A Wave of Business Optimism is on the Horizon

Are you prepared to ride the crest?

According to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), optimism among small businesses in the US advanced in November to the highest level in more than 34 years as owners became more upbeat about future economic conditions and sales prospects, reported Bloomberg News.

Among the highlights that brought a smile to small business owners are:

·         Index rose by 3.7 points to 107.5 (est. 104), highest in monthly data back to 1986; highest since 3Q 1983 when looking at earlier quarterly figures;

·         Net 48% expect better business conditions in next six months, biggest share since January and up from 32% a month earlier;

·         Net 34% expect higher sales, largest share since October 2005 and up from 21% in September.

Hopefully, you’re also anticipating growing your business.

The NFIB said the small-business optimism index showed all but two of the 10 components increased from a month earlier, including a record net 24% share of small business owners who said they plan to add jobs. Construction, manufacturing and professional services registered notable increases in planned hiring.

The figures indicate the recent solid pace of job growth will be sustained and help extend the economic expansion, the NFIB underscored.

In order to capitalize on this business boost next year, savvy business owners must prepare now. The economic figures demonstrate that your customers are primed to buy. However, they must be aware that you have what they’re looking for.

You should inform them about the products and services as well as discounts and specials that you are offering by regularly and often outreaching to customers.

Reaching out to your existing and new customers cannot be a last-minute effort. If you wait too long, the wave will pass you. You must launch your marketing campaign now in order to whet the marketplace’s appetite for your goods and services. Actually, you should roll over your special holiday outreach effort into next year’s promotion before The New Year.

Social media and Twitter are the fastest and least expensive means to tell the world about your plans.

However, you can’t wake up one morning telling yourself “I’ll start tweeting today.” You have to develop a plan, strategy and community of followers about what you want to accomplish. Making your company well known for its products or services is a legitimate goal for your business.

To succeed in social media or Twitter marketing, you must create a topic or area of expertise, build an audience and invite the world to join your conversation. It’s about talking to your prospects, consumers and vendors, and interacting with them. If you are not going to do this, don’t use Twitter as a marketing tool; it simply won’t work. Make friends, be a friend, follow and reply. Show your followers that you want to engage and be involved with them – this provides ideal customer service and states that you are, in fact, personable – worthy of their attention.

Give people useful information and answer their questions, and they will consider you a valuable member of their community – a thought leader. That’s an important first step to winning new customers via social media outreach.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then adding an image to a tweet will greatly expand what you can share beyond the new 280-character limit.

You can’t build your business by keeping to yourself and you surely cannot have success on social media without virtually shaking hands. Create followers and their followers and readers may become your followers and readers. This builds your recognition in Twittersphere. If you don’t interact with the world, the world will leave you by the side of the road and your products and services will not see the light of day.

Use hashtags “#” that focus on keywords or buzzwords that are used in your industry and also Twitter handles “@” that direct your information to specific people, companies, vendors and industries. This requires that you spend time researching both tools. Don’t underestimate the benefits of hashtags and handles.

Additionally, discuss your sales projections with your vendors and suppliers so they are aware of your plans and can fulfill your grand design.

How will you reach out to the marketplace?

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business and outreach by using Twitter and social media and let me know your thoughts. If you have examples of how you’ve tweeted to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

Don’t forget to tweet and retweet often – up to a half a dozen times a day – about your products and services.

If you need help, contact me.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Scroll down on the Boosting Your Outreach blogsite to read or reread older posts.

Cyber Security is Your First Responsibility

Read today’s news and you’ll quite likely read about a cybercrime. It’s as prevalent as robbing a bank used to be. You feel sorry for the victims but you go about your business.

However, you must realize that you could be next. Cyber thieves and extortionists are not only targeting multinational corporations and governments. They are also aiming for small businesses and non-governmental organizations.

As a matter of fact, anyone who possesses a computer system with access to the Internet can be a victim of a cybercrime. Anyone who maintains a database of individual customers or business-to-business statistics can be subjected to a data breach.

NGOs or non-profits that maintain fundraising data that include donor names and addresses and how much they donate are as alluring as beehives for bears. Jessica Robinson, founder and CEO of PurePoint International, prompted non-profits to imagine what their fund raising campaigns would look like if last year’s database was breached and your supporters’ vital information accessed.

If you fall into these categories – and who doesn’t nowadays – you must be doubly careful. Unlike victims of other crimes, victims of cybercrimes can be held criminally responsible for being negligent with their customers and stakeholders’ information. Indeed, as a result, the victimized small businesses and NGOs will have their reputations harmed, can inadvertently subject their clients and advocates to cyber breaches, can be sued, and ultimately can be forced to close their doors.

Every person and business is in danger of cyberattacks and it would be the height of folly to think it won’t happen to you. “If you’re a consumer or business, they’re gunning for you,” warned George Waller, co-founder, Strike Force, an expert in cyber security. With breaches at an all-time high, companies should focus on cyber resilience round the clock because security is never guaranteed.

Earlier this month, I attended an informative and sobering daylong session on what businesses and non-profits must do to protect themselves, their clients and stakeholders. Taking its cue from today’s headlines, the Small Business Development Center of New Jersey at Ramapo College organized a “Cyber Resilience” conference about how to diminish the damaging effects of a cyber security breach.

More than 100 businessmen and women attended the timely event at Ramapo College and heard cyber experts offer advice on protecting their businesses. The speakers explored how entrepreneurs can lessen threats and vulnerabilities, what defenses should be developed, and the resources needed for mitigating a security failure after it happens.

Cyber security and cyber liability insurance today have evolved into business necessities. The task of preventing cyber breaches cannot be delegated to one person or department because cyber security is the responsibility of the owner, director, every manager and all employees.

David Weinstein, chief technology officer, State of New Jersey, pointed out that in today’s business climate, small businesses are as vulnerable to cyberattacks as big businesses. Consequently, owners and directors must pay attention to how they do business via the Internet.

According to Michael T. Geraghty, chief information security officer, State of New Jersey, phishing emails is the number one threat facing Internet users. Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

“We’re being bombarded with phishing emails,” he emphasized.

Geraghty said the NJ Office of Homeland Security is mandated to protect citizens and businesses in the Garden State against cyberattacks and other catastrophes. Threats come not only from major global players but also local gangs and hoodlums, he pointed out. To protect your organizations, entrepreneurs and civil society activists must “think like a criminal not like an IT expert.”

Eric Hodge, director of Consulting, CyberScout, noted that state cyber actors are not hacking for financial gain but rather for influence or to undermine our confidence in our system of government. Proof of this is Russia’s recent successful cyberattacks that subverted our election system and spread distrust.

The task of protecting your computer system is never ending because hackers know when you are most distracted and create situations to deflect your attention from what’s going on in your groups. The speakers emphasized the necessity of maintaining good cyber hygiene and installing software upgrades when they become available.

Karen Painter Randall, partner and certified civil trial attorney, Connell Foley LLP, detailed the wide extent of cyber threats by saying businesses should understand that the question is not if they will be breached but rather when. Cyber security is no longer an option, she said, adding that cyber liability insurance is a necessity.

Waller of Strike Force warned that another weighty online threat comes from hackers, who transform seemingly safe websites into locations that could violate visitors’ security. Anything on the Internet can be turned into a harbinger of spyware that threatens businesses and NGOs, he said.

The speakers indicated that small computer users are as vulnerable to cyberattacks as large businesses. They are being bombarded by dangerous phishing emails while the greatest Internet predators are hackers – technologically skilled criminals that can break into any computer system. Of commercial and non-commercial organizations that have experienced hacking, statistically, 60% of them have been forced to close their doors within six months due to irreparably injured credibility.

Businesses were advised to keep track of their employees’ Internet usage since 80% of breaches are the result of employee mistakes, carelessness or malice. Entrepreneurs and NGO managers must keep in mind that their trusted employee could be their weakest link due to a lack of training.

Vikas Bhatia, founder and CEO, JustProtect Inc., said people are key in cyber security and urged managers to perform system scans and penetration tests. If not, he cautioned, someone else will do that and that person doesn’t work for you.

Cyber criminals create more than 400,000 viruses each day that unlawfully penetrate computer systems looking for personal and financial information. Ransomware, or extortion, is successful because it is easy to execute. General data breach costs companies $4 million while globally the figure could reach $5 billion. The average payment to cyber extortionists is in the range of $20-40,000. A personally shocking statistic revealed at the session was that 82% of social security numbers have been hacked more than once.

Vincent J. Vicari, regional director of the NJSBDC at Ramapo College, emphasized the importance of the conference by saying “Today’s event was invaluable for small businesses because small businesses have only one chance to get it right. When they fail or they allow their client list to be compromised, they don’t have a second chance to rebuild their credibility. Today’s event gave hard takeaways that clients can use to protect their businesses so they don’t get attacked the first time.”

The takeaway for small businesses and non-governmental organizations (nonprofits) is that cyber security is not an end, it is a value that should be ingrained into the culture of your business and NGO. You will not begin to be cyber safe until you admit that you are in danger. You cannot hide behind a veil of denial.

On the other hand, thinking about cyber security after it occurs is too late. You have to be engaged in your own cyber security from the moment you first open the door to your office. It’s the owners and NGO leaders’ responsibility to instill confidence in clients and stakeholders that their computer system is secure. Failure to do so threatens reputations and damages operations. Businesses and civil society are responsible for maintaining their cyber security otherwise they could be held liable by their clients.

Companies that you do business with that are cyber safe want to do business with companies that are also cyber safe. If your organization doesn’t meet cyber requirements, it will be taken off your customers and stakeholders’ preferred supplier list.

It is impractical to suggest a return to the days of paper records. So it is incumbent upon you to pay close attention to your digital/cyber records.

Join the conversation in cyberspace about cyber security. I’ll help you spread the word about your concerns.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Lao, if you’re in northern New Jersey, I’d like to direct your attention to the free services and consultation of the NJ Small Business Administration of Bergen County at Ramapo College. Tell Vince Vicari, executive director, that I sent you. https://www.njsbdc.com/locations/bergen-county/

Scroll down along the Boosting Your Outreach blogsite to read or reread older posts.

How to Keep Cool under Stress

The only differences between small businesses and their larger colleagues are in the number of employees and headquarters size. The intensity of stress is the same across the board.

As a small business owner or a non-profit director, you are faced with a range of issues that keep you up at night.

• Will we conclude the important contract?
• Will we secure a new line of credit?
• Will we be ready for the new product launch?
• Will we convince stakeholders of the importance of our mission?
• Will we raise enough funds in this year’s campaign?
• Will we hire enough employees to get the job done?

And so on and so forth.

For the good of your small business, your non-governmental organization and your own health, it is important to keep stress from debilitating you. You must control anxiety and remain mission driven in order to overcome the problem, keep your business alive and your employees and staffers employed.

So what to do?

I came across an interesting article about how the National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials keep their cool when they encounter mission and life-threatening glitches in a moon launch.

In an article in Business Insider, former NASA flight director Paul Hill explained what his team does in difficult situations. Hill had a high-stakes job managing 24 space shuttle and International Space Station missions for the program.

Hill, the author of “Leadership from the Mission Control Room to the Boardroom: A Guide to Unleashing Team Performance,” led the investigation into the 2003 Columbia disaster. He said NASA’s flight controllers employ certain strategies and thought processes to combat stress during crises. Those tactics came in handy during the 2001 incident, Hill pointed out.

With intense focus, flight controllers are able to deal with potentially catastrophic situations. Instead of “running down the halls with our hair on fire,” Hill said the team would focus on a series of questions:

• What was everything they knew — and did not know — about the situation at hand?
• What did the data actually say about the situation at hand?
• What was the worst thing that could happen as a result of the situation?
• Did the team have enough information to know for sure — and how could they get more information?
• What immediate steps could be taken to continue making progress in the mission or keep everyone safe?

Hill recounted that it’s important not to let past strategies or outcomes bias your understanding about a new crisis whether you’re flying people into space or launching your own business.

He explained that trouble occurs when a calamity happens and you feel the urge to say “No problem, I’ve been in this situation before. This is what we did the last three times. It’s always worked so I'm going to do it again.”

Past successes do not guarantee current or future successes.

Hill said that’s why he always tried to instill a bit of “fear” in his team members, lest they allow their past successes go to their heads.

“What we do today, the decision we make today, matters,” he said. “We have to look at this data and make the right decision and take the right action or make the right recommendation to protect these astronauts, these people who are friends of ours.”

You may not be preparing for the first manned Mars launch, but taking into consideration these NASA tips may help you and your team survive your earthbound complications.

Join the conversation in cyberspace about overcoming stress let me know how you fared. I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

If you’re in northern New Jersey, I’d like to direct your attention to the free services and consultation of the NJ Small Business Administration of Bergen County at Ramapo College. Tell Vince Vicari, executive director, that I sent you. https://www.njsbdc.com/locations/bergen-county/

Scroll down along the Boosting Your Outreach blogsite to read or reread older posts.

More Social Media Success Stories

If you are still harboring doubt about the viability of social media, here’s more proof directly from today’s headlines.

In an attempt to undermine the political structure of the United States, the Kremlin created a diabolical plot aimed at subverting the 2016 Presidential Elections with social media.

The plan was simple. An institution created content and information, and developed a foolproof plan of execution – the Internet. The formula is straightforward and one that I have been writing about for a while.

According to reports, Russia-linked accounts sent more than 1.4 million automated tweets about the US elections. Ultimately, to its credit, Twitter suspended these accounts. Furthermore, “fake information” posted on Facebook reached 126 million Americans – about one-third of the population.

Emphasizing how widely content on the social media platform can spread, Facebook said in prepared testimony it submitted Monday, October 30, to the Senate Judiciary Committee that while some 29 million Americans directly received material from 80,000 posts by 120 fake Russian-backed pages in their own news feeds, those posts were “shared, liked and followed by people on Facebook, and, as a result, three times more people may have been exposed to a story that originated from the Russian operation.”

Note what Facebook pointed out: share, like and follow. Content that you create and disseminate via Twitter or Facebook should be shared, liked, followed, or retweeted to win as many views and followers as possible. This means following this procedure 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

Posts from Russian-backed Facebook accounts from January 2015 to August 2017, by Facebook’s estimation, reached potentially half of the 250 million Americans who are eligible to vote. None of the 80,000 posts generated by fake Russian-backed pages includes the 3,000 Facebook advertisements purchased by Russian entities, according to others familiar with the issue.

The shared content that Facebook estimates reached 126 million Americans was likely hard, if not impossible, for users of the social media platform to identify as originating from Russia. But nonetheless it did appear in cyberspace.

Google said in a blogpost yesterday it has discovered 1,108 videos uploaded to its YouTube video site, which were viewed a total of 309,000 times in the U.S. from June 2015 to November 2016, by accounts linked to Russian operatives. The videos encompass 43 hours of content from 18 different English-language accounts, it said. In addition, Google said two accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency spent $4,700 on search and display ads during the 2016 elections.

Tech giants Facebook, Twitter and Google are expected to testify before Congress about Russian disinformation today and Wednesday.

Social media platforms are being vilified for falling prey to destructive Russian propaganda. Indeed, they weren’t careful. While oversight of their activity will not benefit the beneficial commercial and social interaction and intercourse on the Internet, their common task is to step up self-policing.

For small businesses and nonprofits, the lesson here is that social media works. As I have written, all you have to do is create a strategic plan about why you need to be involved in social media, develop content, build a community of followers, formulate a plan of execution and then fulfill it recurrently.

How will you tweet?

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business and outreach by using Twitter and social media and let me know your achievements. If you have examples of how you tweeted to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

If you’re in northern New Jersey, I’d like to direct your attention to this timely topic: Cyber Resilience seminar at Ramapo College, Ramapo, NJ. Wednesday, November 8. All day. Sponsored by NJ Small Business Administration of Bergen County and Small Business Administration. Admission Free. Registration Required. www.sbdcbergen.com

Scroll down along the Boosting Your Outreach blogsite to read or reread older posts.

Wanted, Social Media Manager – Are You Available 24/7?

Advice blogs and columns on how to do social media abound. You can’t open a professional website like Linked In without being inundated with articles about how to succeed in promoting your business or nonprofit organization via social media.

Many writers reposition colleagues’ thoughts by expanding the material with their observations, comments and experiences.

Recently, I came across a succinct opinion about what it means to be the manager of social media outreach that perfectly dovetailed my writings on the subject.

Jeff Bullas writing about “10 Essential Skills a Social Media Manager Needs to Have on Their Resume” on Linked In, noted that a decade ago social media wasn’t a profession and it didn’t even enjoy a job description. It barely had a definition. Facebook was a year old and social media marketing elicited perplexed expressions.

“Fast forward a decade and every organization must have a social media manager, whether full time or part time,” Bullas wrote.

Truer words about the effectiveness of social media and the responsibility of being a social media manager couldn’t have been written. The job of being a social media manager requires 24/7 attention to the cyber venue to ensure that your audience, customers and other interested parties are given every opportunity to learn about what you’re doing. Tepid dedication to social media can have damaging results.

Twitter is an incredible tool that can provide your brand, your small business or your civic organization with a voice and personality. Twitter can also work to turn you, the small businessperson – the owner, into a thought leader about what is happening in your industry and your sphere of interest. The benefit of such a distinction is that you will become the go-to-person for answers and advice on what’s happening.

To be successful in tweeting, you will have to develop your personality and a unique style. That’s what makes the difference and can increase your Twitter followers and turn tweeting into a successful marketing tool for you and your company. As a small business owner, your social media activity should engage the world in the conversation that you initiate.

As the leader of your organization, you are goal driven, growth driven or mission driven. You focus on the bigger picture of promoting your company, product, service, NGO or issue. Consequently, you have to delegate the social media job responsibility to a trusted associate. Just as bookkeeping or human resources, social media management is a full-time or at least part-time task.

In addition to content, successful tweets should include a link to your website and other websites, blog posts, PDF documents, photographs or videos for greater impact. By doing so, you direct the readers’ attention to more information about the topic of your expertise. If a picture is worth a thousand words, adding an image to a tweet greatly expands what you can share to beyond the 140-characters.

However, you can’t wake up one morning and tell yourself “I’ll start tweeting today.” You have to develop a plan and strategy about what you want to accomplish. Becoming a thought leader is a legitimate marketing goal for you as the proprietor. Making your company well known for its product or service is an equally legitimate marketing goal for your business. But as the business owner, you must remember not to overlook daily chores as you tweet.

You can’t build your business by keeping to yourself and you surely cannot have success on social media without virtually shaking hands. You have to get out of your niche and interact. You should tweet the same information several times a day with slight differences. You have to invite readers to join your conversation and you have to participate in conversations. You should also follow likeminded people, similar businesses and vendors, common industries, and supportive stakeholders, like their tweets and retweet their tweets. Their followers and readers may become your followers and readers. This builds your community and recognition in Twittersphere. If you don’t interact with the world, the world, your potential clients and prospective supporters will leave you by the side of the cyber-road.

As Bullas noted, social media managers “need to be like a juggler at a circus and keep a lot of balls up in the air and make them all land safely. It requires skillsets which means managing many moving parts. Technical, analytical, creative with a bit of project management thrown in.”

Because tweeting and retweeting are never ending, managing the space is almost a 24/7 job. There’s always someone awake in Twittersphere – nearby or far away. It means monitoring, managing, updating and being inspired by the clients, advocates and other sources and addressing the issues raised.

Among the skills needed to do the job are:

1. Strategy planning

2. Tactics and execution – when to tweet or retweet

3. Community creation and management

4. Create content

5. Understand how content works on a social web

6. Optimizing content and technology

7. Creative mindset

8. Writing skills in a limited word count

9. Be on top of the latest digital marketing trends – which venue to use

10. Analytical skills – how to read SEO

11. Leadership and communication skills – internally and externally

It’s a major commitment and investment on the part of business and NGO management that should not be underestimated.

How will you tweet?

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business and outreach by using Twitter and social media and let me know your achievements. If you have examples of how you tweeted to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Scroll down along the Boosting Your Outreach blogsite to read or reread older posts.

I’d like to direct your attention to this timely topic: Cyber Resilience at Ramapo College, Ramapo, NJ. Wednesday, November 8. All Day. Sponsored by NJ Small Business Administration of Bergen County and Small Business Administration. Admission Free. Registration Required. www.sbdcbergen.com

Twitter: Powerful Tool to Reach out to Your Marketplace

Twitter users who haven’t yet mastered getting their point across in 140 characters, have no fear, you will soon have the ability to say twice as much in one tweet.

Twittersphere has been abuzz with news that Twitter is experimenting with expanding its character limit for each tweet.

The social media venue announced last month that the test would start with small groups of users in various languages including English. In a blog post, Twitter product manager Aliza Rosen and senior software engineer Ikuhiro Ihara said the test would not be available in languages like Japanese, in which expressing longer sentiments in fewer characters is easier.

Twitter users have frequently complained about the limited amount of space available for each tweet, and have begged for an expansion for years. It takes time and effort to become proficient in the art of saying something pithy or salient in 140 characters. Last year, Twitter reportedly considered expanding to a 10,000-character limit, which could have dramatically changed the way people use the service, but that idea was ultimately abandoned. Then, in the meantime, Twitter unveiled a new handy feature that makes it easier to avoid exceeding the 140-character limit by no longer counting additional media against that total, such as photos, videos and GIFs.

Indeed, now you can use all 140 characters and add an image without being forced to reduce your word count.

While Twitter’s efficacy and charm as users compose quaint abbreviations has been in its brevity, its other feature has also contributed to its virtually universal usage in all languages – swiftness. You can quickly tell the whole world about something good or bad, beneficial or detrimental. You can launch a new project or offer a new product or service by merely pressing “send.” You can monitor what is being said about you as well.

Given its universality, Twitter has surpassed other media as the source of information or news about any topic.

Markandey Katju, former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, opined in his blog that historically media arose in Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries as an organ of the people against feudal oppression. Then, all the organs of power were in the hands of the feudal authorities, and so the people had to create new organs to represent their interests. The media, which was at the time only the print media, became a powerful organ in the hands of the people to fight against feudalism. The media represented the voice of the future, as contrasted to the feudal organs which wanted to preserve the status quo.

Today, Twitter represents the voice of the people and many powerful and average people tweet to get their thoughts out before the media spin it in another direction. Just read President Trump’s voluminous daily tweets.

As I have noted in the past, Twitter is a powerful tool for reaching out across the street, marketplace or ocean. It is too powerful to be left to the whims of teenagers.

Twitter has become a valuable platform for online communication and, yes, conversation. TechCrunch reported that Twitter is receiving 8 million unique visitors per month and about 500 million messages are posted daily. So your potential audience is incredibly vast.

Twitter is a fantastic tool to provide your brand and your small business with a voice and personality. Twitter can also work to turn you, the small businessperson – the owner, into a thought leader about what is happening in your industry. The benefit of such a distinction is that you will become the go-to-person for answers and advice on what’s happening. Consequently, the small business’ sales team will then be in a better position to sell.

Being successful in tweeting, you will have to develop your personality and a unique style. That’s what makes the difference and can increase your Twitter following and turn it into a successful marketing tool for you and your company.

Social media platforms have emerged as popular marketing channels for small businesses, according to G2 Crowd’s poll. It revealed that 80% of respondents used Facebook for marketing purposes, while 51% turned to Twitter. While both are good while serving distinct purposes, I tend to favor Twitter because with Facebook you deal with an audience that you’ve allowed to enter your space. With Twitter, you have access to far more people and they have access to you. Your messages have the potential to reach a greater audience.

To succeed in social media or Twitter marketing, you must create a topic, build an audience and invite the world to join your conversation. It’s about talking to your prospects and consumers, interacting with them. If you are not going to do this, don’t use Twitter as a marketing tool, it simply won’t work. Make friends, be a friend and reply. Show your followers that you want to engage and be involved with them – this provides ideal customer service and states that you are, in fact, personable.

For every business, the usage is different. In general, you want to find the optimum spot between what your target audience wants to hear and things that promote your business. For many businesses, the answer is to focus on how your products and services benefit your customers.

Give people useful information and answer their questions, and they will consider you a valuable member of their community – a thought leader. That’s an important first step to winning a new customer.

As a small business owner, engage the world in the conversation, but don’t sell. Let your sales team sell.

Successful tweets should include a link to your website and other websites, blog posts, PDF document, photograph or video for greater impact. By doing so, you direct the readers’ attention to more information about the topic of your expertise. If a picture is worth a thousand words, adding an image to a tweet greatly expands what you can share to beyond the 140-characters.

However, you can’t wake up one morning telling yourself “I’ll start tweeting today.” You have to develop a plan and strategy about what you want to accomplish. Becoming a thought leader is a legitimate marketing goal for you as the proprietor. Making your company well known for its product or service is an equally legitimate marketing goal for your business. But as the business owner, you must remember not to overlook your daily chores as you tweet.

You can’t build your business by keeping to yourself and you surely cannot have success on social media without virtually shaking hands. You have to get out of your bubble and interact. You should tweet the same information several times with slight differences. You have to invite readers to join your conversation and you have to participate in conversations. You should also follow likeminded people, similar businesses and vendors, and common industries, like their tweets and retweet their tweets. Their followers and readers may become your followers and readers. This builds your recognition in Twittersphere. If you don’t interact with the world, the world will leave you by the side of the road.

Twitter suggests that businesses follow what it calls the 80/20 principle. That means that 80% of your tweets should focus on driving interactions with your followers, using retweets, replies, and favorites. Once you’ve built a rapport with your network, you can start to mix in direct offers or promotions that get followers to take actions, such as clicking on a link or making a purchase from your website. If you push too much, too soon, your followers will abandon you.

Use hashtags “#” that focus on keywords or buzzwords that are used in your industry and also Twitter handles “@” that direct your thoughts to specific people, companies, vendors and industries. This requires that you spend time researching both tools.

Don’t underestimate the benefits of hashtags and handles. I have solicited responses from corporate giants like Kelly Services, Burger King and United Airlines with my tweets targeted at them. I have also solicited likes and retweets from strangers with my thoughts that aroused their favor – or ire. With the open, wild-west nature of twittersphere, where trolls can hide behind every hashtag, you should be prepared to encounter proponents as well as opponents.

Tweeting is serious business that must be treated seriously. Your usage will signal your seriousness as a businessperson. If you have time, learn it and do it yourself. If not, learn it and assign it to a staff member but monitor it the activity.

How will you tweet?

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business and outreach by using Twitter and social media and let me know your thoughts. If you have examples of how you tweeted to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Scroll down on the Boosting Your Outreach blogsite to read or reread older posts.

Another Example of Twitter’s Effectiveness as Outreach Tool

Are there any more “doubting Thomases” about Twitter’s effectiveness as an outreach tool for non-profits and small businesses?

I have written on this topic in several Boosting Your Outreach blogs. Tweeting and social media are powerful marketing tools that shouldn’t be left in the hands of frivolous youth. Social media allow business owners and civil society advocates to make contact with customers and stakeholders. And, most importantly, in many cases you can expect a reply or reaction even from a large entity.

Here’s another example.

A couple of weeks ago, while out for a brisk morning walk, I spotted a tattered American flag fluttering in the wind outside a local Burger King. I was annoyed. Why was Burger King disrespecting Old Glory?

So I took a photo and composed a terse tweet about what I saw.

On September 11 I tweeted: Burger King should teach store managers to respect Stars & Stripes and not display torn flags. Palisade Ave @CliffsidePark @BurgerKing

I used the appropriate Twitter handles “@” for the town and the fast food restaurant so that my tweet gets as many as possible views. I included my photo of the flag.

A little more than a week later I was pleased to see that a clean, new flag replaced the tattered one. I decided to compose another tweet about the correction not only to express my thanks to Burger King but also to spur a conversation and create a sense of community. My latter considerations are key goals of tweeting.

On September 20 I tweeted: Notes by @Twitter work. Earlier I tweeted pix of torn US flag by @BurgerKing in @CliffsidePark NJ. BK read msg and raised new one. Thanks.

Again, I used the appropriate Twitter handles to attract followers of Burger King and Cliffside Park. I also thanked the restaurant chain for heeding my message.

Start a Twitter campaign about your small business or NGO. You can’t lose. But you can surely succeed. You’ll need to practice writing composition to get your message and targets, Twitter handles and hashtags within the 140-character limit.

Photo on the left shows the torn flag and the one on the right, the new flag.

How will you use tweeting?

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business and outreach by using Twitter and social media and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you tweeted to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

Something for Free

I recently found a list of 199 amazing free or cheap online tools for nonprofits – and perhaps small businesses – from Wildapricot.com. Take a look and see if they can help your organization.

https://www.wildapricot.com/articles/199-free-or-cheap-online-nonprofit-tools

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Scroll down on the Boosting Your Outreach blogsite to read or reread older posts.

Texting is also a Useful Business Instrument

In the past, I have written that social media is a powerful tool that shouldn’t be relegated to adolescent whims. Small business owners and non-governmental organizations can and should use them according to their needs.

Another so-called teenage cyber toy that fits this category is texting. Youth is incessantly texting quickly regardless of what else is happening around them. Texting is also an advantageous business tool. However, there are so dos and don’ts.

Business or official texting is just what it sounds like. It’s texting as a business or a non-profit, as one cohesive unit. It’s like texting your friends and family members but with your organization built for an office.

Business owners and NGO leaders will probably use a computer more than a phone for business texting, mostly because you’re probably sitting at a desk when you’re at work. The computer’s also easier to use for the average business owner or civic activist.

The communications tools at your disposal include company phone, company email and company text number. And you’ve assigned one person to monitor all three tools.

Since everyone is texting, businesses and NGOs should also text on behalf of their companies.

“As long as actual humans are manning text conversations – just like you would normally text with anyone – then you’re good to go,” according to Kenneth Burke of TextRequest.com.

We’ave gotten so used to the concept of texting that your customers, members or stakeholders would rather text than call.

Burke further observed: “Nobody wants to be left on hold. As of a couple years ago, 89% of consumers wanted another customer service option. Most people these days don’t answer phone calls. And people respond to texts in about 90 seconds, on average.”

For many of us, business texting is a welcome option. While we and our associates won’t drop other forms of communication, Burke continued, “Reports show that people enjoy having it as an option, whether they need to reach a business or the business needs to reach them.”

Furthermore, due to the high rate of response, your return on investment in a texting system is quite high.

Texting, a very flexible tool, can be used to communicate with another person, business associate, civic leader, team, employee, client, sympathizer, elected official or stakeholder. You can text one person or you can create groups for multiple recipients.

Its most powerful use is the “push” concept of driving your audience and followers to your websites for new and updated information about your activities in order to boost your outreach.

Here’s a short list of what small businesses and NGOs can use business texting for:

• Generating leads
• Boosting mobile engagement
• Following up with leads
• Customer service and support
• Closing sales
• Confirmations
• Internal / employee communications
• Collections and accounts receivable
• Scheduling, rescheduling, and confirming appointments
• Check-ins (sales, customer success, etc.)
• Membership solicitations or renewals
• Meeting announcements or rallies
• Fundraising campaigns
• Website updates
• New blog posts
• New civil initiatives and projects
• Reactions and replies to common issues
• Initiate a conversation with clients and stakeholders

Something for Free

I recently found a list of 199 amazing free or cheap online tools for nonprofits – and perhaps small businesses – from Wildapricot.com. Take a look and see if they can help your organization.

https://www.wildapricot.com/articles/199-free-or-cheap-online-nonprofit-tools

How will you use texting?

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business by using business texting and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you used business texting and social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Scroll down on the Boosting Your Outreach blogsite to read or reread older posts.

Australian NGO Cares for Small Biz Owners’ Mental Health

If you own a small business anywhere in the world, you understand why you and your colleagues have trouble falling asleep.

You’re under stress 24/7. Even if you’re successful, you’re stressed. You worry if you’ll be successful tomorrow. This does not bode well for your physical and mental health.

I recently came across an article about an Australian NGO whose mission is to reach out to small business owners and simply ask “Are you OK?”

Jaelea Skehan, director of the Hunter Institute of Mental Health, speaking at the National Small Business Summit in Melbourne about small business and mental health, described the great effort by the members of R U OK – http://RUOK.org.au

Introducing her discussion about R U OK, Skehan rhetorically asked “are our small business owners and workers OK? And if they’re not, what are we going to do about that?”

Small businesses are a valuable commodity in America and elsewhere. According to the US Census Bureau, there more than 28.8 million small businesses with 56.8 million employees across the country. The Small Business Administration found that about two-thirds of businesses with employees survive at least two years and about half survive at least five years.

In other words, in five years your neighbor’s business can fail and its employees will be out of a job.

Small businesses and their owners fulfill a major role in our national economy as well the neighborhood. In addition to employing fellow Americans and providing goods and services they offer humanitarian and civic initiatives such as sponsoring the local Little League baseball team.

Skehan wrote: “But there are a number of unique risk factors faced by small business owners, which can result in poor mental health, poor general health, family conflict and feelings of isolation.

“These can include financial pressures, high work demands and long work hours, market variability and disruption, and a tendency not to prioritize self-care over the business bottom line – including many who go to work even when they are sick, stress and tired.

“A considerable amount of small business operators work from home or on their own, many are mobile, a large number live and operate in rural areas and many have English as their second language.”

The pressure is enough to keep even the most stalwart, steely small businessmen and women on edge.

In Australia, the R U OK movement is dedicated to reminding business people and consumers to check in regularly with family, friends, colleagues and the people around. And how many times have you thought about reaching out to someone in small business.

Skehan explained that “R U OK is about strengthening our relationships and bridging the gap between caring about someone, and letting them know that you are there for them when they need it.

“So if you know someone in small business, and especially if you know they have been doing it tough, why not reach out and start a conversation?”

Sounds like public service announcements about looking in on the elderly and infirmed during inclement weather or health alert days, doesn’t it? The deleterious outcomes could be the same.

“If you are in small business, why not reach out to a peer and start a conversation? If there is one thing I have learned from 20 years working in mental health and suicide prevention, it’s that small acts can indeed make a big difference,” Skehan said.

She suggested the following four steps to asking R U OK?

Step one: Start the conversations – ask R U OK? To be honest, use any words that you feel comfortable with.

Step two: Listen without judgment and don’t try to solve the problem. Just be there.

Step three: Encourage action, whether that is telling someone else or making an appointment with their doctor or getting more information from a service online.

Step four: Check-in. Follow-up with them again tomorrow at work or put a note in your diary to call them in one week.

This is a worthy project for civil society that is involved with mental health or not as well as small businesses. Check in on your colleagues and neighbors.

You can also visit the SBA.gov website or the Small Business Development Center. They’re located in towns and counties across the country. Each office has free information and advice on business and other important questions. I stay in touch the New Jersey Small Business Development Center – https://www.njsbdc.com/ – that is hosted by Ramapo College. Ask for Vincent Vicari, regional director. They may offer you insights.

Send your examples

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business by looking in on your colleagues and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you used social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Align SDGs and Your Business – It’s a Win:Win

Whether or not the business climate is good or bad, aligning your company with the Sustainable Development Goals is good for your business. Why? Most of society, millennials, your customers would like to see you grow your business by abiding by the generally accepted UN sustainability guidelines.

Stories and advice about the benefits of applying sustainable development principles to your businesses can be found without much effort. Truthfully, advantages of such a noteworthy combination are visible everywhere.

Major industry leaders have projected that by putting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the center of the world’s economic strategy could unleash a major change in growth and productivity, with an investment boom in sustainable infrastructure as a critical driver. However, this will not happen without a radical change in the business and investment community, in its mindset and thought leadership.

For cutting-edge businesses with leaders that comprehend the advantages of this type of thought leadership, this pro-civilization orientation could offer significant outreach opportunities.

Unilever, a diversified food manufacturer, that conducted an analysis of this evolution, also noted that radical change is imperative for the benefits to accrue to businesses and humanity.

Among the required steps is real leadership – thought leadership – for the private sector to become a trusted partner in working with government and civil society to fix the economy.

The Business & Sustainable Development Commission is convinced that the SDGs provide the private sector with a new growth strategy that opens valuable market opportunities while creating a world that is both sustainable and inclusive. And the potential rewards for doing so are significant, the commission noted.

The report reveals 60 sustainable and inclusive market “hotspots” in four key economic areas – energy, cities, food and agriculture, and health and wellbeing – that could create at least $12 trillion, worth more than 10% of today’s GDP. These hotspots have the potential to grow two to three times faster than average GDP over the next 10–15 years.

The value and anticipated extent of growth cannot by belittled by the business world – even the skeptics.

I had “participated” in a valuable webinar on the sustainability-business connection called “Leading the Way to Sustainability” sponsored by the China European International Business School of Shanghai. Conducted by Prof. Lydia Price, director of the Euro-China Center on Leadership and Responsibilities, the webinar demonstrated that paying attention to sustainability is in the best of interest of businesses.

Price said insurmountable evidence shows that businesses should adopt sustainable principles now by balancing financial results with social performance. Repeating the oft-heard crucial word “leadership,” she emphasized that business leaders must champion this new arrangement.

Price indicated that sustainable businesses will succeed only with strong leadership and built-in strategies.

If businesses reject building these principles into their business plans, then consumers and other stakeholders won’t pay attention to their goods and services because sustainability is quickly enveloping all segments of the world. Indeed, she noted, consumers, patrons and average citizens have already accepted its principles. Those consumers and other stakeholders have numerous media through which they can reveal to the world that one or another business is damaging rain forests or refusing to live up to the 17 SDGs, Price warned. Their unambiguous message will be “don’t buy from XYZ Inc.”

It’s not smarter to be a sustainability follower, waiting for others to show the way, she counseled, it’s better to be a leader and take advantage of the opportunities.

“Sustainability investments yield positive financial returns and they reap large rewards,” Price said.

She urged business leaders to strategically align sustainability with their business plans and fully embed it in the company’s strategies, processes and practices.

“Sustainability can create value by reducing costs, growing margins and building business,” Price elaborated.

Sustainability in a business environment works best when it flows in both directions from the top and bottom, she said, and also when management rewards employees for following through with such policies.

Price’s observations tended to focus on big businesses so I asked her about small businesses. Can entrepreneurs also benefit from embracing sustainability? She concurred. Large and small businesses, in concert with civil society, can certainly benefit from this global tidal wave.

However, they should tweak their approaches.

Price said when she speaks with NGOs, she suggests that they try to align their work and their language with a simpler framework so that business leaders can better understand their priorities and needs.

“I often find that NGOs use legal or environmental language that executives may find difficult to follow. This is one reason why sustainability is delegated to specialist departments in large organizations, which inhibits the value to business. If NGOs and large companies spoke the same language, I think we would have more productive collaborations,” she opined.

Regarding business risks and opportunities, Price said it is particularly relevant for entrepreneurs and small businesses to think about sustainable ways of leveraging resources or tapping markets.

“The notion of a ‘circular economy’ is that our current industrial systems generate ‘waste products’ with productive value that can be exploited. I mentioned a technology startup that is trying to make cement using readily available carbon as an example. Similarly, many social entrepreneurs look for ways to offer productive employment to special needs workers, who are undervalued in today’s economy.  To summarize, a ‘no waste’ sustainable economy would generate value from these neglected resources,” Price observed alluding to a few of the 17 SDGs. 

“Entrepreneurs can also look for ways to tap underserved markets with new and better goods and services. Natural food and cosmetics companies (e.g., Brazil’s Natura), for example, are experiencing high growth as buyers seek healthy lifestyles.”

In other words, sustainability is not merely a theoretical concept with limited applications in the real world but one that can provide all businesses and civil society with opportunities that will benefit them as well as civilization.

By hitching your wagon to the sustainable development goals, your businesses and NGOs will garner promotional mileage. Tell the world about it. That will certainly boost your outreach. As I have written in the past, use all forms of social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc., to promote your decision and projects. Follow the “sustainable,” “SDG” and “Agenda2030” communities with appropriate hashtags, join existing conservations and initiate your own. Share your point of view by reaching out to likeminded stakeholders, explain your success, build followers, think outside the box, and become thought leaders about sustainability and business.

Tell your local government officials and other stakeholders about this important issue. Take photographs of your meetings and post them on Facebook and other sites. Traditional media outreach with press releases is also helpful in this effort because it can neatly tie all traditional and cyber efforts into an understandable package that talks about your business.

Combing sustainability and business is fast becoming a vital business activity. NGOs can play an important role be explaining the principles to entrepreneurs and developing a common language.

Another excellent resource on sustainability and business is your local Small Business Administration and the Small Business Development Center. They’re located in towns and counties across the country. Each office has free information and advice on business applications of sustainability and other important questions. I visit the New Jersey Small Business Development Center that is hosted by Ramapo College. Ask for Vincent Vicari, regional director.

Send your examples

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you used social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/