Organizing Your Small Business for a Relationship Economy

Businesses have been traditionally organized according to product lines.  It's a form of organization that is based upon what you do – the products and services that you provide to the marketplace.  In corporate environments, there is a title to support this – Product Manager. In a small business environment, we don't have titles like […]

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Small Business Marketing Talk – #2

This is the second post in the Small Business Marketing Talk series that aims to provide you with examples of how other small businesses are using social media to achieve practical results.  My intent is to profile an actual small business so that you can learn from one of your peers.   The idea is to […]

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The Power of Story in Your Marketing

Stories are a vital element for successfully communicating a sustainable message to your markets – especially on this social Web.  Regardless of the type of small business you operate, you are dealing with people – and people love stories.  Stories make us laugh; they make us think; and they sometimes make us cry.  All of […]

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Small Business Content Marketing – Part 1 of 4

Content is one of those words that is used very frequently in this arena of online marketing.  Yet, you almost never hear it in traditional marketing or face-to-face selling.  For example, have you ever had anyone show up to a lunch meeting and declare, "I forgot to bring my content." I know I haven't.  Nevertheless, […]

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Students Should Take Twitter for a Drive

This week in Atlanta there are hundreds of college students representing horticulture-based programs from across the county that are converging on the campus of the Chattahoochee Technical College for the annual Student Career Days that is sponsored by PLANET – The Professional Landcare Network.  This event is a friendly competition where aspiring green industry professionals […]

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Social Media Peer Groups

I recently came across this article about how Lufthansa is using real-time social networking.  They recently launched an application for their frequent fliers …"as a member helps member service" – that allows them to connect with each other to …"benefit from peer group advice." This application is described as the air travel industry's first real-time, […]

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Social Media for Association Events

In late 2006 I gave my first presentation on blogging to association members. They shared my excitement for this shiny new toy that for most of us was our introduction to even more toys that collectively didn't even have a name that we could all agree on, so I used them all – social networking, […]

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Small Business Marketing Talk – #1

This is my first blog post in an ongoing series that I threatened to launch back on January 29th of this year. There were a number of considerations that held me back.  One was settling on a clever title for this series.  I solved that problem by abandoning the idea and keeping it simple, pragmatic, […]

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3 Requirements for Social Media Success

Social media success is an extension of business success.  This means your business itself is the most crucial ingredient for success with the social media platform. In the early days of modern marketing, it was actually possible to achieve a level of success without having a product or service that delivered on its promises.  Those […]

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Social Media Assets

While you may not be able to sell your Company Blog or your Facebook Fan page for millions (or billions), they are still assets that have value, and you should care for them as you would any other business asset. When I sold my contracting business a few years ago, the value that my buyers […]

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