inSide919.com, Online Small Business Network, Spawns Social Media Directory with NC Focus

Get perspective, take a look at social media and online resources on paper

The vital online community for the Triangle’s small business owners, or micro-business owners, inSide919.com, approaching the 2000 member level, has been a hot bed for valuable and engaging alliances, collaboration, joint projects and more.

The latest very visible collaboration was initated by inSide919 Trustee and member, Martin Brossman, a new, NC focused, social media guide / directory for business. Brossman invited about 14 inSide919 business professionals, practioners of social media, if not outright experts, to contribute helpful articles and their most valuable sites.

Brossman’s Social Media and Online Resource Directory for Business, published via Lulu, is now available, for under $10 as a PDF you can print yourself, or for under $16 as a paperback book. With the price of ink these days, buying the book may be the better bargain! It’s also a very attractive cover, and there’s lots of space for notes.

Contributors to the book are:

Martin Brossman, Success Coach/ Trainer/Author      ProNetworkingOnLine.com

Anora McGaha, Writer, Editor, Publicity Consultant    AnoraMcGaha.com

Dave Baldwin, Freelance Writer, Editor, Consultant     Dave-Baldwin.com

Michelle Courtney, Editor, TriangleB2B Magazine        TriangleB2B.com

Greg Hyer, Founder Linking Raleigh, NC                           LinkingRaleighNC.com

Whitney Hill, President, Carolina Web Consultants     InternetPeople.net

Pat Howlett, Founder, inSide919 Community               inSide919.com

Deidre Hughey, Founder, The BUZZ Builder                   TheBUZZBuilder.com

Jay Izso, The Internet Doctor                                               InternetDr.com  

Beverly Mahone, Author, Media Expert, Speaker        Talk2Bev.com

John M. O’Connor, Executive Career Coach                   CareerProInc.com

Heather O’Sullivan Canney, Social Coach, Speaker      HeatherO.com

Wayne Sutton, Social Media Consultant                          Wayne-Sutton.com

Sharon Sweeting, Solid Office Solutions                           SolidOfficeSolutions-NC.com

Karen Tiede, Principal, Red Tuxedo                                 Red-Tuxedo.com

David Williams, Unlimited Web Solutions                      UnlimitedWebSolutions.com

The articles are by Martin Brossman, Anora McGaha, Deidre Hughey, David Williams, Karen Tiede, Whitney Hill, Heather O’Sullivan Canney and Beverly Mahone.

The press release is as follows:

inSide919.com social media professionals contributed to a new Triangle focused guide of online small business resources, conceived of and produced by Martin Brossman. Brossman’s Social Media and Online Directory for Business is now available.

Aug 19, 2009 – Pushing 1900 members now, inSide919.com is the online community defined by small business owners who live and work within the “919″ area code. It has catalyzed many collaborative projects and businesses. The latest one to get noticed is a guide to social networking on the internet with articles by around a dozen inSide919 members who have professional expertise in the topic, and a directory of online resources.

Brossman’s Social Media and Online Resource Directory for Business, “Brossman’s Social Media Directory” for short, was conceived of by Triangle LinkedIn and Social Media Networking trainer and coach, Martin Brossman. As someone who guides both students and mature business professionals on practical, ethical and valuable use of online social media, Brossman was seeing a need for an affordable paperback guide.

A community building member of inSide919 and a Trustee, Brossman invited more than a dozen professionals on inSide919 to contribute articles to help small business people use social media and  internet resources well. The result is an attractive 8.5 x 11  paperback which folds open easily with margins and extra space for notes, and a symbolic image of seagulls taking flight on the front cover, and high in flight on the back.

Contributors besides Martin Brossman, Success Coach, Trainer and Author, include (in alpha order by first name) Anora McGaha, Writer, Editor, Publicity Consultant; Beverly Mahone, Author, Media Expert, Speaker; Dave Baldwin, Freelance Writer, Editor, Consultant; David Williams, Unlimited Web Solutions; Deidre Hughey, Founder, The BUZZ Builder; Greg Hyer, Founder  of the LinkedIn group Linking Raleigh and LinkingRaleighNC.com; Heather O’Sullivan Canney, Social Coach, Speaker; Jay Izso, The Internet Doctor; John M. O’Connor, Executive Career Coach; Karen Tiede, Principal, Red Tuxedo; Michelle Courtney, Editor, TriangleB2B Magazine;  Pat Howlett, Founder, inSide919 Community and inSideAreaCodes.com;  Wayne Sutton, Social Media Consultant; Sharon Sweeting, Founder, Solid Office Solutions and Whitney Hill, President, Carolina Web Consultants.

A TweetUp / Book Launch is scheduled for 6PM on August 20 at the New World Coffee House in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Brossman’s Social Media and Online Resource Directory for Business is available for puchase at http://bit.ly/NCSocialMedia4BizBook.

Here’s my Top Five Networking Steps for Triangle-based business owners.

1. Join inSide919.com. (If you’re not living and working in the 919 area code, go to inSideAreaCodes.com to find your areacode, and join that community and start connecting – person to person.)

2. Sign up to follow Martin Brossman on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his trainings and classes; subscribe to ProNetworkingOnline.com; consider attending the ProNetworking on the Web group; and get and use the Brossman Social Media Directory.

3. Sign up on Bill Davis’ Team Nimbus site for his newsletter and reserve your spot for the Double Your Income 90 minute talk. If you’re not already doing what he talks about, sign up for 100 Days to Abundance. Even experienced sales people have been jump-started by Bill’s power packed straight talk and challenges. Check out his other offerings. Give him a call at (919) 926-9810  if you have any questions.

4. Join Greg Hyer’s LinkingRaleighNC on LinkedIn, you’ll need to request membership from your LinkedIn profile. Join the group on its own independent site, LinkingRaleighNC.com, take note of the dates of the in-person networking events.

5. Join the Small Business Meetup at the Business Networking Center in Cary, NC for Triangle Small Business Owners, and mark your calendar for the next event you’re interested in.

I’m a small business owner. My business is helping small business owners get seen on the internet.

Studies say that 63% of families no longer use the yellow pages and do all their searches on line. So if you’re not on the internet, you probably need to be.

If you’re not easily found on the internet by business category in the towns within driving distance of your business, you’re missing out on customers looking for what you offer. While lots of customers may know you because they are local people, but NC has lots of newcomers and you want to reach out on the internet so they can find you.

Here are 10 ways to get your business or your friend’s business found by customers on the internet

1. Research your business’ visibilty on the internet. Sometimes even if you don’t have a website, directories have bought your name and address in a database, so your biz might be listed. But it would only be a listing. No content, no photos, nothing personalized.

If you do have a website, check out the business categories by surrounding towns and see how well you show up. Look at your site and see what questions your site answers, and what questions arise, how easy it is to contact you and to locate your business – directions from different places.

2. Review how you are advertising your business, what it’s costing you and how well it is working. Can you tell how many people responded to an ad because they bring in a coupon or mention the ad for a discount or free gift? Find out what additional advertising you can do for free.

3. If you have not site, consider getting a free or affordable site from a site with no hosting fees, to one with a $10/year fee when you add your custom domain (www.yourname.com), to other sites that may be under $15/month to host, and usually under $15/year for the domain name. If you have $800 – $1300 – $1600 – $3000 – $5000 to spend, please do. You’ll get a fancier site with potentially more visibility, but not necessarily. Depends on your industry and how well the site was created to be optimized for showing up early in searches on the internet.

4. Find the free directories and fill out your company information in the ones you like.

5. Get pictures taken of you and your store to add on those listings and your website, and press releases, and your inSide919.com profile.

6. Write articles, interviews and press releases to post on the internet, so when people search for your industry in your area, hopefully they’ll find much more than a listing with address and number, they’ll find real content that will tell them of the value in your services, and why they should visit you. Find out about the many places you can post them for free.

7. Consider the internet advertising alternatives, including the new low, fixed cost, locally targetted Local Ad Link ads. These are focused on specific zip codes – so that you’re only paying for the people in the areas you want to reach to see your ad, you’re not paying for 48,000 areas in the US to see your ad. If you’re a local business, you don’t need the who world to see your ad.

For $50/month you can advertise in 3 zip codes, for $100 in 10 zip codes, and for $200 in 50 zip codes.

8. Research the business power of social media, there are a hundred people in the Triangle, if not several hundred, who offer services to help you understand what social media is, and how you can use it to network, strengthen your existing relationships and promote your business. There are dozens of articles in blogs on the internet too.

You may not be interested in social media, but people are talking, and they may be talking to your customers, so you really do need to have an eye and an ear to the net.

* If you’re a professional and you’re not on LinkedIn, you may want to talk to someone like me.

*If you’re a small business owner and you’re not on inSide919.com, then you might want to do that, add your personal photo, and start getting to know people in our community.

* If you’re not on twitter – the ‘micro-blog’ you might want to find out how you can be using it to learn a lot and get known

* If you’re not using a blog, there are some questions you can answer that would help determine if a blog could be helpful to your business.

9. Write a guest blog post about your business and review blog strategies for making a blog work for you. Blog posts can give a friendly and familiar presence that also can show up well in search engines.  Strategies include search engine optimization, widgets, tracking visitors, increasing traffic and developing relationships with other bloggers.

10. Call local experts  in internet marketing and publicity and see what they offer, how comfortable you are with them, and what it costs. Of course I’d be delighted to discuss what I can do for you. So many things can be made so much easier when you’ve got knowledgeable and trustworthy advisors and service providers.  Anora McGaha, ClearSight Publicity. 919-741-9449; 828-398-0390

When I began networking for my internet publicity business I went to a Business Networking International meeting and met a woman who I then had coffee with. She told me if I was doing business in the Triangle I needed to be on two online networks: http://inSide919.ning.com and http://www.LinkedIn.com. Online? My name? My picture? My experience? Yikes! Yeah, yeah, I thought. Sure. Nice talking to you. This woman told me to meet another man who could help introduce me to opportunities because he knows a lot of people. Who? Martin Brossman, a business coach and networking expert, a “super connector” as some call it. What did “The Brossman” have to tell me? If you’re going to do business in the Triangle, there are two online networks you need to be part of: inside919.ning.com and LinkedIn.com. I could feel the pressure rise inside. I trusted what he was saying, but it was stepping out of my comfort zone. Did people feel this way when telephone books were first created… not really comfortable with having your name and number in the book? Well now, it’s the internet. Is it safe to have your name and contact information on local networks? Which essentially means you are searchable on the internet. Sometimes people with the right credibility say things, and you just know that they’re right. This was like that. So I, bravely at first, a little reluctantly, and only partially completed my “profile” or “my page” on inSide919, and my “profile” on LinkedIn.com. People said hello to me on my comment wall on inSide919. People asked to be my friend. I found people that I wanted to meet. We arranged some “one on one’s” to quote a BNI phrase. There were local 919 events to take the networking off line, and in person. And on LinkedIn, my world has expanded as I’m now able to connect with people from all the schools I’ve attended, and all the companies I’ve worked at, and join a dozen groups with common interests. It’s been good and fun. I’ve given endorsements to people I know, and requested endorsements from people I’ve worked with, and it’s all good! So all this to say, I’m excited to see that inSide919 is approaching its 1000th member in the Triangle! While the younger generation may have grown up comfortable online, the baby boomers are a little more hesitant. But we’re catching on!

As I round the corner towards a year of being in the blogging world (one small year compared to lots of bloggers who’ve been doing it for years, one large year when it’s been my life, morning noon and night,) here’s what I’d say to the question: “Is it worth my time to have a blog?”

As a writer, artist, creative spirit, if you’re having fun (I was having fun) expressing yourself through your blog, then it could be worth your time. It’s a hobby like any other. If it delights you, you can keep choosing to do it.

As an internet entrepreneur, creating a blog that becomes a passive stream of income through ad clicks, ad payments, sales of items, amazon book affiliation, or other affiliate programs, I can’t speak to that. I don’t have that experience. Lots of other bloggers and web entrepreneurs address that, all over the internet.

As a business person, trying to make a living from one’s business, hoping to get more business from the blog, I’d have to say that the answer to the question is, “It depends.”

Every business is different in how crowded its business category is on the internet (realtors for example), and how difficult or easy it is to distinguish your business. Every business has a different profile on the internet – some have top listing in their business category, a strong well established website. For these, a blog isn’t needed to get them found in google searches. For the first category – good luck. For the second category, you’re already up there in google.

So if you blog when you’re already seen by Google you blog for other reasons. For engaging your customers. (Though it’s possible that twitter is more lively than that.) For communicating on a more personable level. For giving customers access to someone easily.

For those businesses that don’t have good exposure on the internet, and maybe can’t afford to pay someone to optimize their website, if they even have one, having a blog – if they populate it with relevant content about their business category,  and with unique qualities about their business, the blog can really help get them seen in Google searches.

Recently I’ve begun exploring online advertising. A free account with Merchant Circle could get you more exposure than your blog – but then it’s not so personal, not so closely representing the warmer side of your business.

What’s the bottom line? Make sure not having a blog, or having a blog, is part of your marketing and communications strategy. It’s got to be part of the bigger picture of how you are represented and seen on the internet.

At this point,  if you choose to have a blog, know why you’re having a blog; know who you’re trying to reach, and evaluate if what you’re doing is relevant to them – then focus your blog to that end.  It’s simple, but it’s amazing how easy it is to get lost in all the myriads of ideas at our fingertips.

Since I began blogging full time in April 2008 through until December 2008, about 9 months, until I started on Twitter, I kept up at least monthly on most of my blogs, a number of them every week or two. Twitter changed all that.

The reason I stopped blogging alot was primarily that I was learning so much on Twitter – not only about how to use Twitter, and the unbelievable number of related applications, but also, from the people on Twitter. (A secondary reason was that with increased project work for business, I had less time and found myself impatient with the time it took to load pictures. I loved blog posts with pictures.)

I had already learned a lot about blogging, both on blogger.com and wordpresss.com. I had learned how incredibly accessible my blogger.com content was on google. Feedjit was an invaluable free monitoring tool. Statcounter was terrific, especially for a multi-blogger like I was, as it gave me dashboard. I learned about widgets and gadgets. New capabilities came aboard making it possible to post blog content from other software, so incredibly easily. But, twitter upped the ante.

With twitter I shifted from learning about how to get people to find my content, to learning from pioneers on the web. In twitter, there were so many technologically savvy, pioneering people to learn from, that it only made sense to shift from the playful, creative, occasionally business posts I was doing.

So that’s that!  Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/norienc and http://www.twitter.com/clearpublicity.

Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim blog is worth watching and subscribing to if you want to stay abreast of the leading edge of social media.

Today’s post offers a list of 8 Free Social Media services that will allow you to monitor your reputation online. At the November 19 2008 Internet Summit in Chapel Hill, Andy was adamant about companies and individuals staying on top of their reputation – you’ve just got to do it to stay up with any fires that may emerge.

The 8 services are:

Twitter, Back Type, Board Reader, WatchThatPage, Trendrr, SocialMention, Brand Jacking and Lexicon. Here’s the link to the post for the valuable details.

A brief intro to Andy Beal on the site says this:

Andy Beal is renowned for his expertise in online reputation management. The founder of Trackur, editor of Marketing Pilgrim, and co-author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring & Managing Reputations Online, he is arguably the foremost authority on online reputation management.

Trackur, the software, and Radically Transparent, the book, are two of his important contributions.

The first ever, Southeastern US, Internet Summit was held in Chapel Hill on November 19th.  Most of its sessions were focused on social media. One panel with the famous Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim fame, confirmed that businesses do need to be blogging – the kind of blog, who writes it, who it is focused on, what it is trying to achieve all needs to be thought out, because one blog does not fit all. But blogging is definitely a very important communications medium between a company / business and the world.

Blog Catalog, one of the most active social networks for blogs, has this to say in a 10/26/08 post:

Blogging has quickly migrated from being perceived as a forum for personal rants and raves to being a strategy-leading vehicle for communication between companies and their customers. Blogs are now the places to go to get fresh, un-”spun” information about industry trends, new technologies, and cutting-edge implementations. And blogs are the place to engage in genuine dialog about customer needs and expectations, company capabilities and responses to problems, and the technological capacities and decision-making that will shape society’s future.

Blogs are no longer the space for “personal rants;” they have become a legitimate and very important vehicle for communications: for “Fresh, un-’spun’ information,” and for “genuine dialog about customer needs and expectations.”
Another November post from the Digital Operative blog, experts in digital marketing shows a Forrester chart about what 223 marketing firms (out of 333) said about which new technologies they would be using:

“The interesting thing is that 52% of agencies still aren’t using blogs as a channel. Are you kidding me? That means that mobile marketing and game marketing still have about 1-2 years to see any real penetration.”

This post shows that marketing agencies are lagging in adopting what is now an almost ‘old’ social media format, the blog. The kind of thinking that allows a lag, leads the authors to predict slow adoption of even newer social media like mobile marketing and game marketing.

While the post focused on aggregate numbers of % of marketing companies both not using now but planning to, and not planning to use, I find it helpful to see the breakout, so I present that below.

Planning to use, but not using:

Podcasts 28%

Blogging 31%

Social Networks 36%

User Generated Content 32%

Widgets 34%

Mobile Marketing 36%

Game Marketing 15%

Not planning to use:

Podcasts 24%

Blogging 21%

Social Networks 23%

User Generated Content 28%

Widgets 37%

Mobile Marketing 36%

Game Marketing 67%

Lessons for us, you can’t afford to ignore new technologies, and blogging, which is now almost old technology is one form of communications that your company needs to be doing to be in the conversation.

Well first it’s fun to report that CommentLuv is a plug in for WordPress, and it publishes your last post when you leave a comment on someone else’s blog. See this feature on the comments at the bottom of this time, this space blog post.  Wish they had it for blogger, as I’m a bilingual blogger, speaking both wordpress and blogspot, and would like it for my blogspot (Blogger) blogs.

Second, one of the fun aspects of the social networking world, including blogging, is that the formal traditional language that was reserved for most of the printed world here can be played with. There are dozens of examples of little comments, directions, instructions, etc. that are hilarious.

This one, from CommentLuv, about their terms and privacy rules, which you have to accept to get a free account with them:

“If you are registering a site that turns out to be an obvious spam site then you’re a bad person and shall go straight to marks and spencer without any vouchers.”

 

Today, attempting to register my wordpress.com blogs with Technorati, the open id link to wordpress.com came up with a page that could do nothing, and said to log into wordpress.com.

Once logged in to wordpress.com there was a link on the entry page that said to continue the Technorati registration process. Clicking on that however did not result in success back on Technorati.

The second method is to write a blog post, and put in it, some html which Technorati gives us. I did that, and then Technorati said it wasn’t there. Oy.