All seemed to be well until she interviewed one particular lady about a week ago. This lady was kind of blunt, but she thought the interview went just fine until she got a fateful email a few days later. Apparently, the interviewee thought she was emailing her own husband, but had accidentally emailed the lady who did the interview.

In the email, she recounted the “stupid” questions she thought the lady asked during the interview. She also talked about how her website was the ugliest one she had ever seen and wished she had looked at it prior to doing the interview.

Now, I have to say that the story was slightly amusing. We have all sent an email or two that we wished we could reel back in like a fishing line. But, this lady was totally missing the point. While she was upset over what the woman had said (or thought she said) to her husband in confidence, the real lesson should have been about taking criticism constructively.

Even though it was “business”, she got highly defensive when others tried to tell her that her purple and black, depressing looking website is, in fact, ugly. She fought with people and told them that looks don’t matter, it reflected what she liked, etc….

Instead of using the criticism to better her site and her business, she found fault with the person who criticized her. The real truth was that the interviewee did not demean her in public or try to slander her name. She was simply relaying her private thoughts to her husband. Instead she apparently hit the wrong button and gave this woman some much needed, yet not well received, advice.

So, how does this apply to you? Well, we all need to be open to change and listen to our customers, so ask yourself these two questions:

1. Do your customers and clients know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they can criticize your business, processes, products and services without you going crazy about it? Do they know that your only desire is to be better so you are willing to listen with two ears and a closed mouth?
2. Are you always open and willing to listen to the advice of others and implement changes, even hard ones, when needed? 

We should all take a long, hard look at how we accept criticism within our businesses. We are all human and these comments can sting, but you should always be wondering what your customers are saying about you in their private moments when they are being totally honest. Then, you should invite them to “accidentally” email you too.

 
Dedicated to your success.

Greg Pitstick & Bill Brown

On the way to the dance, I asked Clare what our song should be. A special a song that only she and I would know. A song that means something to both of us. A song that will remind me of her years later.

She looked up and without hesitating said

Kung Fu Fighting

In case you don’t remember, Kung Fu Fighting was release in 1974 and it’s a lot of fun! Last year they played Kung Fu Fighting at the Father / Daughter dance and we had a lot of fun dancing to it (crazy kung fu moves and all).

The amazing thing is we have not heard that song in over a year. But Clare remembered it! That song was stored away in her mind along with lots of memories of a fun evening with her father.

So our song is Kung Fu Fighting – ha chop (got to get the moves going).

What does this have to do with your business? Lots!

What is your Kung Fu Fighting Song?

Do you have a unique angle, a service that no one else has? A signature “product” or way of doing things that no one else does?

If you want to stand out of the crowd and spur on word of mouth marketing, then you need your own version of Kung Fu Fighting. You need something that makes you different from everyone else.

I often tell my clients to take out the yellow pages. Write down every word that your competition uses to define their company (on time, quality, trusting, etc.). This is your list of everything that you should not make your Kung Fu Fighting song.

Think about something different you can do that your clients will remember a full year after seeing you. Something that they will want to talk about. Something that gets you noticed.

Get out of your box, don’t be like everyone else. Stand out, be different. Not only is it a lot more fun, but it is more effective!

Dedicated to your success.

Greg Pitstick (aka Bruce Lee) & Bill Brown

But what’s a contact worth? 

Well a dollar value  has finally been placed on the value of each of your contacts.   IBM and researchers at MIT did a study that proved top producers have more connections.   They even went so far as to put a dollar value on each contact – $948.

I can tell you from experience, a contact is only worth what you invest in them.   If you collect a list of names, but never call them, send them a card, send them an email or contact them – the list of names is worthless.

On the other hand, if you build a list of names and invest in communicating with them like a farmer tends his crops, then you will grow rich rewards.

With the advent of social networking tools like Linkedin and Facebook, many professionals think they are doing a good job.

The smart professional knows you need to send your communication across multiple channels, touching the person several times a year.   So don’t just send an email.   Send a card, call them, send out a newsletter – mix it up and have regular value added touches.

So you don’t have time to do the follow up because you are too busy getting new clients? Are you the  dog chasing his tail? 

You see,  I recently read another study that said only 14% of people would hire someone from an ad, while 78% of people would take the recommendation from a friend or family member.    Are you spending enough time on getting a recommendation 78% of the time, or are you focusing on the 14%?

Don’t get the wrong impression, you have to get new clients.  But the smart professional also knows that tending their list will yield massive rewards.  So use all the new social networking tools and the best traditional techniques like sending a card.   Invest in your contact list and prepare for the $948 harvest .

  
 
Dedicated to your success.

Greg Pitstick & Bill Brown

This past weekend was the start of Daylight Saving Time across North America.  As we did our annual spring forward and moved the clocks up and hour, there was a big “POOF”, and just like that we all lost one more hour out of our lives. 

I don’t know about you, but personally I had a lot of things I could have done with that extra hour – sleep being just one of them!

Most of us lose random hours here and there on a regular basis, never to be returned.  It’s as if a vampire is running around sucking the hours right out of your life.

These particular vampires are needy, thirsty creatures who will suck you dry every chance they get – leaving you weak and debilitated.  And they’re everywhere – at home, at work and across town.  Once they get a good meal out of you, they will come back time and time again!

Beware of Vampires!

We come across the path of vampires every day…

• Time Vampires who will interrupt your day and steel hours from you, leaving you dizzy and unfocused!
• Energy Vampires who will suck every ounce of positive energy out of you with their endless stream of negative comments!

Being able to recognize the vampires in your life is the first step in protecting yourself from their negative, time-sucking tendencies.

I know most people are only productive about 1/3 of the time; 2/3 of their productivity is lost to the vampires. 

Time vampires will interrupt your day.  They will force you to lose focus, costing you hours of productivity.  Studies show when you are interrupted from a task, it can take you 15 minutes or more to get back to where you where.

When you go to the office, there are time vampires hiding around every corner, just waiting to pull you into an hour of “chit chat”, talking about their endless problems.

My personal time vampires include email, stock quotes, CNN and cell phone interruptions.  I laugh, but since I got an iPhone there are more time vampires in my life than ever before!  

Every time an email comes in, it pings my iPhone and interrupts my day.   Turn off the auto email feature and dedicate time to read your emails two times a day! (Tip – Have important messages sent as a text message or to a different email account so you know when it is important)

Then there are the Energy Vampires, ready to suck all the productive, positive energy from you.  We all have them, friends and family who have not had a positive comment or thought since the second grade. 

You see them coming around the corner, ready to sink their teeth into your neck, sucking out all of your positive energy.  Avoid these vampires and don’t hang around them!  A positive attitude is critical if you want to attract the best clients for your business!

It’s time to vanquish the vampires

Instead of wearing garlic around your neck and carrying around a wooden stake, try these simple ways to find your vampires and kill them.  Keep a sheet of paper next to you.  Write down every time you are interrupted during the day.   Do this for a day or two.  You now have a list of time vampires you need to vanquish.  

On the same sheet, write down every negative discussion you have and who it involves.  These are the people you need to avoid.

Your productivity and attitude will expand as you get better at identifying and vanquishing your vampires. 

And remember, Vampire killers make more money in less time and have more fun doing it. 

Dedicated to your success.
Greg Pitstick & Bill Brown

I explained to him that the actual cost to make an item may not be the biggest cost related to that item.  You see, there are marketing costs, transportation costs, storage costs, and so on.   He was shocked to learn that for many items the marketing costs far outweigh the product creation costs.  This discussion got me thinking about marketing costs and how to best manage them. 

For most advertising, it is a one shot deal.   You send out a postcard and either the person acts or they don’t.  You can’t re-send the card for free.  But with some mediums, like Facebook, it’s different.  Your single ad can connect you to an unlimited stream of free marketing to that person in the future.

Let me explain.   When you put an ad on Facebook for your fan page AND the person ‘likes’ your page, you can build a relationship with your new fan over time for free.  You only had to pay for the initial ad to get them to be a fan.

This is a far superior use of your scarce marketing dollars than sending a postcard or doing a radio ad that has only one shot.  But, you have to setup your ads so you turn the right people into fans AND get them to come into your business.

Here is how you do it…

I am going to use a real life example.  Our client in Cleveland, Auto Repair Technology, has a fan page you can see at http://www.facebook.com/autorepairtechnology

On their fan page they are offering 1/2 off an oil change.  They can advertise their 1/2 off oil change special on Facebook to the people who live in their market area.  They can also put up signs in their shop and on their storefront.   When someone comes to their fan page to get the 1/2 off oil change coupon, they have to ‘like’ the page to gain access to the great coupon.  The fan can also request an appointment on their Facebook fan page and learn about their services.

Every time someone likes the page and gets a 1/2 off oil change, the owners of Auto Repair Technology get a customer AND they get the opportunity to contact that customer again through Facebook for FREE!!!! This is why we are so excited about Facebook advertising.  Pay once, connect again for FREE.

Is this a revolution in marketing?  We think so.   This is a game changer for the small business owner.  But you have to play to win and the rules are changing.

Dedicated to your success.

Greg Pitstick & Bill Brown

How To Grow Customers Using Facebook Advertising

Advertising on Facebook is a great way to reach out and find new customers – it can be cost effective and easy to do.

But advertising on Facebook can also be a waste of time and money if you do it the wrong way.   So over the next few success tips we are going to show you how you can create your own effective Facebook advertising campaign.  We are not going to be able to cover every potential angle on Facebook advertising, but it will give you a really good starting point.

What is Facebook Advertising?

Facebook ads are located on the right hand side of your screen.  You see them all the time. Some are advertising a local business, others advertise a fan page you may like.  Facebook advertising is very different from advertising on Google (it is called adwords on Google).

On Google you create ads that are shown to someone based on what they are searching on (called keywords).  You know they are interested in your ad, because they are on Google looking for something related to the keywords they just searched for.

Facebook is very different.  With Facebook you are advertising to someone based on their demographics – what they like on Facebook, their age, their education, etc.   This is a very important distinction. With Google you know what the person is thinking – so it is easy to create an ad related to what they want.  With Facebook, your ads are put in front of people who are not thinking about you right now – so you have to take a different approach from Google advertising.

I am not saying Facebook advertising is bad – it is just different.  The positive thing about Facebook advertising is you can get your ad in front of lots of potential customers at a lower cost than Google.  Here are the high level steps you need to follow if you want to be successful with Facebook advertising:

Step 1 – Develop an "Avatar" for your target client.

This is the most important step for developing a Facebook ad.  You want your ads to be put in front of the person who is your potential customer.  So you have to know who your potential customer is – you need a "picture" of what they like, how old they are, level of education, etc.   This is how you are going to tell Facebook who to show your ad to.

Most people want to gloss over this step and just run some ads.   Running an ad that is poorly targeted will actually cost your more money and be less effective than running a targeted ad.  You see Facebook has limited ad space on the side of the screen and they want to make money.  If they show your ad to a bunch of people and no one clicks on the ad, you wasted their opportunity to make money.  But if your ad is clicked on by lots of people, Facebook makes more money.

So Facebook will charge you more per click for an ad that does not perform versus one that does perform!  And getting a good ad starts with targeting the right people.

Step 2- Develop an "Offer" that will attract the attention of your target client

Now you know who you want to advertise to, but what do you say that will get them to click on your ad?  You need to tune into the radio station your client’s listen to – WIFM – "What’s In it For Me" .  You want to offer something your target client is interested in, something they want.   Don’t come up with what they "need", focus on what they want!  And for heaven’s sake, don’t use your company’s name in the headline- no one cares!

So what makes a good offer?  You want to offer something of real value, something that your target client would want.  For example, you could offer a $25 coupon, 1/2 off a service, a free massage, a free consultation.  But it has to be something your target client would really want because you can’t even give away stuff that no one wants.

Step 3 – Develop the "ad copy" and pick a good picture

Now comes the fun part – creating your ad.   Your ad will have three major components – the picture, the headline and the ad text.  There is a bit of an art to getting step three right, but here are the key points:

Headline – Something that will grab the attention of your target client.  Books have been written on this subject, but you will have to try several different headlines to see what works.  You can start it with "How To" or you can tie into a current event.  Or it can be your offer "Free 1/2 Hour Massage" or "Free Starbucks Gift Card"…

Picture – A picture that stands out from the rest of the page that will get your target client’s attention.  Studies have shown that a picture of a good looking woman will get more attention than a picture of a man.  I am not being sexist, it’s the simple truth. To show how important you ad’s picture is, last week we ran the exact same ad to the exact same people on the same day.  The only difference was the picture.  The first ad (shown below) featured a woman and it got a click through rate of 0.059% and each click costs us 79 cents.

On the same day we ran the exact same ad with a different picture.  This time we used our logo – the wizard.   This ad got a click through rate of 0.037% and each click costs us $1.27.

So you can see how important the picture is!!

Ad Text – Use words that show the benefit of clicking on the ad to your target client.  Don’t use big words and make sure it is simple and easy to understand. 

Step 4 – Track Results & Change over Time

Facebook ads are not something you can set and forget.  You need to modify your ads and try out different wording and picture changes.   In addition, we have found the effectiveness of any ad goes down after a 5 to 12 days.  When this happens, our click through rate falls and our costs go up – the ad is stale and has to go. Think about it – many of the people who were interested in your ad already clicked on it and the rest of the people are now immune to your ad.

So have several ads that you rotate through.  Change the pictures and headlines around.   See what works best for you.  Facebook advertising is an active "sport", not a set it and forget it activity.

In our next success tip we will share more Facebook advertising tips and tricks with you.  Questions? Comments?  Tell us what your think on our fan page at www.Facebook.com/MySocialWizard!

Dedicated to your success.
Greg Pitstick & Bill Brown

P.S. We are just about finished with a brand new Facebook Fan page offering for small business owners.  You can see this fan page in action at http://www.facebook.com/autorepairtechnology  This new fan page is taking advantage of lots of new features Facebook released about two weeks ago – it is very cool and it should give you lots of ideas.  Stay tuned for how you can get a fan page like this for your own business!

If you are not a fan of our fan page yet, stop and go to www.facebook.com/mysocialwizard and enter our sweepstakes.  This way you will understand what we are talking about.

First I want to cover a few of the rules you have to follow.   Facebook has their own set of rules.  Here is a link to their list of rules: http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php.  After reading the rules, the following points jump out at me:

• You cannot administer a promotion where users are automatically entered by liking your Page (this gets a lot of people).
• You need to use an application to run your promotion.  We wrote our own, but that is beyond most people’s capabilities.   We like the sweepstake tool from www.NorthSocial.com – check them out.
• You cannot force a user to do something on Facebook, such as posting on a Wall of a Page,  uploading a photo, or posting a status update (it is ok to force them to like your page before they can enter your contest).

There are also local laws and regulations that you need to follow.  We are not lawyers (nor do I play one on TV, and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night), but here are some important things to consider

• If your prize is over $500 you will run into more rules and regulations
• Canada has all kinds of rules that are unique and Quebec outlaws most sweepstakes.
• To be safe, add the following to your rules: “The Promotion is open only to people who are at least 21 years old as of their date of entry and reside in the United States (or whatever area you want to limit it to). No purchase necessary to enter. Subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. This Promotion is void where prohibited by law.

It is important to understand the major rules, but don’t get hung up on them.

Now for the fun stuff. 

First you have to promote your sweepstakes so people know to come and enter.  We’ve tried a lot of approaches to promote our sweepstakes – Here are some good ideas you can use:

• Send an email to all your customers, family and friends – keep it fun and lively
• Send postcards to customers
• Announce the sweepstakes on your website
• Post the sweepstakes on your own personal page
• Ask friends to post it on their page
• Use photos in announcements about your sweepstakes
• Tag friends/fans with large followings in your update
• Post an announcement on appropriate group and fan pages
• If you use other social media (Linkedin, Twitter, etc.) promote it there
• and one final big one…
  ….Facebook Ads*

*In next week’s success tip we will cover
How to advertise your sweepstakes on Facebook using paid ads

Dedicated to your success.

Greg Pitstick & Bill Brown

P.S. Learn how to run your own sweepstakes to grow your business.  Go to www.facebook.com/mysocialwizard and enter our sweepstakes to learn how to hold your own killer sweepstakes.

I can’t remember who said it but I really like the saying “It does not matter who you know, instead it matters who knows and remembers YOU!”

Your circle of influence is one of the easiest ways for you to grow your word of mouth marketing efforts. Many small business owners only think of their clients when they think of their circle of influence.  This narrow definition will leave many profitable opportunities untouched and out of sight. 

Your circle of influence should include everyone you come into contact with:

• Family members
• Friends
• Past clients
• Current clients
• Other professionals
• And more

Expanding and cultivating your circle of influence will help you grow your business year after year.  The famous author, Joe Girard, once said “On average everyone knows 250 other people. So one of the most economical ways to grow your business is by meeting more people.”

With the advent of Facebook, you can now “meet” new people and build trusting relationships using your Facebook Business Page (also known as a fan page).  We have found this to be one of the easiest ways to get to know people who are one or two relationships removed from our direct contacts.

Our coaching clients often ask us for good ideas for how they get more fans of their Facebook fan page.  Over the next few success tips, we are going to show you one of the easiest, fastest ways to get fans and expand your circle of influence – run a contest or sweepstakes.

A sweepstakes or contest is easy to run and does not have to cost a lot of money.  Many people think that running a contest or sweepstake is hard or complex.  Nothing could be further from the truth – both can be done at minimal cost and deliver huge results (that is why you see so many of them).

To start, let’s look at the difference between a sweepstakes and a contest:

• Contest – Participants do something, like submit a photo or answer a question for some reward.  For example, it could be as easy as having people submit a photo of their pet doing something unique.  Then you judge the entries and award a prize to your winner.  The prize does not have to be big – just fun.
• Sweepstakes – You give away a prize to someone at random based on those that enter your sweepstakes.  For example, you could give away an Amazon Kindle to everyone who enters the sweepstakes.

Contests and sweepstakes are extremely effective, so we decided to show you exactly how to run your own cost effective contest or sweepstakes.  Because it is easier to learn from someone else doing something, we are going to run both a sweepstakes and a contest with our My Social Wizard fan page and we are going to show you exactly what we did step by step so you can follow along.

Now for today’s homework – go to www.facebook.com/mysocialwizard and enter our free sweepstakes for an Apple iPad.  Look at the graphics and wording.  Notice how we put the sweepstakes on the page.  Check out the rules of the contest.  We will go over all of these in our next success tip.

Trust me, you will get a lot more out of this if you follow along.  So go to www.facebook.com/mysocialwizard and enter our sweepstakes and you will have a backstage pass on how to run your own super effective sweepstakes that will expand your circle of influence!

If you have any questions you want us to answer in our next success tip about sweepstakes, just go to www.facebook.com/mysocialwizard and post your question on our wall.  We will answer all the questions on the wall and in our next success tip.

Dedicated to your success
Greg and Bill

P.S. Learn how to run your own sweepstakes to grow your business.  Go to www.facebook.com/mysocialwizard and enter our sweepstakes to learn how to hold your own killer sweepstakes.

In the end I just wonder if the advertisers find it worth it.

Let’s see, by the numbers…

• $3 million for a 30 second ad
• Viewed by 162.9 million people
• That’s less than 2 cents per person – Not bad!

But it’s still $3 million plus the cost to produce the ad.  That’s a lot of Doritos and Pepsi’s you have to sell to cover that.

So was it worth it?  That’s the $3 million question….

Like no other night, the Super Bowl ads get analyzed and dissected within hours, even minutes of airing. 

There are many popularity polls and Ad Meter’s that tell us what people liked.  And there’s an Ace Score that is supposed to measure each ads’ effectiveness based on measures of persuasion and watchability.

But the most important measure of an ads’ worth is the "Buzz" factor – how many people are talking about the ad in the minutes, hours and days after it airs.  And that’s where social media (Facebook, Twitter and the like) come in to play.

At the end of the day, you need people talking about your ad to make it worth the $3 million you spent.

Bridgestone’s "Reply All" about a disastrous email reply all message received the highest positive buzz (94 % according to Zeta), followed by Pepsi Max’s "First Date".

At the bottom end was the Doritos ad featuring an office worker who licks the leftover cheese powder off a coworker’s finger.

It’s interesting to note that many companies "get" the need for buzz and have crafted major follow-on campaigns online to build off their initial $3 million investment.

• E*Trade ran a new version of their popular ads featuring the toddler getting measured by his tailor.  But online, you could create your own script for the toddler and email it to your friends.
• The Home Away vacation rental ad didn’t fare well in the polls, but online you could upload your own photo and super-impose it on the face of the baby that get’s smeared down the glass in the hotel room.

All fun, and all designed to extend the life of the ad and create buzz.

This is all fun and good chatter, but what can the small business owner take from this?  Here’s my tips:

1. Don’t spend $3 million on a 30 second ad.  Or more importantly, don’t spend your hard-earned money doing image or brand advertising.  Stick with direct response marketing to your target customer that has offers and incentives that you can directly measure.
2. Don’t go for the "one big splash".  Most of the ads I laughed at during the Super Bowl I can’t even remember who the ad was for or what they wanted me to buy.  A sustained and targeted process over time is the best use of your time, effort and money.
3. Don’t expect your ad to do all the work.  Just like the big companies who are extending the life of their $3 million ads online, you need to have a supporting cast of coordinated information spread across your online presence with web pages, fan pages, videos and even status updates.

Dedicated to your success.

Greg Pitstick & Bill Brown

Don’t miss your chance to win an iPod & 1 hour coaching session with The Social Wizard, Greg Pitstick
Or even a chance to win a Kindle. 

We’re running a Birthday month special on our My Social Wizard fan page.  Go to our Facebook Fan page at www.facebook.com/MySocialWizard to enter.  No strings attached.  Be sure to tell your friends.
It’s open to all US residents (sorry, nothing against our friends in Canada and other countries, it’s just there are rules and laws that we have to follow in this case).

Today is February first.  A full month of 2011 is already under our belt – I am always amazed at how fast time flies when you are having fun.  In today’s success tip I want to talk about two key ideas that can make the rest of 2011 your best year ever.  These are the key concepts that have been used by the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs.  They are also the key concepts that hold most small business owners back from the success that they desire.  If you master these ideas and implement them in your business, you will be amazed at how much your business can grow:

1.       Focus – Often business owners try to be all things to all people.  They try to solve everyone’s problem for fear of losing out.  The reality is, the more you focus on a narrow set of customers or problems the better you will be at solving these problems.  If you focus, customers who need your services will find you because you will stand out of the “me too” crowd.

2.       Leverage – Successful entrepreneurs know the fastest way to grow a business is to get other people to help you.  First you need to enlist other professionals to refer your target client to you.  Second, you need to rely on others to do some of the work for you – there is not enough time in the day to do everything yourself.

Sound simple – right?  But have you really put these key concepts to work in your business? I want you to pull out a sheet of paper and write down your exact target client and how you help solve their problems.   Then write down everyone who you have hired in the last two months to help you grow your business.  

Now ask yourself.

1.       Am I really focused on a target client and their problems and are all of my marketing efforts designed around them?

2.       Am I really enlisting the help of others?  Do I have a list of referral partners and support partners?  Or am I often so busy doing the $10 hour jobs that the most important work is left undone?

If you are honest with yourself you will quickly see where you can do better. Make a point to use February to focus and leverage.  If you don’t change what you do, you can’t expect 2011 to be any different than 2010!

Dedicated to your success.

Greg Pitstick & Bill Brown