Social Media and Back to School

Ah the pleasures of summer...shorts and tank tops, free outdoor concerts, bare feet on dewy grass, lemonade, ice cream and...sales! In August we usually see retailers make their big push for "back to school", but what's different this year is their use of social media in addition to traditional print, TV and online advertising campaigns. Mo Krochmal, journalism professor at Hofstra University and I, inspired by this article, traveled to Herald Square, site of the brand new JCPenney flagship store - its first ever in Manhattan - to cover the story. We wanted to see first hand how big box retailers JCPenney, Staples and OfficeMax are using social media. Facebook fan pages, Twitter and YouTube are big.




Will they be successful? Time will tell, but so far:

JCP Teen on Facebook has doubled its fan size to 17,000 since July 25th, and they're doing a a great job of cross marketing the fan page with a dedicated website where you can actually buy the products, plus they're also running other campaigns linked to concerts and skateboarding.

Staples has a back to school tab on its Facebook page which also links to a matching landing page for shopping. They have a 3 campaigns centered around giving to students in need. The fan base grew by about 4,000 members in the same period but it's hard to tell whether it's all from back to school or just supplies in general because it's all together. I took a quick scan of the latest comments but didn't see any posts from teens, like you see in the JCPenney page.

OfficeMax has no mention of the viral penny prank videos on their website and their Twitter account hasn't been updated frequently, although they do have over 500 followers.

Some points to consider when deciding whether your business should launch a social media campaign:

-Where is your audience? Do they spend time on social networks?

-How can you tie in your other web assets, like your website or blog to the campaign?

-Who will be managing content and moderating the conversations?

-How will you measure success? Is it traffic, sales, engagement?

How are you using social media for your business? Please share!

Do you have a social media marketing plan for 2009?

Well another year is coming to an end, a year of hard work, scary decisions, exciting surprises and countless g-r-o-w-t-h opportunities (in more ways than one!) which makes it a great time to take stock of our businesses, see what worked (accomplishments!) and what didn't (lessons learned!), and map out a marketing plan for 2009 (let's dust off those business resolutions & wishlists!).

This year we saw how social media evolved from being a cool site for kids to hang out at, to a major marketing tool for corporations to engage with their customers. Are you making full use of this new trend? Nowadays a big chunk of marketing plans should be dedicated to social media, so I've put together a list of questions to help you get started on that:

Online Social Networks
Are you active in at least one online social network (signing up alone doesn't count!)? Selling is all about repetition - the more you connect with your customers -- in a helpful, friendly way -- the more they'll think of you when they're ready to buy the type of products you offer or refer you to a friend. Online social networks are perfect for this. These are some ways you could be using your networks:

• Facebook - update your wall & your status with comments, events and links of interest to your target market
• LinkedIn - showcase your talent in the "Answers" section, download your virtual resume, get testimonials
• Twitter - let others in your industry know when you attend conferences or networking events; comment on articles or breaking news

Make sure to also check out niche sites that fit closely with your brand, for example:

• A Small World - if you're targeting the luxury market
• MiGente - if you're targeting the Hispanic market

(For a more complete list visit this Wikipedia page)

Strategy: Schedule 15 minutes a day to participate in one or two sites of your choice.

Blogging
Blogs are a great way to keep your community updated on your business/industry, plus they're great for search engine optimization. Are you regularly updating your blog? How long has it been since you changed the widgets on your sidebar? Have you explored the different affiliate sales programs so you can sell complimentary products and receive commissions? Do you know what the best sources of ad revenue are for you, whether it's joining an ad network or striking deals directly with advertisers?

Strategy: Enter at least 1-3 posts a week. Designate a special time or day to do this and stick to your schedule. Freshen up your blog's sidebar once a month by adding a new poll, or widget or product announcement. Track your site's analytics monthly (or more often if you have a special campaign going on) to see if there are ways to increase traffic/ad revenue.

Online Directories
Forget the phone book. The new online yellow pages offer you lots of space to add company info (including video), feature special promotions, offer discount coupons, and allow customers to engage with you by writing reviews and posting pictures. Users can also send a link with your information to a mobile phone, and this is important because mobile is the next new internet frontier. Are you on these local online directories?
Citysearch (basic package is $149/mo)
Yelp
Superpages
Yahoo local ($299/yr)
Google local, maps
Local.com
Judy's Book

Strategy: Get on as many of them as you can, especially the free ones! Also check if there's any specifically targeting your industry, like if you're a restaurant there's MenuPages.com, etc.

Collectively these actions will help you build your online reputation the way you want to, and you won't have to wait around for the press to find you and write about you, when and if. The more you participate in social media, the more you'll get out of it, it's that simple. If you need help creating and/or executing a customized social media marketing plan for the new year, please contact me.

I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, and here's to hoping 2009 bring lots of good things to all of us.

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Using LinkedIn (or Facebook?) for Business

I promised you guys I would write a post about LinkedIn and here it is. I would have been perfectly happy just using Facebook as my business networking site of choice but so many of my friends nixed it, saying that they just used it for connecting socially. My LinkedIn profile had been half-finished for months until I realized that when I google myself (which many people seem to be doing lately), my LinkedIn page shows up as the second item on my results page. A site that can get that kind of ranking definitely commands my attention. And if people are going to be clicking into it, I better make sure the content has all the important information about me and what I do. So I dedicated the past few days to finding out how to use LinkedIn for business, and how it compares with Facebook. Here's what I've uncovered so far...

Beginnings
Launched in 2003, LinkedIn is now the sixth-biggest US social network, according to a recent article I found commenting on rumors about News Corp.'s interest in buying the company. They also say that it logged the biggest growth among its peers in October and topped the expansion rates of both MySpace and Facebook, according to Nielsen. LinkedIn attracted about five million US visitors in October, up from 1.7 million a year earlier, and the company estimates it has 17 million users (compared to 59 million for Facebook and something like 300 million on MySpace).

Basic Features
LinkedIn offers some of the functionalities I covered in my 'Facebook 101' post, like you can fill out your 'Profile' to let people know what schools you went to and the companies you've worked for. (The more keyword rich you make this part the better the chances of ending up on more search results.) However, LinkedIn has a system that rates your contacts by degrees of separation: 1 degree means you know them and they know you, 2 degrees means they are a friend of your friend, and so on.

The section called 'Recommendations' allows you to leave or request endorsements from your contacts, which you can only do informally on Facebook by posting messages on people's 'walls'. Facebook also lacks the 'Q&A' section, where you can either ask or answer questions and interact with the entire LinkedIn population, not only your contacts, which can be helpful in getting exposure for your business and driving traffic to your website.

I asked Howard Greenstein, co-founder and NY Chapter Leader of the Social Media Club, (photo below) how effective the site had been for him. He says he recently identified a person he needed to connect with, got a quick introduction from a contact and then hooked them up with a company that wanted to business with them. He likes how with 'Q&A' you can send a question to your friends to get recommendations on potential hires.

"Some companies are encouraging their salespeople to find LinkedIn contacts in firms they're trying to sell to. Corporations are realizing that there's value in being outward facing, and that making more connections can expand their bottom lines," he adds.

Howard believes that people keep stronger business contacts on Linkedin vs Facebook so there's potentially more interesting data for companies to leverage. LinkedIn recently announced that they're opening up the site to outside developers to create unique applications that are specifically tailored to business users. Howard expects that in the near future the online social network will look for additional ways to make it easier to find people in your 2nd & 3rd degrees.

New Features
Here's some cool things that will soon be available on LinkedIn (from the company's Dec. 10 press release):

Partner Applications:

"LinkedIn’s first publishing partner, BusinessWeek, is developing an Intelligent Application that will reside on the BusinessWeek.com website. The application will enable readers of BusinessWeek.com to access their professional network to look up profiles of people and find connections at companies featured in articles."

Conference Calendar application:

"The conference calendar application has a view of upcoming events and people in one’s LinkedIn network who are attending upcoming conferences. Dates are color-coded to indicate how popular the conferences are amongst a user’s professional network, and users can see suggestions of people they may want to meet at the conference based on common network connections. The demo may be viewed at: http://blog.linkedin.com/blog/2007/11/linkedin-news-r.html."

Up until now it had been difficult to differentiate friends from business contacts on Facebook. However, that's now changing with Facebook allowing businesses to set up their own"fan" pages, as they explain in their Nov. 6 press release:

"Just like a Facebook user, businesses can start with a blank canvas and add all the information and content they want, including photos, videos, music and Facebook Platform applications. Outside developers have created a range of applications to enhance Facebook Pages, such as booking reservations or providing reviews of restaurant pages, buying tickets on a movie page or creating a custom t-shirt. Companies launching applications for Pages include Fandango, iLike, Musictoday LLC, OpenTable, SeamlessWeb, Zagat Survey LLC and Zazzle."

This move towards a more business friendly environment has ticked off many old time Facebook fans, and some are jumping ship.

So what will it be for businesses, Facebook or Linkedin? The race is on... What do you think? Share your thoughts!

Recap of the NY XPO for Business

One of the things I admire about multi-millionaires like Donny Deutsch, the advertising tycoon turned TV personality, is that they may have pot loads of money in the bank (he sold his advertising company for close to $300 million bucks) but yet they still go to work every day. As host of The Big Idea on CNBC, Donny helps others make millions too. It's "must see TV" for budding Mogulettes.

Donny was keynote speaker at the NY XPO for Business luncheon at the Jacob Javits Center this week and he stood in front of a dining room the size of a football field to give the audience a few golden nuggets of wisdom in his own charming, irreverent way.

One of the first things he said was make failure your friend, which I loved to hear because I have such fear of not doing things perfectly with my business. The biggest growth, he added, comes when we fail - we grow from the stupid things we do - it's a mathematical certainty. If you're afraid to fail you can't be great. You have to know that your product or service may bomb...but if it does, so what? He likened it to dating - if you get shot down once you go on to the next. (This month's Entrepreneur Magazine has two stories on finding success after failure: click here for more)

More of Donny's tips:
Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you are. Many entrepreneurs hire people that maybe have 5% of their own qualities. He suggests finding partners and giving them a portion of your business - as long as you keep 51% of it. Small business owners usually hang on tight to their companies - we need to let go!

About success he says do what you love. If you're passionate about what you do then it's not work. If you're not passionate about your work, then find something else!

Do it differently - if your product or service isn't unique, you can't win.

Put your money where your mouth is - show customers that you believe in yourself. People love underdogs.

Show your employees you care for them, for their success. If you root for them they'll root for you!

And finally, hate is good. You need an enemy. When you pitch to a client, tell them how you hate their competitors!

When he finished his speech I made a b-line to the front of the room to get a chance to introduce myself. Dressed in blue jeans and a sweater, Donny looked like the average (but really cute!) guy next door as he graciously listened to a long line of fans wanting to shake his hand. I literally had about 15 seconds to tell him who I was and what I did in a compelling way, and I think I did an o-k good job but there's definitely room for improvement. That's when I wished I had rehearsed Laura Allen's 15secondpitch a little more.

Laura was also at the conference (check out her batch of pictures here) giving a talk on how you can use her pitching methodology not only to introduce yourself but also when you develop your web copy. The same principles apply there as well: don't give them a laundry list - be short and to the point!

On my way out I bumped into an old colleague from my days at CNNfn, Pat Kiernan. He was making a special appearance for NY1, our local cable all-news station, where he is a familiar face every morning, delivering the morning news in his signature deadpan way. It was a thrill to see him and catch up on what some of our co-workers are doing since CNN's financial network shut down 3 years ago. (That's me next to Pat, and behind us, no - you're not seeing double - it's his life sized replica!)

Laura Allen and the 15 Second Pitch

Inspiration for a business can come from very unusual places. For Laura Allen (that's her below on the right) , co-founder of "The 15secondpitch", it came from a friend looking to meet date-worthy women. She turned her knack for connecting people into a profession. How'd she do it? Read on!

During the dot-com boom Laura worked at Cheetahmail.com, which somehow managed to survive the bust and was acquired by Experian in 2004. She'd been the first hire there so she was given a lot of freedom at the company, but eventually she got bored with the corporate structure and the rules, so in 2000 she left. Just as Laura was figuring out what to do next with her life, 9/11 happened. The internet industry was devastated, leaving behind a trail of laid-off techies. Looking for ideas on what to do next, Laura and her partner, Jim, who is a database programmer, attended a networking event in Los Angeles. It was there that they met their friend David, a good looking, single, MBA grad and fellow job seeker, who asked Laura to give him a hand meeting cute, single women at the conference. He found he got a much better response when Laura introduced him, and Laura had a ball "pitching" him to the ladies.

Jim, on the other hand, was not having much luck at networking and was thinking there had to be a better way to make connections, and when the two exchanged stories, they stumbled upon the idea for a 15-second pitch.

When they got back home they immediately checked the domain name, and finding it still available, they registered it that night.

Another problem with networking events is that you end up with a bunch of business cards, and afterwards you can't remember who most of those people are. So, they thought, why not create a card that contains a pitch which explains what their company is about? They went to work to turn the idea into a business, and spent the first two years building a website where people could create 15secondpitch cards.

Then in 2003 they decided Laura would teach a workshop on how to create a 15secondpitch. A friend in New York let her use her conference room, and she advertised her 2-hour course on a forum she found in Fast Company called "Company of Friends", that reached a few thousand people just in NY and NJ.

The event was free and about 15-20 people showed up. They each told their story and one guy shared that he'd been trying to get in touch with a VP of Coca-Cola for the past two years. Then another guy said his uncle worked there, and that he'd connect him. That's when Laura saw the power of what she calls the "third party pitch."

Heather is another of Laura's "third party pitch" success stories. She was a reporter who had perfected her "I'm a journalist" pitch, but there was only one problem - she no longer wanted to be a reporter. Her dream was to become a wedding planner. Laura advised her to keep her day job and start moonlighting on the side. They created a wedding planner pitch that same day, which she later shared with her husband. He in turn started telling his colleagues about her, and one of them had just gotten engaged, so he asked Heather to plan his wedding. Three weeks after creating the 15-second pitch Heather landed her first job through a "third party pitch"!

The other thing that worked for Heather was creating an image when describing her services. She went from saying "I'm a reporter but I want to be a wedding planner", to "I have an eye for detail so I'm starting a wedding planning business." Painting a picture in people's minds helps them understand what you do, especially with tech jobs - it's easier for people to buy into an idea if you make your pitch descriptive, giving examples, telling stories, making it rich with details.

Anyway, back to the workshops. In 2005 Laura decided to start charging for her seminars, but she needed money for marketing, so she went back into the corporate world, saving the money coming in from her day job and from teaching the seminars at night. After about a year she got laid off, with 2 weeks severance pay, plus unemployment benefits. Laura was thrilled. With the money she had put away she started marketing her monthly workshop, and shifted her business model more towards corporate clients like Merrill Lynch and non-profits like Cine Women.

The website has now gone through three major revisions, and they added a pitch wizard a year ago to automate the process of printing the pitch cards. Laura just re-launched her blog last week to focus on how to put together a killer 15secondpitch, and how to use it after you create it. In January they'll be unveiling their latest product (you heard it here first!), an e-learning platform that allows people to sign up for classes and follow at their own pace. Users will be able to create a 15secondpitch plus other related content using a tool that's partly automated and partly customized by Laura.

The 15secondpitch is used by lawyers, VC's , real estate brokers, freelancers - it's especially good for freelancers because their existence hinges on how well they can pitch, and they need to be constantly pitching new business. Marketing consultants, career coaches, college grads, financial planners - they can all benefit from it.

Here are 4 things Laura says an effective 15secondpitch should include:

1. Who you are - Tell then your name AND the name of your company!
   
   
2. What you do - avoid the "kitchen sink" pitch - don't tell your entire career history - focus on one thing and be specific. She's suggests preparing a separate pitch for everything you do.
   
   
3. Why you're the best at what you do.
   
   
4. A call to action - the crown jewel.

Ready to give it a try? Visit www.15secondpitch.com to compose your perfect pitch!

Facebook Basics

This week I finally forced myself to sit down and learn how to use Facebook. For months I've been receiving emails from my friends asking me to join their list, and I had accumulated about 36 contacts but had no idea what to do with them. So after putting it off for forever, I finally to bite the bullet.

Why am I so interested? Well I spend a lot of time networking and making contacts, so anything that lets me do this more efficiently I'll definitely be interested in. What I found is that Facebook is like networking but on steroids.

So the first thing to do when you open an account is to invite your friends, which is easy - you can import your email addresses from whatever email provider you use – they’ll receive an invitation, and once they accept they'll be on your list. Another option is to click on "Find Friends", and enter your email address and password, then you'll get a list of all the contacts you have in Outlook or Yahoo and you can simply checkmark the ones you'd like to invite.

To check on your progress you can click on the "friends" tab and you'll instantly see how many people are connected to you. When you click on your friend's profile – presto! Instant access to all their friends. You'll see where they went to school, where they’re working, where they used to work… etc.

Say you’re looking to target a specific company for business; you can look through all your friend’s and family’s contacts to see if there’s anyone connected to that company, or industry. If you want to get in touch with your friend’s friends, you can ask for an introduction or directly request to be their friend.

Facebook has something called a poke which you can send - and they're intentionally vague on its definition of this so that you can make it whatever you want it to be. Or you can send them a message. By default anyone can message anyone, but depending on your preferences you can adjust your privacy settings so that only your friends can see your profile, or only your family, or both, or you can leave it open to the Facebook universe.

On the main section of your personal page you'll find a news feed – and no, it's not world news - it's actually a constantly updating list of updates on your friends' activities on Facebook. So if they've added pictures, or joined a group, or added a new friend, it'll show up. On the right hand side you'll see birthdays, notifications, upcoming events or friend requests.

You can also put up a "wall", which is where people can randomly leave comments…if it’s your birthday your friends can leave you a little note, or if you’re sick they can leave a 'get well soon' message…or, for businesses, you could ask people to leave a testimonial for a product or service you’ve provided. (There’s also a super wall and a fun wall, which allow for added functionalities.)

If you're a small business, freelancer or solo practitioner you'll want to check out their classified section, called “marketplace”, where you can post your services or browse through "for sale" items. On a recent visit I found ads for a jazz piano teacher and a ride to Yankee stadium.

You can post an event or browse events - and check out what events your friends post or are attending.

You can post a Facebook Flyer announcing something special going on with your business. They start at $5 to display your Flyer 2,500 times and go up as you increase the run times. It will appear in your homepage but you can also post it on specific networks.

There's also a tool to create polls, and you can target Facebook users based on gender, age, school, location, or profile keyword. This is especially useful if you need to compile market data/research on a product or service.

You can join groups, or create one if you don’t find what you’re looking for (stay tuned for the Mogulette Facebook group, coming soon!). Members can add videos or pictures to the home page, and easily interact with the whole group through the group discussion forums, where you can ask the group questions and have ongoing dialogues.

For book lovers there's the virtual bookshelf where you can let people know what books you’re reading and find out their favorites.

There’s still a lot more that I need to look into, but at least this will get us started…

Here's some related articles I found on using Facebook:

12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally

How to Use Facebook to Promote Your Business or Blog

How to Use Facebook Without Losing Your Job

How To Use Facebook Flyers To Get Amazing Free Demographic Information

How are you using Facebook? Please let us know!

Startup Camp and UnConference

I just came back from two days of intense information swapping with a couple of hundred other internet startups and I have to say I felt as if instead of New York I was actually somewhere in Silicon Valley. Labeled the "Start-up Camp: An Un-Conference" by its organizers, the event was unique in that the participants decided what topics to cover in many of the break-out sessions, as opposed to having an agenda forced upon you. Those that had a subject they wanted to discuss (me!) went to the front of the room, announced the title of the issue they wanted to cover and posted it on a large board. Anyone interested in joining the discussion would gather around at a designated area. We spent the whole afternoon going from table to table, and conversation to conversation, to chat with other business owners, and figure out solutions together.

I like this format because, in launching their own businesses, entrepreneurs usually accumulate a ton of information on various topics, so in a sense we become experts ourselves, and that allows for a very useful - and lively - exchange.

My big question was how to use online social networks (blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn or others) to market our businesses. I found out that companies online are coming up with applications, or software, they can customize to attract potential clients. One startup called 8 Coupons is looking to devise a widget that people will place on their Facebook page to let their friends and contacts know what discount coupons they're using in their neighborhood, and in that way drive traffic to their site, which offers the coupons themselves. (For more on how to use Facebook for business see Marci Alboher's recent post, and check out the November issue of Inc. Magazine to see how 5 companies are using widgets as a marketing tool - unfortunately the article isn't available online as of yet.)

Another way to use social networks is to have people leave testimonials about you on LinkedIn, or, you can respond to questions that people pose in the "Answers" section - you'll get top billing as an "expert" if you reply to enough of them. This is one subject that's evolving as we speak and it's definitely peaked my interest, so stayed tuned for updates.

From there we went on to something called "speed-geeking", which is similar to speed-dating but instead of potential partners showcasing their romantic talents, entrepreneurs tried to get 3-4 participants to "fall in love" with their business ideas for 7 minutes, at which point a horn would blow and the crew would move on to the next startup-in-waiting. I was able to see first hand which pitches worked and which didn't, and to realize that I have some work to do with regards to my own pitch...(yikes!).

There were almost two dozen hopefuls vying for the Best Startup prize, with some very innovative ideas. The winner? A company called UpNext.com (that's the creator on the left) who offers 3-D mapping of Manhattan with a social networking component. The 2nd place prize went to BricaBox.com, makers of website building software, and a company called BeenVerified, which verifies that you are who you say you are online, won 3rd place.

As I walked out I stopped by to chat for a few minutes with John Havens from BlogTalkRadio and gave him my quick thoughts on the event (click here if you'd like to listen to the 7-min. podcast).

I got home exhausted but with my head full of ideas. Get ready for Mogulette Camp!

Branding Strategies for Your Business

Here's a question every inquiring Mogulette mind wants to know: How do I make my product or service stand out? Well, according to branding expert Romana Mirza, it all begins with you (that's her in the pictures, giving the Mogulettes a presentation). She says that a company's image is a reflection of it's owner, so one way to start is by asking yourself, what words describe me, and my business?

Take a look at Target, for example. Webster's definition of the word is "something aimed or fired at" or, "a desired goal". Brilliant! When I go shopping, I want to be able to find what I'm looking for, or "target" the products I want. The metaphor of the red bull's eye is also pretty effective, and quite unforgettable. I guess that's what branding is to me, having my product or service leave a lasting impression. Remember the old Blackglama fur ads? Glamorous women like Liz Taylor, Jane Fonda, and Carol Channing - naked, except for the black mink coat - with a caption that read "What makes a legend most?". Sexy, and fabulous. In the same way, the "Got milk" ads made drinking milk sexy, and Nike's "Just do it" made sweating sexy, and definitely unforgettable.

But for our brands to become this memorable, it takes some deep soul searching along with a heavy dose of investigative work. That's what Romana does at her recently launched brand strategy firm, Studio Pinpoint - help clients bring out what's unique about their company. She suggests focusing on three areas:

First, your work. Ask yourself: What do you do differently? What do you offer that others don't? What is your personal and unique contribution to your work? What do you want your company to stand for?

Then, your clients. Ask them: What do you think I'm about? What special qualities do I bring to the process/outcome? What did you like about our experience together?

And finally, research your competition: What's their brand positioning? Key messages? Product presentation?

Armed with this information you can then pass it along to those helping you with your marketing: logo designer, copywriter, web designer, so they can come up with a message that clearly and accurately portrays you and your product/service - to make it....memorable!

Mogulette blog lands in the NY Times, again!

A big "thanks" to journalist/speaker/writing coach Marci Alboher who recently mentioned my post about Email Newsletters in her NY Times blog/column, Shifting Careers for a second time. I also received a comment from a reader on that same topic which I found useful so I'm including it here:

Another good tip for email marketing is to shorten your email to a reasonable size by including the first paragraph of a block of text, then providing a link that says "read more" which brings users to your site [you can program your software to do this by going to the "settings" section]. Not only will you keep your campaign email from turning into a monster, you can also check your hits data on your site and see how effective you mailing list campaign is. I've used hits data to fine tune my layout and announcements so that they are interesting to everyone. Multiple announcements have multiple links, so I can see which events/news were the most popular.

Do you have experience using email newsletters? Please share it!

Would $50,000 be enough to get you started?

How does $50,000 sound to get you off the ground? That's what Mirassou Winery is offering women entrepreneurs if their business plan wins the "Make Your Dreams Come True" contest they're sponsoring. That could buy all the things on my wish list: laptop, printer, virtual assistant, personal masseuse (just kidding, unfortunately)...plus much more. The trick is you have to submit a rockin' business plan by December 15th, so that was incentive enough to get me (and a handful of the Mogulettes!) to sign up to Baruch College's 4-week Bootcamp on how to write them.

Elissa Grossman (that's her in the blue jacket next to yours truly) teaches courses on business management for college students that typically span a whole semester but she's doing an abbreviated version for entrepreneurs, starting with the elements of a business plan, which she covered in the first session, along with great examples of what an executive smmary should and shouldn't look like.

The second class was focused on the marketing plan, which is all about information gathering - where to get data about your target market, what the benefits and limitations are to different types of research, how to conduct surveys (one place to try out is surveymonkey.com, where you get the first 10 questions in a survey free), how to scope out your competition. Then she moved on to narrowing down your target market and selecting a marketing mix to reach them.

The third class centered around money - how much you need vs how much you want. This part was cool - Elissa recommends shutting your eyes and imagining the process that's involved in making a sale. Then make an outline of that in order to come up with a list of costs, like how much will the virtual assistant cost, plus the web developer, plus the computer, the desk and the chair, the masseuse (no...just kidding again) and so on, for each task. How much will be variable, or fixed? All this will help in coming up with a price for your goods and services. But that's not all that determines price - there's the perceived value (you can charge a premium for goods that are new in the market, or are complex, or where price comparisons are difficult). Competition also plays a role, as does strategy, like special pricing promotions that you might do.

The second half of the class was about sales forecasting and breakeven analysis, which I won't even attempt to summarize. But she made it interesting by giving lots of real life examples of how companies used these numbers to make adjustments and run their operations more efficiently.

BTW, Elissa's available if you'd like feedback on your business plan, as are other counselors on staff at Baruch's Field Center. These services are offered for free.

So, sharpen up your pencils and put your fabulous ideas on paper...you could win 50,000 big ones! Like they say: you gotta be in it to win it...

Next week I'll be away on a short vacation to Paris, yes, the "city of lights"! My friend invited me to stay with her and I'm using my miles to get there, so it's a great deal. Stay tuned for my report on how the French do business - I expect to be doing heavy duty research into their chocolate industry. Au revoir!

Market your Business with Email Newsletters

Aside from emails sent by friends and family, my favorites things in my inbox are newsletters - and I get quite a few of them. There's one from NYremezla with updates on Latino artist events around town, Duct Tape Marketing usually has interesting ways to promote your business, and The Spacialist doles out a weekly tip on getting rid of clutter. Oh and I forgot, there's dating advice from my friend Melissa's Love Notes (I need all the help I can get!).

Newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with your community and your clients, to give them a little something for free and let them know you're thinking about them. This week Maisha Walker of Message Medium spoke at length about newsletters in her internet marketing class, which is being held at NYANA, a business center that provides training and micro loans to entrepreneurs (that's Maisha, left, with Maria Paulino of NYANA on the right). I know many of the Mogulettes are interested in newsletters, so I'm including some of the highlights of what she said.

One of the most widely used newsletter providers is Constant Contact, who starts out charging $15.00 a month for 500 emails and then goes up from there. The big downside with them is they place their own ads at the bottom of the newsletters, which isn't great. Feedblitz offers a free version but again, you'll have to allow them to place 3rd party ads on your emails. Luckily there's many other ad-free options at comparable prices, and I researched them all for you!

iContact - starts at $9.95/mo. for 500 emails with a $12 discount if you sign up for a year (first 15 days are free)
AWeber - $19.95/mo. for up to 70,000 emails
Campaigner - $25/mo. for up to 2500 emails
Vertical Response - $15/mo. for up to 2500 emails (first 25 emails are free)
MyEmma - $30/mo. for up to 1000 emails plus $250.00 for a template
SwiftPage - $14.95/mo. for up to 250 emails; $30/mo. for up to 1000; 15% discount if you sign up for a year
StreamSend - $5.95/mo. for up to 500 emails; $9.95/mo. for up to 2000 (first 30 days are free)
PatronMail - call for quotes
Benchmark Email - $9.95/mo. for up to 600; 10% discount if paid annually and the 13th month is free (plus first 30 days are free)

Maisha's Tips

• Avoid 3rd party advertising (unless you're getting paid for it!).
  
  
• What people look at first before opening an email is who it's coming from, so don't use a generic address. Instead, segment your list and use a different address for each group you send the newsletter to.
  
  
• Define your purpose - is it for reading or for selling products?
  
  
• Keep the layout consistent - if you have four pictures on the first one do the same for all the rest.
  
  
• Decide on timing - how often will you send it? (Maisha suggests to start slow - quarterly)
  
  
• Link your images and text to relevant pages on your site, or create landing pages.
  
  
• Create compelling subject lines to get your emails opened - focus on what the benefits are to your readers.

My next big task is to chose one of those providers above and then, start composing! If you have experience with newsletters and would like to share it with us, please do!

What's in your Mogulette toolbox?

"Women helping women achieve success" - that's the Mogulette motto, and I just got wind of a site that shares the same feeling. The Women Entrepreneur's Toolbox has the most comprehensive list of business websites and blogs for women by women that I've encountered in cyberspace so far (and believe me, I do a lot of surfing... How else would I be able to do all my procrastinating?). Aside from a link to yours truly (the Mogulette blog made it!), here's a small sampling of other sites you'll find there:

Blogs
Chronicles of a Mompreneur - I loved their recent post about leveraging your time
The Anti 9 to 5 Guide - advice for women looking for life outside the "cube"
Empower Women Now - great tips on how to make money off your website/blog

Tools
Spamato - a tool that eliminates junk email
Box - lets you store files online and access them remotely
Highrise - a contact management system with all the bells and whistles

Associations
Women 2.0 - for women that work with and in the field of technology
International Virtual Women's Chamber of Commerce - no geographic or physical boundaries!

I learned so much just by browsing this handful of sites...but there's a lot more there. Take a look...

Have a mogulific day!

How I got on the NY Times

Great news! I was mentioned in a New York Times article this week, which was quite a thrill for me. According to the latest numbers, since it was published the traffic on my blog is up by 55%! I thought I'd share my story, for all those Mogulettes looking to spread the word about their fabulous but still unknown products and services. So here's how it happened: A while back, one of my friends sent me a link to a NY Times article which I found very interesting, so I emailed the author, Marci Alboher (that's her on the right), to compliment her on it. That gave way to further correspondence between us, and the timing couldn't have been better. It just so happened she was in the midst of writing an article about how blogs are useful in job transitions for her column, Shifting Careers, so she asked to interview me for the piece. Of course I said yes (I was ecstatic!). Blogging Your Way to Business was published this week and I've been busy telling everyone that I know in the whole wide world about it since then.

Living the "slash" life
Marci writes about entrepreneurship and career transitions in her column as well as her blog, although the latter is more focused on her life as a "slash" - one in which she juggles multiple career tracks (in her case it's author/journalist/speaker). She talks more about it in her book One Person, Multiple Careers. The "slash" life fits in very well with the Mogulette concept. I'm shooting for writer/startup coach/speaker. What kind of slasher are you, or would you like to be? Tell me about it!

Website Building and Management Basics - Part 2

Here's my to-do list for this morning: brush my teeth (check), do my leg exercises (check), build a website (aaargh!).

The task of constructing a little "shack" on the world wide web can be overwhelming (there's so many moving parts that have to be figured out!) but luckily I'm being guided through it by a super knowledgeable instructor, Maisha Walker (that's her on the right), who is teaching the course that I started blogging about in my last post. She's come up with a checklist of what a typical website needs, which you can find on her website. She spoke about it in detail during the class, and here's some of the notes I took:

Domain Names - Maisha stresses that it's important to have a domain name that matches the name of your company, so that people can find you. If the domain name you want is not available with a “.com” ending, consider alternate names. Maisha said it took her two years to come up with a domain name she liked for her company: messagemedium.com. She strongly recommends registering your domain name under multiple endings - “.com”, “.net” and “.org” - as well as plurals and common misspellings of your company name. Two companies that offer that service: GoDaddy.com and Register.com. This will allow you to have your own e-mail address with your domain name - for ex., janedoe@janedoe.com - which adds credibility to your business. When registering your domain name, make sure that you or your company are the REGISTRANT for the website because that is who legally owns the website.

Logos - Your logo is a representation of your company which will go on every piece of written and web material. It is worth the investment to hire a logo designer. When you hire a designer make sure to have a contract that provides you the rights to the artwork. Make sure to get the original files so that you will be able to use your logo in many different formats and sizes. You can also look at Logoyes.com and Logoworks.com to design your own.

Photograph-Invest money on a good photographer

Site map - It outlines the structure of your website

Site content – What information (images and text) will you be providing in your site? Here's an example of sections you might include: Mission Statement, About Us, Products/Services, Contact Us, etc.

Site Design - Will you do it yourself using a template or hire a web designer? Also check my earlier post for more on this.

Site type or purpose - Is your objective to generate leads, make money from advertising, sell products/services, or something else?

Site construction - Who will build it?

Maintenance plan - Check my earlier post for details on this.

Tracking tools and goals - Know what your financial goals are and figure out how much traffic you need to generate to achieve them. Track your marketing, for example how effective was your email campaign, ads, newsletter?

(That's Maisha in the left chatting with the Mogulettes after class.)

Coming up next: what are the requirements for proper site design?

Til soon,
Your chief Mogulette-in-the-making.

Website Building and Management - Part 1

Hello fellow mistresses of the universe!

One of my business counselors recently suggested I put together a website in addition to my blog, and the timing couldn't have been better because the Dept. for Small Business Services is sponsoring a three week course which started last week on that same topic, so a few of the Mogulettes and I signed up for it. I was unable to attend the first class so I asked Jen, a fellow Mogulette and creator of the most adorable and scrumptious custom designed cookies (that's her on the right) to share her notes with us. Here's what she sent:

Six Step Process for Planning a Website

It is important to understand the different steps and skills needed to create a website. If you are hiring people to create your website, be sure to get a team of people with the right skills for each step. You can also use templates and content management tools to create your own website. These are discussed below.

1- Planning & Strategy

You’ll need to complete a business plan and a marketing plan before you create your website so that you know what role it will play in your business. Think of your website as an employee - you will have to spend resources on it, but it will help you generate profit.

2- Design

What do you want your website to look like? There are standard templates that can be used (see below). A common mistake people make is spending too much of their budget on the design/look of the website. When hiring a designer, make sure to get a designer who is specifically a web designer and not a print designer since the two mediums are different.

3- Construction

Once the design is completed, it is handed off to constructors for the technical building of the website. A web constructor/developer is different from the designer. There are specific languages developers use, such as HTML coding, Java Script, Pearl, ASP, JSP or PHP. Again it is best to work with a team so that you have people who have technical expertise in many areas.

4- Launch

Make your site visible to everyone.

5- Marketing

Have a plan for how you’ll get people to your site and how you’ll generate profit from it.

6- Maintenance Plan

Include in your business plan how often you will need to update your site (new products, promos, update prices, etc). Decide who will be doing this and how. Be sure to add the cost regular maintenance into your budget.

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On the more technical side we talked about Content Management Tools (CMTs), which is software that allows you to control the content (images and text) on your website. CMT’s provide templates that you can use to create your website without having any technical expertise. Some CMTs sit on your computer and others are on your hosting company’s server. Many hosting companies offer content management tools to help you build a website. Examples of this are DreamWeaver, Joomla!, and Front Page.

Coming up on the next post: ...what should go into your website? ...logos, domain names and much more. Stay tuned!

Do-it-yourself PR for Your Business

According to Jason Grant, public relations is like having a messenger service that lets people know about you. This industry veteran has helped businesses, celebrities and socialites get their share of the spotlight for 15 years. He graciously stopped by "Mogulette Central" this week to teach us a few tricks on how to spread the word about our products and services without spending a single dime.


Here's some of his suggestions:
Give discounts or free samples to the media.

Donate your products or services for goody bags at charity events and they'll put you on their press release. That way not only will the guests get to know your company but also whatever media they send their press release to. Choose only the ones that fit with your business.

Follow-up. After your product or service gets mentioned in an article or a TV or radio show, run with the story. Let other outlets know that it's been written to give it added exposure.

Constant repetition is what makes people aware of a product or service.

The difference between advertising and PR: People automatically know that ads are paid for, but with PR they think the editors or reporters have actually researched the market and your product stood out.

Two possible ways to position yourself:
1- As an expert, to talk in general about your field. Introduce your company, what you do and the topics you can address.
2- Come up with a timely angle - editors & producers love this one because you're doing the legwork for them. Remember to pitch differently depending on the publication. For example, if you're a dating coach, on Valentine's Day you might want to send out the following pitches:

For "The View" - How to find out if he's "The One"
For More magazine - Do's and don'ts of dating over 40
For local newspapers, or your local TV morning show - Most romantic places around town to "pop the question"
For Glamour magazine - The new rules for successful online dating

Elements of the press release
Make sure you answer who, what, when, where and how. Include your website, your blog, your 800 number - if you have them-, where your product or service is available (what outlets - on and offline). The more accessible you are to the public the more they'll like your story. If you're only available locally find a national angle you could chat about. Make sure your first paragraph hooks them: what's interesting about you/your business?

Who to pitch
Glance through the magazine or newspaper you'd like to target and find the section that best fits your business. See who writes it and direct the query to them. Say you're launching a line of jewelry - then you would send your pitch to the accessories editor at the NY Times or the "Best Bets" section of New York magazine. Other ways to find the proper person to speak to: look at the masthead in the front of magazines, or simply call the publication's switchboard and ask the operator. Start with local media first. Weekly newspapers, neighborhood circulars. Once you get the hang of it, then devise a citywide, or regional angle, and pitch it to the respective publications. When you feel you're ready, go national.

Make a list of all the possible media outlets that would fit your business, and don't forget websites and blogs. Write a "master" press release and send it out systematically. Or for a $90 fee, PRWeb will send it out to thousands of outlets for you. Very important: after a few days, follow up with a phone call, and keep trying until you get through to the right person.

For more on how to get free publicity, visit The Publicity Hound, where you'll find tons of articles.

If you'd like one-on-one help, Jason is available for PR consultations at very reasonable rates. Email him at jhg912@aol.com.

Let's create some buzzzzzz!

Money, money, money

Do you have a clear idea of how much you need to spend on your business? I recently attended a seminar held by the Women's Venture Fund, a non-profit organization that provides loans to female entrepreneurs. Betty Yee, who led the presentation, pointed out that most women that start out businesses are underfunded. That means that they either fail to get funding or the funding that they get is too little.

That made total sense to me because I'm always worried about spending money, but that type of mentality won't get me very far. Playing small does not help the world, as Marianne Williamson would say. To create a company we need to dream big, and for it to operate, we need to spend money. But the question is how much? And how do we allocate those resources? That's where the business plan comes in. So I'm booking a session with one of the friendly business counselors at my local Small Business Development Center to help me figure that out.

But thinking big doesn't mean I can't run a lean operation. One way I saved money recently is by designing my own business card. Microsoft Publisher, which comes built in with Microsoft Office, is a great tool for this. I picked one of their templates (loved this retro/modern look, see below) and changed the color and added a few details to it and... ba-da-bing!

I took it to Staples, bought some of their business card paper and had them print the cards in their color printer, which is much better than my old clunker, but you may be able to use yours. In the end it may have cost a little more than Vistaprint (about $14 for 100 cards) but the big advantage is that I can change it anytime if I need to and don't have to wait around for the order to get shipped to me when I need more. I can also use the same template I created for other marketing materials, like flyers, banners, etc. Very nifty!

Mogulette product launch

Wow, am I excited! No, I'm not getting married nor have I won the lotto. For the past fews days I have been feverishly designing a new line of products, mostly T-shirts, for the Mogulettes, and let me tell you - my heart is racing! It's one of the business ideas that I've had for years but it was kind of fuzzy, so I never really acted on it...until now. Suddenly over the last week it all came together in my head and things have just fallen into place. Finally I can put into action all the great advice I've gotten from people and all the information that I've collected!

Check out the new Mogulette product line.

First I started out thinking the line would appeal to women like me, in their 40s, looking to reinvent themselves and start out on their own. From there I thought, what about girls that are graduating from college? They need to be inspired to think big as well. But then there's also the pre-teens, and even toddlers - it's never too early to start empowering women! So the collection includes items for all ages, from onesies and bibs to cute tank tops as well as fitted and regular t-shirts. There's also coffee cups and journals...even a little teddy bear!

The designs are work-in-progress. I'd love to get your input on them, so please let me know what you think of them and if you'd like to see something that's not offered.

Become your dream ladies!

Easy does it

When it comes to building a business, Robert Crayhon, founder of Crayhon Research, has one message: "don't rush the incubation stage." Having launched and sold various companies in his life, this nutritionist, educator and author says that it usually takes more time than you think to figure things out. That is truly music to my ears because I'm constantly thinking that I'm going too slow, that I need to somehow speed up the process. I love the idea of following your intuition, of letting your business evolve organically.

This quote by Orin L. Crain really brings it home for me:

Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than increasing its speed. Let me look upward into the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well.

When we slow down it may seem like nothing is happening but actually there's a lot going on. You can't rush creativity or psychic energy...they need space. I do believe the universe is conspiring to make our dreams come true...all we need to do is keep taking small steps, slowly.

According to Robert, another key to success is building relationships. He says entrepreneurs need to have emphatic insight into what their customers need, so you need to ask yourself: Do I love people? Learn where you connect in society and reach out to your community. Make out questionnaires and ask them what they like and don't like about existing products/services. The more you build relationships the less marketing you'll need in the future!

How do you reach your community? Share your thoughts with us!

Free stuff for entrepreneurs

Last week was chock full of marketing, business finances and networking.

Here's the highlights:
Monday I visited the NYC Business Solutions office in downtown Manhattan. The center aids entrepreneurs by offering workshops and one-on-one counseling - for free! Its manager, Karen-Michelle Mirko, was super helpful with tips on branding and on increasing the traffic on my blog. She even came up with a contact for me to speak to about an idea I have for a reality TV show! So lots of resources there - I highly recommend checking them out. Karen-Michelle will be on maternity leave starting at the end of June but she introduced me to Elli Papadopoulos (212-618-8817), who will be taking over while she's gone, but there's also other female counselors available as well. It's great to have women helping women, which is the new tag line I came up with for the Mogulettes: women helping women achieve success - I'm still working on it but what do you think? Let me know!

On Tuesday at our weekly meeting we had Marina Aris, a financial consultant from Ameriprise Financial talk to us about business finances. We had a great turnout from the Mogulettes at the presentation and I was able to meet three new members. Afterwards we mingled and exchanged ideas. Someone suggested I bring a tax accountant to one of our meetings, so if any of you know of a good one, please let me know! Another suggestion I got was to do a teleconference, so that we can hold the meeting from the comfort of our homes. I'll keep you posted on that! One of the topics Marina covered was fixing your credit before asking for a loan. Here's two free upcoming seminars I found that deal specifically with that:

Credit Readiness

Sponsor: NYC Business Solutions, along with Greenpath Credit Counselors
Date: Wedn., June 6th
Time: 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Location: Lower Manhattan Business Solutions Center
79 John Street, b/t William & Gold Sts.
4th floor conference room
Cost: Free

RSVP: Call 311 and ask for small business seminars

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What Every Woman Needs to Know About Credit

Sponsor: ACCION New York
Date: 06/06/2007
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Series Title: Save, Strengthen and Succeed! Financial Literacy Tips for Real Women
Location: Baruch College, Field Center for Entrepreneurship, 55 Lexington Ave./ Rm 2104
Cost: FREE
Description: Accion invites you to participate in this evening seminar and join ACCION's credit experts, local politicians, community leaders, and the Allstate Foundation in this kick-off workshop that will provide all the knowledge you need to read your credit report, build a healthy credit history, and more!
Registration Information: To register call (212) 387-0494.

If you can't make these they're offered periodically so check this calendar for future dates.

Does the idea of getting free money for your business appeal to you? It sure did to me, and that's why I made my way over to the Science, Industry and Business Library to attend a seminar by the same name, held by the Queens Economic Development Corp. It was all about grants for small businesses - where to find them, how to apply for them and what you need to qualify for them. They're free but you have to put together an application as well as a business plan to qualify for them. Here's a few places to find more info:

• www.grants.gov for federal government grants
• Idea Cafe's Biz Center for a list of private grants
• Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund to find grants for women
• The Foundation Center for links to grant maker websites
  

They also touched on business plan competitions, which are sometimes easier to obtain than grants. A quick google search for "business plan competition" + 2007 resulted in one for entrepreneurs 45 years old plus, one from Fortune Small Business for all ages, and one for women 35 years old or younger. There's also a lot of contests sponsored by universities for students but you can overcome these limitations by having someone on your team that fits their criteria.

Thursday and Friday I attended a conference on personal finance for Hispanic journalists sponsored by International Center for Journalists held at the McGraw-Hill headquarters, home of BusinessWeek and Standard & Poor's. One fellow writer I met there was Xavier Serbia, who has a website with lots of great articles on managing your money in Spanish and is very committed to getting the Latino community educated about their finances.

Pheww! It makes me tired just thinking about all the stuff I did last week. At our next meeting we'll be learning how to give our businesses a big push from two business coaches. How will they do that? Check back and find out!