I was going to title this post “We’re all internet marketers. Some of us just don’t know it yet” but I decided to take off my sarcasm hat and put on my helpful hat for the day.

Marketing is a part of every interaction any person has with your business. From your customers to your employees to your potential customers to people who will never buy from you… Any time a human being comes into contact with a business it’s marketing.

It’s no secret that most humans (at least in this country) are linked to the internet most of the time. When we’re not in front of our computers we’re tapping away at our tablets or smartphones… And the whole tablet/smartphone thing is only a few years old, so this is really only the beginning.

So if all human/business interactions are marketing and all humans are (or soon will be) connected to the internet, then it’s only logical that you should start integrating the internet into your marketing.

So how does one become an internet marketer?

Become an Artist: Start Creating Content

I’ve written about it again and again… There are only 4 types of content: Text, Photos/Graphics, Videos, and Sound. To be an effective internet marketer you must get good at one or more of them. Your content must be great and it must tell the story of your business. A human can’t communicate directly with a business… they need stories as intermediaries.

Become a Distribution Expert: And Get Some Eyeballs on that Content

People say that content is king, but it’s only half true! Distribution is also king (that’s right there are 2 kings).

You’re not the only one creating great content. All your competitors will soon be doing it as well, so you’ve got to grow a tribe of people who care about you, your business, or your content so that you’ll have people to consume what you create (and share it with their friends). You need to be able to reach your tribe by email, facebook, twitter, and any other digital networks that they use.

Become Social: Make Friends

In a connected world, the only way that people will care about you, your business, and your content is if you care about them. Your tribe is a community and you are the glue that not only holds the community together, but you’re also in charge of growing the community. You can’t just keep your head down and do the work anymore. You’ve got to be out there making connections as well.

Become a Salesman: Cause if People Don’t Buy Then What’s the Point?

It’s pretty simple… If your digital marketing activities don’t yield new customers then it is a waste of time. Since I pretty much established earlier that you don’t really have a choice about whether or not to become an internet marketer that means you must learn to sell your value proposition online. Depending on your industry and your current level of skill this can be a challenging endeavor. My best advice is to try a lot of different approaches and refine your strategy over time. My experience is that if you’re doing the first 3 things really well then the sales get a whole lot easier.

It is now 2012 and it seems that the marketing landscape has changed even faster than I could have ever predicted (and that’s pretty fast). We’ve been helping lots of our clients plan ahead so that they can effectively deal with this change and stay a step ahead of the competition. Here are a few pieces of advice that you might want to consider as you work on your 2012 marketing plan.

Buy Ads on the Big Sites

The mega-big sites like Google and Facebook are bigger than ever. They have hundreds of millions of users and that includes most of your customers and future customers. If you’ve never advertised on Google or Facebook, 2012 is definitely the time to start. Here’s my recommendation:

• Set aside a small portion of your marketing budget to perform a few test campaigns.
• Buy some targeted ads on Facebook or Google Adwords.
• Adjust the targeting to find out what will drive the most traffic to your site.
• Find a good mix and do MORE of it.

Go Guerrilla on the Smaller Sites

2012 is the perfect time to get personal on the smaller social networks, blogs, and social apps. There is less competition for people’s attention on smaller or newer sites. Just be sure to be real and contribute to the community (don’t just spam people).

Collect More Information About Your Customers Than Ever Before

In the information age, data is basically the same as cash. Have you been collecting customer email addresses? (you should have been if you’re a regular visitor to this blog) Start reaching out to customers on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social networks. If you’ve got a great brand, people will WANT to connect with you.

Time to Get Serious About Content Creation

The day is rapidly approaching where you will be totally irrelevant online if you’re not creating useful and interesting online content. Believe me… your competitors will be doing it soon. Your customers have questions and needs. It’s time to create content that addresses those needs. Start with text content and then move on to video, podcasts, apps or anything else you can think of.

Combine Online and Offline

Most of your customers is currently carrying a laptop, tablet, or smartphone on their person. Why not take advantage of this? When customers come to your retail location, have them spread the word online. Offer discounts or other incentives for customers who ‘like’ your page on Facebook or ‘check in’ to your location on Foursquare (or other services).

Think Mobile

It’s amazing to me that there are still a lot of high-profile brands that don’t have mobile versions of their websites. In 2012 if you have a website, then you MUST have a mobile version as well. Once you HAVE a mobile website, then you should definitely start using QR codes and other forms of mobile marketing.

Think Local

If you thought local was a big trend in 2011, then that’s NOTHING compared to what it will be in 2012. Basic stuff like updating your Google Places page and having your local locations on your Facebook pages is not enough. Everyone’s doing that! You’ve got to be actively soliciting reviews from customers, participate in local networking, and solicit links from local media.

Ditch The Stuff That’s Not Working

Okay people, it’s 2012. Why are you still placing ads in places that aren’t trackable? If advertising in print publications, the yellow pages, or billboards is actually working, then by all means keep doing it! But, at LEAST use some sort of tracking like a unique URL that people can go to, or a trackable phone # so that you can tell what’s working and what is not. 2012 might be a great year to drop the marketing initiatives that AREN’T WORKING!

Get Crazy with Customer Engagement

Your customers are online doing… stuff. Why aren’t they doing YOUR stuff? Why aren’t you providing interactive things for your customers to do on your website? Why aren’t you soliciting their opinions with surveys? Why aren’t you offering cool contests for them to participate in? Why aren’t you listening for feedback on Twitter and Facebook?

 Measure Like You’ve Never Measured Before

In 2012 there are more marketing options than ever before. How are you going to know which ones to keep pursuing if you don’t measure? You should be checking your website traffic early and often, adjusting your tactics to take advantage of what’s really working, and always be trying new things, because the thing that’s working now probably won’t be the thing that works in 2013.

Most websites get built by someone like me, they look great, and they make an impact for the first couple of months, then they never get updated again, visitors and search engines stop caring, it slowly dies and then again the company hires someone like me to rebuild the site and the cycle starts all over again.

It doesn’t have to be this way! Today’s websites are typically built using a Content Management System (CMS) which allows website owners to easily add and change pages, engage visitors and search engines, and keep the website alive and vibrant. WordPress, which is the CMS that we use for all of our clients’ websites, because it has the largest development community, is flexible and secure, and is extremely efficient and easy to deploy websites on the platform.

This list is not WordPress specific. Most content management systems will allow you to perform the marketing functions listed here. However, if you don’t have a website that is built using a CMS, you can always contact us and we can get you all fixed up.

Okay, enough chatter. On to the list ->

1. Add Pages for ALL Your Services

Lots of websites have a ‘services’ page. It lists everything the company does, and for an average website this is totally fine. But, if you want to have an above average or GREAT website, you should create a page for each service you provide.

Why you ask? Having unique pages for each service is great for your visitors and for your SEO (search engine optimization). If someone is searching for someone to perform a specific service for them, a long list of services is fine and dandy, but a page specialized for EXACTLY what they need is much much better.

2. Start a Blog

The key to maintaining an active user base on your website is to be constantly creating new and interesting content. The best way to organize lots and lots of content is through a blog. Blogging creates tons of high quality content that engages visitors and search engines. Blog content can also be repurposed for email marketing, print media, ebooks…

3. Create Landing Pages

What is a landing page? definition via wikipedia

In online marketing a landing page, sometimes known as a lead capture page, is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on an advertisement. The landing page will usually display directed sales copy that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link.

How about a real world example… You own a company that does professional floor cleaning in Bloomington, Indiana. You buy an add on Google adwords that displays whenever someone searches “Professional Floor Cleaning Bloomington Indiana”. When someone sees the ad and clicks on it, they’re taken to a specially designed ‘landing page’ on your website. You’ve optimized this page to sell your services to the customer so it is likely that you will convert them to a customer.

4. Market Your Site via Social Media

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have millions of users. These users are constantly sharing links and discussing brands. Isn’t it time you got some skin in the game?

The first way to start getting visitors from social media sites is to build up your own following and share links with that following, but that’s not exactly scalable. The next thing to do is to include sharing buttons like the ‘Facebook Like’ and ‘Tweet’ buttons that are prevalent on the web. These buttons allow your visitors to share the pages on your site with their followers, then some of their followers will visit your page and share with their followers. Creating feedback loops like this can be a powerful source of traffic to your site… so why not do it?

5. Perform Some Simple Search Engine Optimization

Search engines are complicated. They’re basically designed by mathematicians and computer scientists. However, properly optimizing your website is NOT rocket science.

If you’re serious about marketing your business, you need to be serious about marketing on the internet, and if you’re serious about marketing on the internet you need to get serious about search.

Today’s content management systems provide tons of tools that help you adjust content, title tags, keywords, internal links, and all the other things that effect how search engines rate your site. There are also tons of SEO blogs that tell you exactly what to do to get traffic.

This is a list of some of the top SEO blogs on the web. I found it by doing a simple Google search. Everything you need to know is on these blogs. Don’t have time to learn SEO? Hire Tribeswell to do it you.

6. Post Videos

2 ways to leverage video on your website:

The easy way: Repost cool videos that you find on the web (like on Youtube) on your blog or website and write your own commentary. Your visitors will appreciate that you found something cool for them.

The hard way: Either learn to create and edit video (and trust me with today’s technology it could not be easier) or pay a video production company to help you create videos for your website.

7. Create Photo Galleries

A picture is worth a thousand words. Therefore a gallery with 10 pictures is worth 10,000 words. There are tons of great-looking photo gallery tools that can display galleries on websites. Most cell phones now take great pictures. Put the two together and you’ve got a great compelling reason for people to visit your website.

8. Let Fans Connect With You via Social Media

Every visitor is a chance to connect with a future customer. However chances are they won’t buy from you the first time they’re exposed to your brand. But, they might fan your business on Facebook or follow your company on Twitter.

Your website should make it EASY for visitors to become fans and followers so that down the line they are more likely to become customers.

9. Run Surveys

Want to give your customers an incentive to visit your website? Why not ask their opinion? You’ll get people to come to your site, you’ll get valuable information about how your business is performing (in the eyes of your customers), AND they might even share your site with some friends via social media.

There are great tools available to do this including: Simple form-building tools like Form Assembly, form building WordPress plugins, or purpose-built solutions like Survey Monkey.

10. Convert Visitors to eMail Subscribers

The #1 fastest cheapest and most effective way to build traffic to a website is email marketing. But, are you making it easy for people to get on your mailing list? Are you providing incentives so that people actually WANT to join?

The great thing about having a website that’s built on a CMS is that you can do cool things like offer eBooks or other downloads in exchange for signing up for your email distribution list. You’ll keep your email list growing and vibrant and your visitor will receive the added value of premium content.

If you do it right, it looks like this…

What do you think? What types of things would be good to add to this list? Have you tried any of these strategies? Are they working?

I’ve been seeing tons of “buy local” ads lately, and honestly it makes me a little worried about the future of small business in America.

The fact is… with today’s technology, almost ANY small retailer should be able to EASILY compete with the big box stores. The other fact is… a lot of small retailers simply choose not to use social media, ecommerce, or location services to effectively acquire new customers.

I love small business. Most of my clients are small businesses. I am a small business. However, we all need to face the realities of the world. There are big companies out there that have huge buying power, huge marketing budgets, thousands of stores… they have a lot of advantages over us.

But… we are faster, we can execute new ideas more rapidly. So, here are 10 strategies that the average small business can adopt to start being more profitable right away.

1. Get to Know Your Customers – Start using a CRM & Email Marketing

If you are a small retailer, then you have a lot fewer customers than a big box store. That means that in order to be really competitive you need optimize the relationship you have with each and every customer. Then you can send targeted marketing messages via email (which is an extremely inexpensive way to send marketing messages), and sell more to each customer.

High tech email marketing software (like Mailchimp, which is what I use), can help you organize your contacts, monitor who is responding the most to your marketing messages, and optimize your campaigns and lists for continued success.

Best of all, it is super-easy to get started. Go to your locally-owned dime store (if your town still has one), and buy a notebook. When customers come in, ask for their name and email address and write it down. Tell them you’ll send them a coupon just for signing up for your super-exclusive gold-star customer program.

2. Become a Master of Ecommerce

The cost of running an Ecommerce site has dropped pretty substantially. A lot of small retailers could drastically increase their business by having a good website built that can also sell products.

There are a few pretty obvious advantages to selling online.

1. The location of your customer is irrelevant, you can sell to anyone anywhere.
2. It’s always open. If your customer wants to shop at 3 in the morning they can.
3. You can suggest related products, offer free shipping at a certain order size, or any number of other tactics to increase the number of products each customer buys from you.

3. Sell Your Products on Amazon

Last year, like many other men out there who don’t like shopping, I did the majority of my Christmas shopping online. Particularly on Amazon. Instead of driving around in the freezing cold for hours and going from store to store, I kept a tidy list and bought everything all at once from Amazon in the comfort of my home office. It was heavenly.

One thing I noticed was that most of the items I bought were not shipped directly from Amazon, but from smaller merchants.

Amazon is a great equalizer. If you get good at selling there then you can let Amazon do the marketing for you and simply ship product whenever orders come in.

This post explains how to get started selling on Amazon.

4. Master Location Services like Foursquare or Facebook Places

Millions of people regularly ‘check-in’ at the places they visit. If you can get more people to ‘check-in’ at your business, you can greatly raise your brand awareness, and get more customers in the door.

The key is to create incentives for customers to ‘check-in’ at your location. You can offer discounts, or put customers who check in into a drawing for a gift certificate. Use your imagination, and if that doesn’t work, go on Google and type “foursquare small business promotion ideas”… there are 279,000 pages of results. I’m sure you’ll find some great ideas.

5. Create Information Products

If you own a small retail business, you probably have a TON of knowledge about the stuff you sell that the average person would find useful. If you create an eBook with this knowledge, you can sell it to make some extra money, or give it away in exchange for people’s email addresses and you can then add them to your email marketing software and sell them products down the road from your online store (some of these ideas work better if used in conjunction with each other). Here are some ideas:

• If you own a furniture store, create a home decorating guide.
• If you own an archery shop, create an ebook full of bow-hunting tips.
• If you own a record shop, create an ebook with information about turntables and vinyl maintenance tips.
• If you sell cameras, create a comprehensive guide to taking great pictures.

6. Feature Your Best Customers

If you feature a customer and tell their story in a blog post or on Facebook or in your Email marketing (ask their permission of course), they will share it with their online friends. It is likely that their friends will share their interests and some of them will likely become customers.

Here’s how I recommend executing this strategy. First, get a website that has blogging functionality. Then write the stories of your best customers (with their permission). Having this content on a website that you OWN will help you get more search engine traffic.

Then share links to the story on Facebook and Twitter and include a short excerpt in your email newsletter with a link to the main article. Internet marketing works best when your website is the hub of your marketing system with all other sources driving traffic there.

7. Become a Total Social Media Ninja

Get good at social media. Connect with your customers on Facebook and Twitter. Post cool and useful links. Post your ideas.

Social media websites are free. Using them effectively is not brain surgery. Start with Facebook and Twitter. Just don’t talk about your own company too much. Be real. Be normal. Don’t be a marketer on social media. Just be a person.

If you have a large following online (with high-quality followers), marketing your business will be a whole lot easier.

8. Make an Online Documentary About Yourself

Online video is not just the wave of the future… it’s also the wave of the present. You can buy a pretty decent video camera for 500 bucks, a Mac (for video editing) for $1200, and you can take a video editing class as well or just look for free tutorials online. Basically you can get up and running with a full video production setup for less than it would cost to do a commercial on your local cable station.

Today’s video tools are really good, really cheap, and really easy to use. If you get really good at creating video content (also it would help to become a total Social Media Ninja), you can get a ton of traffic to your website, tons of exposure for your brand, and lots of new customers.

9. Become an Early Adopter

I noticed a trend when Twitter came out, and I’m noticing it again with Google+… If you are an early adopter of an online social network, you will have a lot of influence, because it is less crowded.

Keep your eyes open for new technologies and social websites. Don’t be afraid to jump on the bandwagon and try something that isn’t proven. The fact is… once it’s been proven, it will be crowded and thus, more difficult to get exposure.

10. Become a Photojournalist for Your Business

You can buy a really nice professional camera (preferably a DSLR) for $500 – $1000. Use it to take pictures of everything your business does. Post pics on your website, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or anywhere else online that your customers might see them.

You can also get really good at taking product pics for your online store or Amazon store (or Etsy store or Ebay store, they didn’t make this list, but those are two more great places to sell your products online).

DSLR cameras also take awesome video, so you can use one camera for both still shots and video. The key to getting good is to practice, read online tutorials, or take a class at your local jr. college.

Some Final Thoughts

None of the ideas on this list are free. They all take money or time or both. The real question is whether or not your business can afford to NOT take these ideas seriously.

The world has changed. Those who choose not to adapt will likely go out of business, or at the very least see their profitability diminish.

You can either use the Internet as the most powerful small business marketing tool that has ever existed (which it is), or you can ignore it and let the big box stores roll over you like a steam roller.

The choice is yours.

I’m sorry to report that I’ve been searching for several years now, and I’ve found that there is no magic bullet for marketing success. Sure you can get a great SEO firm to deliver results. You can execute a direct mail or email marketing campaign and get a reasonable ROI. The problem is… if you want to build a great business that keeps growing, it’s going to take more than that. I propose a 3-part strategy where all three parts work together. It looks like this…

Brand Building

Brand building is is where all your marketing begins. It’s where you tell the world who you are and what problems you solve and why people would want to buy from you. You can (and should) do this in lots of ways.

On a basic ‘branding’ level you need to establish the visual iconography of your brand. What are your colors, what are your fonts, what images do you want people to associate with you? What is your logo. While these things are very VERY important, this is not what I mean by ‘Brand Building’.

Brand Building is where you consciously make a name for your company in the business landscape. Traditionally this involves…

• Advertising your company and products on TV, radio, in print periodicals, on billboards, having an attractive storefront, etc.
• Going to trade shows and networking events to promote your company.
• Hiring salespeople to call on customers.
• Getting shirts, business cards, cups, hats, pens, etc. with your logo on them.

Power on the Internet

Power on the Internet is 100% about content and connections. Your company must have a strategy for creating content on an ongoing basis, and a strategy for connecting with individual fans, users, visitors, etc.

You must create lots and lots of content to sell your products. Creating a lot of great content serves several purposes.

• It helps you with search engines… and these days if you’re not winning a lot of searches then you’re pretty much invisible to a large segment of the population.
• It provides you with a lot of content to share on social networks. Shared content is a great way to connect with people who like your brand and for them to share it with their friends.
• Lots of content that is regularly updates gives people a reason to keep coming back to your website or blog, creates demand for new products, and increases the amount of trust people have in your brand.
• Your online content can also be used to increase the effectiveness of certain brand building activities (i.e. a print add that says ‘go to our website to watch a video about this product’ or even a QR code that takes the viewer right there).

Direct Marketing

So far you’ve built a brand that people love and want to share, and you’ve started building some assets online. Now it’s time to get organized. It’s time to organize all the data you have about your customers, fans, potential customers, website visitors, etc. so that you can sell them more!

There are a ton of inexpensive relationship management tools that vary in their level of complexity and functionality. I would recommend starting with a simple email marketing program and moving on from there. Here’s how it works…

• Gather all your contacts into two spreadsheets. One will be for customers and past customers, and the other will be for everyone else. Import both lists into whatever email marketing software you like (I like Mailchimp, but there are dozens of other options as well).
• Use what you know about your customers and past customers to develop direct response campaigns to convince them to buy more products from you. You want to get them in the same frame of mind that they were in when they bought from you the first time.
• Use the other list to promote all your other online content, offer specific specials or incentives, or announce new products.

A lot of times when we talk about marketing a business we get caught up in big plans and complicated metrics. Sometimes we forget that there are some really simple tactics that take very little that make a BIG difference if implemented regularly. Here’s my list of marketing tasks that can be accomplished in under 60 seconds.

1. Post a link to one of your blog articles on Facebook and/or Twitter. Dig through your archives and find an old gem that’s worth highlighting.
2. Send a short email to a past client that you haven’t talked to in a while.
3. Write a recommendation on LinkedIn.
4. Invite your friends to become fans of your business on Facebook.
5. Pin your Business card up on a public bulletin board. You never know who might see it.
6. Post a cool picture of something in your office on Facebook (use your mobile phone to get it up in under 60 seconds).
7. Post something intelligent on your Facebook or Twitter page.
8. Spend 60 seconds looking for long-lost friends, colleagues, or relatives on Facebook.
9. Check in to your business location on Facebook, Foursquare, or Gowalla.
10. Write a quick thank you note and drop it in the mail.

Got an idea to add to this list? Leave it in the comments below.

If you’re wondering if what you’re reading right now is important, let me just say that if you follow a few tips here you can increase the effectiveness of your blog by 2-3 times.

The way you title your blog posts has vast implications from search engines to social media and even in the direct traffic that comes to your website.  Titles are really really important for several reasons.

• Titles are often mirrored in the Title Tags of your website.  This is one of the key places that search engines look to find out what your pages are about.
• Titles are often used as Headers for your page, which is another place that it is important to have keyword-rich content.
• If you’re lucky, the title of your post will be spread on social media sites, so you want people to have a clear idea of what they’re clicking on, and you want to give them an incentive to click on it.
• Titles are often used as the headline in a search results page on search engines.  A compelling title will get you more clicks (traffic).

So, what makes a good title?  Here is my top 10 guide to creating great post titles.

1. The title should clearly and concisely describe the content in the post. Cute metaphorical titles can’t possibly give enough information to the user to convince them to click through to your content.
2. Include a hook with your title. This could be ‘how to’ or ‘top 10 ways to…’ or ‘explaining…’  anything to give a potential visitor an incentive to click through to your site.
3. Include keywords that you want your website to rank for whenever possible. If you want to rank for ‘internet marketing services’ you should include that term whenever it makes sense in your post titles.
4. You’re allowed to title the post more than once. The title of this post is a good example.  I combined the descriptive title ‘how to title blog posts correctly’ with the cutesy title ‘save the corny headlines for print’.
5. Don’t let post titles get too long. Social media sites like twitter only allow 140 characters, plus you need to fit a link back to your site.  Search engine titles are generally around 60 characters… this is a good sweet spot to shoot for.
6. Use a search engine optimization tool (I use the all-in-one SEO pack for wordpress) to further optimize how your post will appear in search results. Here’s what I did for this post…
7. Use simple terminology whenever possible. It’s fine to use big words in the body of a post where you have a chance to explain yourself, but you don’t want to confuse people in the headlines.
8. Don’t bury the lead. When news journalists write they try to say the most important things first and the least important things last (like an inverted pyramid).  Your post title should reflect the most important points in your post.
9. Make it timeless. If you are breaking news on your blog (lucky you!) then you might be tempted to title the post in a way that doesn’t make sense months or years down the road.  If you can, title the post in such a way that it will still make sense after the novelty of the news has passed.
10. You CAN make it dumb enough. The title of a blog post is an exercise in simplicity and elegance.  It takes some practice, but it’s never going to be perfect and it’s a great thing to keep getting better at.

Can you tell me what’s missing from this picture of my coffee table? If you’re from Bloomington, Indiana like I am, you probably expect it to look something like this.

Bloom Magazine and H&L are hyper-local, high quality print magazines that cater to the local Bloomington, Indiana market.  They often feature stories about local businesses, local news, and (in the case of H&L) local homes.  A lot of times the stories featured in these publications are people I know and things that I care about.

Because of this, whenever I see an issue of one of these magazines I will generally pick it up and thumb through it.  The advertisers (some are even Tribeswell clients), are local and of interest to me.  I read the stories with great interest, because they’re often about people I know.  Bloomington is a small town after all.

There’s a lot of friction in getting the magazine from idea to coffee table.  The writers have to go out and find stories and write about them, the salespeople have to sell the ads, photographers have to take the pretty pictures, editors have to organize the content, designers have to do the layout, then the whole thing has to be printed and shipped out to subscribers….

All this friction makes sense, because of what happens when that magazine is sitting on that coffee table.  Anyone who sees it is going to want to pick it up and start reading (well, anyone who’s from Bloomington).  The print copy becomes an idea-spreading machine.  All the friction on the front end reduces the friction on the back end.

Let’s compare this to online media… First of all you have to be online to receive it, which means a computer, smartphone, or tablet.  Then you have three ways you can find it:  you can type in the URL directly, use a search engine to find something specific, or find the content via a link on another website that I happen to be reading.  All this friction makes sense, because the cost of putting content online is so much less than print distribution.

Why the whole system is breaking down.

The amount of friction involved in maintaining your print audience is going up, while the cost of growing your online readership is going down.

The cost of printing, labor, shipping, basically everything is going to go up with inflation… always.  You can raise your ad rates to compensate or sell more ads, but in the first instance you risk pissing off your advertisers and in the second you risk annoying your readers.  Also, as more people consume media online, you are constantly losing mindshare within your subscribers.  They will be spending increasing amounts of time on Facebook and Twitter and less time picking up a print publication.

Let’s look at a use-case scenario… I’m sitting at the dentist office.  On the table next to me are copies of Bloom and H&L.  In my pocket is my iPhone where I can check my Facebook, Twitter, RSS Reader, or surf the web.  Which one am I likely to choose?

On the flip side, the costs of hosting and bandwidth are still falling.  Design costs are lower online.  The audience grows every time a smartphone or computer is sold and every time someone spends more time on Facebook or Twitter the value of my network grows.  People can also buy ads directly from my website, or I can simply use Google Adsense and let them sell the ads for me.

The Future – Why I Wish I Was In the Print Business

If I ran a print publication I would create a combination print / online user experience that would make insane amounts of money while generating insane amounts of value for my readers.

First I would provide awesome web content that was updated daily that would supplement the print publication.  The website would be an information platform that would be 100% focused on satisfying readers.  I would use every search engine optimization trick in the book to drive traffic.  I would leverage my existing advertisers and create new value for them using modern internet advertising best practices.  For example I would allow certain ads to be sold on a cost-per-click basis instead of the cost-per-impression that you get with print ads.

I would also build a massive social media following.  I would have all my writers on Twitter and Facebook talking about upcoming stories driving interest and demand for my content.  I would also push content from the website to these outlets to get even more traffic.  My sole focus would be to provide as much value as possible to my users, which would result in more users and more value for advertisers.

Finally, I would provide all of the content in the magazine for FREE online.  It’s fine to charge for a print publication, because it costs money to print and ship them, but not offering your content for free online is like shooting yourself in the foot.  You’re missing search engine traffic and the buzz that comes with great content.  People would still buy the print version… in fact I would expect my paid subscribers to go up as I strengthen my branding online, but even if they didn’t, I would expect to make up the revenue with ad sales online.

I know these are some radical ideas, but I really feel that this is a trend that is going to be huge in the next few years.  What do you think?

When people ask me for advice about marketing a new business, I typically give some variation on the following generic marketing plan that I’ve evolved over the last few years.  Every business is different, so some aspects of it might need to be tweeked a bit for your needs, but this is what I’ve found to be a pretty good start and it costs almost nothing.

Part 1 – Accounts Setup

Are you on Facebook? Get on there and find everyone you’ve ever met.  Also start a fan page for your business.

Are you on LinkedIn? Get on LinkedIn and connect with everyone you know from business.

Do you network? Join 1-2 networking groups and start meeting other business people.  here in Indiana we have Rainmakers and BNI (as well as a few others), so find out what’s you’ve got in your area and get out there and start meeting some other business owners.

Do you Twitter? If you live in a city of 200k or more people, chances are a lot of them are on Twitter.  If you’re in a smaller town you might need to do some research to make sure it makes sense.

Start an email list. Go to MailChimp.com, get a free account and start collecting email addresses from people you meet.  Ask them if it’s okay for you to send them emails from time to time.

Get a basic website. Find someone who knows how to build wordpress websites for cheap.  Make sure it’s set up so you can post blog articles.  Also be sure to get a good domain name.

Part 2 – Your Strategy

The idea of this marketing plan is to get your marketing message in front of as many people as possible.  If you’re brand new, then there’s a good chance that not many people know about you and what you do.  I recommend a combination of business networking, social media networking, and email marketing.

If you’re brand new, then you really can’t attend enough business networking events.  You need to meet other business people, rub elbows, tell your story, hand out your business card, and collect cards from the people you meet.

You’re going to want to start connecting with these people on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  Make sure you ask people when you meet them, “Is it okay if I connect with you on Facebook?”

You’re also going to want to start collecting email addresses for your eMail marketing.  Make sure you ask them, “Is it okay if I add you to my email list?”

The idea is to keep advertising your marketing message and create relationships with these people so that you become branded as the go-to person in your field.  It won’t happen over night, but I guarantee that if you are consistently working this system you WILL get business.

Part 3 – Your Day-to-day Tactics

Business Networking – Go to 1-2 networking events per week.  Try to meet as many people as possible at each event.  You’re going to want to go for quantity not quality.  If someone seems like a great strategic fit, or if they seem to need your services you can always get together with them outside the event.  You need to tell as many people as possible what you do and get their permission to be friends online and add them to your email list.

Online Social Networking – After you meet new people, connect with them online and send them a short message saying “nice to meet you, looking forward to chatting again in the future.”  Use the L-TECS system every day.  Listen, Talk, Engage, Create, and Share.  Listen by reading what your contacts have posted.  Talk by posting small snippets about what you do (and what you’re doing) and asking questions.  Engage by commenting on other people’s stuff.  Create blog articles, pictures, videos, or audio recordings.  Share interesting links and ReTweet or ‘Like’ peoples stuff on Twitter and Facebook.

Email Marketing – Send out an email alert every few weeks that tells the story of what you’ve been up to.  Share the blog articles you’ve written.  Stuff you’ve posted on your website, and invite people to the networking events you will be attending.  Be sure to add new people to your email list as you meet them, but again be sure to ask for permission.

Part 4 – Kick Ass

You’re a new business and you’re building your brand, so it is imperative that you do your absolute best, fastest, and most impressive work all the time.  You don’t have the luxury that established players in your market do.  You need to be on top of things to let people know that yours is a business worth referring.

Sound like a lot?  That’s what you sign up for when you start a small business.

A few weeks ago I blogged that ‘New Twitter’ was definitely a sign of changes to come for the Internet power-house, but I never imagined the changes would come this fast. Twitter CEO Evan Williams (who also created Blogger which was later acquired by Google) has stepped down to be replaced by COO Dick Costolo.

On the Twitter blog, Williams says…

This led to a realization as we launched the new Twitter. I am most satisfied while pushing product direction. Building things is my passion, and I’ve never been more excited or optimistic about what we have to build.

This is why I have decided to ask our COO, Dick Costolo, to become Twitter’s CEO. Starting today, I’ll be completely focused on product strategy.

This might not be such a great day for the literally thousands of companies that are built upon the Twitter API that will undoubtedly lose traction as Twitter expands its feature set under this new direction.

Twitter has had an interesting product development cycle in that it has let users invent almost all of its key features.  @replies, RT’s, and #hastags were all invented by Twitter’s users as a means of extending the functionality of the service.  Lists were created by 3rd party developers before finally being included in the core product.  This trend makes me wonder which features Twitter will choose to include next… How will Wiliams’ decision affect the future of the product.

Who’s balancing Twitter’s books?

Twitter has taken millions of dollars in investment capital with the goal of one day being a revenue-generating company.  With the massive growth of the platform (165 million users in 4 years), it seems like a safe bet.  Search deals with Google and Microsoft which were announced late last year have allowed Twitter to at least break even and promoted tweets and trends have proven themselves to be iffy at best, so with Dick Costolo at the helm, you can be sure that business development will be priority one for Twitter.

Or is it something else?

I’ve been saying for 3 years now that Twitter will be bought by someone.  I have predicted that that someone would be Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and even (gasp) Apple.  Is the Twitter team preparing to boost its value in order to leverage a buy-out?