Month: May 2012

Facebook No-No’s for Business

Many businesses have been employing the use of Facebook to help them market their business as well as interact with their customers. Facebook can be a great tool for businesses when it is used properly, however, there are many companies out there that are making fatal Facebook mistakes.

No-No #1: Using a personal page instead of a business page.

Facebook

Facebook has two separate platforms: one for individuals and one for businesses. Many businesses make the mistake of creating a business page on a regular individual page, and this is a big no-no. First, it violates Facebook’s guidelines.

Second, personal profiles have limitations that are not good for businesses. A personal profile has a numerical limit on the number of friends you can have and if your settings are set to private, only friends can see your page. On the other hand, business pages are open to the public. You can have as many fans as you want, you don’t have to approve every fan request and you have more options to increase awareness and engage with customers.

No-No #2: Not having a plan.

You can’t simply walk blindly into Facebook and expect it to work miracles. Facebook is an extension of your marketing strategy; therefore, it needs a plan.

You need to determine the goals of your Facebook page first. Do you simply want to generate awareness about your company? Do you want to use it as a way for customers to contact you for more information on your products or services? Do you want to use it for community engagement? All of these goals require different Facebook strategies, so it’s important to have a good handle on your goals before jumping into Facebook.

You also need to implement a monitoring plan. Who is going to constantly watch your site? Are you going to assign a team of employees to handle this, or are you going to outsource? You also need to determine your plan of action. If a customer posts an unhappy message on your wall for all to see, what are you going to do?

Having a well thought out plan can alleviate the ailments that can come with a social media presence. And by knowing your goals, you can accurately implement tactics to achieve them.

No-No #3: Being inactive.

The purpose of Facebook is to interact with customers and fans and be social. You cannot create a Facebook page just to say you have a Facebook page and then never do anything with it. If you’re inactive on Facebook, you will not gain any fans. If you have no fans, there’s no purpose in having a Facebook page.

If you simply cannot manage the responsibility of a business Facebook page, create a team of dedicated staff to run it or outsource it to a social media company. Depending on the size of your following and the demands from your customers, your Facebook page could be a hub of constant interaction. If this is the case, give your followers what they want and engage with them. Post pictures or videos, create fun and engaging status updates, comment and like status updates or photos of your fans. The more you can be active with your customers, the more human your company will seem.

No-No #4: Being redundant.

One step above being inactive, you’ll find redundancy is also a Facebook no-no. Facebook business pages allow you to do a wide variety of things. You can post pictures or videos, ask questions to your audience, post status updates, create polls, create deals and even allow users to “check-in” to your location. Since you have all of these options at your fingertips—use them.

The more interesting your page is on a daily basis will entice your fans to visit your page more often. If you are constantly boring them with the same old garbage, you could end up losing them in the long run.

When used correctly, Facebook can be a great addition to your marketing strategy. You can get your business in front of your target demographic and you can connect with your fans on a more personal level, listen to their input and get a grasp of what they want from you and what will make them happy. If you can get all of this from a social networking site, it’s important that your business does not implement any of these no-nos.

About the Author: Charlie Adams is a social media expert and marketing professional who works with the Palms hotel in Las Vegas. He often generates content to aid people or businesses in the proper application of social networks.

Photo Credit: farooq.aries

Tips for Choosing the Right Trade Show Signage

Getting your booth noticed at a trade show can be a difficult task. You can only grab the attention of potential clients for a few brief seconds, but those seconds are paramount in selling your products and services. The best way to ensure sales is to set your booth apart with eye-catching signage that is both relevant and communicative. Custom signage is the best way to attract new customers and secure profits for your business.

Your Message Must Speak to Your Ideal Customer

The first thing to keep in mind when planning your display is the audience that you are attempting to reach. Your display should communicate the message and mission of your company in a clear, concise and appealing manner. Considering basic demographics such as age and gender of potential clientele will go a long way toward achieving a successful trade show for your business. Your message must grab the interest of your prospect quickly and effectively in order to draw him or her toward your booth.

Use Professionally-Designed Banner Stands and Pop-up Displays

Once your audience has been determined, it is time to begin considering the physical aesthetic of your booth. Custom built banner stands are an effective way to attract passersby. Although custom banner stands may seem expensive, they make all the difference in attracting new customers.

A common sight at trade shows are businesses that have obviously cut corners in constructing their displays. If your display appears shabby or cheap, the chances of you attracting new clients or maintaining a good relationship with those you have previously established. Implementing professionally constructed banner stands and pop-up displays in your booth will help you achieve success at your trade show event.

Make Your Signage Visually Appealing

When designing your trade show signage, be sure to choose images that are large, clear, and bright. Potential clients aren’t going to squint to see your banner stands when your neighbors have large, beautifully-constructed images on display.

Besides the graphical elements of the signage, it is also important to be selective in the type of banner stands and pop-up displays that you choose to represent your business. One model that is becoming increasingly popular is the green banner stand. This approach is obviously most successful at trade shows that promote an eco-friendly lifestyle and culture. If your company prides itself on its environmentalism, you should make sure that the displays you choose are environmentally friendly in order to stay in line with your company’s ideals.

Retractable Banner Stands Make Takedown Easier

You might want to consider retractable banner stands. These stands can be erected and taken down in a matter of seconds and they sacrifice none of the aesthetic appeal of your booth. Used together with pop-up displays, they create an appealing display that can be easily moved from one show to another and re-used throughout the year.

When choosing an event to attend, communicate with colleagues in the field who have had successful trade show experiences. They will have excellent advice about the best events for your company and will be able to provide additional tips to help you have a successful trade show experience.

Surprise Management: Diversify to Weather Tough Times

Today’s businesses have used Change Management and Risk Management with varying degrees of success. While these strategies can help companies prepare for an unknown future, they fall just short of accomplishing the strategic goals that 21st century companies need if they are to keep pace with rapidly changing market conditions. What will it take to fill the gaps in these two theories? Surprise Management.

Background

We all know how disconcerting change can be. And when we add surprise to the equation, we face a huge organizational challenge. Uncertainty, unpredictability, and our all-too-human inability to dictate outcomes are facts of life that organizations must address if they are to thrive.

The natural fear of uncertainty often leads organizations to implement uncertainty-reduction (or risk-management) measures—and hence the development of Risk Management theory. Many have tried to eliminate “the surprise factor”—with varying degrees of success. One method that’s been suggested for eliminating surprise is to anticipate surprises before they happen and take appropriate steps to minimize their occurrence—certainly a commendable goal. Yet, a surprise by its very nature cannot be foreseen. (Otherwise it wouldn’t be a surprise.)

A more realistic way of phrasing the above goal might be to say that reducing surprise involves an attempt to predict what could go wrong (i.e. to project risk) and put in place preventive measures against these potential problem occurrences—measures which not only minimize the overall number of occurrences but also reduce the number that are actually surprises. It is only in this sense that Risk Management can “eliminate the surprise factor.” While it would be impossible to anticipate the surprises themselves, this thorough projection of future possibilities would undoubtedly help eliminate some surprises, simply because the organization would now be aware that these eventualities could potentially occur. Yet, the success of this approach in managing surprise is limited.

In contrast, Change Management, by providing both managers and workers with the tools they need to handle the reality of change across a rapidly evolving business landscape—and perhaps equipping them for various specific future eventualities—can at least help an organization prepare for surprises, if not reduce the frequency of their occurrence.

Surprise Management: A More Comprehensive and More Flexible Approach

Surprise Management—a concept which is thoroughly analyzed in a 2005 article in the British Journal of Management, “Surprises in Management and Organization: Concept, Sources and A Typology”—presents the rationale for addressing unwelcome (and perhaps even welcome) surprises through the concept of diversification (despite the authors’ non-use of that specific term).

The authors define surprise as “any event that happens unexpectedly, or any expected event that takes an unexpected turn.” The main point of the piece may be distilled into the following brief summary: Because unpredictable events and unexpected turns of events (aka, surprises) cannot be precisely controlled, a more diversified and more flexible approach is needed for an effective response.

As the authors state, “Surprises can potentially result in organizational catastrophes (e.g., Shrivastava, 1992),” and they therefore conclude that “rather than merely insisting on the prediction of surprises, organizational researchers should investigate how organizations might develop the resilience and mindfulness necessary to deal with unanticipated events.”

Surprise Management Tools

A few surprise-management strategies the authors recommend for developing such mindful resilience follow:

  • Bricolage (constructing a solution from whatever diverse resources may be at hand)
  • Improvization (“the ability to access creativity in the moment and under pressure, to resolve or direct the resolution of a situation to meet [company] objectives…”)
  • Distributed decision-making (a decision-making process [that is] distributed across multiple participants, each of whom contributes to the final decision by performing one or more tasks)
  • Minimal structuring (implementing “a set of consensual guidelines[,] agreements, [and] co-ordination devices that attempt to focus the activities of people around a common set of goals and deadlines without limiting their discretion to best decide how to reach these goals)
  • Dynamic adaptive capabilities (“the capacity of…institutional approaches to permit actions that are effective ‘adaptive’ responses to changing environmental circumstances”)

The above approaches combine to provide the diversified organizational response that today’s enterprises need to skillfully manage the surprises that might otherwise prove catastrophic to their successful operation—helping them not just survive, but thrive.

About the Author: Guest post contributed by Sarah Carling, on behalf of Injury-lawyers.net.au.

Forex Brokers

If you are looking to invest your funds into something that’s promising and can double your investments in the least amount of time possible, consider Forex trading. It is a fact that Forex market is a continuously growing and ever-evolving industry. Though it is a multifaceted one, one thing that can describe Forex markets is that they are lucrative. Still, complexities and obstacles should be considered as well since the market won’t just hand you money for simply investing your money and time on it. Arriving well prepared, skilled and knowledgeable will help you protect your investments as well as increase the potential for revenues.

It is highly recommended to go for appropriate consultation with a financial adviser and educate you regarding the trade. If after the consultation you are ready to step into the plate, you will need the guidance and expertise of a good Forex broker by your side. You can’t initiate trading foreign currencies without the help and services of a broker, especially as a novice. Remember, even the most skilled and experienced traders and investors can still make erroneous decisions that can cost significant amounts of money. Though it is quite important, one shouldn’t rush towards finding and choosing a Forex broker. You need to guarantee that the broker that you want to employ is listed among the premier Forex broker directories.

Employing a reputable and reliable broker isn’t something that magically happens overnight. You will require devotion of your time, effort and attention to look for someone who can render you with the most suitable service for your needs. One should realize that in order to find and work with a good broker, you’ll first have to know what a good broker does and how they work so that you can make educated decisions.

If you don’t desire to spend huge amounts of your time and attention looking for a good Forex broker, you will need to tap into the right sources accessible online. A fast online search will bring you a variety of brokerage firms that will enable you to bypass the hassles of finding sources and leads through manual search options. Furthermore, you can make your final decision reliant upon the rankings that are rendered by a few independent agencies.

There are many benefits entailed from hiring a Sunbird forex broker. One is that you are partnered with a professional whom will act as a mediator between you and the buyer or seller of the foreign currency, making lines of connection easier and proper. Another is that you are educated by the broker on key trading strategies and help you make more profitable and educated decisions.