Communication is a key component to living a successful life. Possessing effective communication skills can improve your career, your relationships, and increase your people skills. There are seven stages to basic communication. By knowing and understanding these stages you will be able to better communicate in your personal and professional life.

Sender - Know the message you want to communicate and make sure that message contain useful and correct information.

Encoding – Encoding is the process where the information you would like to communicate gets transferred into a form to be sent and decoded by the receiver. The ability to deliver the message clearly as well as be able to discard any confusing or potentially offensive themes such as cultural issues, or missing information is imperative in this stage.

Channel – Channels are the way you convey your message. These channels include verbal such as telephone, and face-to-face conversations as well as non-verbal such as e-mail and text messaging. Each individual channel has its strengths and weaknesses in terms of communicating. For example, it is better to give instructions non-verbally rather than expecting the person you are communicating with will remember everything you tell them. You would also never critique or criticize anyone through a non-verbal channel at the risk of having a misunderstanding.

Decoding – Decoding is on the receiving end of communication. This stage is just as important as encoding. Communication can go downhill at this stage if the receiver is not practicing active listening skills or if they do not possess enough information to accurately decode the message.

Receiver – Know your audience. Each individual person on the receiving end of your message already has their own ideas and thoughts that will absolutely influence the way they translate your message. By getting to know your audience better you will be able to have a better understanding of how they will react to what you are trying to communicate.

Feedback – As you are communicating your message your audience will provide you with non-verbal and verbal reactions. You will be able to asses while communicating your message if it is being conveyed accurately by paying close attention to non-verbal cues first such as returning eye contact, head nodding etc.

Context -Context is the environment in which your message is being delivered. For example, If you’re making a work presentation chances are you will be speaking more professionally, than if you were conversing casually with a neighbor or friend.

At a recent dinner party I had the pleasure drilling Dr. Joe Vitale about ho’oponopono, the Zero Limits method, and the power of saying “I love you” to heal you and your world. My questions were direct and the answers were revealing. You can see the entire eight minute spiritual lesson right here. Enjoy.

Gov’t Shuts Down Girl’s Lemonade Stand

Seven-year-old Julie Murphy of Oregon City still smiles about her enterprise despite running afoul of county inspectors for an unlicensed lemonade stand at Last Thursday.

It’s hardly unusual to hear small-business owners gripe about licensing requirements or complain that heavy-handed regulations are driving them into the red.

So when Multnomah County shut down an enterprise last week for operating without a license, you might just sigh and say, there they go again.

Except this entrepreneur was a 7-year-old named Julie Murphy. Her business was a lemonade stand at the Last Thursday monthly art fair in Northeast Portland. The government regulation she violated? Failing to get a $120 temporary restaurant license.

Turns out that kids’ lemonade stands — those constants of summertime — are supposed to get a permit in Oregon, particularly at big events that happen to be patrolled regularly by county health inspectors.

“I understand the reason behind what they’re doing and it’s a neighborhood event, and they’re trying to generate revenue,” said Jon Kawaguchi, environmental health supervisor for the Multnomah County Health Department. “But we still need to put the public’s health first.”

Read The Full Article

I can’t think of too many professions where you can succeed without some sort of interpersonal skills.  But, as I’m sure you’re aware, interpersonal skills don’t come naturally to some people.  There are people out there—perfectly kind, warm-hearted people—who like to keep to themselves.  Unfortunately, though, people in the workplace can’t read minds.  So, the person who might be content eating alone and reading the paper might come off as anti-social and, worse yet, rude.  But, if you’re an introvert, or you’ve broken the through the shell of an introvert, you know they mean no such thing and that they’d probably be the nicest people in the workplace if they opened their mouths.  Well, believe it or not, an introverted personality doesn’t necessarily hurt your interpersonal skills.  In fact, you can greatly enhance your people skills through reading and meditation.

Reading

From the first time you cracked the spine of Dr. Suess, everyone has told you reading is good.  And, for the most part, you probably placed it in the same useful category as fruits and vegetables.  However, reading has proven to be useful for your mental health as well as your social skills.  Reading arms you with knowledge for just about any conversation.  By reading, you become an expert in a variety of fields, and you’ll be able to carry engaging conversations without faltering.  It’s similar to when you study hard for a test, and you breeze through it without a worry.  This can be quite the confidence boaster.  And anyone involved with interpersonal skill training knows that confidence is perhaps one of the most important traits to possess.

Meditation

Mediation is about as introverted as it comes.  Who would think that sitting alone in silence for 20 minutes could enhance your people skills?   Well, like reading, meditation is good for your physical health as well as your interpersonal skills.  Naturally, meditation helps you control your thoughts, but it also increases creativity and confidence.  Whether you’re a painter or a financial advisor, creativity is crucial to the work environment.  Those who can think outside the box and convey those thoughts to others are those who move up the corporate ladder.  Meditation helps harness your thoughts and arrange them in a productive fashion.  So, again, similar to reading, this practice typically associated with introverts is one of the best ways to improve your social and communication skills.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Should Apple recall the iPhone? Share your thoughts.

Friday, July 16, 2010
Jobs Takes the Stage to Take on ‘Antennagate’

____________________________________________

Original Story

The small business marketplace changes rapidly. The information included on this page represents the most current information. When discussing a “small business,” this site uses the definitions provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. Read their FAQ sheet.

Small Business Impact on the Economy

The estimated 29.6 million small businesses in the United States:

* Employ just over half of the country’s private sector workforce
* Hire 40 percent of high tech workers, such as scientists, engineers and computer workers
* Include 52 percent home-based businesses and two percent franchises
* Represent 97.3 percent of all the exporters of goods
* Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms
* Generate a majority of the innovations that come from United States companies

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, September 2009

Small Business Survival Rates

Small Business Openings & Closings in 2008:

* There were 627,200 new businesses, 595,600 business closures and 43,546 bankruptcies.
* Seven out of 10 new employer firms survive at least two years, and about half survive five years.
* Findings do not differ greatly across industry sectors.

Sources: U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, September 2009

Survival and Longevity in the Business Employment Dynamics Database, Monthly Labor Review, May 2005. Redefining Business Success: Distinguishing Between Closure and Failure, Small Business Economics, August 2003.

Trends in the Small Biz Marketplace

General Trends

* The number of self-employed workers in June 2005 fell 3.1 percent or 303,000 from the month before, Labor Department data showed. Self employment tends to fall as the economy grows. That’s especially true among laid-off workers who start tiny companies after failing to find work in slow times. (Source: USA Today, July 17, 2005)

* During 1979-2003, self-employment increased: 33 percent for women; 37 percent for African Americans, 15 percent for Latinos, 10 for White Americans and 2.5 percent for men. (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy)

* Where do small business owners go for advice? 52 percent from individual mentors; 51 percent from social networks; 44 percent from trade associations; 36 percent from business advisors; 31 percent from the Internet and 27 percent from Chambers of Commerce (Source: American Express)

Women in Business

* Women represent more than 1/3 of all people involved in entrepreneurial activity. (Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2005 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship)

* Between 1997 and 2002, women-owned firms grew by 19.8 percent while all U.S. firms grew by seven percent (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy)

* Women-owned firms accounted for 6.5 percent of total employment in U.S. firms in 2002 and 4.2 percent of total receipts. (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy)

* The number of women-owned firms continues to grow at twice the rate of all U.S. firms (23 percent vs. 9 percent). There are an estimated 10 million women-owned, privately-held U.S. businesses. The greatest challenge for women-owned firms is access to capital, credit and equity. Women start businesses on both lifestyle and financial reasons. Many run businesses from home to keep overhead low. (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy and Business Times, April 2005)

* Women are more likely to seek business advice—69 percent women vs. 47 percent men. (Source: American Express)

Minority-Owned Businesses

* Black-owned businesses are the fastest growing segment, up 45 percent between 1997-2002. Revenues generated by the nation’s 1.2 million black-owned businesses rose 25 percent between 1997 and 2002 to $88.8 billion in 2002. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

* The number of U.S. businesses with Hispanic owners grew at three times the national average from 1997 to 2002 to 1.6 million businesses in 2002, a 31 percent increase from five years earlier. (Source: MSNBC)

Seniors in Business

* Entrepreneurship among seniors is growing. In 2002, the rate of self-employment for the workforce was 10.2 percent (13.8 million workers), but the rate for workers aged 50 was 16.4 percent (5.6 million workers). Although those age 50 made up 25 percent of the workforce, they comprised 40 of the self-employed. Solo business formation in the future will be driven by people who take early retirement or whose jobs just disappear. (Source: AARP/Rand Corp. “Self-employment and the 50 Population”)

Veterans in Business

* In 2004, about 22 percent of veterans in the US household population were either purchasing or starting a new business or considering purchasing or starting a business and nearly 72 percent of veteran entrepreneurs planned to employ at least one person at the start of their venture (Source: US Census Bureau)

Hot markets for small businesses:

* eBay drop-off sites
* Search engine optimization and Internet marketing
* Performance apparel
* Niche health and fitness
* Technology security consulting
* Services/products for Hispanic-market

(Source: Entrepreneur magazine, “Newest Trends & Hottest Markets,” January 2005)

Advice for small businesses on using social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, and how to integrate these tools into the marketing and recruiting efforts of your company.

By J.J. McCorvey | Inc. Magazine

Consider this: It wasn’t until 1997 that the Internet reached 50 million users in the United States. Facebook gained over 100 million users in the U.S. from January 2009 to January 2010, marking a 145 percent growth rate within one year, according to research by digital marketing agency iStrategy Labs. If you’re a business owner that hasn’t embraced social media networking as a major component of your success strategy, it’s due time to hop onboard.

“When you’ve got 300 million people on Facebook, that’s a huge business watering hole,” says Lon Safko, social media expert and co-author of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, of the site’s global reach. “The profile is like an index to your company.”

While Facebook has become the most popular social media site, there are plenty of others for your company to explore. LinkedIn, for example, houses 55 million professionals seeking jobs, employees, or basic business or networking opportunities. MySpace, which allows users to tinker with music, themes, and HTML code, is targeted toward youth and teens. All of these sites have one primary thing in common: the profile.

The user profile is generally what distinguishes social networking sites from other social media platforms. It helps set the stage for building relationships with people who share the same interests, activities, or personal contacts, as opposed to primarily disseminating or digesting information feeds. This also means social networks enable companies to invite audiences to get to know its brand in a way that traditional forms of marketing or advertising can’t.

But what, exactly, are the methods that businesses should use to effectively leverage the burgeoning userbase of these sites as a tool to grow their companies? The following pages will detail what to do – and what not to do – in order to maintain a viable presence in the realm of social networking.

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Developing a Social Networking
Strategy

Before opening an account and becoming active, it’s important to consider what each site offers and how you can benefit from their resources. “Take some time and really analyze what your existing social media strategy is,” says Safko. “Figure out which tools are best for your demographic.” Without a fully developed plan for your social networking activity, you could end up meandering throughout the sites and wasting a lot of time.

Here are a few basic questions to ask yourself when forming your social networking strategy:
1. What are the needs of my business? Hopefully, you’re not putting your company name on a social networking account just to send messages back and forth to former high school classmates, so there has to be an impetus. Figure out what your needs are. Are you short-staffed? Is your advertising budget running thin?

2. What am I using the site for? After you’ve established your needs, consider the primary goal of your social networking strategy. Do you want to recruit employees for a certain department? Do you want to market a new line of products? Do you want to connect to more people in your industry?

3. Whose attention am I trying to get? Okay, so you want to market that new line of products, for example. You still need to know your target audience for that product, and with more than 300 million users on Facebook, you’ll need to narrow your focus.

Got those answered? Good. Now, consider these questions:
1. Which sites do I want to take on? If you have enough staffing power to handle multiple social networking sites, that’s great. If not, it’s important to focus on one or two, or you could spread yourself too thin and fall victim to the “gaping void” perception, where you end up going days without activity. Your followers will notice.

2. Who’s going to manage my page? Would your social networking activity fall under a current employee’s responsibilities, or do you need to bring on new talent? If you ever find yourself without the staffing resources to manage your page, don’t stick your head in the sand, says Safko. “Find some interns,” he advises. “In most cases, they’ll do it for free.”

3. Who has access to my page? What type of trust level do you have established at your company? Will all of your employees have access to the social network account, or a select few? Take the time to assess the skills and character of those who can log into your page, or you may run into unsavory situations down the road – especially when dealing with former workers.

4. Who’s going to be the personality of my page? Does your company already have a public representative that usually handles speeches, press, etc.? It may be beneficial to rein in that person as the voice of your social networking site. “People buy from other people, not from other companies,” says Safko. “In order to solidify trust, pick someone to represent your brand.”

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Choosing Your Site

After you’ve answered those questions, you can choose which social networking site, or sites, would best fulfill the requirements of your strategy. Though many of the sites are similar in nature, they can all be categorized by the different purposes they serve. These are the basic types of social networking sites:

“Free for all” social sites: Some sites that fall under this category are Facebook, MySpace, Ning, and Friendster. Each of these sites primarily serve as a nexus of friends and associates who want to socialize. Ning, for example, has become popular for connecting classmates and helping to set up reunions. The profiles are usually personable, inviting, and can be customized with add-ons and apps.

Professional sites: Examples of these include LinkedIn, FastPitch, and Plaxo. The professional site can be utilized as an online professional contact database, or “rolodex,” but it’s also where people go to update employment information about themselves.

3. Industry-specific sites: These sites allow you to connect to people who are in your industry. I-Meet, for example, is specifically geared toward event planners, while ResearchGATE is a community for researchers in the science or technology field. Industry sites help you to narrow your search when looking for services, or people with skills in certain fields. You may even want a particular department of your company, such as IT or advertising, to open an account on one of these sites.

Dig Deeper: Embracing Social Networking in IT

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Setting Up Your Profile

Your profile is the online representation of your brand and company, so it’s important to know what to add and what to avoid. Here are a few tips to be mindful of as you create your profile:
1. Don’t be afraid to get a little personal. Facebook profiles, for example, allow you to include things like hobbies, favorite music, etc. Including tidbits like these can make your page warmer and more personable. “Some personal information is valuable, because it may create a bond with a customer,” says Safko.

2. But not too personal. Don’t be the “TMI” poster boy or girl, (i.e. “The wife and I are on our way to have dinner – kids are with the grandparents”). Create another page that’s just yours, sans company activity.

3. Share photos and videos. Adding multimedia to your page gives flair, and offers customers an exclusive look inside your company. LinkedIn even has an add-on that allows you to post presentations and slideshows.

4. But no office party snapshots. Though the atmosphere of Facebook is still relatively laid back, you want to maintain the perception that you’re serious about your product and customers. Pictures involving Santa hats and alcohol probably shouldn’t be in your albums.

5. Set privacy settings. On most of these sites, you can control what people see on your profile, such as pictures and blog posts, and you can even limit what other people post. Depending on the nature of your company, you should consider these restrictions. Are there any embarrassing pictures of you floating around that you might not want linked to your page?

6. But don’t be a blank slate. Imagine coming across the profile of one your favorite brands, and all that’s there is a picture and headquarters location. A little disheartening, right? If and when you do enact some privacy settings, try to keep the page lively.

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Social Network Marketing

Marketing through social networks isn’t as much about selling your product, as it is about engaging your followers. “A lot of people have started Facebook fan pages with no clue to how it can benefit them,” says Jim Tobin, president of Ignite Social Media, a social media marketing agency based in Cary, North Carolina. “You have to think above your product.” The goal of the community-based environment of social networking sites is to provide a platform for an open, honest conversation.

The companies that are most successful at converting followers into dollars are those who interact most with the users and frequently post content related to their brand. Facebook’s Fan Page is probably the best example of how you should be marketing you company through social networking sites. The page acts as an upgraded user profile for brands, companies, and organizations to be as involved as the users, and has plenty of tools to help you do so. As users become “fans” of your page, all of your activity appears in their News Feed each time they log on. There’s also a useful feature called the Insights tool, which allows you to analyze page views, the demographics of your fans, and the number of people who view (or stop viewing) your News Feed posts.

Outdoor Technology, a Los Angeles-based manufacturer of clothing and gear for skiers and snowboarders, initially sold merchandise directly to retailers. But after the company began actively using their Fan Page last September, revenue from e-commerce went from zero to $25,000 in three months, says CEO Caro Krissman. The page has now amassed over 11,000 fans. “We saw Facebook as sort of a sweet spot for where our target market is,” says Krissman. “With the ability to target users in such a focused way, we felt like there really wasn’t a better forum to go about [marketing online].”

‘Fan’ features your company should be using:

1. Comment on other users’ content or profile posts. By responding to what your followers post to your profile, you show them that you appreciate their interaction. If they know they have your attention, they’ll keep coming back.

2. Ask questions on your wall. Facebook users love to be heard. It can be surprising how many responses one question can elicit. “It starts to snowball,” says Safko. “What you’ll find is that the conversation will branch off and start another one.”

3. Posting links or threads. “One thing fan pages lets you do that Web pages don’t is encourage viral spread,” says Tobin. If you have any content that you want to circulate quickly, the fan page is the perfect tool.

4. Posting relevant events. By posting upcoming events your company may be part of or hosting, you can help drive more attendees to the function. And for those who can’t come, they get a glimpse at how active your business is within the community or industry.

Social Network Promotions
Remember, it’s called a social network, not a “business network.” Coming off as a pushy or shrewd salesperson peddling a product could scare away your Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections. Remember to be genuine and personal.

Here are the things you should do when promoting your company or product through social networking sites:

1. Make it benefit-based. Make the customer feel that they need to participate in the promotion. Is the product or feature available for a limited time? Are you offering exclusively to your followers on a particular network?

2. Talk about new or uncommon features. Even if you have a relatively popular product, there may be some things consumers don’t know about it. What are some new or different ways it can be used?

3. Include some discounts and savings. Offering discounts on products is usually a shoe-in to grab customers’ attention. Krissman, of Outdoor Technology, says he posts promotional codes that users can fill out on the company’s website and get up to 30 percent off a product. Not only does it drive more buyers to your product, but it also brings more followers to your page.

Here are the things you shouldn’t do when promoting your company or product through social networking sites:
1. Don’t continually have sales-related messages. There are other ways to promote besides selling your product. Comment or ask questions about news or topics in your industry. “They will easily ignore you or unsubscribe you if you continue to push a sale,” says Tobin.

2. Don’t set up an expectation, then cheat on it. If you announce to your followers that your purpose is to give advice, don’t turn around and start selling. “If you violate that expectation, people are going to get upset and they’re going to leave,” says Tobin. Again, make the sale subtle – how can your product help them achieve the advice you’re giving?

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Social Network Recruiting

Social recruiting is an effective way to utilize social networks to find the best candidate for any open positions at your company. While the past few years saw the rise of job boards like Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com, the growing prominence of social networks have transformed the way businesses build their best team. Instead of relying on the “come one, come all” approach, the detailed personal information contained in profiles, such as interests and job history, allows businesses to employ social networking sites to target the specific audience or skill set they want to pull from.

According to an annual social recruitment survey published by Jobvite, an online service that helps businesses consolidate the resources of social media sites, 80 percent of companies used or planned to use social networking to find and attract candidates in 2009, with LinkedIn being used by 95 percent of the respondents and Facebook usage growing from 36 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2009.

“It’s like what’s happened to the ad industry,” says Dan Finnigan, CEO of Jobvite and former general manager of Yahoo! HotJobs. “It used to be that you would buy a big ad to get the consumer’s attention, but more and more companies are relying on online advertising software that puts that ad right in front of them based on data, like the other ads they click on. Social recruiting is analogous to that.”

The Benefits of Social Network Recruiting
Here are some of the primary advantages that social recruiting affords small businesses:

1. Empowers your employees to distribute job information. These days, most, if not all of your employees probably have a profile on a social networking site. By enabling them to post information about open positions, you multiply your searching reach by the thousands.

2. Helps you put the passive job candidate in your crosshairs. Job boards are mostly used by people who are proactively looking for positions. But what about the perfect potential employee who may not be scouring Careerbuilder.com every day?

3. A low-cost method of finding high-quality candidates. When looking for job candidates, it takes time to sift through resumes of unqualified applicants, and many job boards charge fees to post openings. Social recruiting helps you zone in on the best candidates, for free.

Tools to Help You Socially Recruit

1. Custom searches. Searching only by name and location doesn’t cut it when looking for the perfect employee. LinkedIn has one of the most thorough searches of all the sites, allowing you to sift through profiles by company, industry, college, and even how many “degrees” you are from the person.

3. Updating your status message. When you or your employees update your statuses, it pops up on your friends’ home page, and sits atop the profile until it’s changed. “My company is looking for … ,” is sure to snag replies.

4. Linking to stories and external content. Both Facebook and LinkedIn enable users to post external content to their profiles. By linking to articles and blogs that contain positive news about your business, you show potential candidates that it’s not just your social network connections that adore your company.

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Privacy and Legal Issues

Though social networking can certainly be a fun way to help you expand your company, there are plenty of issues surrounding privacy and legalities that you should always be aware of when searching for employees, and even after you’ve hired them. “The laws [regarding online privacy and or hiring online] generally apply the same [as existing state laws],” says Megan Erickson, an associate at Des Moines, Iowa-based Dickinson, Mackaman, Tyler & Hagan law firm and author of Erickson’s Blog on Social Networking and the Law. “But now that there are all these different kinds of social media, they combine to make it a very unique environment.”

Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind to help you steer clear of legal trouble when dealing with potential or current employees and social networking sites:
1. Don’t use fake profiles. Using a fake profile when adding employees to monitor their activity can constitute as an invasion of privacy, Erickson says. “That’s just asking for lots of trouble,” she says.

2. Add a social media section to your handbook. Including language about social media in your personnel policy is paramount, especially if you plan on integrating it heavily in your company’s operations.

3. Beware of existing federal and state laws. It may help to prep yourself on the many federal and state laws regarding anti-discrimination and privacy, Erickson says, so that if you do come across an employee’s wayward photo or disparaging status message, you’ll be knowlegeable about how to proceed with disciplinary action.

Resources

To learn more about using social networking sites:

• The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, by Lon Safko and David Brake, is a great guide for business owners and executives who want to use the power of social media to grow their companies. Visit the website, TheSocialMediaBible.com, to connect with other professionals looking to do the same.

• Megan Erickson’s blog, Erickson’s Blog on Social Networking and the Law, posts up-to-date news on legal issues surrounding social media sites.

• Mashable is a great resource for news, advice, and jobs concerning all things social media.

• John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing – The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide, also runs a marketing blog for small businesses called Duct Tape Marketing. Check out what he says about the 7 Truths of Social Media Marketing.

Some sites to consider joining for social networking:

• Facebook: The most popular social networking site, it allows you keep up with friends, colleagues, and classmates and features a stream-lined, easy-to-use interface.

• MySpace: Geared toward the younger crowd, this interactive site lets you connect with friends and tweak your profile with extras like themes and music playlists.

• LinkedIn: This site is strictly professional, and for good reason. You can keep up with colleagues, find employees, and network with others in your field.

• Bebo: Another primarily social site for friends that allows users to express themselves through media and interactive environments.

• FastPitch: This professional site serves as a great platform for growing companies to market themselves, allowing you to post events, press, and submit keywords to increase your profile’s SEO strength.

• Friendster: A social networking site for friends that promotes connections between international users and also boasts “Fan Profiles” similar to Facebook’s.

• I-Meet : A professional site where you can establish valuable contacts and potentially save money on event planning.

Your guide to using photo sharing, video, podcasts, mobile marketing, and other types of multimedia to broaden your company’s reach and introduce new marketing techniques.

By Lauren Folino, Michelle V. Rafter and Ryan McCarthy | Jan 25, 2010

Multimedia, such as mobile marketing, livecasting and podcasting, photo, video and file sharing, can spread the word about your company and help build brand awareness in a very unique and powerful way. These particular types of social media marketing services also has the ability to go viral quickly. Hottrix, the Las Vegas, Nevada-based iPhone app creator, became one example of a breakthrough success story when their iBeer app, which simulates chugging a mug of beer on the iPhone, became one of the most-downloaded apps in 2008, and again in 2009.

However, your company’s chances of going viral are left more to fate than skill, but that’s no reason to discount the importance of multimedia for your business. The ability of these technologies to facilitate communication between your small business and employees, your customers and potential customers, is tremendous, says Keith Nissen, principle analyst at the Scottsdale, Arizona-based market intelligence firm, In-Stat.

“When you think about [multimedia platforms] and what that’s all about, it’s about being able to communicate mass marketing messages to the device of choice on demand,” says Nissen. “I think what’s more interesting is how these tools can be used in conjunction with other multimedia tools to support the business–the marketing, the sales and promotion of their products and services. To me, that, for a small business, is probably more important than internal communication.”

Here’s a look at some of the most effective ways to leverage media, such as photos, podcasts, videos, and other types of mobile marketing.

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: Sharing Photos With Your Online Community.

Several online communities exist for the purpose of uploading and sharing photos over the Web, and many small businesses have learned to take advantage of these services to market their products. Here are the most common photo sharing marketing strategies.

1. Offer real-time incentives. Twitter’s TweetPhoto will automatically enable you to publish photos to your Twitter and Facebook accounts for free via mobile and Web platforms. Who needs 140 characters to describe your business when a picture is worth 1,000 words? Tweet pictures of discounted and new items or offer exclusive incentives.

2. Join like-minded communities. At no cost, Yahoo!-operated Flickr provides a useful platform for photo management and sharing. “The first thing that I tell people is that Flickr is not just a photo storage place,” says Matt McGee, independent online marketing consultant of the Tri-Cities, Washington-based, Small Business Search Marketing. “It’s a very active community centered around Flickr groups.” For example, a pet-lovers group may get a kick out of the clothing and toys created by a boutique pet store.

3. Drive traffic to your website. Pink Cake Box, a gourmet cake shop located in Denville, New Jersey, began using Flickr in 2006 to build brand identity. Co-owner Jesse Heap says that Pink Cake Box’s website receives about 300,000 unique users each month, and roughly 10 percent of those visitors are from Flickr, where the company posts photos of interesting or extreme cakes.

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: Hosting Videos and Webcasting.

Sharing videos over the Web is another great resource for small businesses in establishing a social media presence, particularly because of how many people are tuning in. According to a November 2009 survey released by comScore, a digital marketing research firm headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Google’s many video sites accounted for 12.2 billion videos viewed that month, including YouTube, which accounted for nearly 99 percent of the total.

Webcasting is essentially broadcasting a video or media file over the Internet using streaming media technology, which can be distributed to many simultaneous viewers at once. Done the right way, webcasts, also called video podcasts, vblogs, videocasting or Web shows, can be effective promotional tools. “It’s a cool opportunity to take people behind the scenes of a business,” says Dina Kaplan, co-founder and COO of blip.tv, a four-year-old Internet TV network. Her network airs video podcasts from hundreds of companies as diverse as the New York City Ballet to the crafter website Etsy, which broadcasts online classes. “It’s been interesting to watch, especially in the last year, how many businesses have created Web shows to promote their product or gain exposure for principals,” Kaplan says.

Shooting a video for YouTube or starting a more elaborate webcast essentially takes four basic ingredients: equipment, a theme, an online home and marketing.

1. The equipment. Very small businesses can buy a webcam or camcorder, wireless microphone and simple video editing equipment such as Sony’s Vegas Movie Studio or Final Cut Pro 7. However, a webcam limits you to filming yourself sitting in front of a computer, and that’s not very exciting, says Peter Brusso, an Anaheim, California, podcasting producer and technology marketing consultant. Instead, invest in a camcorder, preferably a “three-chip” camera that uses three computer chips to separate colors, which results in a higher quality picture, Brusso says.

2. Hire someone. If you have a bigger budget, hire a professional. Prices run from $1,000 to $15,000, according to podcast industry sources. Employment attorney Helene Wasserman created a video podcast called Employer Helpcast two years ago to market her work as a partner with Ford & Harrison LLP, a Los Angeles law firm. Wasserman uses Brusso’s company to produce video podcasts and pays $2,500 for segments that run anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. It’s worth the money, she says. “If you’re trying to market yourself as having a very professional business, you want to put your best foot forward,” she says.

3. The show. You could have the best-looking video around, but it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t do something that was interesting and consistent, says blip.tv’s Kaplan. For webcasts, stick to a regular broadcast schedule, whether that’s once a day, week or month. And keep shows short. “Your aptitude for sitting in your uncomfortable office chair atrophies after about six minutes,” she says. Be personable, says Kaplan, who advises podcasters to stick to the old news adage to show, not tell. If you run a retail business, walk around the store, and talk about new merchandise. “Talk to a customer. If you have a hardware store, show them the new hammer on sale,” she says.

4. Hosting and marketing. Once you’ve got a video in the can, upload it for free on YouTube where it can be viewed by anyone. Webcasts can also be uploaded to free or paid hosting sites such as blip.tv, iTunes or Libsyn. Where a podcast is hosted isn’t as important as spreading the word that it’s there. Wasserman’s podcasts appear on blip.tv and iTunes and cover workplace issues such as job sharing, corporate culture and managing a multi-generational workforce. Wasserman points prospective viewers to the podcast from her website and blog and by including a tagline promoting the show in her email signature. Wasserman also uses a free service that puts word-for-word transcripts of her video podcasts on the Web, where they can be searched by Google and other search engines. More people find her podcast through search engines than by visiting blip.tv or her website, and the traffic had led to speaking engagements and new work, she says. “It’s the wave of the future. For anyone who wants to use 21st century technologies, this is the way to go.”

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: 4 Good Reasons to Go Through the Trouble of Creating a Video.

1. Show how to use your product. With a slogan as simple as “Broadcast Yourself,” many YouTube users are doing just that, especially when it comes to showing how their products or services can be used. “There are countless small business owners posting how-to videos on YouTube,” says McGee. “[For instance,] here’s how to use the product; here’s how to interact with people in our service industry.”

2. Extend your client base. In December 2007, John Tuggle, a slide and blues guitar instructor based in Decatur, Georgia, began posting videos on YouTube teaching people how to play guitar because he wasn’t generating enough interest in his hometown. By February 2008, interest in his lessens grew so much that he created LearningGuitarNow.com where visitors contacted him regularly for private lessons via Skype at the rate of $25 for 30 minutes. “I just kept [talking to people] and kept putting more out, and figuring out what people wanted. Last year I pulled in almost $100,000 from the website,” said Tuggle.

3. Entertain your customers. It is quite easy to post a video simply for visitors’ enjoyment. For instance, Vimeo, a video hosting site that aims to be a “community of creative people who are passionate about sharing the videos they make,” features a ‘Videos we like’ tab. For a small business owner, posting a video for entertainment purposes stands to generate many views, which in turn may spark interest in the company and possibly lead to the purchase of products or services.

4. Provide a unique service. LiveCast, with headquarters in Vancouver, Canada, enables live video streaming directly from a cell phone, mobile Internet device, or Mac or PC, to anyone connected to the Web. For Gordon Cooper, photographer and founder of Perfect Wedding magazine, live broadcasting gives his business a unique capability. “I can have all the guests at the wedding even if they’re not at the wedding,” says Cooper. “Guest can still experience the live ceremony [from wherever they are].” Cooper is able to charge an additional $250 for this service.

Dig Deeper: Marketing Your Business on YouTube

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: Podcasting

Podcasts have become such a popular marketing tool for sole proprietors and small businesses that a small army of professional producers is out there waiting to help. Here are 9 essential steps a company needs to get started:

1. Do some homework. The best way to learn about podcasting is to listen to podcasts, says Peter Brusso, an Anaheim, California, podcasting producer and technology marketing consultant. Visit directories such as RSS Player or Libsyn and look for podcasts with a similar style or subject to you want to create, Brusso says.

2. Decide on a topic. Podcasts could focus on a company’s products or services, an industry or on management or professional issues. Whatever the topic, make sure it’s related to a company’s business in some way, says Sallie Goetsch, proprietor of The Podcast Asylum, a northern California podcast producer and consultant.

3. Gather your tools. Producing a podcast requires:
• A microphone, digital audio recorder or USB headset to record podcast episodes
• Computer with sound card and high-speed Internet connection
• Audio recording and editing software, either licensed software or free open-source programs such as Audacity.

4. Be natural. When it’s time to record a podcast, organize talking points, but don’t use a script. “People don’t like being sold. The more from the heart the better,” Brusso says.

5. Build a backlog. Before going live, build up a catalog of a dozen or more episodes. Coming up with ideas is easy, Brusso says. They can spring from talking to customers, going to conventions, reading trade magazines, or following current events.

6. Be consistent. Length, professional quality, and subject matter of a company’s podcast are important but not as much as on-air consistency. Whether it’s once a day, once a week or once a month, pick a schedule and stick to it. Podcasts are like radio or TV shows: audiences expect a schedule. Disappoint them and they might not come around again, Brusso says.

7. Not a D-I-Y type? Hire a pro. Professional producers can handle the technical aspects of starting or creating a podcast. Goetsch and partners Priscilla Rice and Michele Molitor, for example, offer a small-business podcast starter package for $1,100 that covers scripting and recording three to four podcasts plus lots of extras, including finding a hosting service, setting up a podcast blog and submitting broadcasts to podcast directories. Brusso, who works with lawyers and other sole proprietors, charges $1,000 for an hour-long podcast with similar extras. But it doesn’t have to be expensive. According to Goetsch, a small businessperson could do everything themselves with an existing computer, $20 headset, free software for audio editing and creating a podcast, and host it on their existing website.

8. Find your podcast a home. Companies can physically host a podcast anywhere, including with the service they use for their website. What really matters is getting the word out that it’s there. For maximum exposure, list podcasts on directories such as PodcastAlley.com, Podcast411, Podanza or TalkShoe.

9. Forget about making money, at least not directly. Some podcasts collect revenue from advertising that podcast directories put on their sites. But that shouldn’t be why a company does it. Podcasts should be part of a company’s overall marketing strategy, Brusso says. “To get yourself known, you have to blog, optimize your Website for search engines and podcast,” he says. “If you do all three the results are phenomenal.”

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: Mobile Marketing

There are 4.1 billion cellular connections worldwide, and with the prevalence of smart phones, the concept of browsing the Web from a mobile phone has gone mainstream. Consider this: Mobile phone carriers are sitting atop a trove of data – not just your name, address, and, of course, phone number but also credit card information, who your friends are, and where you’re located at this very moment. Even with privacy regulations, more of this information will become available to marketers as phones are used more like little PCs, creating opportunities for highly targeted ads and other marketing breakthroughs.

Here’s what you need to know to get started.

• How exactly do I advertise on a mobile phone? The most common type of mobile ad is a display ad served on a Web page called up on a cell phone’s screen. The ads are created for the site’s mobile format and may not be the same as the ads you would see if you were browsing the site on a PC. Ads are priced on a Cost Per Mille, or CPM, basis – the price you pay for the ad to be seen 1,000 times.

• How do I buy mobile ads? Most advertisers work with mobile-ad networks, which bring together advertisers and websites that are frequently viewed by phone. Some of the larger players, which are owned by the likes of Google (AdMob), AOL (Third Screen Media) and Apple (Quattro Wireless), will act as full-service marketing shops. They handle the entire process, including technology, the creative content of mobile ads, and the ads’ placement.

• What do mobile ads cost? The cost of mobile ads varies due to the different types of ads, and different cell phone platforms. For instance, AdMob, one of the main mobile-ad networks, currently charges CPMs of $12 to $14 for iPhone banner ads.

• What about text messaging? One option is to buy or rent a short code, a five- or six-digit phone number from which you can send and receive text messages. One common way to use a short code is to publish it on a billboard or in a print ad (“Text 51234 for more information”) that encourages customers to enter a contest or participate in a poll.

• What does a short code cost? Cellit Mobile Marketing, in Chicago, and Movo, in Florida, sell short codes for $500 to $1,000 per month, plus a one-time setup fee of a few thousand dollars and a charge of 4 cents to 7 cents for each text message. You can also rent a code for as little as $225 per month. Keep in mind that technological standards vary. Nearly every phone on the market is equipped to send and receive texts, but some systems won’t let you embed complex graphics or photographs.

• How do I go after my best customers on a mobile phone? Google has expanded into the mobile world in several ways. Now, it allows companies to buy display ads – ads related to content – on the mobile Web. AdMob claims click-through rates on this type of ad of up to 3 percent, which is quite high. The company charges a cost-per-click (CPC) fee of 25 cents to 30 cents.

How to Use Multimedia For Business Marketing: 3 Tips for Making Your Mobile Campaign Successful

1. Determine your goals. Who is your target audience? How will they benefit from your message? Do you hope to generate revenue, generate interest, generate traffic to your website, or all three? Define your goals and set benchmarks for what a successful campaign would look like.

2. Choose your message. Your message should have a clear call to action. According to mobile marketing firm Punchkick Interactive, “over 90 percent of texts from SMS messaging campaigns are read by recipients, generating average response rates of 15 to 30 percent or more.” With the potential for that kind of penetration, it would help to make sure your campaign is simple, memorable, and factual. One thing every local business should be doing, says James Citron, CEO of mobile video marketing firm Mogreet, is attach keywords to their mobile campaigns that will resonate with customers in order to create brand awareness.

3. Pair your mobile marketing campaign with other social media marketing services. When Casa Del Mar, a luxury beach hotel located in Santa Monica, California, wanted to get the word out about drink specials, they doubled up on social media marketing services. The hotel posted messages on Twitter and Facebook saying, “Text CASA to 21534 and enjoy unlimited champagne or Bloodys. FREE.” Customers who texted received videos of the weekend brunch spread on their phone and received the beverage of their choice at the hotel. The end result was highly viral, with 250 redemptions.

By Marty Orgel

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — In these tough economic times, owners of businesses small and large are coming up with unexpected ways to save money.

The University of Wisconsin at Green Bay said it will save $10,000 annually by changing its font type. The university switched from Arial to Century Gothic because Century Gothic font doesn’t use as much ink when printed, according to an Associated Press report.

In these days of economizing, changing your font style is an innovative way to cut costs. Here are six other ways to save money without drastically changing your business practices.

1. Move paper forms online

Another educational institution said it, too, is saving $10,000 annually — by switching from paper forms to online e-forms.

“We use tens of thousands of forms in all sorts of applications,” said Al Foytek, director of business information systems for the Visalia Unified School District in California.

“The money we save using electronic forms like those from software maker PerfectForms can easily cover the cost to automate our whole processing procedure,” Foytek said. “For example, our print shop uses a paper form which costs us about 75 cents each and we have around 15,000 requests that require other, specific forms each year.”

2. Take it to City Hall

Negotiating with City Hall is another key way to save, said Amy Handlin, deputy minority leader of the New Jersey General Assembly and associate professor of marketing at Monmouth University in New Jersey. The state legislator also wrote the new book, “Be Your Own Lobbyist.”

Handlin said lobbying local and state government is the most cost-effective way to fix a small-business problem.

For example, she said, a city inspector told the owner of a bakery in Salt Lake City that the business would be shut down unless the owner spent $40,000 to install a grease trap in the street. With skillful lobbying, the bakery owner was permitted to place a grease trap in her own kitchen at minimal cost, with the understanding that it would be accessible for monitoring by the city.

Then there’s the group of small-business owners who went before the Massachusetts Public Health Department, Handlin said. New frozen-food regulations required businesses to buy refrigerated trucks that cost $50,000. At a public hearing, the business owners argued for cheaper alternatives. The state agreed, allowing the affected companies to transport goods any way they wanted as long as they maintained safe temperatures.

“Lobbying the right people with the right message is precisely the way to speed things up,” Handlin said.

3. Speed up the payment cycle

Another way to save money: decrease your payment terms. While 30-day-net and 60-day-net are the normal time periods small-business owners give clients to pay invoices, changing those terms can save money, said John Reddish, president of Philadelphia, Penn.-based Advent Management International Ltd.

“Shorter turnaround times can result in lower borrowing costs for money for operating capital,” Reddish said. “A faster turnaround on payments cuts the interest small-business owners have to pay.”

Reddish said one stamping company client changed the due date for billing to “net 15″ and cash flow improved by 31%. For many small businesses, he said, 30-days-net translates into payment up to 63 days later by the time the client actually cuts a check. Making payments due net 15 translates into payment in 48 days — a 31% improvement in cash flow.

There is a downside to this practice, Reddish said. If a customer challenges the change in terms, “you either back off or risk losing business.” But if the client is happy with the services or goods the business owner is providing, changes in terms often slide right through.

4. Sell global, ship local

Shipping costs often are a major expense for both online and brick-and-mortar small- business owners. The cost of fulfillment can make or break a small company. That’s a problem that Shipwire Inc of Palo Alto, Calif., is leveraging. The company offers worldwide shipping at local-country rates, saving customers thousands of dollars in international shipments.

Shipwire has six warehouses in three countries where it stores inventory for small businesses, and works with 15 carriers and freight systems. Pay-as-you-go pricing plans start at $30 a month. And small-business owners can scale-up as business grows.

“Many companies save $30,000 a year with our services,” said Nate Gilmore, Shipwire’s vice president of marketing.

The savings come when businesses can charge customers local shipping rates instead of international rates. For instance, Gilmore said, a San Francisco-based software company can use a Shipwire warehouse in London to deliver an order in Manchester and pay only local U.K. shipping rates.

5. Perfect the art of the deal

With the U.S. Air Force spending billions of dollars a year on outsourcing, researchers at the University of Tennessee felt there probably was room for significant savings.

“The Air Force spends $34 billion on outsourced services a year, and is always trying to find better ways to save taxpayers’ money,” said Kate Vitasek with the Center for Executive Education at the University of Tennessee.

Vitasek said that using “vested outsourcing,” an idea developed by the university, the Air Force saved $79 million on an engine maintenance program for the F/A 18 Hornet.

What is vested outsourcing? It’s the process of negotiating contracts with vendors so that they earn more when they meet all the terms of the contract, and they are penalized when they don’t. A vested outsourcing agreement will cut hidden contract costs and only pay the vendor if and when that vendor successfully lives up to the terms of the contract.

Vitasek said Microsoft Corp. /quotes/comstock/15*!msft/quotes/nls/msft (MSFT 23.20, +0.04, +0.17%) used vested outsourcing principles with the technology consultancy firm Accenture PLC /quotes/comstock/13*!acn/quotes/nls/acn (ACN 38.21, -0.07, -0.20%) . The 7-year contract is valued at $185 million and “they have cut the costs 35%,” or almost $65 million, she said.

The University of Tennessee studied only very large companies, but Vitasek said all companies, from mom-and-pop markets to multi-billion dollar institutions, can benefit from vested outsourcing.

6. Pull in some free advertising

Bert Martinez of Bert Martinez Communications LLC in Houston, Texas, has a unique take on guerilla marketing. He said small-business owners can reap large rewards by scouring local yellow pages and business directories.

“Call the phone numbers in your competitors’ ads,” he said. “You will always find several ads that have disconnected numbers. Then surf competitors’ websites and find any that are out of business.”

Then, contact the telephone company and the website domain name registrar. When possible, buy your competitors’ website names and take over their telephone numbers. The phone company and domain registrars can assign those disconnected numbers to your main number, and the websites can be redirected to your site.

“Voila,” Martinez said. “You’re now receiving tons of new yellow-page advertising and web traffic!”

Marty Orgel is a freelance writer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Michael Jordan provides the ultimate motivation with a journey through his legacy that challenges you to look beyond your limits and rise to your potential.

As the most potent chemical component in coffee or tea, we are all very aware of caffeine. Next time you’re sitting around the coffee shop, enjoying a latte and perhaps talking about coffee in general, you can appear quite learned by tossing around these caffeine facts.

Via: Homeowners Insurance

Over the past year we’ve known that Google now uses speech to text conversion. That means that they take the SPOKEN text from videos, and convert it to text.

While they won’t tell us WHY they do that, the obvious answer is that they are looking for RELEVANT CONTENT. They now use your spoken text to categorize and rank your video.

So we’ve been experimenting a bit, and we’ve discovered that in most cases you can improve your Google ranking with your websites by adding keywords in your spoken audio.

Note – Google actually publishes information about their ranking algorithm on their website. You can read it for yourself at http://www.google.com/technology/.

TIP: Remember to place your main keywords up front, and use them throughout the video. Use them in a organic or natural way, but write your script just as if you were writing a web page that you want Google to index, because with their speech to text conversion, they are applying the same algorithms as if it were just written text.

CAUTION – Just using music behind written text in a slide show does not work as well.