Is it possible to generate business through blogging? You bet.

One of the best things you can do online for your business or your freelance services is to start a blog. A blog will allow to attract very targeted prospects by providing content but just as any other marketing approach, it can also damage your business if not done correctly.

Here is a basic list to help you consider a few things before you jump in the water:

1. The Goal Behind The Goal

Before thinking about what you’re going to do online there is a general objective for your business. If you’re an independent consultant then you are looking into selling your services, if you’re an author your main objective might be to sell books. Establishing this from the beginning will help you stay focused and not lose sight of why you’re doing this.

2. Online Goals

What you’re trying to achieve online might be a small list of sub-goals working towards your main business goal. I recently had a conversation with a published author that told me she needed to increase her subscriptions to show her publisher. That is a great online goal, while she also needs to sell books, she’s already trying to improve her chances for a new deal.

3. Observe The Ninjas In Your Industry

Most likely there are a few individuals already kicking ass in your field and most likely you already know who they are but if you don’t, identify them and pay attention to everything they do from the design to content to every single element on the sidebar. I’m not trying to encourage you to “copy and paste”, that’s not cool, but to learn from them, get inspired and trigger your own ideas.

4. Plan To Leverage The Real Estate On Your Site

Now that you know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, plan how your elements are going to be displayed on the site. If you are selling an ebook, perhaps it should be at the top of the sidebar. Make sure whatever is secondary goes below the fold in case people don’t scroll down. People will very easily fail to see your offer and that my friend… will be your fault.

5. Simplicity

Simplify, simplify, simplify. The more information on the screen, the more chances your visitor will miss what the point of your blog is. Eliminate the clutter and make sure your primary message is very obvious. Take a look at every single element on your site and question everything. How is the Twitter Counter helping you improve conversion? If this gives you some kind of authority fine but if there is no real reason other than feeding your ego, kill it.

6. Call To Action

Tell your visitor what to do. Don’t be afraid to say it because if you don’t the user is going to bounce around the screen for a few seconds and will probably do… nothing. You can have more than one call to action, for example “Order our eBook” and then “Subscribe to our RSS”. Be very clear, having just the RSS icon will probably do the trick with some people but why risk it.

7. Design

Design for many of us is not important, if you think like that let me tell you that you are wrong. When I land on a website with poor design I get a bad first impression. I can assure you my next click will be on the back button. Having a good outside perception is as important as having a good inside reality. You can have a remarkable product or service but a bad first impression and people will not even consider giving you a shot.

8. The Platform

This is not a matter of having the budget or not, pretty much all the platforms are free. While Blogger or WordPress (.com version) are good ways to get started, today they are considered more of a personal solution. If you are serious about blogging for your business, you should consider the self-hosted version of WordPress (.org version) which will allow you to work on your own customization.

9. Content (But Not Just Any Content)

Content is still king, no doubt about that, but just saying that doesn’t really change anything. I will say this, take the focus out of yourself, nobody cares about you or your product (sorry). Instead focus on how to cover a need, how you can benefit your prospect. Aim to turn yourself into a leader by helping your tribe.

Become a resource for your public rather than trying to get direct sales. Forget the sale and let it come to you.

10. Schedule Everything

One of the most important things on your blog is to be consistent with your content and everything you do. Schedule everything, how many posts per week you are publishing, when and how to promote that content, how are you going to respond to comments. It is very easy to fall behind and a blog that’s not updated regularly can only damage you. That doesn’t mean you should post every day either. Have a balanced approach and a plan to execute it.

11. Support Your Content

It is very hard to make your blog known if you don’t get out of it. Think of platforms that can help you take that content out of your blog, you can use social media for example and use your blog as a hub. Make your blog the final destination, once the user arrives to your blog you can worry about conversion from reader to prospect and client.

12. Make Yourself Known

Give your blog some personality, make yourself present with a photo and a bio. There is something about seeing your face there that makes your prospect more comfortable, after all, you are the main ingredient in your business. Most of the time people make a decision over the relationship rather than how good your service is. Be active as an individual, mixing your business brand with your personal brand is proven to get you better results.

Final Thought

I’ll give you one more because I see a lot of this. Plugins are like toys, just make sure you don’t get too excited and install a bunch of unnecessary features that will only make your blog look like a flea market and slow it down.

Overall, this is not rocket science at all and making a few mistakes is probably not a big deal, what’s important is that you reach your goals.

Feel free to add your own in the comments…

Image courtesy of Dry Icons.

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A couple of weeks ago I received a sales email from somebody I have never met that really made think about how we assume that everybody gets it. Everything changed around us from business models, communications, marketing, the internet, social media and yet, are we sure that all of us are understanding and reinventing ourselves to adapt to these changes?

To be honest I gotta say that my first reaction was “I’m gonna trash you like it’s 1999…”, it pissed me off, but today I rather take it as a lesson to be learned AND shared. I should probably say also that I never claimed to be a writer or an expert at anything… Hell, English is not even my first language!

The email said (in regards to one of my posts):

“Hey: Nice content, but . . . are you interested in having your posts edited so as to sound better written?
Seriously . . . we could do wonders for your “voice”
Good luck . . .”

So here are a few (grammatically incorrect) thoughts:

1. Cold calling died a few years ago… Maybe you didn’t get the memo

How about introducing yourself first? If the person on the other side doesn’t even know who you are, what are your chances? If you are an entrepreneur, you should know that people don’t go knocking on doors anymore. Imagine if this happens in the real world, you’re standing in front of a person for the first time and the first thing that comes out of your mouth is your sales pitch…

People get the impression that you’re kind of desperate to close a sale.

2. You don’t need to be a designer, but hire one

We can’t be good at everything and that’s ok, the key is that we delegate those tasks to the right people, specially if you are an entrepreneur. If accounting is not one of your gifts, would you file your company taxes on your own? Of course not. Design is one of the most important aspects of a business first impression, you can actually kill a perfectly decent product if it looks like crap.

You can’t afford to look bad, it damages your reputation. Using Clipart from Microsoft Word is unacceptable.

3. If you don’t know how to write an email, ask for help

Email was invented a couple of decades ago and it is assumed, just like Word, that everyone knows how to use it. Email is most likely a big part of your daily routine, take the time to make sure you’re doing it right. If you are not sure, google “email etiquette” and invest 10 minutes.

If your intention is to make email part of your marketing or sales strategy you should definitely allocate some time into learning how to do it or you will be burning leads left and right.

4. Fake it ’til you make it

You know what I’m talking about, you can’t pretend to sell houses in Beverly Hills if you’re driving a ’92 Hyunday… I’m not suggesting you buy a Mercedez if you can’t afford it, just make sure you’re not damaging your reputation while chasing business. If you are trying to pitch a service that will improve how I write my posts, it would be better if when I visit your blog there are some people commenting or retweeting your content…

If you look like you need the product more than your prospect, you probably won’t be closing that sale…

5. Can you be any less human?

I am a terrible sales person even tough I’m aware of its importance, I think the only way I get away with it is because I truly try to be as human as possible. Believe or not, if you leave the strategy and the sales technique aside and you focus on putting a smile on your client’s face, that will do.

I won’t make any comments about the “but” and the “seriously” in this particular email because that is just from another planet.

In other words…

If you don’t have the marketing background or the sales techniques, having some heart and a whole lot of Common Sense can take you a long way.

Happy selling!

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“Do not covet your ideas. Give away everything you know and more will come back to you.” Paul Arden

The other day I heard a friend talking about a workshop she recently attended. Something about how to get clients online, a topic that has always been fascinating to me since I literally hate chasing business.

The main point was that there is a fine line between what you put out there for free and what you keep as a premium, in other words, create a need by leaving your prospect wanting more. Nothing new really… basic marketing.

It took me back to the last time I faced that question. I remember not being totally clear about why but made the decision not to think about it anymore and just follow my heart. Today, I can explain why I think you should give it all away… and these are the main reasons:

Nobody Owns Anything Anymore

Ask the music industry if you don’t believe me… while top executives were questioning themselves on how to reinvent music distribution in a profitable way, we decided for them. Music will never be handled the same way. Don’t think too much about it because you no longer own the information you are holding back. You must understand that other people are providing that same information this very moment, and for FREE that is.

Just like bands are becoming more performing than recording artists and records are becoming more of a sample for their live show, you are no longer compensated for knowing what the rest of us don’t.

Generosity Kicks Ass These Days

Have you ever asked a question to somebody you considered an expert in the matter and got a vague, superficial and just lame response? I can guarantee you that people also notices when you go out of your way to provide real value, I mean share your knowledge, provide some resources or even mention your competition if you think it is a better solution in that particular case. Just be generous, be human and walk away from that conversation with the feeling you made a difference.

That is creating positive impact, the long-lasting kind.

Valuable Content Replaces Your Sales Pitch

Spread all your knowledge and experience out there, if you are true to yourself and your audience, soon you will be dropping your elevator pitch and your tie to let your valuable content represent you. There is no better way for a prospect to really see who you are and what you do. Does it take time? Of course it does, I’m talking about pushing a sale versus letting the perfect prospect come to you.

People Will Hire You More Than Ever

Just because the internet holds thousands of nutritional resources and there are hundreds of books, magazines or entire television networks around it doesn’t mean nutritionists are not been hired anymore. Of course they get hired everyday. Only one thing changed, today the consumer is more educated than ever, but if you are the one providing all that information… you have secured a position in the marketplace.

Final Thought

There is something magical in all this and it’s that you should NOT do anything expecting something in return, what I’m suggesting here is being transparent, being human about what you do.

Photo Credits: sueanna, rubenshito

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Do you take the time to look at your traffic stats? And if you do, do your understand what all those reports mean? How can you utilize that data to make adjustments?

I want to make a couple of points before I go on with this article. First, my content is written with the intention to provide value to entrepreneurs, independents, small businesses or freelancers that need to leverage from these tools but don’t have the time to become experts in the subject, in other words, when any marketing budget is coming out of your own pocket. And second, if you don’t work at a big company, those dollars are probably coming out of your pocket, so you need to pay attention to things like your traffic data.

I’m listing a few things that can get you going in understanding this a little better:

First Things First…

If you’re not running a Web Analytics software on your site, that will be step one. Google Analytics makes this a walk in the park. There is no need to invest anything, it’s very easy to install and it provides you with enough data to play around. You will need to create an account (if you already have a Google account you’ll be able to use that), get a piece of code to install on your site or blog and give it about 24 hours to start gathering data for you.

What To Look For

Sure, looking at how many visits you got last month is fun, but there are other reports that will help you understand how your visitor behaves in your site so you can make the necessary adjustments.

I’m sharing traffic numbers based on one of the blogs I’ve been tracking in the last 2 weeks and of course you should take in consideration that it might be different for you depending on the nature of your site and your content. Here goes:

Visits

The number of visits to your site. You will get an amount of visits during a period of time and a percentage to see where is your traffic is coming from. In this example, it’s easy to see that we could focus a little bit more on improving Google ranking. You can compare what you’re doing in the networks where you get the most traffic against other networks, obviously something is working better there.

Page Visits

The average number of pages viewed during a visit to your site. Repeated views of a single page are counted. The highest number of visits don’t always means the best quality, now we see Facebook took the lead on this one…

Ave. Time On Site

The average duration of a visit to your site. Look at how Facebook users spend more time on the site, look for answers on things like this. What can you do to keep your visitor a little longer?

Bounce Rate

The percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page). Here’s an example, if you’re promoting a blog post, your visitor will go directly to that specific page, read your article and bounce away. What can you do to offer him/her to browse around?

Also, look at the big difference between Facebook and the rest. Is it because the rest of the sources are too impersonal? Maybe…

Watch Your Cheese

If your website or blog is your primary form of marketing, then you need to pay closer attention. I recently downloaded this little widget called Polaris, it grabs your Google Analytics data and brings it to your desktop, now you don’t even need to go to the website to take a quick look.

The application is free for one account and you need to pay an annual fee if you need to track more than one site. You can also download from the Adobe Air Marketplace. The picture at the top of this post is from the Polaris interface by the way…

Can You Track Social Media?

There are ways to get a little taste of how you do in social networks. If you own a Facebook Fan Page you probably noticed the “Insights” box on your left sidebar, that gives you a good idea of your performance and your visitors demographic data.

Another way is to use a service like Hootsuite and URL Shortener tools such as Ow.ly (same company) to track clicks from Twitter and other websites. There are many other services like this. The data you’ll get is basic but good enough to polish your strategy, but this a whole different animal and I’ll probably write a post for it.

Final Thought

This is a testing game. Start looking at your data, be creative on how to improve things, test something new for a month and then compare with the previous month. Here is what’s gonna happen:

• You’ll get some understanding on how things work.
• You’ll realize you can work on setting some goals.
• You’ll eventually be comfortable controlling the performance of your site.

What kind of tools are you currently using? Share in the comments…

What if your Inside Reality was just awesome but your Outside Perception was terrible? What if you had a great product or service but your image and your marketing strategy sucked?

Tom Peters said once that the designer should seat right next to the CEO. If you have a great product or service that doesn’t look good, then you got nothing. When was the last time you took a good look at your site, blog or even your business card and you asked yourself if that piece of marketing really represents yourself in front of your target?

I can tell you right now that having this problem is a lot better than having an awesome Outside Perception and a terrible Inside Reality, at least you can do something about it and you don’t need to rethink your whole business.

It’s no secret that today, your website is the single most important piece of marketing you can have and because of that, you should make sure is not out there hurting your credibility rather than attracting more people. I have put together a list of items you should consider about your website to make sure this puppy is working for you and not killing you…

Objective

Yes, before you go on to build your site or give it a massive makeover, you should be clear about the objective of having one. Are you trying to convert visits into sales, generate a prospect, sign up for something, sell advertising? If you think about it, that objective should be very clear because you know your business and you know exactly what you’re trying to do, the point here is that your site should be based on it.

The days of just having a presence online are over. Websites are supposed to do something, if you are trying to provide content that eventually will move people to inquire about your services and that’s not happening then having a website is pointless, and if your site is also driving people away from you then it should be taken down. Now.

Usability

What do you want people to do when they visit your site? Is that clear to your visitors or are you just hoping they figure it out? Is the site simple enough that your message doesn’t get lost in the clutter? Is it conventional so the user knows where things are or do they need to figure out the navigation too?

The truth is that if your visitor doesn’t understand what he/she is supposed to do in a matter of seconds, I can assure you the back button will be clicked sooner that you think. No second chances. I don’t have time to find things on your site.

There is a great book about web usability called “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug that talks about all these things and a lot of common sense. A great title too.

Eliminate all unnecessary content, I know it’s hard.

Design

Guess what happens when I visit a website for the first time and I find clutter, a bunch of different fonts and colors… you got it. Bad design hurts your credibility, sometimes to the point that is better not to have a website, it’s like no credit is better than bad credit.

Design, not only for web, should be an essential part of your business. Through design you are representing yourself out there. Imagine if you didn’t care about accounting or administration.

Did you know that when you produce a TV commercial, you need to follow the station guidelines in order to be aired? The Internet doesn’t have that, my uncle can decide to put something out there today and nobody can stop him. The point here is not that you build something beautiful following the latest trends in web design, just that you are represented accordingly. If you don’t have the resources, you should hired a designer.

Keep it simple, a nice scheme of 2 or 3 colors and 2 fonts that go well together, nothing crazy, unless you are building the first online flea market. Once you have an image for your brand, then you should keep it consistent. If the site and the Twitter account look completely different, you’re not even sure if it’s the same guy anymore.

Connectivity

The other day I had a person asked me this: Why am I going to tell people to connect with me on Facebook and other sites, aren’t I trying to bring the traffic to the site and now I’m sending them away… Not really. People are not going to visit your site every day even if you have good content. I love Zen Habits but I don’t visit it every day, I follow Leo Babauta on Twitter or Tumblr and that not only reminds me but he’s also telling me that he just posted his latest article about something cool, guess what? He pulls me back…

You need to be connected. Sometimes I see that people instead of commenting on my blog they do it on my Facebook wall, the point is that they are getting my content and at that point, analytics are secondary.

Technology

Today you have access to the latest technology, I’m not talking about fancy, just the necessary tools that is going to make your life easier and make you look good at the same time. Believe it or not, technology can make you look bad. I’ll give you an example, Blogs and RSS feeds killed newsletters like 5 years ago, I mean there is no need for it. I recognize that in some cases they might be necessary, but if you are going to run a newsletter, at least don’t run a dinosaur like Constant Contact, there are new ones out there… sorry, I had to say it.

Use Of Media

Photography, video, audio, all kinds of media. Seth Godin doesn’t use any of this stuff you say… yeah, and The Stones probably don’t need to go on tour to sell millions of whatever they want to sell. These formats keep users on your site longer than just text, they engage. That’s the same reason why tumblelogs are so popular, they make super easy for you to share all kinds of media.

Just be aware, before you start grabbing content from everywhere, you should know a little about licensing, Creative Commons and all that stuff. Most likely you will find great stuff and all you need to do is give credit.

Metrics

Are you tracking your traffic? You can get a lot out of those fancy graphics. Don’t just look at how many visits you had, pay attention to how long are your visitors staying at your site, the bounce rate, in what page are people usually leaving your site, etc.

You don’t need anything fancy, Google Analytics is probably more than enough for any size website, unless you’re Coke.

In Other Words…

This is easier than you think, if I only had two words to give you I would say this: Common Sense. Yes, hard to believe but we don’t use it enough and some guys don’t use at all…

One thing you need to remember is that if your prospect comes in your store and he’s not happy, he will have to get back in his car and drive to your competition but online, your competition is right next to you.

Besides the Coffee Maker, today’s entrepreneur enjoys the benefits of many available online tools that makes it easier to run a business regardless of the business model or industry. Some of the benefits I expect technology to provide me with are simplicity, location independence and communication.

Of course there are many web-based tools available for different aspects of your business from accounting to productivity to sales. What I want to do is list those essential tools you can integrate no matter what kind of business you are about to launch or are already running. I hope you find them useful or if you want, comment about your own tools…

1. Skype

Very simple, Skype makes you global. Limitless communications. You already know it, of course, but there are a couple of thing you might not know yet, first the new screen sharing capabilities are just off the hook, I have been using it to provide training. The other one is that after being acquired by Ebay back in 2005, the company is back to private and promises to reinvent very soon and perhaps turn more social this time.

2. Google Apps

After being a heavy user of Office products for many years including email clients, I have turned web-based. Google Apps allows you to not only manage all your email needs but also your documents, tasks and calendars, which means you are not storing anything in your hard drive, you can access from any computer in the world and you don’t need to purchase or install any software. The only reason stopping me from using web email all these years was that I think having an email address that ends with “@hotmail.com” is just not professional and with Google Apps you can setup your own domain, that means that email address ending with @socialmouths.com is delivered to Google.

3. Social Media

What can I say about social media, at this point not having a Linkedin profile just hurts your credibility as an entrepreneur. I’m not saying it is the network you need to join in order to generate business, your target market may be living in another network, that’s why I rather talk about social media in general. No matter what business you are in, if you are a little creative you will be able to turn this new media into your new marketing machine, regardless if that means Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or all of them. Today’s entrepreneur can’t afford to keep ignoring this.

4. WordPress

If you want you can consider it social media too, who cares… I just wrote an article last week about why you need to use WordPress instead of a traditional website. If I had to give you a quick recap I would say that this platform allows you to own and manage your site at a cost that you can’t compare and it’s the perfect tool to integrate with your social media efforts. It is open-source, web-based and you don’t need the help of a webmaster. A must.

5. Paypal

A lot of people think Paypal is to go shopping at eBay. This is a tool I recently integrate to my business and I can appreciate not having to deal with merchant accounts, gateways, SSL Certificates or any of that stuff. My clients are familiar with it so they don’t question the security around it, I can create and manage my own invoices or even setup recruiting payments and as I said about Skype, it makes you global baby…

A Quick Bonus List Of Tools You Should Check Out

• Firefox – Not just a browser, you can turn it into a marketing machine or many other things.
• DimDim – Very cool webinar service and free for up to 20 users.
• Google Analytics – Must have if you own a website or blog. Analyze your traffic.
• Mint – Accounting. Just acquired by Intuit.
• YouSendIt – Send files up to 100mb for free.

So there you have ‘em, if you are using other online tools to help you run your business, share them in the comments.

It created a revolution a few years ago but today, the WordPress platform has been downloaded more that 5.5 million times and it is rapidly growing. If you are looking into having a website for either your company or yourself, I suggest you take it in consideration. I have been on both sides on this one, I have owned traditional websites before, I’ve had webmasters and designers build a site for me in the past and I can tell you that having your own site has never been as easy as it is today. One of the reasons is WordPress.

I can think of many reasons why you should use WordPress to build your site but my intention is to provide you with a quick and useful read, so here are the main 5:

I should also make clear that I’m talking about WordPress.org (self-hosted) and not WordPress.com

No Need To Start From Scratch

WordPress provides you with a pre-built platform, there is no need to start coding from scratch or to hire a company to build something custom-made. Forget about spending thousands of dollars. Of course there are exceptions, if you are building something that includes some unique features then you should still go that way. If you are assuming that this is only a blogging platform, think again, you’ll be surprised of how many sites out there have been built without even using the blogging feature and you don’t even realize it’s a WordPress site…

The “Webmaster” Is Dead

Webmaster? Monthly maintenance fees? It’s all in the past. Once your WordPress site is finished, you have full control of the content including all kinds of media like photos and even videos. You own it, no need to call your webmaster to make changes to your content. The other alternative to have full control of your site is developing a CMS (Content Management System), which usually represents another substantial investment.

So Easy A Caveman Can Do It

Nothing is more user-friendly than the control panel, once you get familiar with all the sections you will be able to manage everything on your site. Publishing a new post or making changes to a page is as easy as working on a basic word document. There is no need to touch any code here. Other features include managing widgets on your sidebar, plugins and even change the theme of your site. Also, the amount of documentation and tutorials at the WordPress website is enough to set you free from any external help when maintaining your site.

The Beauty Of Open-Source Pricing: FREE

Yes, WordPress is an open-source software and it is web-based, nothing to buy and nothing to install on your computer. In my case, this is one of the great benefits I offer my clients. Obviously there is a cost on hosting your site but this represents an expense that anybody can afford. Today, companies like GoDaddy are offering hosting packages for less than $5/month.

Plug-in Whatever You Want

Everything you need on your site that it’s not already included is free or close to free. Thousands of independent developers around the globe build plugins specifically for this platform everyday, ready for installation and configuration. From Twitter feeds to social media sharing capabilities or traffic analytics, it’s all available as open-source.

Universal

If you never had to replace your webmaster once the site was already finished, you’re lucky. Two reasons why this is a nightmare, because every single developer has its own tricks when it comes to writing code and because nobody wants to touch or be responsible for code somebody else wrote. While it is true that code behind WordPress is tweaked every day, it will never be the same as when you’re developing something custom-made. This platform is very friendly even for developers and this makes it easier for you to find someone else in case your guy moves to Madagascar.

Building a website should be fun, I try to keep it that way. WordPress makes it very easy to that and get everything you want, or better said, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Contact me to learn more, I’m always happy to answer questions…

For years I was successful at building brands for my businesses, creating a whole corporate image with a logo, fonts, an advertising campaign, communication strategy through PR messages and so on, but I always struggle at the same point: How to position that company in the marketplace. How are we different from our competitors. Lower price, higher quality, better fulfillment systems. The reality is that there is rarely anything different and you end up just trying to push more product out the door.

The marketplace has changed, and with the use of new communications tools such as social media, I came to realized that those differences exist and are so obvious that we actually don’t see them:

You

The competition doesn’t have you. I’m not saying you’re better, but you have something to offer that only you can provide, something unique. When I started SocialMouths, I went through the same process of creating a company, building an image and a structure for it, just to realize that almost all the business I get is coming from people that got to know me or was referred to me for who I am, ignoring my logo completely. This made me think if people were following me in the past and not just my company…

Honesty

I can’t really explain it but when you are truly honest with your clients, they can see it. I remember being afraid to say something that would drive my prospect right to the competition, but what if the best solution for that client is to keep the current provider or go somewhere else? Are you willing to let go of the short-term benefit and hope that you can establish a true long-term relationship? Don’t be afraid, let your values get in the middle and surprise people, I can assure is coming back to you sooner or later.

Painless Process

I find that most of the time people resist something they’re not familiar with, the unknown, it’s only natural. People are standing in front of you thinking “This is going to be expensive” or “This is going to require a lot form me”. This is known to you, and the first step you need to take is to clear those assumptions, provide clarity. I can remember many opportunities when I was on the other side feeling like this and ended up not doing anything or hiring a service in the dark, not sure I made the right decision. Putting your prospect at ease by painting a clear picture in front of them might just be the one and only reason you are hired.

The Price Of The Future: FREE

When was the last time you provided something for free? Tim Armstrong (Rancid) published his solo album, A Poet’s Life, in 2007. Before going on iTunes and hitting the stores, he gave away every song of the album on his website for a few months and then went on to become one of the bestsellers that year. Tribes, Seth Godin‘s latest book went out as a free download before becoming a national bestseller. All this is happening while the music industry struggles to find new ways to profit. You get the point, don’t be afraid.

Organic Results (No Sales)

When you put your values at the core of your business, that’s what you get, organic results. I was the guy pushing product out the door for many years, I was the one buying more time on TV and always trying to come up with strategies on how to increment everything. I didn’t want to deal with sales, always hated sales, so I made sure all those ads were bringing the business in. Today, the only strategy is being myself and exceed expectations, and that not only brings business but I’m getting the opportunity to work with amazing people on exciting projects at the perfect time. I forgot about marketing, sales and worrying about ROI, the only thing I always feared.

I read this somewhere last week and I have been breaking my head trying to remember where so I can post the exact same words and give credit to whoever said it, but it wen something like this:

“Create something by following your passion, put it in front of the right people and see what happens”

I don’t know but it sounds a lot like LEADERSHIP to me…

What do you think?

Photo Credit: Vilseskogen

There are three main reasons why some small businesses and entrepreneurs are still resisting the idea of a Social Media strategy as part of your marketing: They are so busy with their business they are not aware of it, they think it is too much work or they think Social Media is either for brands or staying connected with your ant on the other side of the planet.

But I’ll give you 5 reasons why you should start considering it as a possibility:

1. This is where you prospect/client lives. Companies never had a bigger opportunity to get to know their target.
2. Conventional media like TV, print or radio have the worst ROI in history, and that has nothing to do with our current economic situation.
3. It’s a great customer service tool that allows you to interact with the consumer, get their opinions and even solve their problems. When you solve a problem you gain the loyalty of that particular customer, but when you solve a problem in front of the whole world…
4. Social Media is Free. It is not a walk in the park, but it does not cost you money like conventional media does, where you pay for creativity, production, strategy, placement and airtime.
5. Did I mention it’s FREE?

In fact, this is a great time to start a business and leverage from all these tools. Don’t think social media is Facebook and Twitter. With social media you can network with other businesses, collaborate with a virtual team in projects, run your web PR campaign, manage your customer service, provide content, generate leads and so on… you can run your business with it.

Contact us to find out more about it.

Welcome. Our first post is to introduce ourselves and announce the launch of our services. SocialMouths started operations yesterday (4/27/09) in Los Angeles, California.

Get to know a little bit of who we are and what we do and feel free to interact with any comments, questions or suggestions. We are a “Social Company”. We intend to communicate and enforce truth and simplicity in our message as well as in every campaign we design for our clients.

What we do

Very simple. SocialMouths helps entrepreneurs, small businesses and professionals in different industries leverage from social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and others. Whether you are looking to brand a company or yourself on the web, our team can help you establish and deploy the right strategies depending on your products or services and target market.

The format? SocialMouths can consult, coach or develop those strategies to raise awareness and ultimately generate traffic so you can turn into customers. We also provide free content through our blog in order to give you the basics of social media, in plain English.

Is Social Media for you?

Of course it is! Did you know that social media is free? Did you know that businesses and entrepreneurs like you are attracting new customers through it? Are you still focusing on conventional media campaigns to market your products/services?

Social media changed the way we communicate, not only in our personal lives but also how businesses interact with their clients.

Our Opening Promo

As our opening promo, we will offer a free 1-hour phone session to the first 5 people that contact us through the comments of this post. Just claim it! It doesn’t matter where you are.

Get in Contact

Ask for our services or just say hi on:

Email Us | Visit our Website |  Or follow us on Twitter or Facebook

Social media is no longer a way to connect with your friends and family. It also means serious business. Find out how.