eBusiness Resolutions for a Healthier Business in 2010

If you’re a retailer, after the busy-ness of the season, you now have a little time to reflect on your business and how you’d like to do things differently or better in 2010. If you have another type of small business, you are looking at your successes and wondering what you might do to make things even better in the coming year. If successes have been thin on the ground, then you’re looking at ways to improve. This brings me to my eResolutions.

eResolution 1: Crawl before Sprinting

Most of us have had an experience of diving in and trying to fix everything at once. How did that work for you? Right!

So start small. If you’re a retailer, consider setting up a Twitter account. You can start following other people and seeing what’s going on while you plan the next part of your strategy. You can read more about Twitter on this blog in this series of posts on Twitter strategy.

eResolution 2: Put your Website on a Diet

Unless the name of your business is, All Things to All People, then you know that you have to specialize. Does your website reflect this. The average web home page has about 80% too much stuff on it (my wild statistical generalization). Remember, people who search for you have searched for something specific. Give it to them. Statistics show that you have 2 to 3 seconds to give them what they want or they’ll leave. This is even shorter than the average window shopping experience. You can read more about this on my Landing Page posts from last fall.

• It’s what you do with Traffic to your website that counts.
• Landing Page Optimization for Small Businesses on a Budget
• Landing Page Optimization – the best video from youtube.com/

eResolution 3: Make Good with Google

Google has numerous free tools to help you manage your online presence. You can access them once you have a Google Account (free). Here is a list of useful Google tools as well as posts on Google.

• Google Webmaster Tools
• Google Adwords
• Google Analytics
• Google Local Listing – how to get listed
• Add a coupon to your local listing in Google

eResolution 4: Face up to Facebook

I suggest that you set up an account and think about how you might use your “Page”. Take a look at my articles on using Facebook to see how to get started.

• Setting Up Your Page on Facebook, Part I
• Setting Up Your Page on Facebook, Part II

eResolution 5: Make social media an integral part of your business plan

Take a look at this post; 5 Ways to Integrate Social Media in Your Marketing – a Presentation by Jason Baer. It’s worth your time.

Bonus eResolution: Consider what you might be able to do with YouTube.

Youtube.com is one of the most visited sites on the web. Good, fun and interesting video attracts audience. It can be a good way to raise your profile. In future posts I’ll address this issue in more detail.

Here’s wishing us all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

I welcome your questions. Please question or comment via the “Comments/No comments” link below. If you found this article useful, please share via your networks. Thank you so much.

Login to WordPress

Go to http://en.wordpress.com/wp-login. On the top left of the page you’ll see the login and password and you can insert the details you saved when you set up the blog in the first place. Alternatively, you can login at http://youblogname.wordpress.com/wp-admin.

Dashboard - We'll adjust the settings in the red box

Adjust the Settings

1. Click on Settings (left hand column)
2. Once the window opens, you can change the name of your blog (but not the address) and the tagline for your blog. Be sure to use some important keywords in your tagline.

Change your title if you want to and create your tagline.

Adjust the Discussion Settings

There are a number of options to adjust. For now, we’ll deal with the essentials. The privacy settings we’ll reset after the blog is up and running.

Below you’ll see a sample of how to setup the discussion settings.

Discussion Settings

The fewer barriers to discussion you have, the better. However, you also want to be aware of what people are saying and try to prevent spamming of your blog.

Let’s Change the Appearance of Your Blog

Click on Appearance. Browse the myriad options for the look of your blog. Preview a few and see what you like and what suits your business and your personality. When you find one you like, click “Activate” and visit your blog to see the new design. If you don’t like it after all, then go back to Appearance and select again. If you want to customize it, you’ll need the help of your web designer.

My decision on a look.

Tomorrow I’ll show you how to add widgets to your site. Please ask any questions or make comments via the “No comments/comments” link below this post.

The First Steps:

1. Go to wordpress.com. If you are using the other alternative where you put the blog into your website, you would go to wordpress.org. But today, we’ll be in wordpress.com.
2. You’ll see a number of things. Near the top right of the page you’ll see, “Express Yourself” and underneath that, a button that says, “Sign Up Now”. Click on that orange button.
3. Fill in the blanks.
   • First, make up a user name. Be sure to write it down so you can remember it.
   • Create a password. Avoid things like your name of birthdate. Again, write it down.
   • Confirm the password.
   • Check the legal.
   • Click on “Give me a blog”.
   • Click Next
   

   The first step in setting up your blog.

   A problem arises.
   

   

   The name is already taken. I have to think of something new.

   It took a few tries but I came up with a name that works. Here is the view of that.
   

   

   Successful choice of name.

   Click Signup.

   Now, you will see the following message.
   

   

   Check your email to confirm your registration.

   Check your email and you’ll see a similar message to this. Click on the link and your account will be activated.

   

   Follow the instructions in the email to activate your blog.

   If that works, you should see the screen below.
   

   

   You now have a blog. Congratulations!

   You can click on “View your site” if you want but it will be pretty boring at this point. Tomorrow I’ll show you how to jazz it up and create some of the settings.

   Please let me know via the “No comments/comments” link below if you have any questions about what I’ve written today.

   Share/Save]]> http://www.social-media-strategies.ca/2009/12/setting-up-your-business-blog-getting-a-wordpress-blog/feed/ 6 http://www.social-media-strategies.ca/2009/12/social-media-strategies-begin-with-a-blog/ http://www.social-media-strategies.ca/2009/12/social-media-strategies-begin-with-a-blog/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:27:07 +0000 Radiance http://www.social-media-strategies.ca/?p=1163 Three Reasons Your Business Needs a Blog

   You need a blog for three very important reasons. First, Google loves new material and a blog (if you keep it up of course) provides lots of new material. Two, a whole raft of Internet Search professionals list blogging as the number two way to get traffic to your website via search results. Three, the blog is the center of your social media universe. In his book, The Social Media Marketing Book, Dan Zarrella puts the blog at the center of his social media strategy diagram.

   What’s a blog?

   A blog is simply a website that is regularly updated with new and interesting information about your subject. The most recent news is found first on the blog and older news is lower on the page or archived. The first handful of blogs were created in the mid ’90s.

   According to Wikipedia,

   As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112,000,000 blogs.

   For some fun statistics on the state of the blogosphere, check out thefuturebuzz.com.

   What Should You Blog About?

   As a small business owner, you most likely have a wide range of knowledge about topics related to your business. Here are some ideas.

   • News about your business. You’ve added new staff. You’ve won an award. You’ve sponsored a charity event.
   • New products. This should be a chatty piece about the new product, not a sales pitch.
   • Special events. You’re having a demonstration on how to build your own terrarium. You’re having a book signing.
   • Special offers. Have readers print a coupon or give them a special code for a discount.
   • Your thoughts on news affecting your industry.
   • Your expertise – for example – you run a building supply. How about articles on how to refinish a deck, or how to replace your bathroom taps.
   • Answers to common questions. People who come into your store or use your services have some questions. In person, you give answers. Gather some of these answers into a series of blog posts. You can build your reputation for giving added value.

   How do you get a blog?

   This week I propose to write a series of articles on setting up your own business blog. I’ll include lots of detailed instructions so that even if you have only average computer skills, you’ll be able to do this yourself. Tomorrow we’ll start with naming and setting up your blog.

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