This blog has bit the dust

As previously announced I will no longer update this blog. You can now find me at http://www.simplicityadmins.ch/blog/ where I just posted a new post: Why I'm not active on Google+. See you there !

Changes at Simplicity Admin Solutions

I have hinted at upcoming changes for a while now. This time I’ll give you the full story !

When I started my business a bit over a year ago, I planned to be your traditional Virtual Assistant offering various administrative tasks for small business owners. But over the last 15 months I have learned so much about Internet Marketing, Social Media, Websites and Virtual Events, that “Admin Solutions” seemed not to be the right company name any more. To keep it simple, brand aligned and because I love the word I decided to shorten the company name to “Simplicity”. The tag line changes to “Simple Small Business Solutions”. Because that is my goal: to offer simple solutions to small businesses. Be it administrative support, Social Media, Internet Marketing or Virtual Events; all my services are meant to help YOU, small business owner.

In order to reflect my newly defined areas of specialty I created a brand new website. The domain name stays the same though: www.simplicityadmins.com or www.simplicityadmins.ch for my Swiss folks.

When visiting you will find that my blog is now hosted under the same roof. So goodbye www.simplicityadmins.blogspot.com, hello www.simplicityadmins.ch/blog ! If you were receiving my blog posts by e-mail or were signed up by RSS, I invite you to fill in your e-mail again below to continue to receive my updates or click here to get my posts via RSS.

Enter your email address:

I have also created a FREE Resources page, where you will find some valuable information for small business owners about website traffic, online visibility, social media etc. I will continue to update this page on a regular basis.

When you visit for the first time I invite you to read my Welcome Message, and, if you have a minute, submit your feedback about the site. What you like, what you don’t like, what you’re missing etc. Thank you in advance !

Thank you for reading and being part of this exciting journey called “Entrepreneurship” !

I look forward to our future exchanges

Sarah
Simplicity – Simple Small Business Solutions

7 Reasons Why I Recommend Wordpress as a Website CMS for Small Business Owners

In a week I will launch my new website. Ever since I decided to switch websites (about a year ago) other Small Business owners have asked me: Sarah, I need a new website. What do you recommend ? First I thought I wasn’t qualified to answer, since I’m definitely not a web designer, but now, after building my own site (with some precious help), I will answer the following: if you want an easy to manage, cost effective, social media share-able website, I recommend you get a Wordpress.org site for your small business.

Let me share some reasons that brought me to this conclusion:

1. WordPress is free
   
   
2. WordPress is very commonly used. This means that you will find:
   • more design templates (Themes) – both free and paid– available for WordPress than for other systems
   • more extensions (called Plugins) which allow you to do almost anything (for example make posts share-able on Social Media, create contact forms, manage posts in multiple languages etc. etc. )
   • more information, help files and how-to videos
     
     
3. WordPress is easy to use, even for non-technical users. This is probably the main reason why I recommend you get a Wordpress site. Because as a small business owner you might not want to pay your webmaster every time you have to update a page. Wordpress’ interface is simple and easy to use and you can update your site without any HTML knowledge.
   
   
4. WordPress is a very powerful Content Management System (CMS).
   • Parent and Child Pages and Posts
   • Categories and Page Templates
   • Multiple Users and different User levels (Roles)
   • Advanced Menu editing system
   • WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Visual and HTML Editors
   • Plugins and Themes (templates)
   • XML import and export
   • multilingual website management through plugins
     
     
5. Wordpress is Search Engine Optimization friendly. As a small business I am sure you are aware that your website is only valuable, if it gets enough traffic. In order to get traffic, it has to show up in search engines. “All in one SEO” is a great plugin for Wordpress which will help you optimize your website for your keywords and increase your chances to be found on Google and other engines.
   
   
6. Google loves Wordpress. Since Wordpress sites are so easy to optimize, they are ranked highly on Google search results.
   
   
7. Wordpress is evolving. Wordpress doesn’t stand still (compared to other CMS I’ve seen). It keeps evolving, programmers keep creating new features to keep up with trends in internet technology.

What is your opinion? Love it or hate it? Does your site run on Wordpress ? Please share in the comments below. Finally, if you would like to discuss a site project, contact me today, I’d be happy to answer your questions.

Are your blog posts sharable ?

If you are part of the growing percentage of entrepreneurs who are writing regular blog posts – congratulations ! You are doing the right thing. Content is king, and a blog is the most important traffic source of any website.

But… (yes, there is a but) are your blog posts sharable on Social Media ?

It’s nice to write blog posts for your existing audience, but what is really cool about blog posts is the viral effect they can have. In order to ma

ke them viral though, you need to make sure that people will want to share them AND offer them easy ways to do so. For successful sharing I have put together a quick list of tips.

Content

1. It starts with a title that grabs your reader’s attention
   
2. It contains an image that’s related to the text
   
3. It’s easy on the eye, several paragraphs, not one big clump of text
   
4. It’s written in a language your audience understands, not full of acronyms and industry related terms
5. It ends with a question are encouragement to leave a comment
   
6. It may include a call to action such as a sign-up form for a free info product

Tools

1. Automatically feed your blog posts to your Facebook page (for example via Networked Blogs)
   
2. Automatically feed your blog posts to your Linkedin profile (via the Wordpress plugin on LinkedIn or Bloglink)
   
3. Add social share icons to each of your blog posts or use Wordpress plugins such as Get Social
   
4. Send a ping via pingomatic to different search engines that your blog has been updated

As I’m writing this post I realize that my own blog does not even fulfill all of the above criteria. Shame on me ! But wait, that’s why I'm getting rid of it :-) In 2 weeks I will announce my brand new website/blog. So check back here again soon.

What are you doing to make your posts shareable ?

A blog is one way to create traffic to your website. Want to learn about other ways ?
Download my free e-book called “21 Proven Ways to Improve Your Website Traffic”. Just fill in your name and e-mail below:

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Is good service worth the extra money?

Would you rather pay less and get bad service or pay a bit more and get excellent service ?

As some of you know I went on a short trip to New York last week. My husband and I flew from Toronto, Canada (where we left our kids with their grandparents). We took a small Canadian airline called Porter Airlines.

And let me tell you, I was really impressed with their service: complimentary Starbucks coffee, snacks, soda and wi-fi in the waiting lounge, free premium snacks on the plane and a free shuttle bus to downtown. And of course really friendly staff.

Yes, we did pay a bit more, but if I compare it with a recent trip from Geneva to Egypt with Easyjet, I would say that it was worth the extra money. It was a much more pleasant experience, all included in one price. For the non-Europeans, Easyjet is a low-cost airline that serves many airports within Europe. Their business strategy is the opposite: low flight prices but then you have to pay everything extra: drinks, food, baggage, speedy service. Oh and the worst part: you get no seat number. So it’s always a big fight.*

This got me thinking and I have come to the following conclusion: to stand apart from all the other small businesses, you will be more successful offering great service at a slightly higher price. In the long run this will get people talking about their experience in a positive way and encourage them to recommend your services to their friends.

So YES, I think good service is worth the extra money.

What is your opinion ? Share below…

* Don’t get me wrong. I will still be taking Easy Jet flights from time to time. But if I had the choice of paying a bit more and take Porter instead, I would definitely choose the latter.

LinkedIn Company Pages

What are LinkedIn Company pages ?

According to LinkedIn, “Company Pages are a company’s profile of record on LinkedIn and a powerful way to speak to millions of professionals through word-of-mouth recommendations and trusted testimonials. It’s like a LinkedIn profile for a company.

For LinkedIn members, Company Pages are a great way to research companies you’re interested in, follow them to stay updated, see what kind of people work there, and even review the products and services you use.

For companies, Company Pages present an opportunity to reveal the human side of your company. Provide a peek at the individuals behind your brand and highlight how members use your products. Your Company Page offers tools to bring your brand to life.”

How do I set up a LinkedIn Company page ?

It’s pretty straight forward to set up your own company page. Just follow the tips and guidelines below and you will have your own in no time.

Start by clicking HERE to create your new page.

How do I customize my LinkedIn Company page ?

A Company page consists of 4 different tabs:

• The Overview tab
• The Products and Service tab
• The Analytics tab
• The Careers tab

Let’s have a look at them one by one.

1. Overview tab
   In this tab you provide LinkedIn members with a rich, network-aware snapshot of your company.

   Company Name
   Make sure the company name listing matches the name you use in your profile. For example if you use LLC or Inc. on your personal profile, your company site must be the same.

   Admins
   LinkedIn wants to know who will administer your company profile. You have two choices: either all employees with a valid email address registered to your domain or designated users only.

   Logos
   Logos can be uploaded as a standard logo as well as a square logo that will be used for network updates.

   Company Description
   In the company description section, you have the opportunity to describe who you are and what you do.

   Specialties
   Include keywords that describe what you do in this section. You have 256 total characters to describe specialties.
   
   Twitter and Company Blog RSS Feed
   Reference your blogposts and Twitter feeds so you can provide a more comprehensive snapshot of your company to members

   

   News Module
   Indicate whether you would like news about your company shared with visiting members

   Download LinkedIn’s Guide to set up your Overview tab
   
   

2. Products and Services Tab

   In this tab you will showcase your best products and services and spotlight product recommendations.

   Edit default landing page
   First thing to do when optimizing this tab, is to edit your default landing page. Here you will provide content regarding your products and services to your default audience segment.

   Create additional audience segments
   You can create up to 4 different audience segments. When visiting members’ profiles indicate that they belong to a particular segment that you have defined, a customized version of your content will be served up. In the event that a member profile does not correspond to one of the audience segments that you’ve defined, content defined under your “default” tab will be served up.
   You can define your audience based on 4 criteria: Function, Industry, Seniority, and Geography.
   
   
   
   Listing all your products and services, describing them
   In this tab you will list all your products and services. You can upload pictures, link those to specific urls on your website and if you have one, even feature a short video, by inserting the youtube url. There is also a 2000 character space to describe each one of your products/services and a section where you can list the major benefits or features in bullet points.
   
   Download LinkedIn’s guide to set up your Products and Services tab
   
   

3. Analytics Tab
   

   In this tab you can gain insights about company followers with data visible only to Company Page administrators
   

4. Careers Tab
   

   In case your company is hiring, this is a great place to post your open job. You will get lots of visibility for very little money.
   
   Download LinkedIn’s guide to set up your Careers tab

So what do you think ? There is still space for improvement from LinkedIn’s side, but in my opinion if you have invested time to improve your profile, you should go all the way and also create a page for your company.

What are your thoughts ? Share below in the comment section…

Help, everybody is stealing my content !

In case you came to read this post because you’re actually worried that everybody is stealing your content: sorry to let you know that the title is meant in a sarcastic way. But don’t leave just yet, let me explain …

Unless you’re in the research field, let’s face it, you probably share content that people could already find through some other source on the web. But, if you are willing to share your knowledge, they will learn from YOU and see YOU as an expert in the field.

But how do I make money if I share all my content on my blog ?

First of all, you will not share ALL your content. You will give your audience “pink spoons” or samples of your knowledge, showing them how to do it but then wanting more. Second of all, there are two groups in your audience: those who can’t afford your services and do it themselves, and those who are too busy to do it themselves and will pay you to do it for them.

The first group (those who CAN’T afford you)
is not your ideal client anyway, because they won’t “show you the money”. But they see you as a valuable information source and respects you as an expert in your field. They feel grateful that you are sharing your knowledge with them for free, and when they get a chance, will return the favor and refer your business to friends (who CAN afford to pay you).

The second group (those who CAN afford your services),
well, they are your ideal client. They have come across your information and know what you are capable of. However they are too busy making money, that they don’t have time to follow all your great instructions. So they contact you to work with them.

There is a third group, those who want to exchange services.
Instead of paying you, they offer you their service and expertise in exchange. In theory I think exchanging services is a nice idea: I do you a favor, you do me a favor. In practice and business life though, let me tell you: it never works ! Unless there is a dollar sign (or any other currency) attached to a contract, people just don’t have the same commitment. This doesn’t mean I don’t do favors for people I know, but if a new potential client suggests an “Exchange of services agreement” I will stay away from it.

So, what is your opinion ? Share or don’t share ? Come share your opinion on Simplicity’s Facebook Page or leave a comment below.

Undoing the Ego Tango: Book Review

Here is the scenario: person A, let’s call her Sarah, is unhappy with her web hosting service. After multiple attempts of getting help with the slow server, and unsatisfying e-mail exchanges she decides to cancel the service. Since she has paid for two years in advance, she kindly asks them if they could reimburse her. They tell her no. And that’s where she makes her big mistake: she writes back that she finds this very disappointing and unprofessional. Oh my, those web guys don’t like that. They reply with a nasty e-mail and you guessed it, tell her that there's nothing wrong with their server and it’s all her fault because she doesn’t know how to “debug”.

How did Sarah feel that morning ? Not very good. Aggressive, disappointed, taken for an idiot.

Did this ever happen to you ? How would you have reacted ?

If only Sarah had read Amy Carroll’s book “Undoing the Ego Tango - ” before hitting the send button !

In her book, Amy will tell you many similar scenarios that happened to her, and how she turned them around and made them into a positive experience. She has a very engaging and energetic style and you will just want to keep reading. To make it even more beneficial for you, she throws in some self-reflecting questions after each chapter, making it almost into one of her private coaching sessions.

The “Ego Tango” will help you take a deep breath, analyze the situation, decide if your ego is willing to take the blow, and then present your opponent with a solution that has a positive outcome for both parties. It is applicable for personal or professional relationships.

Being Swiss, I especially like her little hints at Swiss locations, mentalities or habits :-)

About Amy Carroll

Amy is American, but lives in Switzerland. She brings with her over 25 years of personal experience and education. Fourteen of those years were spent working in psychiatric, managed care and educational facilities before becoming a coach, trainer and speaker. Her understanding of the human psyche is extensive.

You can find out more about her book here or visit Amy’s website at www.carollcoaching.com

Or just head on over to Amazon and buy your own copy ! You won’t regret it :-)

11 Things You Shouldn’t Forget When Switching Websites

by Sarah Santacroce

picture courtesy of Salvatore Vuoto

When you are through changing, you are through. ~Bruce Barton

I think every small business owner would agree that change is a good thing and necessary in order to succeed. Well, my own little business is also going through some change right now, let’s say it’s “growing up”. After a year in business I have redefined my objectives and decided which areas I really want to focus on. This needs to be reflected on my website and my business logo and name. So you see, some big changes coming up (hint: “Simplicity” will stay, even though everybody has trouble spelling it :-)

But, in this post I don’t want to just talk about my upcoming changes, I want to share with you some things I have learned during this experience.

This post will focus on switching websites and what kind of things you need to look out for when going through that procedure.

1. Finalize website
   Of course you want to be sure that your website is finished and will impress people at first sight.
   
   
2. Test website
   I recommend you test all the links, forms, downloads and videos on your site before going live.
   
   
3. Decide on a weekend to switch website
   It is best to switch sites on a weekend. This way there’s less interruption for potential site visitors.
   
   
4. Redirect old domain to new domain
   It is very important to have your developer use 301 redirects to tell both people and search engines that the site has permanently moved to a new URL
   
   
5. Leave a “trail” in the meta tag description and keyword of the old site
   Make sure your meta tag description and keyword section mentions your old site name
   
   
6. Update your listings in directories
   Take the time to update your directory listings such as Google, Google Places, Yahoo, Yellow Pages etc.
   
   
7. Update all Social Media Accounts
   You will have to make a list of all the Social Media tools where you have an account and go in there and update your information. And there’s more than just Facebook and Twitter. Best idea is to do a Google Search for your company name and see what kind of listings come up. Every site where you have submitted content needs to have an updated profile with the new web domain. Here are a few that I came up with: Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Scribd, Slideshare, Ezine Articles, Youtube, Xing etc. etc.
   
   
8. Update your e-mail signature
   Don’t forget to update your e-mail signature !
   
   
9. Update your Autoresponders and Newsletter settings and links
   Go into each of your Autoresponders and check if you need to update your links. Especially the ones to download your free offers. People would be quite upset if they subscribe to your list and then get a 404 Error message when they try to download your e-book !
   
   
10. Write a press release and host it on your website
    Since this is a major milestone for your business you will want to write a news release about it and send it to online press release directories (such as PRWeb.com or pitchengine.com). Also host it on your own website of course.
    
    
11. Send out an e-mail to your list
    Last but not least inform your subscribers that you have switched websites and give them the new RSS feed and a sign-up form to receive your blog posts by e-mail.

What did I forget ? Has anyone gone through this experience as well and can share some more tips with us ?

Increase your traffic with a Press Room on your website

by Sarah Santacroce

In a previous post I have showed you how to increase your online visibility with Press Release Marketing.
The strategy consists in sharing your press releases on online press release distribution sites. It is a very good approach to get your brand noticed on Google.

In this post I would like to show you the benefits of having a press room on your own website. But first, let’s define a “press room”, or also called a “news room”: A press room is a designated page on your website where journalists and other curious minds can discover the latest news about your company.

So why should your website have a press room ?

Reason #1: Increase your traffic

Besides your blog, your press room is the only other non-static page on your website.
If you update it regularly, the search engines will love to come back and reference your page.
You can also share your Press Releases through Social Media and increase traffic to your site this way.

Reason # 2: We are All Journalists Now

Before web2.0, press releases were just for journalists and only big company changes were announced to the press. Today press or news releases can be used even by small companies, and the whole wide world has access to them. By distributing your press releases you will be reaching out to a huge audience and who will be curious to see your updates and visit your website.

Reason #3: Be perceived as an expert in your field

By submitting great content you will boost your site’s "authority" and be perceived as an expert in your field. This is critical in order to increase your site's overall visibility in search results and thus deliver real traffic. So, don’t miss the opportunity to turn your site into a trusted resource that will drive deeper, longer term relationships.

What has to be on your press room page?

1. Your complete contact details
   
   
2. Your latest press releases, as downloadable pdf documents.
   
   
3. The logo of your business, as downloadable image
   
   
4. Photos of you, as downloadable image
   
   
5. Photos of your products, if you sell any
   
   
6. Audio and/or video clips for the time-starved reporter, directly embedded on your page
   
   
7. Links to your Social Media presence (Facebook page, Linkedin Profile, Twitter etc.)
   
   
8. News Feed for Automatic Receipt of Press Room Updates Make it easy for those who are interested to get press releases and other news hot off the press via an RSS reader
   

I hope these points have convinced you to go talk to your webmaster ;-)

P.S. Just a heads up that some change is in the air concerning my website and blog. Sometime this summer I will ask you to update my RSS feed. But for now you can still subscribe here.

360 Entrepreneurship Summit for Women Entrepreneurs

This is a guest post by Anna Persson, Founder of the 360 Entrepreneurship Summit

Anna has a solid background in women leadership development and extensive experience in the field of international conference planning and management. Before starting her own company, she worked over five year as Conference Director and Sponsor Account Manager for international business conferences in Europe with focus on women’s leadership evolution. But Anna’s true passion is connecting people to bring ideas into projects and actions, to activate team spirit and to make partnerships and joint ventures happen. Read Anna’s personal invitation to the one summit you don’t want to miss this year.

It’s a pleasure for me to invite you to join 360 Entrepreneurship Summit in Malmö Sweden 16-18 September 2011.

The 360 Entrepreneurship Summit designed for both experienced and new business owners alike and you can expect high level of training, practical and hands on content and of course great networking opportunities. For 3 days you will have access to a Mastermind group of internationally renown, inspiring keynote and workshop presenters delivering leading edge strategies, tools and resources to strengthen your business results! This is where you get the answers to your questions and you’ll be able to walk away with the strategies and the tool kit you need to accelerate your business. The 360 Summit presenters have helped hundreds if not thousands of women create, develop and grow their business and they are here to do the same for you!

Women today, represent one of the largest market opportunities in our lifetime both as producers and consumers, and a strong European network of committed, talented women represents an unlimited creative and economic force. And it all starts with you!
So what are some the reasons for creating a conference for entrepreneurs and small business owners?

Build valuable connections and expand opportunities - Relationship is one of the prime factors for doing business with each other and we want to do business with people we know, whom we like and trust. The summit will allow for truly developing and deepening contacts and you will meet with a large number of extraordinary business women who are serious about doing business in the “spirit of mutual benefit”

Promote yourself and your business - As an entrepreneur and small business owner it’s crucial to keep a high profile in business letting people know you exist. Creating rapport, getting to know your potential joint venture partners and potential clients is so much easier when having a face to face contact.

Personal development, improving and learning new business skills - If you want our business to grow you need to grow with it, and it’s necessary to keep up with a number of things; how to be a conscious and successful leader, develop a strong brand to attract business, get the social media working for you, not you working them, how to protect your intellectual property and also learn and adopt a health so you can stay on fire without burning out.
My aim is that 360Entrepreneurship Summit will give you lots of new business opportunities and connections, supporting your business development and strengthen both your business results and enhance your personal growth. And I really want you to feel welcome, inspired and included.

Maybe you don’t know just how important entrepreneurship and Small and Medium sized Enterprise is to the economy. Well, SME’s are true back-bone of the European economy, primarily responsible for wealth and economic growth, next to the key role in innovation R&D. I’ll share some interesting facts with you. The EU non-financial business economy counts over 20 million enterprises, where over 99% are SMEs. They provide 2/3 of the private sector jobs and contribute to more than half of the total value-added created by business in the EU. Even more intriguing the fact that 9/10 SMEs are micro enterprises where each provides work for two persons in average. So if it’s something we should support and encourage it is the development and growth of entrepreneurship and small business!

See you in Sweden 16-18 September!
Anna

For more information visit 360 Entrepreneurship website www.360entrepreneurship.com or join 360’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/360Entrepreneurship.

Get more website traffic with Flickr

by Sarah Santacroce

Photo: courtesy of Veronique Goy

When I asked my list subscribers this Monday what they would like me to blog about, several people asked me to write an other post on how to increase their website traffic. So that’s just what I’m doing :-)

This time I take a closer look at Flickr, a photo and video sharing website which is owned by Yahoo. If you are a local business, especially one that sells products (handmade bags, homemade birthday cakes, designer clothes or whatever it might be) or even some services (manicure, relooking, photographs or any other service that has an end product that shows nicely on a picture) Flickr HAS to be part of your Social Media Marketing Strategy. It is highly indexed and will increase your search engine visibility and hence drive more traffic to your website.

It’s easy to start working with Flickr. Just go to Flickr.com and create an account. Remember to use your company name for branding purposes.

A couple of things to boost your visibility (Search Engine Optimization):

• Titles: Use your keywords to create strong and descriptive titles for every picture. Think about unique ways to motivate users to click on your image.
• Descriptions: write descriptions with the user in mind. Put yourself in their shoes and think what would make them click on your photo.
• Hyperlinks: Add hyperlinks in your descriptions to relevant pages on your website
• Local place names: If you are a local business that only sells locally (no online sales) make sure you use local search keywords for communities you are targeting (for example, Lausanne, Switzerland, Suisse Romande) in your titles, descriptions, tags, and hyperlinks.
• Tags: Tag each photo with descriptive, searchable keywords. Include place names in the tags to attract local searches.
• Profile: Search Engine Optimize your Flickr profile page and Flickr photo "sets" with search-friendly titles, tags, fun and informative descriptions, and links.
• Flickr Groups: You can join relevant groups and post your photos there to get even more exposure.

Of course you will also want to use your Flickr photos and share them on other social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Flickr makes social sharing very easy, all the buttons you need are right next to every picture.

Oh, did I mention that Flickr is totally FREE (unless you want to go Pro, then it’s $24.95 per year).

One last tip: If you are in the music, entertainment or art business, make sure you check out www.webdoc.com. It’s a very cool new tool for rich expressions. You can use pictures, videos, sounds, and apps to create your own mini-webpages for example for a concert, vernissage, exhibition etc. and share it all over your social network. Have a look and let me know what you think.

Vanity urls for Facebook and Linkedin profiles

by Sarah Santacroce

“Vanity is my favourite sin.” Al Pacino

This short post is not really about vanity or even less about Al Pacino. It’s about personal branding and using vanity urls for your marketing. I want to show you how to get your personalized url for your Linkedin profile as well as your professional Facebook page.

But first, let’s quickly look at why it’s important:

• it’s part of your branding
• it’s easier to remember www.facebook.com/simplicityadmins then www.facebook.com/123034980348mmm7
• it’s easier to communicate on written publications
• it just looks better !

So, let’s start with the vanity url for your Facebook page:

Before all things, you will have to get 25 “Likes” on your page. Facebook only allows “usernames”, as FB calls them, for pages with more then 25 people.

Once you have reached the magic number, you want to choose a username for your business.
Then you go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ and check if the name you have chosen is available for your page. If yes, congrats, if no, choose another one.

Your username for the vanity URL must be at least five characters long and be all alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9).

A word of caution: Don't go for anything funny or cute. Play it straight. According to Facebook, "Once it's been selected, you won't be able to change or transfer it."

That’s all there is to it, really.

Now let’s have a look at your Linkedin Profile:

Select the “Edit Profile” tab, scroll down a bit and next to the “Public profile” link click on “Edit”.
On the new page, scroll down a wee bit and find the box that says “ Your public profile URL” (see picture below).

You then click on “Customize your public profile URL” and choose the name you like, preferably the same that you have chosen for your Facebook page.

If you would like to see if your username is available on all other Social Media sites, have a look at Namechk.com. It tells you at one Glance which names are available for which site.

E-mail Marketing basics

by Sarah Santacroce

If you are a Small Business owner who is still using Outlook for their e-mail marketing campaigns, don’t be ashamed. You are not alone. There are so many entrepreneurs who are in the same situation as you: pulling their hair because they just don’t know how to keep their e-mail lists and campaigns organized.

If I can give you one advice though: Outlook is not the answer for e-mail marketing campaigns. Here is why:

• Outlook doesn’t apply to the CAN-SPAM Act
• You could be penalized if you send e-mails to people who didn’t agree to receive them
• Your Internet Service Provider might flag you as a Spammer
• People cannot automatically unsubscribe from your list
• You will be bombarded with “Out of Office”, “Undeliverable” and other annoying messages
• You cannot track who opened your messages
• It’s an administrative nightmare !

You see, you really need to get things under control and switch to a system that has been specifically designed to handle mass mailing of commercial e-mail campaigns. You need to use a service that will help you verify that people want to be on your list, will help you easily remove people from your list when they no longer want to hear from you, and will give you information about email bounce rates, email open rates, link click through rates, and much much more.

And don’t worry, this service won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Some providers even offer a limited service for FREE. For more information about E-Mail Marketing tools, please read my previous post “Newsletter Marketing – Available Tools”. In this post I focused on newsletters, but the same applies for traditional e-mail marketing campaigns.

Now it’s your turn ? Which tool are you using ? Share your experience in the comments below.

Traditional versus 2.0 media attention

by Sarah Santacroce

On Friday I assisted a conference entitled “How to attract media attention”. It was lead by a journalist and there were 3 panel speakers. A tv journalist and two small business owners who testified their success by getting media attention.

It was an interesting morning, but…

what bothered me is that they never mentioned the new way of submitting press releases: online ! The whole discussion revolved around how to attract a journalist’s attention. But let’s face it: a small business or individual entrepreneur, which is not in a absolute trendy industry that everybody wants to read about (such as biodegradable shopping bags like the ones that one of the panelist’s company designed) or has a close friend who’s a journalist, has very little chance to be featured in the local newspaper or on tv.

That’s why I couldn’t resist and got up in front of close to a hundred people and mentioned that they should not forget to submit their press releases also ONLINE (of course I made a complete fool out of myself because I hate speaking in public and get very nervous, but that’s ok, I made my point :-)

So here is just a quick reminder of why you should submit your press releases online (even if you have little hope that a journalist will pick up your story):

Online Press Releases

• reach a huge audience of potential clients who search for your company online
• get excellent ranking on Google since they are a non-static part of your website
• increase traffic to your website
• create a back link, increasing your page ranking again
• create “buzz” about your company

So don't forget: submit regular online Press Releases !

For more information about Press Release Marketing read my earlier post “Increase your Online Visibility with Press Release Marketing”.

Content Curation with Google Reader

by Sarah Santacroce

How do you stay informed ? How do you learn the latest news about your industry ?

If you are already know RSS feeds and how to aggregate them in to one single place to get your daily information boost then I suggest you skip the reading this time and go directly to the second video where Mari Smith gives you some more tips on content curation.

If you are new to RSS feeds and their aggregation, let me give me some more information on that subject.

What is a RSS feed ?

According to Wikipedia, RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.

Where do I find RSS feeds ?

Most websites or blogs with non-static, regularly updated content provide you with an RSS feed to get their content regularly. Just look for the orange RSS icon.

What can I do with these RSS feeds ?

RSS feeds are like news subscriptions. Every time your selected blog publishes a new post, it gets automatically sent to your feed reader.

What is a feed reader ?

According to Wikipedia, a feed reader is a “is a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline.” In other words it is a web application which gathers web content such as news headlines, blogs, and podcasts in a single location for easy viewing.

How does Google Reader work ?

In this post I am going to focus on Google Reader, since that’s the tool I chose for mine and my client’s feed aggregation.

Google Reader let’s you organize all your feeds into one place. You can create different folders, just as in Windows Explorer. It looks a bit overwhelming at the beginning, since the more feeds you have, the more content you will receive. But the nice thing is that you don’t have to read it all. You can just look at the titles, decide if it’s interesting to you and if not, keep on scrolling…

Watch this short video if you want to learn how to add your rss subscriptions to your Google Reader:

Still, it’s a lot of content, who has time to read it all ?

As I mentioned before, you only read the items that seem of interest to you. I usually read mine early in the morning, and one more time after dinner. And if you are travelling a lot, I also recommend the Google mobile apps for your phone. Information on the go… There is also a “star function”, the possibility to mark articles for later with a little yellow star.

“I thought I had to create my own content, so why do I have to spend all this time reading other people’s stuff ?”

Content = knowledge. The more you read about your industry, the more you learn. And the more you learn, the more you can then teach others. In order to be seen as an expert in your industry, you will want to stay informed about the latest trends and tendencies. You might also remember the 20/80 percent rule in Social Media: for 20% of your own content, share at least 80% of other information (blog posts, videos, whitepapers etc.).

If you are not a big fan of Google’s products, watch this video where Mari Smith shows 7 other tools for content curation.

Now it’s your turn ? Which tool are you using ? Do you have questions about content aggregation? Post them in the comment section below.
Oh, and please subscribe to my RSS here :-)

Linkedin for B2B – part 2

by Sarah Santacroce

In part 1 of this post I showed you how to update your profile in order to get the full benefits of Linkedin. As promised, let’s now look at how you can use your fully optimized profile to network, share content and ultimately generate leads for your business.

Increase your reach – add new connections

Doing business on Linkedin is only worth it, if you actually have people in your network. So from now on, make it a habit to always add new people to your network. People you meet at a networking event, new contacts, former coworkers etc etc.

Share content

In order to showcase your expertise in your industry, take advantage of the options Linkedin offers to distribute content. Maybe you have a content aggregation tool (such as Google Reader) set up. Just pick relevant content that you think would interest your network and share it on Linkedin. I recommend 2 – 3 updates per week. The unspoken rule is 20/80. 20% of your content (blog posts, promotions etc) versus 80% of other informative content.

1. Status updates
   
   
   Similar to Facebook updates, you can share your content on Linkedin. You put a personalized message into the “Share an update” box, then click on the “Attach a link” and paste the link of the blog post or other url you want to share. Linkedin automatically pulls in the information and even creates a little thumbnail for you. If you have a Twitter account, you can click on the box next to the Twitter bird and your update will also be shared on Twitter.
   
   
2. Group discussions
   
   
   You can also take part in group discussions by sharing relevant information directly within the groups.
   Each time someone replies or comments on your content, you will get notified by Linkedin.
   
   
3. Bloglink application
   
   If you write a blog, I recommend you use the Bloglink application ! You can enter your RSS feed and it will then automatically display your latest blog post on your profile.
   
   
4. Events application
   This is a must for every company who hosts offline or online events. Whenever you create a new event, it will not only be displayed on your networks’ newsfeed, but also be registered in the event directory where other people can see it.

Get your content shared

LinkedIn Buttons

Just like Facebook’s “Like” button and Twitter’s “Tweet” button, Linkedin has a “Share on Linkedin” button. If you have a professional blog, grab the code and paste it after every post in order to increase the sharing of your content. Click here to get the HTML code.

Network and get new leads with groups

1. Become a Member of an existing group
   Do some research on the available groups and locate the ones that are most aligned with your company's products, services, experience and industry. And join them!
   
   
2. Participate actively in the group
   Share your insight and experience in the ongoing discussions to benefit the community in an unselfish way. Be honest and trustworthy with your advice and conversation. Every now and then share your own content (blog posts, links to your website, white papers etc), always remembering the 20/80 % rule.
   
   
3. Create new relationships and take advantage of inbound marketing
   Becoming an active member within LinkedIn Groups will naturally attract people to your side. By sharing your knowledge and expertise with your group members you will be successful in acquiring recognition for thought-leadership in your field. This will organically lead to increased inbound marketing, meaning more people searching for you, instead of you chasing after them.
   
   
4. Take advantage of InMail option with Groups
   One of the best bonus features of Groups is that you can send InMail to group members without having to upgrade to a premium account. If you share a group with a person, you can send them a personal message (InMail) and ask them to connect or get in touch by phone or whatever else you wish.
   
   I’ll give you an example of how this can be useful (I have actually done this for a client, so I know it works): you are registered at a big convention or some kind of offline event. Rather than just hope for some successful networking, prepare in advance and get access to the attendee list from the organizer. Once you have the names, spend some time on Linkedin and see who you share a group with. Now send them a friendly message, introducing yourself and inviting them to connect for a quick chat at the upcoming event. Social Media networking, followed-up by a real-life meeting :-)
   
   
5. Create your own group
   If you don’t find an existing group that suits your needs you can also create your own group. You can directly communicate with your group members, send them weekly messages, feed in your blog and much more. Read this article on 10 reasons to start a Linkedin group from Lewis Howes.

Answer Questions

Answering industry related questions is yet another option to show your expertise to the Linkedin Community. Each time you answer a question, your entire network will be notified on their newsfeed. Questions are organized into categories and each category has it’s own RSS feed. I recommend you subscribe to the categories which are relevant for your business and receive daily questions directly in your favorite feed reader (Google reader for example).

Referrals

How many new customers do you get by word of mouth referrals ? I bet it’s quite a big number.
Every time you get a new referral it will show up on your whole network’s news feed ! For more information about referrals read this post by Jeanne Hopkins: 3 Strategies to get more sales referrals with Linkedin.

Linkedin DirectAds

Last but not least there are Linkedin’s version of Paid Per Click Ads. Linkedin Direct Ads allow you to target ads by industry, company, geography, job function, seniority, gender and age. Ads can appear as a media box, banner ad or text hyperlink. They are pay-per-click or by impressions and can be stopped at any time.

I like them better than Google Ads because they can be very targeted. You can even target just members of a specific group for example.

New feature: Leads

Just this week I received an e-mail from Linkedin, inviting me to test a new feature on Linkedin DirectAds.
Here’s how it works:

1. LinkedIn members who click on your campaign will be shown your ad's landing page with a single-click option to be contacted (see picture above).
2. The profiles of members who choose to be contacted will be shown in your account under the Leads tab.
3. You will be able to send a free follow-up message to them on LinkedIn.

I think this is a great new feature and I will definitely give it a try ! Remember: they are beta testing this, so it might not be available on every account just yet.

So, now it’s your turn ! How do you use Linkedin? Do you have any additional tips and tricks? Please share them in the comments below. Oh, and you find me on Linkedin under: http://www.linkedin.com/in/simplicityadmins

P.S. LinkedIn reached a 100 Million users this Tuesday!!

P.P.S. If you would like to receive this 2-post series about Linkedin for B2B in an easy printable format, just click here, enter your name and e-mail and I will send you the pdf file.

Linkedin for B2B – part 1

by Sarah Santacroce

When people talk about Social Media, they usually mention the BIG 3. Linkedin, besides Facebook and Twitter is part of those 3. With it’s over 90 Million registered users I think it deserves it’s ranking.

In this 2 post series about Linkedin for B2B I will show you how you can implement Linkedin in your overall marketing strategy, increasing brand awareness and augment leads in general. The first post will explain how to optimize your profile and promote it effectively, the second post will focus on content distribution and networking options that are possible with Linkedin Groups.

So let’s get started.

Treat your profile like you treat your website
What do you usually do when you inquire about a new business partner, supplier or customer ? You Google their name, correct ? If this person has a Linkedin profile, it will ALWAYS show up on the first page of the Google search results. Your profile will be the first thing people see, so make sure you make a good first impression.

1. Create a relevant and distinctive tagline for your profile
   This is the title that shows on the very top of your profile, next to your picture. It is important because it defines you. Make sure it contains some of your keywords as it is indexed in Linkedin’s search engine. CFO or VP is not distinctive enough.
   
   
2. Upload a professional photo
   LinkedIn, after all, is a social networking channel. So add as many personal touches as possible to maximize engagement and put a face to the brand. Remember, it is not Facebook, so no pictures with funny hats, your pet or your kids in the background.
   
   
3. Create link love to your websites
   In the “websites” section you can include relevant URLs in your profile, and use links with anchor text. For example, instead of “My Website,” use a keyword to describe it such as “Small Business Mktg Solutions.” (see image).
   
   
   
   You can also link to your product or service brochure for example. Just click on “Edit”, then on the dropdown menu choose “Other”. You can then define your own text and simply paste the url to your brochure or any other landing page of your website.
   
   
   
   
4. Develop your 30 second elevator speech in your Profile Summary
   What do you say when someone asks you “So what do you do?” at a networking event. The answer goes in the Profile Summary. Nicely packaged and easily digestible :-) I broke mine into different paragraphs so it’s easier on the eye.
   
   
5. Showcase your best skills and ignite the SEO potency of your Profile using the “specialties” section
   Very important section again, because these skills are indexed in Linkedin’s search engine.
   
   
6. Customize profile url
   
   Make sure you create a vanity url for your public profile by clicking on the “Edit” button and giving it the name you wish. It will be much easier to remember and share than the long string of numbers that Linkedin gives you by default.
   
7. Leverage Third-Party Applications
   Last but not least you can add applications to your profile. My favorite three are the following:

• Bloglink: automatically display your latest blog posts
• Boxnet: Add links to files like resumes and marketing kits
• Slideshare: Share business presentations and demos with your network

I will talk about these apps more in part 2 when I we get into the content distribution.

Promote Your Profile
In order to expand your network, LinkedIn marketing efforts – like anything else – must be promoted in other channels. Include a link to your profile on your website and blog, in individual blog posts, in email signatures, on your brochures and even on business cards.

So now that you have updated your profile, you are ready to add new connections, share content, join groups and take full advantage of all the possibilities that Linkedin has to offer. I will talk about them in my next post, so subscribe to my RSS feed or come back next week :-)

Btw, you can find me on Linkedin under http://www.linkedin.com/in/simplicityadmins

And the winner is ...

First of all thank you to those who participated in the International Women’s Day Activity !
I hope you had a good day yesterday, there was quite some events (online and offline) to honor women (entrepreneurs or not) around the globe.

Now, as promised there is one lucky woman who will get a complete Linkedin Profile Makeover. Drum roll please ! The winner is…

Claudia Amendola from MT Virtual Assistant !

Congratulations, Claudia ! I will contact you to get started…

And for all the other ladies out there, here’s a video for you to keep the party going :-)
(via my good friend Cristina !)

P.S. Next post will be including my male readers again too !!!

International Women's Day activity

by Sarah Santacroce

Update: I changed the activity because of Facebook's promotion rules. Please no longer post your links on my wall, but directly here in the comments of this post. The winner will be announced here too (previous participants will obviously still take part in the drawing). Thank you for your understanding - Sarah

In order to celebrate the international women’s day on March 8th and mark the economic, political and social achievements of women, I encourage you to participate in the following activity:

• starting today (Feb 21st) and until March 8th 2011, if you are a women entrepreneur, a mompreneur or run a mainly women owned business, feature your business in the comments below . You can include a short description and a link to your Facebook page or website
  
• on March 9th, I will draw one lucky winner (with random.org) who will receive a Linkedin Profile Makeover which will help you drive more traffic to your website and increase your future sales.

So, don’t be shy ! Come on over to my wall and promote your business ! Women power !

Check out the IWD 2011 website for events in your region. P.S. Did you know that in China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria International women’s day is a national holiday ?

P.S. To my male readers: I hope you won’t be mad that you are not included in the game this round. I’ll make sure to think of something else where boys get to play too :-)

Call to action

by Sarah Santacroce

Every website should have a call to action, a response you want users to complete. What do you want the visitors on your website to do ? Should they

• download your free e-book and get added to your e-mail list?
• download your brochure?
• subscribe to your newsletter?
• register for a webinar?
• buy your product?
• donate money for a good cause?
• book a free call with you or one of your representatives?
• what else?

Once you have defined the action that you want your visitor to take, you will have to think about how to encourage the users to act. Here are a few ideas:

1. Action words
   
   A call to action should clearly tell users what you want them to do. They should include active words such as:
   
   
   • Download
   • Subscribe
   • Register
   • Buy
   • Donate
   • Call

   All of those get the users attention and encourage them to take an action.

2. Sense of urgency
   
   To create a sense of urgency and a need to act now, words like these can be used:
   
   
   • Now
   • Order now and receive a free gift
   • For a short time only
   • Immediately
     
     
3. Location
   
   Location is important for the call-to-action. The right side of your website’s header is a good place, or anywhere else above the fold, so visitors see it without having to scroll down.
   
   
4. Presentation
   
   Use images – Images or buttons get people’s attention because our eyes are naturally drawn to images rather than text first.
   
   Choose contrasting colors – Use a color that contrasts with your main colors for maximum effect.
   
   Use white space – The more space around a call-to-action, the more attention is drawn to it. If you surround it by too much content, it gets lost in the jungle.

Track your success

Last but not least you will want to track your results. You want to be able to measure how successful your new call-to-action is. If your call is related to an e-mail registration, a product sale or a registration for a webinar, this is pretty simple. You can just look at those statistics. But if you just want your customer to download your brochure or watch your video for example, I suggest you use the Goal Settings of Google Analytics. You can define your goal (for example the “download complete” page) and Google analytics will then measure how many users get to that specific page.

Some good examples

Firefox

Firefox has a nicely designed button, in a contrasting color. It is clear that they want you to download their browser.

Dropbox

It couldn’t be more simple. An empty page with just two things: a video and a download button. Any questions ?

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is also a great example. It is pretty obvious that they want you to sign up to their free e-mail marketing plan.

Do you have an example of a creative call-to-action ? Or do you have a question ? Share it in the comments below.