Black sheep of the family
Bye bye black sheep how that means so much to me
Bye bye to my friends and to my family
Bye bye black sheep goin off and set my soul set it free

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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I’ve got some friends who seem to be playing FarmVille way too much.  Their facebook wall is full of FarmVille announcements.  Their photo album full of Farmville screenshots.  Wayyyyy too much FarmVille.  If you love farmville, feel free to skip this. We probably all have one or more friends who compromise their professional reputation to the lure that is FarmVille. Sure, they may tell us it’s their kids playing on their facebook account, but I’m not convinced.

This phenomenon got me thinking about how real time information can change or enhance an established impression of an individual.  If FarmVille updates every 15 minutes throughout the day can make me think that my friends are either slackers, unemployed, juvenile, timewasters or all of the above, couldn’t the opposite also be true?

I began re-examining how the people I look up to are using Twitter.  People like @ChrisBrogan and @UNmarketing (to name drop a couple of internet celebrities) share links to what they consider valuable information (both their information and others), but they also share snapshots of their day.  They tell us who their meeting with.  What they’re discussing and with whom.  Through their tweets we get an idea of their work load and their activity level. 

The point is that social media carries a message from those who actively participate in it.  This message is there whether we are consciously shaping it, or mindlessly reporting how we spend kill time.  It’s just as easy to use these tools to create a positive impression as it is to create a negative one.  Of course, to do this, you’re going to have to get out from behind your desk and make some things happen.

Funny, I think a lot of people still don’t realize this.  For some reason, many still view social media as a means, in and of itself, to an end.  In reality, it is a magnifying device for our work ethic, our morality and our values.  Pluging in was the first step.  Now people can see you.  What are you going to do next?

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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I decided purchase the Momento App for my iPhone about a month ago in an attempt to keep a record of my progress towards my business goals, and just life in general. In fact Momento’s primary function is as a journal or diary. What sold me on the app though, was a description of it’s social media integration features.

As anyone who has spent a good amount of time on social media can attest, a frustrating problem is that after some time, your input into these social media platforms seems to effectively disappear. It might be out there somewhere, but have you ever tried to find a facebook update, or a tweet from 6-months to a year ago? After endlessly scrolling through pages, most people throw up their hands and quit. That’s what I did, somewhere between page 100 and 200. This old information is not easily accessed unless you’ve set up systems to index it.

At $2.99 in the App Store, the Momento app seemed to address my desire to be able to quickly keep a journal as well as the promise to keep a recorded indexable and searchable record of my facebook updates and tweets. Actually Momento not only integrates with facebook and twitter, but also with flickr and last.fm. If you’re active in social media, capturing the updates from these platforms will give you a pretty good picture of what you were up to at any given time, even if you didn’t have time to post a journal/diary entry. Of course all that information would be practically useless if it wasn’t organized in such a way that allows you to find updates quickly based on topic or a timeline, which Momento does very well. You can even periodically export the information to guard agains loss should something happen to your iPhone.

Hats off to the developers over at Momento because it’s obvious that they’ve thought their product through, listened to input from users and packed this application with all the best features to optimize their “on the go journal”. One of my favorite touches is the ability to tag your journal/diary entries. You can choose to tag them based on people (select a person from the contacts on your phone), places (use the gps location system or manually enter your location), and even events. This feature combined with the ability to attach photos to your journal/diary entries earns my enthusiastic endorsement of this application. It’s a really cool piece of technology that takes the concept of journaling to the next level by allowing users to create a multi-faceted and more complete picture of their day to day activities.

Disclosure: I was not paid for my review of this application. I paid for the Momento application with my own money and haven’t received any financial compensation from the developers of this application. I wrote this review because I really, really like the app and I think you will too, but we are looking for sponsors of our TVPG Radio Get More Business Show.  ;-D

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

Help spread the word!

The face of business networking is changing.  There’s so many more options today than there were even 5 years ago.  Businesses are facing the choice of dedicating their time and resources to traditional networking ideas or newer technology based solutions.  The answer to this question will vary from business to business based on the business itself and the characteristics of it’s particular industry, the comfort level and skill set of the person in charge of networking, and the goals of the business.

The Value Pages Group works to meet business networking needs online. Members aren’t required to meet a quota of referrals, nor are they encouraged to give cold referrals.

Instead they are provided with an environment where they can build relationships, educate their peers, and get to know the members of their business community around their own busy schedule…anytime, day or night. There are no mandatory meetings, no lunches to buy, no travel required.

There are lots of great services provided to business owners for free, as well as some premium options. We work hard to provide our members with an overwhelming value proposition that gives them access to not only networking opportunities, but also branding and marketing opportunities that leverage the power of their entire local business community.

If you’re interested in plugging your business connections into a system that engenders business growth and referral reciprocity while providing both business to business and business to consumer relationship building tools, I would like to talk to you.

The Value Pages Group offers an exciting way to meet your business goals and make money all along the way.

With so many variables and choices, I thought it would be helpful to put together a list of things to consider when choosing a business networking group.  Here’s my top 5 list:

1. The Rules: Some people thrive in a structured environment.  Others of us find lots of rules to be a drag. Depending on the group you decide to join, make sure that you understand the rules.  Some networking organizations are very strict and you can find yourself ousted if you don’t play by the book.

2. Your Time: Typical networking groups meet weekly at a specific time and location.  Sometime businesses join without understanding the rules (see #1) only to realize that the time of the meetings is not convenient for their schedule and work load.  One group I was in, had an attorney who was often absent because he had to be in court.  Perhaps he should have chosen a morning group instead of a lunch group.

3.  Money: Annual membership to a networking group is going to run you anywhere between $300.00 to $600.00.  Many will take that cost at face value, but in fact there can be other expenses.  If you’re meeting with a traditional business networking group for either breakfast or lunch, you also have to pay for your meals every week.  At $15.00 per meal, that’s an additional $780.00 per year.  And of course participating in a networking group requires a time commitment, and since time is money, that should be factored in too.  You can count on spending 2 hours per week once you count travel time.  How much is your time worth?  Multiply your hourly rate x 2 hours x 52 weeks in the year.  Even if you’re conservative with your numbers and factor in what you would spend on lunch anyway, you’re probably looking at a total investment somewhere north of $3,000.00.  Now that you know what your overall output is, make sure that you are positioned to earn that money back through your networking activities.  If you offer a very specialized product or service, or if your business is based on volume instead of larger more profitable transactions, you may want to inquire about what additional benefits there are to membership to ensure that your investment of time and money is well placed.

4. Expectations: How many referrals do you expect to receive, and how many do you think you can generate?  The type of business networking group you join will influence the type of referral you receive.  Some groups require you to bring a referral or a guest every week.  Will you be able to meet that quota?  The problem that sometimes creeps up in these types of groups is when you have a week where you haven’t been able to generate a referral.  Members might choose to give sandbagged or cold referrals in order to meet that required quota.  Is that the kind of referral you want to receive?

Other business networking groups specialize in cold referrals.  These groups give you an abundance of people to call, but none of those people will know who you are or expect to receive a call from you.  Usually you say what kind of a person you’re looking to connect with, and the members open their rolodexes and begin to find their contacts that match your description.  Are these the kind of business networking referrals that you’re looking for?

Still other business networking groups have a more lax take and allow members to give referrals when they actually have them to give.  If you don’t have a referral to offer, you might be asked to provide a testimonial of someone in the group who has done a good job for you or one of your contacts.  This type of a business networking group consistently provides quality referrals, though the volume of the referrals received is obviously less than the previous two types.  Would you rather have a lot of referrals, or just a few good ones?

5. Strategy: Most people will join a networking group to expand their client base and gain new referral partners.  If you join a business networking group where you don’t already know the existing members, you have to allow some time for the membership to get to know you and trust that you are honest and capable before you can expect to receive any referrals.  This process is inevitable and cannot be avoided, but it can be sped up.  A great way to accelerate this process is to provide the membership with a portfolio to highlight your best work.  That portfolio could include pictures of your projects, or even examples of what you have been able to accomplish and what you bring to the table for your clients.  Make sure that you include letters of reference from your satisfied customers to demonstrate that you will make your referral partners look good for sending you business.

Other people recognize that a business networking group is a great framework to receive referrals from their existing sphere of influence.  Some business owners have been very effective by either starting a new referral group, or joining a young one and populating it’s membership with their existing business relationships.  This strategy allows “connectors” within the business community to leverage their relationships by introducing the various businesses that they work with.  It also gives a structure that guarantees some reciprocity when it comes to referral relationships.  Do you find that you give more referrals to your business connections than you receive from them?  Maybe you should invite them to join your business networking group!

What is your experience with business networking groups? Have you found one type that works better for you than others. If so, why do you think it’s more effective? I’d love to see your feedback in the comments section!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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Earlier this week I wrote a post asserting that the future of twitter is mobile. Using twitter on a mobile device is infinitely more valuable to a small to medium sized business owner, an entrepreneur or a solopreneur.

I can make a difference in promoting my business in between everything else that I have to do to run my business. It’s so much better on a mobile device, because I don’t have to sit down and make time for it, or choose twitter over another obligation that I have to do. When twitter is mobile, I can just fit it in around everything else, which in my opinion is the best way to use the platform.

I thought it would be helpful if I shared my impressions of the current top 3 twitter applications available and review the functionality of each. I’m a firm believer that you get what you pay for, so even though there’s an option to get free versions of twitter apps, for this post I’ll be reviewing the premium versions so I can share the full potential of the applications and spare you a rant about annoying advertising in iPhone Apps.

Full Disclosure: I paid for all three of these applications with my own money and I haven’t been paid to endorse my favorite, although we are looking for sponsors for TVPG Radio’s Get More Business Show.

Twitterrific Premium: Currently priced at $4.99 in the App Store.

What I Like About It: Twitterrific is a very elegant application. I found it to be pretty intuitive to use and the interface reminded me of a single column set up on TweetDeck (I’ll save my review of the TweetDeck mobile app for another blog post). It is easy to set up and use multiple twitter accounts on this application. I also like the way you can save searches for tweets by a specific twitter user to be accessed easily on the front page of the app. Twitterific has a handy feature to pull in tweets from people on twitter who are “Nearby”. You can also choose the online destination of the media that you post to twitter through the app. I think the note feature, which allows you to attach a note to a person’s profile (the notes are only saved on the mobile device) can be very useful.

What I Don’t Like About It: Twitterific, when compared to it’s two competitors is light on features. Perhaps this was done intentionally to maintain the simplicity and elegance of the application, but in my mind the price should reflect that choice. Even though there are instructions on how to set up a bookmark in Safari to tweet links from the iPhone’s browser, I can’t seem to find any way to shorten those links from within the application, let alone connect my bit.ly account. There’s no way to report twitter users who are clogging up your stream with spam. There’s also no way to see how many times a user has been listed and by whom, which makes it harder to determine who deserves a follow back and who is a spammer. It only offer’s 4 options on where you want your pictures and videos to be stored. Noticeably absent is the ability to store media on your own Wordpress blog. Also noticeably absent is a map to show exactly where those “Nearby” tweets are. But one of my biggest irks with this app is that it still doesn’t work in landscape mode (when you turn the phone to the side to make typing easier). This has got to be one of it’s biggest drawbacks.

Comments: If you’re not interested in bells and whistles and aren’t interested in connecting with people who are local to you and are also on the Twitter platform, this might be the right App for you…as long as you don’t mind overpaying. [...Click here for a complete list of features from the Twitterrific Website]

Twittelator Pro: Currently priced at $4.99 in the App Store

What I Like About It: Twittelator is a feature packed Twitter Application. My impression from using this application is that the folks at Twittelator are determined to dominate this segment. Not only do you have all the functionality that Twitter provides online, but they’ve also gone above and beyond to search out any and all conceivable functionality and pack it into this app. Unlike Twitteriffic (but like Tweetie) when you search for twitter user’s near your location, you are presented with an interactive map as an interface. You can tweet photos, audio, and video, either by recording it inside the app or by choosing it from your media library. Twittelator also allows you to tweet the song info of the song you’re listening to on your iPhone. You can choose from 14 pages of emoticons and symbols to spice up your tweets. In fact I recently spent 2.99 on a different twitter application for this purpose only to realize that half of it’s functionality was already covered by Twittelator. Links to pics appear as thumbnails in your twitter stream. This is awesome! Out of the three, I think Twittelator has the easiest method of selecting hashtags (from list that is autopopulated showing the hashtags you’ve recently used) shortening tweets (yes, you can plug in your bit.ly account) and selecting users for @replies (also from an autopopulated list like the hastags, but that list is followed by an alphabetic list of everyone you follow). If you want to message someone, but you can’t remember the exact spelling of their twitter id, you no longer have a problem with this feature and it saves you the trouble of doing a search by their first and last name. Sometimes features win over elegance (depends on who you ask).

What I Don’t Like About It: I could see how some people might be overwhelmed by all these features. Some of them aren’t exactly intuitive. The placement of the “hot spots” on the tweets to link to additional information wasn’t what I was used to. It took some playing around with it to discover it’s potential. This effect is exaggerated when you’re using this app to manage multiple twitter accounts. I admit, I sometimes get lost in this app (temporarily) because of the abundance of features and what I could only describe as a bit of a quirky flow. I’m not sure if the flow is a result of organic growth and adding a bunch of new features over time, or if it was a lack of planning, or if someone else just thinks this feels natural. It feels natural to me now that I’ve spent some time with it and have adusted to it’s layout, but that wasn’t my initial impression.

Comments: Out of the three applications, this one has the most features and I would consider it the best value. Like an exotic performance car, buyers should expect little quirks here and there, but those quirks define the character of the experience. This app delivers the goods through deep features that mean lots of value to the user. There are a lot of additional features that this app has, I just picked my favorite ones for this post. [...Click here for a complete list of features from the Twittelator Website]

Tweetie 2: Currently priced at $2.99 in the App Store.

What I Like About It: Tweetie seems like a mid-point between Twitterrific and Twittelator. It has a lot of features, in fact most people would probably be very satisfied with the features that Tweetie provides. This app walks the fine line between elegance and feature rich. The interface is quite intuitive when you consider all the options that the user has. You can tell that it has been well thought out and it has a nice flow to it. I don’t get lost in this app. There are several features that are really cool. I love how tweets that are replies show the avatar for the originating twitter user, with a small inset of the recipient’s avatar. Another sweet feature is that the app “tears the page” when you refresh to pull in the most recent tweets. This gives you a visual reference of where the last update ended and the new update begins. This is very helpful. Tweetie has a great feature that allows you to create a contact in your address book by importing the twitter profile information. I have to admit, that’s pretty slick. With the latest version, there is also supposed to be an integration with foursquare, but I haven’t been able to figure out where to activate it (perhaps it’s because I haven’t authorized geo-tagging on my twitter account). This application packs in a lot of value for a lower price than its competition.

What I Don’t Like About It: I’m not crazy about how it handles the block feature and the report spam feature. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they’re there, but as prevalent as spam is on twitter, I would like to be able to use that functionality without pushing so many buttons (There’s several more keystrokes required than with Twittelator.). Tweetie 2 isn’t quite as feature rich as Twittelator, but it has some unique and valuable features in it’s own right. Overall it’s hard to fault this app.

Comments: Tweetie 2 is a great app at a great price. There are some bells and whistles that it doesn’t have, but the trade off is elegance, an intuitive interface and ease of use. Most twitter users would not consider this application to be light on features. [...Click here for a complete list of features from the Tweetie Website]

Summary: The first twitter application that I bought was Twitterrific. Twitterrific is still the most popular twitter app in the app store, but it’s not the right application for me. I need more features. After experiencing the competition, I wish I had spent that five bucks on something else. Out of the three choices, Twittelator is my current favorite. I love the flexibility and all the features. The folks behind this app seem to be making a serious effort to be the leaders in innovation in their segment. I like to support innovation. Having said that, I can see why Tweetie is the choice of so many of the movers and shakers in social media circles…people like Jack Dorsey, co-creator of Twitter. Tweetie 2 is really a steal at it’s price point. It is no doubt poised to be the popular choice, as it combines valuable features and intuitive design.

Hopefully this information has been helpful to you if you’re considering purchasing a twitter application. Who knows how these companies might change and improve their products in the coming months as all three are jockeying for the biggest piece of the pie.

If you use one of these three applications and agree or disagree with my analysis, I’d love to hear your opinion. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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Because of some research I’m doing for tomorrow’s Get More Business Show on the topic of Social Media, I’ve been surprised to read recently written articles by prominent (although cremudgenly) authors desparaging Twitter and the idea of instant unrestricted communication.

I don’t expect everyone to jump on the twitter bandwagon, but I honestly thought I wouldn’t be reading any more of those articles.  Twitter isn’t an infant anymore.  In my mind, it’s value has already been proven. But that doesn’t change the fact that there is a large percentage of people out there who detest what they haven’t been brave enough to try.  And I guess it turns out that pandering is still an effective way of connecting with people who already agree with you…but I digress.

In talking to people, I find this rejection is based mostly on fear: fear of what they don’t understand, fear of what they cannot control, fear of change.  But the truth is that the world is changing – FAST!  I remember being knee high, watching Captain Kirk with my dad as he barked orders into his communicator…thinking….”Wow, that is so cool!”  My friends and I fashioned our own communication devices out of 3×5 vertical spiral notebooks which we incessantly flipped open and shut while mimicking the oh so cool sound of the device.  Captain Kirk never had anything as cool as my iPhone though.

In many ways twitter is at the forefront of this mobile movement. I have to confess that twitter on the iPhone is infinitely more engaging and valuable than twitter on my computer in my office.  Mobile Twitter apps allow me to filter information in additional exciting ways (by location).  By using twitter on my iPhone, I can instantly share pictures and video that I’ve shot on my iPhone.  I can fill the empty spaces in my day with interactions and relationship building.  I can make difference in promoting my business in between everything else that I have to do to run my business.  It’s so much better on a mobile device, because I don’t have to sit down and make time for it, or choose twitter over another obligation that I have to do.  When twitter is mobile, I can just fit it in around everything else, which in my opinion is the best way to use the platform.

So what is the best twitter app?  I know I’ve promised this before, but I’ll be delivering a blog post this week to compare what I consider to be the top 3 paid twitter apps and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each.  Check back for it soon!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

Help spread the word!

Wow! So I just checked in and it seems that it’s been a little over a month since my last blog post here. Ouch! Tsk Tsk…. My goal has been to be much more consistent with my posts than I have been. I promise I’ll be doing better.

If you only follow me here on IdeaBox as my personal blog, you may have just thought I took a little vacation. Sadly that is not the case. (A vacation sounds really good right now!) Instead of relaxing I’ve been super busy in another little corner of my network, over at TVPG Radio.

I participate in a weekly radio show, called the Get More Business Show on BlogTalkRadio. Up until September of 09 I was hosting the show solo and featuring one guest per week. But then I got really busy and the show ended up on the back burner. Now that things are getting more manageable, the show is back and I’ve changed up the format to include several other co-hosts and a more diverse and fun format based around the same theme. Needless to say, these changes involved a lot of adjustments and planning to make the website just so and ensure that we give our audience really helpful and entertaining content.

This week marked our second show with the new format and I’m really thrilled with how the show is turning out. We have lots of ideas to make it better that we will be experimenting with as time goes on, but the group of people that I work with on the show are amazing and very talented and a blast to work with.

Now that the heavy lifting has mostly been sorted out over at TVPG Radio, expect to see more blog posts here at the IdeaBox. I’ve been brewing up a host of great post ideas and I’m excited about unleashing them here. There’s still no time for me to relax though. I’m going to be ramping up the Measured Impact project here in the next few weeks and I’ll also be hitting the pavement locally here in South Jersey to share The Value Pages Group with the local business community and recruit some fresh members. Who knows, some of the local businesses that I talk to may even be interested in the Promotional and Design Work we do over at TVPG Labs. As things develop, you can rely on me keeping you updated with our progress.

To everyone who follows my progress and all my regular readers – You guys are awesome!  Thanks for your continued interest as I work through all these projects, bootstrap these goals, and dream outside my comfort zone.  I really appreciate all the support, feedback and good advice I get from you guys…and girls, of course.

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

Help spread the word!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post about knowing who benefits from your business’ solutions.  I wanted to take this opportunity to back up a little bit and lay some groundwork for those of you who are just starting your business, or those who for whatever reason have not yet taken the time to focus on this type of idea.

If you’ve taken any kind of basic marketing course, you have probably been told that you need to focus your marketing efforts on your “Target Audience”.  One of the most important questions you can ask yourself when you’re first starting a business or developing a new marketing plan is, “Who is my target audience?”.

Unfortunately, many times our only frame of reference are large corporations and the segments of society that they seem to target.  I’m not saying that there aren’t valuable lessons to learn from how Corporate America chooses to market themselves, but I am saying that effective marketing techniques will probably vary greatly between new businesses and established ones, between Fortune 500 companies and small start up entrepreneurial endeavors.  Guess how effective you’re going to be using Geico’s marketing strategy on your new business that has minimal name recognition?  You have to match your efforts to your assets.

Large corporations have the luxury of massive marketing budgets.  They can hire agencies to design campaigns to appeal to a specific demographic.  Entrepreneurs and Solopreneurs probably don’t have those kind of deep pockets.  The truth is, as you start your new business your only option is to be authentic.  That means that who you are, your values, your interests, your personality ends up being projected through your business.  If you realize this fact, you will start out with a rock solid marketing foundation.  That foundation needs to be married to your business plan. (Look for more on that thought in a future blog post.)

Once you realize that your only option to create a genuine connection with your client base is to be authentic to yourself, and you harmonize your business plan to fit your personality your target audience will automatically present itself.  No you didn’t miss anything.  Your target audience is the audience that gravitates towards your message, your product, your service….your business. Don’t be surprised if this group of people isn’t exactly who you envisioned it to be.  It’s very difficult to predict how a message, product, service, or image (or all of the above) is going to resonate with people.  Unless you have the wherewithal to fund focus groups, you probably won’t know who your target audience is until they select you.

But once you do know, cherish this group of people.  After all, they selected you.  They like you.  They dig what you’re doing.  Make them proud.  Engage them.  Bring them in.  Make them feel as important as they are.  If you can nurture, intensify and grow this group, your business will have infinite potential.  Don’t muck it up in the beginning by ignoring or alienating your target audience.

As I write this, I realize that this sounds like an easy to follow instructional manual at first read, but the reality is that this is a process.  This process requires a lot of flexibility – not just the willingness to adapt to a changing business reality, but also infrastructure that allows for that change. (But that’s another blog post.)

Do you have any stories about people that have selected you and how that made you feel?  Are you able to pick out the commonalities of those who choose to do business with you?  Have you taken the time to profile, understand and draw in this group of people?  I’d love to hear your stories, comments and feedback in the comment section below!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

Help spread the word!

Not that many years ago we were all social media virgins.  Remember the excitement of discovering new platforms…the sexiness of acquiring a new and potentially unlimited client base from the internet…the arousal you got from imagining millions of devoted clients/customers following your every move online, just looking for an opportunity to open up their wallets and give you all their HARD EARNED MONEY?!?!  Mmmmmm…to be young, naive, and in love with social media again!!

Of course tons of people log into social media sites for the first time every day.  There’s always going to be an influx of social media virgins running wide eyed, ecstatic towards the ultimate gratification:  A business with minimal start up capital required and one that is available to anyone with a pulse and a computer.  Some will make it, many will not.  The first question a social media virgin has to face could very well shape his or her fledgling business’ failure or even it’s tremendous success.  That question is: What kind of connections are you looking for and what are you willing to do to get them?

Some would tell social media virgins that online relationships are a numbers game.  That we shouldn’t even really think of the word relationship, instead think of connections.  Many fall prey to this false advice and begin to actually believe that the internet is a giant marketing forum where we can all put up our commercials and yet we don’t have to put up any capital, where the guy with the largest audience wins…like TV without the financial hurdles.  Of course this advice is doled out by thousands of self proclaimed “social media experts” and “social media thought leaders” and “social media ninjas” through free ebooks and all other kinds of “viral” paraphernalia.  Just the names they give themselves make me smirk.  You see, no one sets out to be slutty in social media, we all just want attention, and acclaim, and of course more business…

Like many of you, I went through my own slutty phase in social media.  I followed people just to be followed back.  I tagged people in facebook notes that weren’t even mentioned in the content just so that they would read what I wrote.  I sent out endless repetitive invitations to my facebook page and group until a large percentage of my facebook “friends” either caved and joined or ignored me. Yes, I’ve ho’d around on social media.  I’ve taken advantage of my online friends kindness.  I’ve probably hurt my brand in the process.  It wasn’t because I wanted to be cheap and superficial, I just didn’t know any better.  I’ve been there.  Most of us have.

Thankfully I’m well along on my road to redemption now.  Experience, or actual good honest advice, teaches us that social media is just an extension of the human experience.  It’s not an alternate universe where everyone is looking to reward thoughtless and intrusive strangers with their hard earned cash.  If you don’t like junk mail, people on facebook won’t like your spam in their inbox.  If you don’t like pre-recorded telemarketing calls during dinner, you can bet your promotional Direct Message won’t be well received on Twitter by the masses that you’re spamming.  If you like doing business with local businesses that take the time to treat you like a person instead of a transaction and provide a personal level of customer service, then eventually you will realize that online consumers are looking for those same qualities.

So if you’re just starting out in Social Media, pause and consider your path and choose the one that leads directly to more business…or just go ahead and ho around.

Have you been slutty in Social Media?  Confessions and comments are welcome below!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

Help spread the word!