Showing posts with label Online Reputation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Online Reputation. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

How to tie your Shoe when the shoelace is Broke


If you were a kid growing up in a middleclass or below middle class family you probably have a smile on your face right now after reading the title of this blog.  You can remember the sneakers you once had that were perfectly fine, but as you were lacing them up just before school while rushing quickly to catch the bus before it pulled around the corner, the lace broke.  (Those of you that had the Velcro laces were the envy of all of us because you didn’t have this issue.)  Since your parents bought your shoes a size or two big for growing room, you had to have the laces tied tight so you would not lose the shoe as you ran to where you needed to go.

For most of us, this was our first experience of adversity.  We would have to take the lace completely out of the shoe.  We would have to even the lace up and thread it through each of the eyelets (which is the hole that is meant for threading a cord of a lace) without the aglet/ aiglet (which is a small sheath made of plastic).  Sometimes we would try to wrap duct tape to make this process easier and other times we would just lick the end of the lace to create a point for easier navigation.  A non-scientific study says that many business owners were groomed for success because of this adversity.

Fast-forward to 2020.  Through no fault of many small businesses, they are faced with closing their doors forever.  Because of the lack of leadership at the government level providing misinformation through daily news conferences, mainstream media creating fear by sensationalizing outlying stories that are not the norm and big banks squeezing out the true small businesses by taking care of their larger clients; the small business is left to do everything they can to keep their business alive.

Although the goal post continue to change as quickly as the calculations of the future mortality rate of the Coronavirus, the government restrictions will one day be lifted.  Small businesses will have to make sure they continue to adapt to the change of rules and society’s new norms.  It will be difficult and many businesses will not be able to survive, but those that do will look a lot different than they did as little as four months ago.  Those of you who used shoe polish to whiten up your old shoes will know exactly what I mean by this!  (Just make sure you clean the mud off and don’t try to take a shortcut by polishing over the mud.)
There are several things businesses must do to assure themselves to recover.  (DeliveryMaxx is in the same boat as you just trying to survive.  When our clients are hurting, we are hurting.  If they cannot receive revenue, we do not receive revenue and that means our employees suffer.)  More eyes than ever before are looking at the internet for information.  Your business must have a complete digital strategy that includes positive Online Reputation, stronger SEO, concise Content Management, increase in Social Media Engagement and Advertisement and higher Customer Retention.  To meet these strategies businesses must use Blogs, Reviews, Daily Post, Video Messaging, Automated Follow-Up, Email Blast and Website Development & Optimization.

·         Blogs- These are written pieces that have the ability to educate the consumer with facts and supporting documents.  Great stories on how the product or service is being used can validate these assertions.  It is also important to insert current events into these blogs.  Letting the public know that you know what is going on in the world is important.

·         Reviews- Many companies talk about getting a “lot of stars”, but reviews are so much more than that.  The goal is to have customers mention the product/service, why they visited your business and who specifically helped them.  Have you ever notices negative reviews state all of these things, but positive reviews might be a one word or one sentence on why they are happy?  Businesses should make it available and easy for their happy customers to be able to share their complete experience with the world on multiple platforms.  Video Testimonies should also be part of every businesses digital media strategy.  If we can see a customer truly happy, then it is more believable.  If you are a business that still pays for “Fake Reviews” customers can see through this.  Number one, those reviews are not being looked at by the average customer and number two, if you are spending that much time on “Fake Reviews” your business will never achieve maximum profitability.

·         Daily Post- There must be a method behind your post.  Are the post engaging to customers?  Do they create an emotion that can create a call to action?  If you are paying a company to put the same post on your sites as every other one of their clients sites than you are not understanding how daily post work.  In addition, you should be putting daily post on all of your social media sites to make sure you are optimizing the opportunity to reach additional customers.  Be sure to post on all of your Social Media Sites.  However, you will want to make sure they are optimize driving traffic back to your website.

·         Video Messaging- There is nothing better than a candid video that talks about your business or the service you provide.  The most searched videos are “How to Videos”.  Everyone utilizes the internet to find information.  If you want people to search your business, you better have the information they are looking for.

·         Automated Follow Up- Customer Retention is easier than finding new customers.  Your digital strategy should have a consistent approach to letting the customer know you care.  This should also be in a digital format to allow your customer to easily share the information with all of their friends and family.

·         Email Blast- If you have an ad campaign or important information you want to put into the hands of all of your clients, this is one of the easiest ways to do it.  We don’t recommend to overpopulate your clients’ inbox, but strategic plans of actions can enhance your digital media strategy.

·         Website Development & Optimization- This is your new store front.  Since many brick & mortal locations have been shut down, you must have a great website that is easy to navigate and ultimately allowing customers to purchase or find information out about your services.  It should be optimized so your customer can find you.

In addition business should do the following:

·         Network.  The more people you meet and learn what they do the more opportunities you might find that your business can perform.

·         Help Others.  There is nothing better when a small business identifies an opportunity to help another small business.  Look for passing on referrals, using that business for a need you might have, consider partnering or trading services with the business.  Talk with your clients as they might be able to help you or vice versa.  Look to your competition.  Together, you might become stronger or have ways to help each other during this time.

·         Be willing to Adapt.  Even when the government runs out of excuses to keep the economy closed, we will never be able to go back to the way things were.  Be sure your business is adapting to the new ways consumers will be shopping or interacting with your business.  You will want to make sure you can operate in a digital world.

·         Show Empathy.  Many people believe everything they have heard on TV.  They are scared of the unknown and instantly feel this virus will kill everyone.  Obviously, this isn’t true, but don’t blame them for being so naïve.  Realize that they really think one might die just by walking outside if that is all they have heard the past 3 to 4 months.  As frustrating as it might be, don’t yell at them because they will argue with emotions and not facts.  Screaming and yelling will not make them understand logic any better and only scare them more.  Understand that others might have something that you take for granted, but to them it is a necessity of life.

·         Continue to Fight.  DeliveryMaxx has taken the position to expose the misinformation our government and mainstream media continues to feed America.  However, we are also providing real solutions and tools to help businesses to not fall into what is looking like being The 2nd Great Depression.  We know how hard you have worked to build a company that provides not only for your family, but also 10 or more other families.  Your voice must be heard, so don’t be afraid to let others know what these decisions are doing to your company.

DeliveryMaxx has been the leader in the digital media arena over the last decade and continues to help businesses in all sectors reach their potential customers through the most innovative digital strategy utilizing common sense and today’s technology.  We are able to customize and create a strategy for any entity that is trying to gain more exposure on the web.  With clients in multiple industries and across the country such as Automotive Dealerships, Real-Estate Brokers & Agents, Churches, Service Industry, Sports Teams, Non-Profit Organizations and more; we utilize our Patent-Pending Program to develop a digital strategy that will meet the needs of sales, service and messaging to the masses.

DeliveryMaxx is one of the only digital media company that provides a simple to use app which will allow our clients immediately collect online reviews, post engaging videos and online content with branding and advertising.  The program is embedded with digital code helping increase SEO which provides first page results on the Search Engines.  It is a tool that is implanted with a complete digital strategy giving our clients a competitive advantage over the competition.  For more information about DeliveryMaxx contact (888) 938-6299 or watch the DeliveryMaxx Introduction Video!

Thursday, April 16, 2020

How to position yourself for the Wreckage in front of you and your Business


There is great news that is not being shared with you on a daily basis!  Before we had more than 50 deaths in the United States, our officials utilized the famous “Flatten the Curve” Graph made by Epidemiologist, Neil Ferguson who boldly predicted that the United States would achieve 2.2 million deaths by the middle of April.  Of course the premise of the whole scare was that 100% of the world’s population would become infected with the virus and with a little research one would find that this has never happened in the history of the world.  Nonetheless, the United States has 28,580 deaths that have been attributed to the Coronavirus.  These numbers include the nearly 4,000 deaths in New York that were not directly confirmed but only suspected as people that might have had symptoms similar to those who have COVID-19.  Not sure why the government would want to promote fear, but we do know that hospitals are getting anywhere from $12,000 to $300,000 from the Federal Government by attributing treatment to the Coronavirus.  Of course, the Centers of Disease and Control (CDC) have recommended these practices.  The great news is that the over inflated death totals account for the virus is .00008661 of our population.  We don’t have thousands of bodies lined up in mass graves as some news organizations have stated.  Hospitals have thousands of unused beds, too many ventilators, and nurses are able to stay at home because there is not enough work coming in to the hospitals due to them turning away needed elected procedures.  Even better, it seems that even while blowhards like New York’s Mayor Andrew Cuomo, Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Dallas County Commissioner Clay Jenkins and many others who continue to spread a false narrative, the death counts for pneumonia, flu and other communicable diseases have seen a drastic drop in the mortality rate.  Some have even heard that Jeffery Epstein’s death might not have even been a suicide from hanging. 

Unfortunately, there will be victims that otherwise could have been saved in 2020!  As we have pointed out over the last several months, the decisions we continued to make would have much more dire consequences on many more Americans.  We predicted that America would be headed into a severe recession and ultimately the 2nd Great Depression if the unconstitutional mandates of businesses not being able to open their doors continued to happen into May.  Since politicians continue to skew numbers to fit their motive and citizens blindly following the sensationalized news trying to hide from a virus that will be seasonal (yes, it will come back just like the flu and common cold); nearly 22 million workers have lost their job.  That is nearly 14% unemployment.  The Great Depression of 1929 had a peak unemployment at 24.9%.   By the way, we remained at 14% unemployment until 1940.  At least our kids will have stories they can tell their grandkids of the hardships today’s decisions have caused.  We also will leave them with a massive amount of debt with the passing of a 2.2 Trillion PORK FILLED STIMULUS PACKAGE.  If we were to pay 1 cent every second for the next 63,418 years we would still owe over 200 Billion Dollars.  This is the tax burden we will be leaving behind.   A Great Depression will bring increased violent & non-violent crime, drug & alcohol addiction, child abuse, marital dissolution, poverty rate and a decline in overall health of many Americans.  Today, depression and suicides are already on the incline.  This is exactly why it is illegal to yell “Fire” in a crowded theater!  There will be more death caused from the panic than if the panic were real in the first place.

It might be a little too late, but there are many who are starting to speak up for justice.  Talks of election and voting out the power hungry corrupt politicians at the national, state and LOCAL levels is gaining traction.  Some people are actually questioning why they overreacted to numbers that never made sense in the first place.  There have been peaceful protest to open up businesses already conducted and planned for the upcoming weeks.  If we do not open up all businesses by May 1st we can count on experiencing The 2nd Great Depression.

For businesses that are in the same boat as DeliveryMaxx (companies that are trying to survive), you must be willing to see and adapt to today’s environment.  That means with more eyes than ever before looking at the internet for information, your business must have a complete digital strategy that includes positive Online Reputation, stronger SEO, concise Content Management, increase in Social Media Engagement and Advertisement and higher Customer Retention.  To meet these strategies businesses must use Blogs, Reviews, Daily Post, Video Messaging, Automated Follow-Up, Email Blast and Website Development & Optimization.

DeliveryMaxx has been the leader in the digital media arena over the last decade and continues to help businesses in all sectors reach their potential customers through the most innovative digital strategy utilizing common sense and today’s technology.  We are able to customize and create a strategy for any entity that is trying to gain more exposure on the web.  With clients in multiple industries and across the country such as Automotive Dealerships, Real-Estate Brokers & Agents, Churches, Service Industry, Sports Teams, Non-Profit Organizations and more; we utilize our Patent-Pending Program to develop a digital strategy that will meet the needs of sales, service and messaging to the masses.

DeliveryMaxx is one of the only digital media company that provides a simple to use app which will allow our clients immediately collect online reviews, post engaging videos and online content with branding and advertising.  The program is embedded with digital code helping increase SEO which provides first page results on the Search Engines.  It is a tool that is implanted with a complete digital strategy giving our clients a competitive advantage over the competition.  For more information about DeliveryMaxx contact (888) 938-6299 or watch the DeliveryMaxx Introduction Video!

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Why Digital Media is Necessary for your Business & How to Use It

Every article or blog that has been written over the last ten years has stated that businesses must utilize social media and online reputation to improve their business!  However, as much opining which has been published, explanations as to “How to use Social Media to your advantage” have been lacking detailed substance.

By taking a simplistic approach, businesses can effectively use digital media to accomplish their goals which will allow them to increase branding, online reputation, customer engagement thus improving customer service indexes and sales.

First, a business must ask themselves what they need published on the internet about their service, products and how they conduct business on a day-to-day basis.

Every entity needs the following:

·         Videos branded with their company.  These short videos should be natural and a true reflection of the business (today’s consumer isn’t wanting to watch another commercial).  Videos should be published daily and be readily available to send to inquiring customers.  By producing short 30-45 second videos whether they are customer testimonies or “how to” videos; businesses will be adding content to the web easily available to the search engines.  Videos should not only reside on YouTube or Vine.  They should be shared throughout the companies’ digital network and the business should have multiple active digital channels to reach potential customers.  Yes!  This means publishing videos to Twitter, Google+, Facebook and others.

·         Online Reputation is anything and everything said about your business on the internet.  Yes, stars are valid and make a brief statement about the feelings of individuals’ experiences with your business.  However, the consumer also understands that there are “Fake” and unwarranted reviews which do not tell the whole story about your business.  It is important to stay vigilant on all of the Online Review Sites keeping your star rating high.  However, it is much more important to allow all of your customers or clients to be provided a forum to share in detail their experience.  There is no better way or opportunity to provide an opportunity for your customers to share their experience immediately to sure accuracy of the experience and completion of the online review.  Unfortunately, many businesses don’t have a plan or a tool that will allow them to capture a review at the time of the transaction which limits the number of positive experiences to be posted on the web.  In addition, by allowing all customers to give immediate feedback at the time of service; unhappy customers who share their thoughts will allow the company provide an expedient remedy to the issue with the ability to satisfy and win the customer for life.

·         Customer Social Media Engagement creates customer satisfaction.  Business is pretty simple.  If you provide a good product or service to your patrons; they will be happy to share with friends and family what you have done for them.  User-generated content is much more effective and important than content you share yourself.  Praise from your customers is sure to catch the eye of prospects!  The only catch is that it must be easy for them to do and there has to be a program creating the virility of the post. 

·         Search Engine Optimization is important, but should be done organically.  This means creating content on the web which sticks or resonates with the Search Engines.  The more content provided the stronger your business becomes the authority in your subject matter.  Paid Advertisement only last as long as you are the highest bidder!  Organic content last forever.

There are thousands of analyst that have stated these things that must be done to create relevancy for your business on the internet.  There are almost as many digital media companies that try to provide a quick fix for one or all of these things that businesses need to utilize when reaching their potential clients.  The facts are that these companies have not been able to create a true engaging program for their clients’ customers falling short of social media marketing and online reputation.

With its Patent-Pending Digital Marketing Solutions; DeliveryMaxx is the only digital media company that provides a simple to use app which will allow to immediately collect online reviews, post engaging videos and online content with branding and advertising.  The program is embedded with digital code helping increase SEO which provides first page results on the Search Engines.  It is a tool that is implanted with a complete digital strategy giving their clients a competitive advantage over the competition.  For more information about DeliveryMaxx contact (888) 938-6299 or watch the DeliveryMaxx Introduction Video!


Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Content Content Content



For decades real estate professionals have been pounding home the phrase that opening a new business is all about… Location Location Location.  This phrase or concept dates back to as early as 1926 or even earlier.  The internet has made it commonplace for businesses to reach customers from around the world and with the advent of social media digital marketing is all the rage.  When designing a digital marketing plan or simply starting a new business, yes it’s that fundamental, every business owner or manager should consider several factors when deciding what and when to launch a campaign.  There are several types of marketing campaigns to consider, but here we are talking about digital marketing and more specifically content marketing.

Every post every picture for that matter every word that is said about a business or product is now an opportunity to introduce oneself or said product to the marketplace.  Customers are not only right around the corner, but now sit just a click away.  I’m not going to bore with details and statistics of why ecommerce is so important and explain the complexities of what makes for a good website, if you’ve made it this far you already understand these things.  What we are going to discuss is that in the digital age location matters, just not that much.  Online marketing programs are all about CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT, and did I mention CONTENT.

So where are you getting your digital content from?

Blogs are and excellent source to increase the number of mentions and backlinks to your respective address and in many cases this is the primary driver for original content most businesses use.  Blogs must be original and always include a message that speaks directly to the audience you wish to show up in your show room.  Blogs are also a great opportunity to share accomplishments as well as community spirit/service activities.  This is the best place to show case your business to the ever so discriminating public.  In short Blogs are your way of describing you.

Press Releases are much like blogs in that they provide the reader or prospective customer with a summary about you and/or your business.  The biggest difference here is that you don’t have control over the message.

Reviews/Online Reputation is all about what others are saying about you.  It’s pretty simple to maintain a positive online reputation, simply treat customers correctly and deliver on promises as stated when stated.  There are countless numbers of online reputation companies promising to “fix” businesses reputation.  Be wary of anyone that says they can get you reviews or have negative words that are being said about you removed from one site or another.  Simple fact is you are who your customers say you are and in most cases perhaps even better.  In general 95% plus of the people businesses serve would return to that business or even refer a friend, but statistics show that less than 3% share that information in a public forum.  What about the other 5% that for one reason or another were not satisfied??  You guessed and overwhelming number of those tell everyone.  You need to find a program that will capture more of the 95%ers.

Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) could take up an entire article, and there are plenty already out there, on how to utilize it for ecommerce but here it’s all about content.  Every post is an opportunity to add content about your business.  Unfortunately businesses fall into the trap of posting useless information just to fill a page every day.  Posting services sell or shall I say prey on managers and owners selling them on their “need” to have daily posts.  Here’s the secret… If it doesn’t point directly back to your businesses internet space then it is just filler.  There is content everywhere within the everyday activities of each organization that utilize third parties to create their social footprint.  What if each employee had the ability to create effective content that was a direct reflection of that organization and could show honest and current interactions with customers.  That company would now have an edge that no third party provider could provide.  

Recently, DeliveryMaxx was chosen for the 2015 Best of Rockwall for Management Consulting Services due to the program meeting all of their client’s marketing and advertising needs.

DeliveryMaxx is a privately held company providing social media marketing, web-based solutions, customer retention, and other advertising services and is based in Rockwall, Texas.  DeliveryMaxx is the preferred provider for companies needing to improve web presence, online reputation, customer satisfaction, sales, and innovative strategies that enables them to confidently deploy their mission-critical products and services in today’s competitive environment for market share.

For additional information about the company or its products and services, visit www.deliverymaxx.com or contact (888) 936-6299.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Content Marketing Doesn't Work



This may seem like an odd article coming from someone who makes their living in the content marketing world. But when I say that content marketing doesn’t work, it’s true. It doesn’t work for many companies because they either have the wrong expectations or the wrong creation and promotion strategies. And when content marketing isn’t deployed correctly, it doesn’t work.

Content marketing is a bit of a buzz word. The idea has been around for a long time, but it’s recently garnered attention as social media and SEO have started valuing content more and more. Add to this the fact that customers are doing more research before they make a purchase, and you can see why content marketing is getting more attention than ever before.

In the chart you can see that content marketing has actually surpassed search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) in search popularity. In fact, of the big four digital mediums, it trails only social media marketing in current interest.
Marketing Interest over Time
But What Is Content Marketing?

The dangers of trends is that there is a lot of misinformation around what the trend really is. Because of this, I’ve seen definitions of content marketing ranging from native advertising to blogging to social media. Technically these are all forms of content, and yes they are also forms of marketing, but does that make them content marketing?

For this article, let’s limit the definition of content marketing to this:
Content marketing is the act of a company, business, or organization producing and promoting informative content to engage and interact with their target audience.

Why Doesn’t It Work?

Simply put, content marketing doesn’t work because it needs two attributes to be successful, a long-term commitment and high-quality content. And both of these requirements have high demands in terms of time and effort. Because of this, they are often ignored in an attempt to make content marketing more scalable and easier to deploy.

But unlike SEO and PPC, you’re not dealing with an algorithm when it comes to content marketing. You’re dealing with the reactions and emotions of your living, breathing customers. And that can’t be gamed, hacked, or exploited. Instead, you need to plan and deploy a content marketing campaign with the same care and attention that you would any other major company initiative.

Consistency

Content marketing requires time and effort. And these are two things that are usually in short supply in most growing companies. So, how do you find them? You democratize your content creation. Instead of trying to shoulder the burden of content creation with one person or one department, the responsibilities should be spread around the company. This accomplishes two things. First, it allows the workload to be shared and ensures that there is always someone fresh ready to step up and produce content. Second, it gives your message many different perspectives and voices. This is great for keeping the content from becoming stale and tired.

Another great trick to remain consistent is to have a well-established plan going into your campaign. This means that you sit down and write up your content calendar and your promotion strategies. And you need to make these as specific as possible. Ambiguity in your calendar will open the door for dropped initiatives and forgotten tasks. So assign hard due dates and make sure that everyone sticks to them.

Finally, in order to stay consistent you have to make sure your content doesn’t become a chore for you, the producer. To do this, mix in many different types of content so you’re always working on something that challenges you in a new way. Here’s a short list of a few types of content that work great:

  • Blog Posts
  • Infographics
  • Slide Decks
  • Case Studies
  • eBooks
  • Whitepapers
  • Videos
  • Quizzes
  • Audits
  • ROI Calculators
  • Memes and Images
As you can see, content marketing isn’t dependent on having a blog. Yes, a blog is a great tool for content marketing, but it’s only one piece of the larger puzzle.

Once you have a consistent plan, you now need to focus on the quality of the content.

Quality

When it comes to the quality of your content, I like to liken it to the décor of your home. You want to produce content that you’d be proud to take home and hang on the wall. If you wouldn’t be caught dead with your content adorning your house, then you shouldn’t be using it to try and engage with your customers.

For the penny pinchers out there, it’s an unfortunate fact that you often get what you pay for when it comes to content creation. This doesn’t mean you can’t outsource your content creation, but you should expect to get what you pay for. That’s why for smaller companies it’s usually a better idea to create their content in-house.
So, whether you’re outsourcing your content creation or taking care of it internally, you need to ensure that you’re producing content on the right topics. To do this, you need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. At our firm we use in-depth buyer personas and customer journeys to give us an idea of who our target audience is and what we should produce.

Once you know who they are you want to help them. You do this by solving their problems. So, instead of producing content that’s all about you and your company, you should produce content that answers questions and helps them solve the challenges they face. As I’ve stated many times before, no one wants to download your brochure.

And don’t scrimp on the details. There have been many studies that the content that’s shared and engaged with the most is long-form, in-depth pieces that are supported by research and statistics.

This means you shouldn’t be killing yourself to produce new content every single day. But rather, you should focus on producing high-quality pieces. As long as you’re doing that consistently, then arbitrary cadences don’t matter as much.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

A friend of mine, Jake Baadsgaard, who owns a conversion optimization and PPC company called Disruptive Advertising, realized early on how much impact content marketing had on his marketing efforts. And we’re talking about a guy who works with PPC every day. Be that as it may, he knows that his PPC efforts are much more effective when they’re supported by content marketing.

“We have one of the most active and informative blogs in the PPC industry. And it produces great results for us in terms of traffic and customer engagement. But the temptation to short-cut the content production and promotion was a major challenge I needed to overcome. But a dedication to writing and planning has allowed us to stick to our guns and produce content that we’re proud of and that we know our customers want to engage with.”

Jake is not a natural content marketer. He would rather spend time on marketing activities that can be easily quantified and graphed in an Excel sheet. But his blog has been active for over a year and the posts they publish are long-form with great insights and research. This has led to syndication of the content, speaking opportunities, and interview requests. But without that commitment to quality and consistency, he wouldn’t have experienced those fringe benefits.

Put It All Together

So the next time you hear someone tell you that they don’t see the value in content marketing and that they never saw results for their efforts, they’re probably right. Because as I’ve outlined in this article, content marketing won’t work unless you focus on what’s important and have a long-term plan for success.


DeliveryMaxx has the answers and tools you need to successfully create the content you need to work for your business.  For more information visit http://www.deliverymaxx.com 

Monday, July 28, 2014

How Small is your Community

I can remember growing up in what I thought was a small Central Texas town called Harker Heights.  You know, the type of community where you would walk out of the house around 8 AM after breakfast with the family and then be home before it got dark just in time to have dinner with the same kin.  I knew everyone in a 3 mile radius (at least that is how far I would ride my bike daily in all different directions).  On Sundays I saw the same 150 people in Church.  During school, I played with the same kids on the playground.  A big event would be the “new kid” that entered school.  Every Saturday, I was at some sporting event, whether it was a game I played in or one that my sisters competed in.  During dinner time, as my family and I sat around the wooden table breaking bread; I would hear about vacations, deaths, births and typical events that others in the community were experiencing.  It became even more exciting when I visited my Aunt who was always more than happy to share all of the plights, trials and tribulations that our extended family and friends were experiencing.

This was a time that the nightly news came on at 5 PM and then again at 10 PM.  You had to make a phone call pressing buttons on a home phone.  The cord would restrict your movement and if you didn’t memorize the number you would have to look it up in a big book.  There were 12 channels on the TV in the family room.  If your parents didn’t pay for HBO which came out in 1972, you had to squint your eyes to watch in on the fuzzy channel 2 (in my case, I would see a movie I wasn’t supposed to watch and go to my friend’s house across the street to watch it.) Some households still had black and white TV’s like the one that sat on my dresser in my room.  ATARI was about 6 years old and Donkey Kong was the craze.  However, we only played it at dark because there was too much going on during the day.

Now my father was a principal and we moved to several different towns throughout the state of Texas.  We started out in Harker Heights (a smaller town outside of Killeen, Texas) then moved to an even smaller town in North Texas called Valley View where the elementary, middle school and high school were all in one building.  From there my family moved to Gainesville, then Denton, and finally settled in the historical town of Kilgore.  Each town was the same.  I made friends in school and church.  Once we moved, I started all over again and made more friends in another community.

Although technology hadn’t invented the cell phone, satellite radio or all of the other instantaneous satisfactions we have today; I was completely informed of what was going on every day.

Today I live in a suburb just outside of Dallas, Texas and not much has changed in my small community!
However, my community is NOT Rockwall, Texas where I live today that I am talking about here.  Sure, there are parts of Rockwall that are my community, but that is only where I lay my head at night.  I will explain further how I have come to this realization.

My community is very small.

Recently, I spent a month on a farm my wife and I just purchased in Northern Michigan.  I was very apprehensive about spending such a long time away from all of my electronic devices that allow me to work and communicate with the world in the same fashion I have become accustom to.  If truth be told, I think I was the most worried that I wouldn’t have access to a 24 hour news station that kept me up to date with what was happening in the world.  (The town we bought the farm has a population of less than 500 people, no cell towers within an hour and very poor internet connection.)  With a simple purchase of a Verizon JetPack; I found out how small my current community really is but how informative they can be.

Today I noticed ten birthdays, a couple of family members enjoying a beer in Ireland, one of my son’s coaches daughters getting married, my sons friend playing with a Lion in Florida, my wife’s friend sharing her determination in losing the “baby fat” from her recent delivery, several comments about how it is Monday, a friend told me they don’t like Fake People, one of my daughter’s teachers was collecting backpacks for children in Nairobi, and a college buddy of mine  whom I haven’t seen in person in years playing volleyball in his pool.

Yesterday, a former colleague of mine text me.  Now this may not seem like much but we hadn’t talked directly for over 10 years and we knew everything about each other like we had worked together daily.  We didn’t have to carry on a whole lot through text because we knew how our families were doing, what ventures we were up to and all of the experiences that have happened to each other over the last decade.

I can even tell you right now that my childhood best friend who I met in Kindergarten is spending the week in Pikes Peak, has an highly trained chocolate lab, a kid who celebrated his birthday a couple of months ago and is deeply in love with his beautiful wife.  Again, might not seem significant except the last time I talked with him in person was the 5th grade and that was only because I visited him when he moved off to Virginia from Harker Heights.

Yet, my community is very small.

You see Facebook, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Flickr and so many other social media sites allow us to experience the day to day lives of people we have come into contact with.  We are able to see kids grow up and get married, enjoy in their successes and consul during tough times.  Social Media has allowed each of us to develop our own personal communities just like the one I grew up in as a child.  Although we have jobs, kids and other life obligations that keep us from talking in person or seeing some of our oldest friends; we are still able to keep them as a daily part of our lives.  My personal community is built of the best of old colleagues and friends from every place I have been employed or lived.  It continues to grow, but only at a pace I allow it to grow.

My community is small compared to many on Facebook as it only consist of 532 people which is just a little larger than the small township our farm resides on in Northern Michigan.  However, it is my community, and the great thing about my community is I can retreat back to it anytime the everyday stresses start to mount.

For more information on how you can utilize Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest or other social media sites into your business community visit DeliveryMaxx at http://www.deliverymaxx.com or contact 888.936.6299.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Is your business Social?

The world today has every business talking about Social Media, Online Reputation, Content Management and other terms which may sound Greek to the average person.  Terms that have turned that geek from your high school into today’s millionaire.  Automotive Dealerships, Churches, Attorneys, Real Estate Agents, and almost every type of business have added so-called digital media experts to their labor pool.  Sometimes starting salaries in upwards of $60,000 to $90,000 have been awarded to twenty-year-old-something wonder kids.  Unfortunately, the results have not always been favorable and many of these companies are no better off than when they first started entering the digital highway.

First things first!  Every business should have a plan.  This is where most companies fail when trying to play in the digital playground.  It starts and ends with leadership.  Many company leaders are very good at what they do, but they do not know how to promote their business digitally.  It’s not because the leader isn’t smart enough.  It’s because they are afraid to learn digital.  These are the leaders that say, “I don’t use Facebook, or know what a Tweet is.”  That doesn’t mean their potential customers are not congregating here, and it certainly doesn’t mean to act like an ostrich burying your head in hopes that the situation will change.  Embrace technology, and have your management team embrace it too.  You don’t have to be an expert, but you do have to use common sense.  Now, I know that isn’t you so keep reading along.

In days passed, leaders understood demographics of who listened to what on the radio (before Satellite), what shows were popular on cable television (before TIVO & DVR), how many newspapers were in circulation (when newspapers still existed), and what highways had the most traffic (Flying cars are on the way, we hope).  The internet isn’t any different.  These same potential customers are now spending thousands of hours in front of their computer getting entertainment, news, and information.  They utilize handheld devices (smartphones, tablets, handheld gaming systems, phasers) easily identifying the trends of the day.  The only difference in 2014 versus 1990 or even the year 2000 is the shift of where potential customers are lurking.   No longer are the days where every progressive city has a mall to attract consumers to shop.  It doesn’t make sense to build these massive structures for shopping just like it doesn’t make sense to throw your money in the wind (toilet) when it comes to advertising and marketing.

If you are still with me, you have completed the first stage by admitting that you have a problem.  This is the biggest hurdle.  So where do you go from here?  It’s easier than you may think.

Now, I am assuming you have a website that tells your story.  If not, stop reading now and start focusing on your website today.  Before you focus on your website, make sure you fire anyone and everyone in your company that has anything to do with your marketing team and the decision not to have an optimal website.

However, if I have not lost you yet then you are probably a company that has Facebook, Twitter, and perhaps even a YouTube account.  You may even have a verified Google Plus and Yahoo page accompanying your digital network or you may even dabble in Pinterest.  This is a great starting point and now you need a plan to make them start working for you.  You can also look in the mirror and be happy that you can briefly understand that your kids are not reverting back to their infant years when they are talking about where they were hanging with their friends (Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, SnapChat, and Instagram).  (You don’t have to like it, but you do have to accept it.)

Key point number one is to understand that the consumer does not want to know you are advertising to them.  Social Media hot spots are where Person A gives a Shout Out to Person B, or Person C shares a moment on Thursday that happened 10 to 15 years ago.  That doesn’t mean you can’t advertise to potential customers.  You just have to understand there is a way to talk with the consumer without invading their space.

Let me back up my point here.  Facebook has 1.28 Billion active users.  YouTube has a large share of 1 Billion.  Google has 540 million while Twitter grows each day, currently with 255 million users.  Instagram boasts 200 million while LinkedIn has 187 million.  Pinterest is sitting at 70 million and Vine has 40 million.  What highway, radio station, television show, or newspaper has that kind of reach? If your business is not social, and you are not planning to embrace the future, fire yourself!

Are you still with me?  I’m glad because although it makes for an interesting dinner conversation about how you fired yourself, it isn’t pleasant or good for your ego.

Be careful here.  Every 20-something with a computer who wears tight jeans, a t-shirt with a clever saying, and tennis shoes claims to be a social media expert.  Colleges even offer this as a course, and some of you reading this blog have paid for it.  

Social Media was meant for two or more people to hangout (virtually I might add) or communicate in a (virtual) common place of interest.  Now something that you might like to know when it comes to your business.

Social Media has become a place for Person A to brag with Person B through Z and all of B through Z’s friends and family about Little A’s Certificate of Appreciation for enrolling in the running club.  Then you have someone else chime in saying how happy they are for Person A and subtly tell the group how excited they are for their little one who earned the Perfect Attendance Award.  (I know this award has been around forever, but really?  We still give an award for doing what you are supposed to do?)

Social Media is not about posting your product or service three times a day on Facebook.  It isn’t about placing your commercial on YouTube.  It’s not about using 140 characters to remind us to try your widget or read your blog about free-range chickens (or whatever you’re into).  Too many so called social media companies love telling you they manage all of their channels.  Then they are excited to show you how many times they have posted to your network.  Next time asked them point blank if they have ever posted that same content to another one of their clients.  That is not social media.

Now to training 101.  What if you were able to get Person A to share with Person B through Z and all of their friends and family about your product or services you provide?  What if conversations continued about your great product and services on all of the social media channels?  In addition, what if every time you earned a new customer they became another virtual mouthpiece for your company’s product or service.  Not because you asked them or tricked them into singing your praises, but because they wanted to sing your praises.  We are living in times where ordinary people want to promote the businesses and products they enjoy, whether it be a tweet about how excited they are for the latest summer blockbusters, sharing a link on Reddit of a website with really funny T-Shirts, or making a status update about a tasty new flavor of Gatorade, if you use social media to get people excited about your business – they WILL!!!

This is working Social Media.  Now, go be Social!

DeliveryMaxx is a full digital service provider for Social Media Marketing, Online Reputation Management, Search Engine Optimization, and complete Content Management program.  Clients include automotive dealerships, attorneys, church organizations, non-profits, hotels & hospitality and many more.   For more information visit http://www.deliverymaxx.com or contact 888.936.6299.