Advertising is one of them.  Are you doing any?

You might think you are.

After all -

• You post to Facebook all the time
• You tweet
• You just joined Google+
• You have a website and you check it from time to time
• You send out e-mails and an occasional letter or postcard (with a real stamp)
• You use signs
• You meet with prospects
• You have a nice brochure and business card with your picture
• You’re involved in the community

But, how do you find NEW customers?

How do you get “lookers” to contact you?

How do you establish yourself as a leader in your field?

Every successful business advertises (as part of their marketing effort) to accomplish these things.

Why?  Because advertising is the proactive means to make all your other marketing efforts work.

Advertising attracts prospects, builds your name recognition and confirms with current customers that they made the right decision in choosing you.

Advertising is one part of your Marketing Circle where everything works together to grow your business.

And as a small business the best place to advertise are in those places that most directly reach (target) your most likely prospect.  There is no need to broadcast your message to a diverse and broad audience.  Instead, target in on those most likely to need exactly what you have to offer.

Don’t make the mistake that your marketing efforts are accomplishing what only advertising can accomplish.

Future posts will explore your Marketing Circle, all the great places you could consider advertising (both offline and on) and the very best ways to advertise.

Consider the power of advertising to grow your business.

Video can seem daunting, and it’s a perfectly understandable reaction. Not everybody has the “camera bug.” Some people have no desire to be the center of attention. It’s even worse when it’s just them and their webcam or Flip camera. In those cases, they truly are the center of attention. Everything is up to them. They’ll make or break the video.

If you’re one of those people, you’re simply going to have to drum up some courage. You’ll have to rely on Nike’s adage, “Just do it!” You have to start somewhere. If you don’t, you’ll never start.

You also have to be willing to fail. You’re going to fail. Your first videos probably will be atrocious. They’ll be so atrocious that you’ll either cry or laugh. Both reactions will give you the permission you need in order to create another atrocious video and another one until you suddenly create one that isn’t quite as awful and is worthy of being placed online.

You then continue to make videos. You discover your voice. You find yourself taking videos in one take instead of ten. You allow the mistakes to remain, not because you don’t care but because you want people to know you. You want people to know that you make mistakes, too, and that you keep going despite making them.

If that is you, you might want to consider two other reasons for choosing to take video. One has to do with being more of an introvert. The other has to do with building a speaking presence based on your videos.

If you are an introvert, recording and uploading – both are essential – a video of yourself is no easy task. It takes courage and what can only be called “gumption.” As you record more videos, you’ll become more comfortable with being the headliner. You’ll see that you have a viewpoint, and you probably have more to say than you ever thought you did. You may never be the most extroverted person, but you will find that it’s easier to chat at networking and other social events after working on your speaking skills via video.

If you’re interested in public speaking, video can be a great tool. You can record yourself, then critique yourself. You can see when you rush through your speech. You can identify trouble words, such as the ever-favorite “Worcestershire.” You also can pinpoint verbal pauses and filler words, including “just,” “anyway,” or “like.” Once you notice those things, you can start to work on those problems in future videos.

Why do you think video is a good idea? Let us know in the comments.

Other people do have rules about whom they do or do not follow. Those rules vary, but a few common ones exist. They include:

1. You don’t have a profile photo. Nobody likes to follow an egg or a Twitter bird. Some people even refuse to follow profiles that use logos or cartoons. In general, it’s best to use a recent photo of yourself. People want to see the person behind the name.
2. You used a “cutesy” handle. “Honeybuns” or whatever name you think is cute might have been fun when you first joined Twitter and were interacting with only friends. If you intend to interact on Twitter on a more professional level, you need to use a better handle. You could use your name. You could even use your business’ name. If you choose the second option, make sure to include your name in your profile. People need to know it’s you.
3. You don’t have a bio. If you don’t offer any information in your bio, you may not be followed. If you fill that space with a plethora of hashtags, you may not be followed, either. State what you do as succinctly as possible. Include a quirky fact about yourself if appropriate.
4. You send spammy direct messages. The quickest way to get yourself unfollowed is to send spammy direct messages or tweets to people who follow you. Even automated direct messages can get you the proverbial boot.
5. You don’t engage. If you haven’t used Twitter in months, you’re unlikely to be followed. If all you do is retweet articles or share your blog posts, you may not see growth in your number of followers. Twitter is a conversational tool not a megaphone.

Why do you choose to follow or not to follow people on Twitter? What “rules” would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments.

It is possible to give some general guidelines; however, they should be applied as a business owner determines is best. Guidelines simply are parameters and suggestions. They are not laws set in stone. Some guidelines include:

• Contact information. Contact information is a must, despite the earlier caveat that guidelines are suggestions. That information should be found in the footer of an e-letter at the very least. It could also be included in the side bar or another area of the e-letter.
• Business-related article. A business-related article can be one that’s been written for the company’s blog. It also could be an article about the company that was published in the newspaper.
• Customer-related article. A customer-related article differs very little from a business-related article because both should provide value to the recipient of the e-letter. The only difference lies in the fact that a customer-related article might be about time management, which isn’t necessarily a topic that a company, such as a boutique, addresses.
• Fun articles. A fun article doesn’t necessarily have to be an “article.” It could be an inspirational quote with a related image. It could be a recipe. Deciding on what type of “fun” to include depends on the company’s target audience. It also is best to try to relate that fun item to the rest of the e-letter or to events occurring that week or month.
• Coupons. Coupons are a way to turn an online, potential customer into an in-store customer. Coupons usually are found in the B2C environment, although many B2B companies are finding unique ways to use them. For instance, a B2B company might offer a discount for an upcoming seminar or for a one-on-one consultation.

What components do you like to see in e-letters? What are some things you could do to create a new or a better e-letter campaign? Let us know in the comments.

More recently, Mashable argued that checking in is the least popular activity of smartphone users. The argument relies on a snippet of data taken from The Pew Research Center. The problem with that argument is that it rests upon data collected and published last year. That means that Mashable’s data actually is older than the data used in the Inman article.

The “spin” in both articles isn’t surprising. Both were trying to convince their readers of a fact or to provoke a response. What neither can refute is that geosocial services are relatively new players in the social media realm. They’ve gained popularity with early adopters, but it’s going to take some time before they gain momentum with a broader audience base.

That fact may make some businesses leery of testing a geosocial service. It shouldn’t. As long as businesses consider their goals and strategies and develop an execution plan before implementing a geosocial component, they don’t need to worry. If they know that their target audience enjoys or could enjoy checking in or the gamification aspect of geosocial services, they should begin to see success – measurable success – with their endeavors. Of course, those endeavors, like any other social media ones, require time and commitment. It isn’t enough to create a business profile on Foursquare or SCVNGR. Businesses have to be active on those channels. They have to communicate. They have to engage. They have to provide value to their audience.

What are your thoughts about geosocial services? Do you check in? Why?

That’s nothing new; many films use the same strategies and tactics today. Other products, such as health food ones, do the same. They con people into believing the packaging. The product itself doesn’t live up to that packaging.

The lesson to be found in that type of marketing is one of avoidance. Such marketing does nothing for your business, and it does nothing for the marketing industry as a whole. The question is, how do you avoid the pitfalls of fake packaging and false advertising?

1. Write the content first. I’m a fan of writing the content prior to crafting a title. Not every writer works that way, which is fine, but the expectations created by the title must be met by the content.
2. Write more than you’ll need. It’s always easier to cut words than to add them. When you have to add words, it’s easy to fall prey to “filler words” that don’t add anything to your message.
3. Avoid marketing keywords. Try to avoid popular marketing words, such as “unique” or “best” or “fabulous.” You can use those words, but only if your product or service actually is unique or the best.
4. Show; don’t tell. Some of the best marketing shows rather than tells. Share a story. Why did one of your customers choose your product over another company’s?

Is your content meeting the expectations created by your titles? What can you do to improve your content and to meet expectations? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Websites basically are two things: aesthetics and content. Aesthetics refers to the site’s design. Is it laid out well? Is the navigation easy to use? Will people visiting your site for the first time be impressed with the way it looks? Aesthetics can include Flash movies and the like, but those items are accessories.  Remember that what’s behind the design counts more than the look of it. If your site is “pretty,” but it won’t load because of bloated or broken code, your site is of no use to you or your customers. It’s best to focus on the design alone at first. Sometimes, the simplest sites are much more effective than the ones with all the bells and whistles.

Content is exactly what it says it is, which is complicated enough in and of itself. Content can be the website copy as well as a blog. It can be videos and podcasts. It can be a slideshow or a series of images. The key with any of that media is to update it regularly. A blog requires more attention than static copy; however, it can be a worthwhile investment. Videos, podcasts, and images also need to have descriptions and tags attached to them. Those components may look great on your site, but they aren’t going to do you much good if search engines can’t find them. Search engines require text in order to index things. If your multimedia content doesn’t have any text associated with it, guess what? Search engines basically are going to ignore it. It might be indexed, but it won’t be indexed in a way that it can be found by people looking for information about your product or company.

How is your website doing? Is it up to par aesthetically? Does it have updated content?

I have a couple of reasons for giving that answer. One, the language on Twitter is completely different from the language found on Facebook. Twitter is limited to 140 characters. Facebook allows up to 420 characters. Twitter also is filled with the symbol “@” and the ever-popular hashtag. For people unaccustomed to that language, it can be rather daunting. It’s a foreign language requiring a social media interpreter. If a customer unfamiliar with Twitter were to see that language on a Facebook page, he or she might leave and never return.

My second reason has to do with automation. Automation is a wonderful thing; I use automation tools to keep posts and tweets organized. I also use those tools to push different content to different networks. I believe that a person’s experience should be unique on a particular platform. While some overlap does and will occur among the networks, particularly if I have found an article worth sharing multiple times, people should find different content on my various social networks. That can’t occur if Facebook and Twitter are connected and vice versa. If I do that, the content becomes redundant or, as it were, some version of circular reasoning.

I do, as I stated earlier, suggest linking a Facebook page to Twitter, especially when a client is first learning to use Twitter. It’s easier to share content on a network with which one is familiar before becoming ensconced in a world that thrives upon “@” and “#.” As clients become more familiar with that world, I then suggest that they focus on diversifying their content and interacting with their fans and followers according to the rules and regulations of those networks.

What are your thoughts about automation? Do you share the same content on all your social networks or do you diversify? Share your thoughts in the comments.

They may be right, but a victory for any one of the networks lies far in the future. Google+, which began with a furor of activity, has become much quieter in the past few weeks. It is alive and well, unlike Google Buzz, but it has some work to do if it hopes to gain new users and to keep the ones it currently has.

Google+, unlike Facebook, does not follow a “friend” strategy; rather, it employs a “like” or “follow” one. You can follow people and add them to what Google has named “circles.” Those people can then choose to follow you in return. Google+ provides four basic categories of circles – family, friends, acquaintances, and following – to which can be added any number of custom circles. Those circles currently are capped at 5,000 followers, meaning that you can follow up to 5,000 people within all your circles.

Google+’s other features include streams, sparks, chat, hangouts, huddles, and games. “Streams” are Google+‘s newsfeed. You can choose to view the overarching stream, or, if you’re only interested in what your friends have to say, you can choose to view the “friends” stream. Sparks bear a similarity to Google Reader. You create a new “spark,” and items related to that subject will appear in the sparks stream. The feature has yet to gain much traction since most people rely on Google Reader or Google Search. Chats can occur via text – think instant messenger – or video. Hangouts take the video component to another level; hangouts allow up to ten people to video chat at once. While the video features are attractive, the quality of the video isn’t yet up to Skype standards. Huddles are found on the mobile version of Google+, and they allow you to text groups of people simultaneously. Games recently became available on Google+, including the ever-popular Angry Birds.

Are you on Google+? What do you think about it? Do you have questions about Google+? Let us know in the comments.