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92 ● 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business
consultant, uses Facebook to promote her “In the Pink” salon and services
by posting photos of herself and clients on her page.
Social media works only if your customers use social media sites. If they
embrace social media, you need a dynamic, integrated online presence. If
they don’t, rethink your online marketing strategy.
Twitter is great if you have time-sensitive information to share, such
as when fresh cornbread is ready to be sold at your bakery. Posting your
professional credentials and company contact information on LinkedIn is
a great idea. The human resources department at Bloomberg LP found my
23-year-old son, Evan, on LinkedIn. A self-described “visual journalist,”
he posted his portfolio online. They were impressed by his work, set up a
round of interviews, and offered him a terrific job as a designer at Bloomberg
Businessweek.
With all sorts of affordable tools and content platforms, there is no
excuse for having a boring, static web site. In this chapter, you can learn
how to take advantage of content management systems (CMSs). A CMS
allows anyone who can read and write to upload and distribute content
across multiple platforms in real time.
My new site, www.201GreatIdeas.com, is powered by HubSpot.com.
HubSpot provides inbound marketing applications designed to help
prospects looking for a particular product or service find your company.
Their technology generates leads and then converts those leads into qualified
prospects.
Business owners are taking advantage of all the fast and affordable,
super-lightweight, shiny, and brightly colored computers. You can manage
your digital life on a tablet, including an iPad or Dell Streak. I wrote
this book on a sturdy and reliable Asus brand “Eee PC.” It has a full-size
keyboard and a battery that lasts six hours. (At home, I hook it up to a
Samsung 20-inch flat screen monitor.)
All these new tech toys and tools can be overwhelming, but on the plus
side, affordable technology levels the playing field, opening doors for small
companies to compete with much bigger firms.
But please don’t let technology rule or ruin your life. Even Mari Smith,
one of the top experts on how to use Facebook for business, admits to
having to “log off” once in a while. “I take periodic fasts and don’t touch
technology for days,” she told me. “I ban the iPhone from my bedroom and
leave it in my office.”