Follow-up is still crucial in today's wired world

Even in today's wired world of Twitter, LinkedIn, email, and smartphones, everyone misses an occasional call or is away when an important email arrives. Follow-up is essential in these instances to let your customer know you care.

When a customer contacts you, it's imperative that you follow up as quickly as you can. Even if you don't have time to give the customer's issue your immediate attention, provide them with a quick status update to acknowledge you've received their message and are working on the problem.

Unless the person tells you how they prefer being contacted, follow up the same way they first contacted you. If the person emailed you, reply with an email. If they left a voice mail, reply by phone. If they tweeted you, tweet them back. Some people prefer one means of communication over another. Usually, that preferred method is the one they will use when contacting you.

If you're working on a long-term issue with a customer, check in frequently to let them know you're still on the case. Even if you don't have a solution yet, just knowing you care enough to stay in touch will help to put their minds at ease.

Social media basics for busy business people

We've all heard about the importance of social networking, but what is social networking exactly? A social network focuses on building a group of people who share common interests and activities. In this case, we're talking about online social networking... the biggest free party in the world. Social networks make it easier for people to interact with each other. But social networking has a lot of outlets (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, LinkedIn), and it can become a time-intense process to effectively track, converse, monitor, and manage them.

But if social networking is so time intensive, why bother? Selling is selling. You can't get away from that. Social networking doesn't -- and shouldn't -- replace selling. Social networking is part of MARKETING. Selling and marketing are two sides of the same coin. And since coin is what we're trying to get in your pocket, we need to pay attention.

Small Business Magazine advises, "We all know how important word of mouth is, and social networking is like word of mouth on steroids. As a business, it's vital to tap into and join online conversations not only about your brand, but also those about your competitors, your industry, and your areas of expertise."

The social networking tools you choose depend on what you want to accomplish, how much time you can commit, and where your comfort level lies. To simplify things, I'm only going to stick with four basic social networking tools you might find helpful: Facebook, blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Facebook
Benefits: Great for keeping in touch with friends and far-flung family...now also used well for businesses.

How to use it: Create a Facebook page JUST for your business, then update it one to two times per week. Join in discussions about topics relevant to your business and customer base. A printer, for example, might join conversations about local area businesses and the chamber of commerce.

Blogs
Benefits: Terrific for your search engine optimization. A great way to let people know what is going on with your business. Somewhat more personal feeling than a standard website.

How to use it: Lots of great, free blogging tools are available. If you decide to start a blog, you should commit to posting at least one blog entry per week, to encourage repeat readership and maximize the SEO benefits.

Twitter
Benefits: Short and sweet. Allows people to follow you and get information that is up-to-date and content rich in short sentences.

How to use it: For Twitter, you'll want to post something fresh every day. Don't tweet about what you're doing at the moment. Instead, tweet links to helpful websites and articles people might find fascinating. Follow your competitors and customers on Twitter, and listen to what they're saying and doing.

LinkedIn
Benefits: A great business networking site. Easy and common sense.

How to use it: Add updates at least once per month. Join groups relevant to your business. And answer questions from other members.

Tips to bring your email under control

Have you heard the phrase "inbox zero"? It refers to having no messages unread and unacted upon in your email inbox. With so many messages coming in all day long from colleagues, clients, retailers, and opt-in services (such as e-newsletters, newsgroups, and other subscriptions), is inbox zero even possible? In some cases, maybe not. But even if your inbox seems completely out of control, there are some things you can do to tidy it up and restore some sense of sanity.

For starters, create folders and subfolders where you can store messages in a more organized manner for future followup. Start with folders for email from clients, email from colleagues, newsletter subscriptions, etc. Add a folder for urgent messages requiring immediate attention, and consider a folder for each day of the week, where you can drop messages that require action on those particular days.

Once you have your folders in place, set up mail filters to automatically route your messages to the appropriate place. Filters are especially helpful for subscriptions and newsgroup messages, which might otherwise clog up your inbox. By having those messages routed automatically, you can focus your attention on the rest of your mail or check a specific folder at a specified time and see just the messages that are relevant for you at that time.

Another option is to set up an alternate email address for opt-in newsletters, newsgroups, and online transactions. This will help to declutter your main email inbox, cut down on the "noise," and help you feel less overwhelmed. It will also have the added benefit of reducing unwanted and unsolicited emails, as spambots won't have a chance to grab your primary email address off discussion boards, comment screens, and the like.

And finally, once you've acted on a message, delete it or archive it for future reference. Many people who struggle with inbox overload exacerbate the problem by leaving messages in their inbox, even after they are no longer relevant. If you can't bring yourself to part with old messages, archive them instead, somewhere outside the inbox, where they won't get in the way.

Not all PR is good PR after all

Just weeks ago, negative comments on Internet review sites (Yelp, Google Places etc.) were as good for your SEO as bad ones. Google has changed the rules.

The argument used to be that Google couldn't downgrade your ranking based on negative comments because that meant your competitors could hurt you, even when what they said wasn't true.

Google's policy seemed to make sense, but what happened was that Google counted the number of reviews (quantity) and how fast the reviews came (velocity), not the context (good or bad) of the review. Consequently, 1,000 horrible reviews that came in during a single week actually BOOSTED rankings, while four good reviews over a period of a year did little or nothing.

All of that changed recently. Now, Google is going to weigh good reviews over bad reviews, but this has a lot of issues, too. It means you need to watch out for mentions of you EVERYWHERE, and you need to stay on top of them. Seriously.

So how do you do that?

There are actually a lot of interesting services out there that can help you...and (of course) Google tops the list. You can set up a "Google Alert" (http://www.google.com/alerts) with the name of your company and get an email if there is a mention. You can have an alert sent to your phone if there is a mention of you on Twitter, too. But what about all the other stuff? What if someone disses you on Yelp or Facebook?

Here is a list of services that you can use to keep track of your brand online. http://is.gd/j5YgX

Celebrating Your Company's Anniversary

We have a client who recently celebrated 15 years in business. Not that it matters, but 15 years is the average lifespan of a woodchuck. Being around for 15 years can be a big deal for small businesses and woodchucks.

It's important that your customers know about your longevity. People like doing business with companies that have been around for awhile. It makes them confident you know what you're doing. It's that competency thing you've heard so much about.

Sometimes, people are shy about getting older. My mother said her birthday is "just another day." When I'm 95, I'm going to celebrate every day as if it's my birthday. I'm going to let everyone know that I've made it another day, and I'm not going to be shy about it. Party like a rock star.

You shouldn't be shy about celebrating your business anniversary. It's an important event and will cost nowhere near what it costs to marry off your daughter. Given all the goodwill marketing you will receive, getting out the word is extremely inexpensive. We all like inexpensive.

Start with anniversary labels. Stock labels have been around for years. Stock labels look like stock labels. If you take marketing seriously, spend a few more pennies and get some custom made. Stick them on everything. Next year, they will be as passe as today's television network schedules.

How about some thank you cards for loyal customers? People like thank you cards, and it's becoming a lost art. Thank you for being with us over the long haul. Here's a 10% discount for being loyal. We need you, and I hope you need us. It's a partnership we'd like to continue in the future. It's a better deal than Conan O'Brien got from NBC.

Testimonials. Nothing is better than testimonials. Print a simple brochure you can stuff into every envelope you mail. "A good belt keeps your pants up, and there's no better place to buy a belt than Ernie's Belt Shop." I'm a printer. A few years ago, I did a testimonial for a paper company. I got four orders from it. Testimonials work two ways. It's a gimme.

There are so many more ideas. We can work together to see what fits you. Give me a call. Shoot me an email...and happy anniversary.

Can you answer a few simple questions?

If I asked you, in an elevator, "Who buys your product or service?" could you tell me? Are you business to business? Business to consumer? What does your typical customer look like? What does your ideal customer look like? Who are your competitors? How are you different from them?

In a market saturated with choices, few companies have the luxury of customers coming to them because there is no place else to go. Unlike the post office, you aren't a monopoly. So knowing who you are going after, and what makes you different (and better), is pretty darn important.

Charen Smith writes, "Getting to know your market makes you aware of the individual peculiarities of the people that make up this particular sector." The more you know the people who buy what you sell, the more exactly you can market to them. The more exactly you market, the more "right" customers will come to you. So know your market... and your competition!

Too Much of a Good Thing

Choices are good, right? Yes... to a point. Neuropsychologist Susan Weinschenk wrote, "Resist the impulse to provide lots and lots of choices to your customers. Remember, they will say they want lots of choices, and you will think that lots of choices are a good thing (because you like them, too), but having too many choices means many customers won't buy at all."

Seriously, if your marketing is all over the place and you are offering a zillion different things in a zillion different ways, you are in real danger of driving customers away.

Study after study show that while people do want choices, having too many choices makes it harder for them to pick... and that means they might walk away in frustration.

So simplify your offers. Make it clear what the offer is and when that offer ends.

Hick's Law states that the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices. As decision time increases, the user experience suffers. Don't make your customers suffer.