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Why You May be Losing Followers on Twitter

Lisa — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:47:59 +0000

Do you take the time to weed out the list of folks you follow on Twitter? Lisa Barone, Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., culls through her Twitter list monthly and stops following some people while adding others to her list. I do the same thing every few months and each time I do that, I lose followers. I’m not obsessed with how many followers I have, but if someone stops following me, I wonder why.

In her Small Business Trends post, “20 Reasons People Unfollow You On Twitter,” Barone shares the results of a quick poll she did with Twitter users. All of the tips are insightful and worth reading, especially these four.

1. You’re a self-promoter: Lots of people mentioned that they were turned off by Twitter users who do nothing but promote their own content. You want to drive traffic to your site, but there’s other content out there.

2. You’re too self-centered. Twitter is about connecting with others and not making it about you.

3. You auto-DM: Nothing hurts more than choosing to follow someone you think is cool…and then being hit with the dread auto spam DM. There will always be something annoying and creepy about getting a sales pitch via DM. Build a relationship before you try to sell something to someone.

4. You don’t share anything new. There’s nothing wrong with retweeting unless that’s all you do. Share new information when you can.

What Do I Write About Now?

Lisa — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:01:22 +0000

You’re sitting in front of your computer and you can’t think of anything to write. We’ve all been there. Lisa Barone comes to the rescue with her blog post “100+ SMB Blogging Ideas to Kick Start 2010.” Most of her tips make sense, while a few of them are a bit too warm and fuzzy. After you read her tips though, don’t be surprised to see your fingers dance across the keyboard or at least take a few blog-starting steps. Check out a few of Barone’s better tips.

Write 10 ways your industry will change this year

Attend industry events and blog about them

What someone needs to consider before getting involved in your industry

Interview someone well-known in your world and profile them

Publish a presentation you gave somewhere else (with permission)

Search Google News for relevant press releases and news about your industry. Write your own take.

Predicting Small Business Trends For 2010

Lisa — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:07:51 +0000

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a crystal ball to tell you what trends you’ll see in 2010? I’ve found the next best thing…the article “Top 10 Trends in Small Business for 2010.” In his article, USA Today columnist Steven D. Strauss shares his predictions for the coming year. He notes that his top trend of this year, the economy, was right on the mark. Maybe he has a crystal ball after all.

A few of the small business trends Strauss foresees are:

1) The New Frugality…the upshot is that people are spending less, saving more, and are looking for bargains. In other words, cheap is good (for the consumer) while at the same time a challenge for any small business owner.

2) Welcome the Era of Hyper-Connectivity… the accelerating trend is towards using a variety of tools to create an e-interconnectedness. Cool. Now your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and other online social media tools will need to play well together. Enter an update in Facebook and the rest will post the same update.

Stop Competing With Your Competitors

Lisa — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:13:23 +0000

There’s something wrong with helping your competitor, right? I used to think so until I read the Small Business Trends blog post “Build your business by promoting competitors.” In some situations and in certain crummy economic times, it makes sense to work with, rather than against competitors. Some of the better tips in the post are:

Realize you’re more powerful in numbers. Numbers give you street cred and the ability to do more than you could on your own. Keeping friendly relationships with competitors means that when things get slow, you can rely on one another to come up with a plan to help things pick up.

Create a targeted referral system. By creating a good relationship with your competitors, you devise the perfect referral system for the both of you. You’ll show your customers that you’re confident enough to send them away (knowing they’ll remember the action and come back) and you also create a lot of goodwill with a competing business that will surely be able to replicate the gesture and send business your way, as well.

Are You Working on or in Your Business?

Lisa — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:40:32 +0000

You have to put out client fires, deal with bummed out clients who need a little handholding and manage freelancers or subcontractors to keep your business going. You’re so busy working in your business that you may not be taking the time to work on your business.

A Small Business Trends article offers some great tips for stepping back and taking a close look at your business.

View your website/product/service through the eyes of a new potential customer.

Identify one person who could really help get your company more exposure, and who might be personally motivated to do so.

Do one thing to prove to the world that you’re an expert in your field.

Change your home page to be more specific in describing how you help your customers.

Further differentiate yourself from competitors rather than just try to “kill” them.

Start Your Entries

Lisa — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:51:55 +0000

Do you feel lucky? If so then pull out your pen, light up your laptop and get ready to enter two small business contests.

It pays to be green
Small Business Trends is looking for your tips for going green. The prize? An HP desktop computing suite that includes the HP Compaq dc7900 Ultra Slim Business PC; The LHP L2245wg, a 22” widescreen LCD monitor; and the HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 Premier All-in-One, a printer/fax/scanner.

All you have to do is submit a tip about how you’re going green in your business or how others can go green, and then you’ll be entered in a random drawing. OK, so skill doesn’t play a huge part in this but if you submit a lame tip, your entry may be dumped (or recycled?). The deadline is October 7th.

Advice that pays
Does your advice go unappreciated? Now’s your chance to give advice and win a laptop. FreedomVOICE is looking for small business tips that are less than 200 words and are geared toward businesses with 50 employees or less. Click on the contest section of their blog to enter. If FreedomVOICE picks your tip, you’ll win the HP Mini 110-1012NR XP Edition 10.1 widescreen netbook computer. Don’t wait to enter. They’re announcing the winner on October 20th.

Perfect PR and Better Blogging

Lisa — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:47:18 +0000

(Almost) free PR
Those of us working naked don’t have large (if any) budgets for publicity. We throw things out there hoping they’ll stick like spaghetti on the wall (a way of checking pasta that I’m not planning to pass along to my sons!). Sometimes an expensive PR plan with no room for failure tanks, while a low-budget, seat-of-the-pants campaign can spread your name all over the Internet. Go figure.

The Small Business Trends article, “Top 10 Publicity Tools for $1 or Less,” offers some information I already know and use, but there are a few tips I hadn’t thought about trying, but will. All but one of the tips (a whopping $1) is free to implement.

Boosting your blog
The article, “6 Tips for Customizing Your Small Business Blog,” is a must-read if you want to improve your blog. Even if you like your blog the way it is—most of us consider them our babies—you’ll discover tips that will make you rethink the way your blog looks and functions.