Join us at the Prince William Association of Realtors to learn about ways to connect with businesses and community leaders using social media.
Grow your business using social media marketing.
Core Impact Consulting, Inc will be sharing tips and strategies for using blogging for business results.
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Learn what your business needs to know NOW to survive 2009, at our Business Survival Solutions Workshop on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 from 8:30am to 11:30am at the Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce. Registration is at 8:30am and seating is limited to the first 20 people who rsvp. You can reserve your seat now by calling 540 – 937- 7445 or by visiting:
https://www.regonline.com/63383_755428J
The cost of the workshop is $25 per person. During the Workshop You Will:
- Learn how to immediately increase your bottom line by surgically cutting costs, increasing profit margin, adding revenue, and bringing in new customers FAST!
- Learn How To Move Fast to Get More Profit From Everything You Do!
- Be given the tools to create the most cost effective, influential online presence for your business!
When You Leave the Workshop You Will Have at Least Four Strategies You Can Immediately Implement in Your Business to Cut Costs, Capture More Sales, and Increase Your Profits!
A Program of Core Impact Consulting Held at the Offices of the Region’s Chamber.
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1. What is Social Media Marketing for Businesses?
Social Media Marketing for Businesses is the application and use of Social Media tools such as Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. to market ones business. It is connecting with clients, customers and users on a personal, yet professional level and allowing them to have direct access to your “voice”. Social Media Marketing business application is to make “Connections” and not just “Transactions”!
2. What is the business application for Facebook, Twitter, and/or Linked In?
There are over 400 Million users of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It is safe to say that a portion of your target market are on one or all of these tools right now. Facebook has the largest following and is entrenched as the number one social media tool in the market place. Your business needs a Facebook page because that is where you customers are going and trust to gain and share information. Twitter is the newest tool utilizing micro-blogging. Twitter is the fastest growing social media marketing tool and is the quickest way to gain access to what your customers are talking about right now. LinkedIn is the professional’s social media marketing tool, with bios looking more like resumes and the purpose is to connect with companies and peers within the same industries. It has become common practice for law firms, banks, etc. to have business LinkedIn pages, linking to their officers and employees.
3. What is the number one challenge faced with a business website?
The number one challenge that business owners with a traditional website face is that the content is static. Meaning it’s not easily updated or changeable. You must contact your web developer to make any changes and those changes will not only take time, but they will inevitably cost money. Thus, this creates rather large barriers in order for you to have consistently updated content.
4. What is the number one challenge faced with a Business Blog?
There are two very difficult challenges to overcome with a business blog. The first is overcoming the impulse to market, market, market as you would on your website or with a advertisement in a newspaper. People do not want to see that on a blog, whether it is for a business or not. They are their to connect, get answers, and leave comments. For a business blog, it is difficult to grasp this new concept, “the purpose of your business blog is to have conversations with your target market about your business, your interest and theirs just as if you were sitting down and having a cup of coffee with them”. The second challenge with a business blog is sticking with it and posting new articles each week. The posts themselves are very easy once you realize that throughout each work day, you could write over a dozen blog posts about the daily occurrences, questions that you are asked or experiences that happen. But you have to stick with it. People will constantly revisit your blog if you have new posts. If the site remains stagnate, you will loose your readership. This has always been the number one flaw of standard static websites, and can easily become the flaw of your blog if you simply let it stay idle.
5. Why do I need Twitter?
There are several reasons why you need twitter, here are a few 1.) It’s free and its use is unlimited. 2.) The updates are real time and thus people receive information immediately 3.) You are the voice of the messages so the information is reliable and trustworthy.
6. Blogs have been around for years, what makes them so necessary now?
Blogs are becoming more and more necessary because the internet has shifted from being a “content consumer” driven world to a “content produced” driven world. Anyone has the opportunity to have a blog up in a manner of minutes and produce content for the whole world to see. This is also where the content shifts from being static to being dynamic and you are able to change all of your content in a manner of minutes without having a web developer do it for you and with no costs.
7. If I start using social media will my privacy be compromised?
Yes and no. You are in control of what you put out there. If you don’t use discretion in what personal information you post then yes your privacy can be compromised. However, if you use discretion and you block your private information from the public there is virtually no risk involved.
8. I am just getting started with my business, do I need to integrate social media into my marketing plan or should I wait?
You should start integrating it now! It doesn’t matter if your business is 10 years old or 10 days old, getting 
started with this new form of marketing will only position your business for better growth. In fact, Social Media Marketing allows most new businesses the ability to grow with very little costs in comparison to traditional marketing which has high fees and often little results.
9. What’s the purpose of having a blog if I already have a successful website?
There are many reasons for creating a blog, even if you already have a successful website. The first would be to voice your “expertise” in the field that your business is in. Managing a business blog allows people to read about your knowledge and opinion, thus validating your experience and having better trust in the business as a whole. Another reason is it inadvertently increases your search engine optimization. There really isn’t a reason to not have a business blog.
10. I don’t want to participate in social media marketing. If I don’t will it eventually hurt my business?
It’s hard to say right now, but as each month passes Social Media Marketing continues to grow and remains a strong part of the internet and business world. However, we can say that the internet has been forever changed and if you don’t eventually adapt to having dynamic, easily update-able information on the internet then over time you will lose business.
Leave a Comment » | Small Business | Tagged: blogging, business, business blog, connections, facebook, linkedin, privacy, relationships, social media marketing, twitter, website vs. blog | Permalink
Posted by coreimpact
With the Internet, people have access to your business from all parts of the globe at all hours of the day and night. Does your marketing strategy include providing something of value to that global marketplace? If not, why not? Let me ask you - what would it take to sell to the world?
If you are not asking these questions of yourself and your business – I have some ‘tough love’ news for you – your competition is in the process of putting it into passing gear and getting ready to leave you in their dust. They will be waving at you as they look at your shocked face in their rear view mirror.
To Compete Globally You Need to Think Quite Differently Than You Have Before
“Be foolish; break the rules; be impractical; get out of your box; look for wrong answers; seek ambiguity; make mistakes; and set your creative self free!”
All great advice from a master of creative thinking -Roger von Oech’s book, author of “A Whack on the Side of the Head”. Roger has worked with almost every Fortune 500 Company you can imagine as a creative consultant. His clients include Coca-Cola, Sony, Microsoft, CBS, Apple and Disney – just to name a few.
Discovery is the ability to look at the same thing as everyone else & think something differently. To take your business from local to regional to nationwide to global will require you to think quite differently. Today let’s learn from three of my favorite tips from the book “A Whack on the Side of the Head”:
1. Look for the second right answer. “Often, it is the second right answer which, although off-beat or unusual, is exactly what you need to solve a problem in an innovative way,” says von Oech. Instead of asking yourself, “What is the answer?” he suggests that you train yourself to ask questions that solicit plural answers, like what are the answers?
For example, in thinking about marketing your business globally, you might ask yourself, “What are the best big ideas that will make this promotion a blockbuster success?” Out of those many ideas, you’ll find the best big idea for your promo. It’s like being a photographer who takes 100 or 200 pictures so he can pick out one or two great photos.
2. Challenge the rules. Simply put, you’re going to look at all the marketing of your business rules you’ve learned/used and challenge them. Pick them apart. As von Oech writes, “Creative thinking is not only constructive, it’s also destructive.” For example, Einstein broke the rules of Newtonian physics with his theory of relativity. In swimming, the butterfly stroke came about after swimmers “broke the rules” on how to swim the breaststroke.
You’re going to do the same with your marketing – maybe you decide that half of your promotion is going to consist of testimonials instead of body copy. Or, you decide not to use a headline. Whatever it is, challenge convention. Legendary copywriter Jim Rutz challenged the rules of traditional direct mail when he made his promotion look like a magazine instead of using the tried-and-true sales letter. The result was a smashing success and he helped create a wildly successful direct-mail format that’s still in use today.
3. Cross-fertilization. As von Oech writes, “Every culture, industry, discipline, department, and organization has its own metaphors, models, methodologies, and short cuts for dealing with problems. But often the best ideas come from cutting across disciplinary boundaries and look into other fields for new ideas.”
To give an example, in response to a question from von Oech, Apple CEO Steve Jobs answered as follows: ”I went to Reed College in Portland. At Reed, most of the men took modern dance classes from a woman named Judy Massey. We did it to meet the women. I didn’t realize how much I learned about movement and perception from that class until a few years later when I worked for Nolan Bushnell at Atari. I was able to relate how much resolution of movement you need in terms of perceiving things for video games.”
Apply these three strategies as you think about marketing to a more global marketplace. They will help you develop that breakthrough idea your customer’s want and need. Best of all, you’ll be generating primo idea after idea — thrilling your customers with big results and delighting yourself with even bigger paychecks. And — you will be positioned to go global!
Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities — always see them, for they’re always there.” ~ Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
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As blogs are quickly regaining their popularity and being seen as a key tool for businesses around the world and not just artsy, self absorbed writers who like to listen to their own thoughts about politics, consumerism, and the like, we would like to remind you to… Exercise Your Power of Influence with Passion through the simple medium of blog posting.
I know, you’re thinking wow that was a little intense, but seriously if you are operating a blog for business purposes how often are your posts about influencing, educating and opening up the floodgates of your passion? You need 
to get back to the main point and purpose of facilitating a business blog and the bottom line shouldn’t be about money. It should be about giving your readers something valuable to read that will show them that you truly are passionate about what you do and you truly care about the people reading your words, not just about the next $1 they will spend on your products or services.
The other day I had the joy of meeting a new client of ours, his name as he likes to be called is Dr. C. Dr. C owns and operates a Chiropractic office called ACT WELLNESS in Woodbridge, Northern Virginia. So, 
we sat down for a meeting this past Wednesday about his companies Vision and Business Strategy and boy was I blown away by this man’s passion for his work and his passion for educating people on chiropractic health. The meeting was actually the first initial step in setting up his own blog (we are in the process of building him a blog as a supplemental tool to his website). The great thing about Dr. C is that he wasn’t concerned about how his blog will increase his SEO or bring in more business or anything having to do with money (although inadvertently it will). He was just excited to have a tool that would allow him to write about his passion for Chiropractic Health and share it with his clients, consumers and people around the world.
I tell you, sitting down and talking with Dr. C was truly an enlightening experience. It reminded me why I we Core Impact Consulting to begin with and it was because we have a passion for helping people pursue their dreams of owning and operating a successful business. It’s the American Dream to own your own business and it’s our goal to help them do it successfully.
So remember to Exercise Your Power of Influence with Passion the next time you write a blog post. Sharing your knowledge will not only educate them, but influence them to make better, more informed decisions about life. And isn’t it time we all worked towards making life a little bit better for everyone.
Resources, commentary and thoughts by: Scott Stay
Written by: Melissa Perea
1 Comment | Branding, Consulting, Small Business, USP, blogging, passion, vision | Tagged: Act Wellness Chiropractic, blog posting, Business Strategy, Dreams, Education, exercise, Knowledge, passion, vision | Permalink
Posted by coreimpact
Today, I read an article entitled, “The Most Engaged Brands On The Web”. All in all it was a great article and definitely gave an enormous amount of information to absorb regarding the top 10 movers and shakers in the Social Media world. Starbucks holding the #1 spot and Dell (surprising), Ebay and Google trailing closely behind.
However, I must say that while the article was interesting and informative Erick Schonfeld the writer made a comment that I would have to say I greatly disagree with. He stated the following as he was bringing his thoughts to an end..
“The “mavens” (examples: starbucks, google, ebay) saw revenues grow an average of 18 percent over the past 12 months, while the Wallflowers (examples: McDonalds and BP) saw revenues drop 6 percent. I really doubt that their level of social media engagement had anything to do with their revenue growth, it is just that the strongest brands are the most engaged.”
… to be honest I thought this insight was completely, let’s see, how shall I put it… wrong? With all of the recent studies, groups and marketing efforts showing the massive growth of Social Media in direct comparison to business’s growth in revenue, wouldn’t you agree with the exact opposite of what Erick had to say. I know I do. I cannot tell you how many Meet Up groups I go to and all I hear is how great Social Media has helped their business and how much their sales have gone up and etc. etc. etc. I mean who knows maybe they are all a bunch of liars just trying to ride the Social Media buzz train, but when you are comparing 2 giant corporations such as McDonald’s and Starbucks you would have to think that an 18% rise with Starbucks revenues and a 6% decrease in McDonald’s and then having them both on opposite ends of the Social Media involvement scale would make you logically think, “Hey McDonald’s should get more involved.” Am I wrong?
Some other obvious factors to consider as well would be that while McDonald’s doesn’t rapidly shut down dozens of their stores or decrease their operating hours, I find myself consistently driving up to a dark and empty Starbucks at 930pm on a Friday night and thinking dang their closed already. No wonder they saw an 18% increase in revenues, they have half the operating costs and half the payroll to configure and now there is just longer lines to wait in since Starbucks is now only on every other corner instead of every corner. Plus holding that latte looks a lot sexier then holding that 3000 calorie Big Mac with cheese. You know its true, no one WANTS to be seen eating McDonald’s, but everyone wants to be seen holding that mermaid emblem. Go figure.
Written by: Melissa Perea
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Social Media
Learn what your business needs to know NOW about Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter! Join us for a Social Media Marketing Workshop on July 31st, 2009 from 8:30am to 11:00am at the Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce. Registration is at 8:00am and seating is limited to the first 20 people who rsvp. You can reserve your seat now by calling 540 – 937- 7445 or by visiting:
https://www.regonline.com/63383_755428J
The cost of the workshop is $25 per person.
During the workshop you will learn:
When you walk out the door, you will have the knowledge and tools necessary to dramatically increase you and your business’s internet presence through SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING!
Leave a Comment » | Small Business | Tagged: blogging, business, connect, facebook, marketing, Small Business, Social Media, social media marketing, twitter, twitter backgrounds, website | Permalink
Posted by coreimpact
So I realize that I have not been tweeting as much as I should be and even more so I have not been reading other peoples tweets as much as I should be. To be honest, the whole Twitter world is rather overwhelming. I feel that many people are joining just because everyone else is, but there not using it to their advantage because they don’t know how. I have been knee deep in twitter for the last several months and I am still trying to figure it all out. So if your just starting out and you feel like your lost in a labyrinth, don’t worry your not alone.
Since the world of Social Media, especially Twitter, is all about communicating, connecting and helping; I figured I would share what I have learned so far and help all of you beginners out there get started. Hopefully my Ten Tips for Twitter will bring you a little sanity in a rather insane world.
TEN TIPS FOR TWITTER:
1. Get a twitter background. This will make your twitter account standout. Whether your profile is for business or personal it will add that special touch. You can do this by going here : Twitter Backgrounds
2. When tweeting make sure you shorten any links to articles or posts that you want to share by using a url shortening application. There are literally dozens out there, but for simplicity we are just going to recommend one bit.ly. You have probably seen these letters all over twitter or other letters similar to it. The purpose for shortening is so that the link is small enough to fit inside the 140 character maximum. Also using this will allow you to track who clicks on your link and how much traffic you receive. Its pretty awesome.
3. This one may seem obvious, but you won’t believe the hundreds of people who don’t have a twitter
profile picture. Too often I see a brown box with little circles. Please upload a picture already, the whole point of Social Media is to connect with PEOPLE.
4. Read other tweets. I know I am guilty of tweeting over and over again without giving other peoples tweets the time of day. So give them the time of day. I am sure it will come back to you in some way, think Karma : )
5. Don’t let Twitter run your life. Set aside some time each morning say 30 minutes when your still sipping on that latte from Starbucks and tweet something useful, interesting and inspiring. Then spend the next 25 minutes reading other peoples tweets. Once your 30 minutes is up, just STOP.
6. Re-tweet. This simply means to re-tweet something someone else said because you liked it. It helps spread their tweet to hundreds of more people each time. Re-tweeting says, “Hey, I am paying attention and I like what you have to say.” It means your getting involved.
7. Find someone new to follow each day. The only way your connections will grow is if you continue to 
connect. Don’t connect with just anybody, unless you are just looking for random friends. Instead do a friend search for either people or companies you want to support or follow. Throw in some people or companies you don’t support as well for good measure. This just broadens your horizons on whats being tweeted and gets you out of your bubble.
8. Participate in #followfriday. This is where you tweet a recommendation for others to follow on Friday. Basically your Tweet will look something like this … ” Happy #followfriday, I recommend @coreimpactinc for all of their great insight into the world of social media” … simple enough right? Watch out for other peoples #followfriday tweets and make sure you follow someone else’s recommendation. You can make a more direct tweet by visiting the #followfriday website.
9. For those serious about Twitter, join Tweetdeck. This is an all encompassing site that basically brings Twitter to a whole new level of crazy. However, once you get the hang of it you will become a Twitter pro in a matter of minutes.
10. Do you own an iphone, blackberry or pda? Then download the appropriate Twitter app for your cell phone. This makes tweeting a breeze. You can do it at the grocery store, on the way to the gym or while you get your hair done. Since you never leave home without your cell, now you’ll never leave home without Twitter. This makes those random, thought-provoking ideas come to life. Instead of writing them down on receipt you found on the floor of your car that probably has old gum stuck inside, tweet it out for the whole world to read.
At this point your probably thinking… how did we ever survive without Twitter?
Happy Tweeting
Written by Melissa Perea
Leave a Comment » | Social Media, twitter | Tagged: #followfriday, connect, friends, profile pic, retweet, Social Media, ten tips for twitter, tweetdeck, twitter, twitter backgrounds | Permalink
Posted by coreimpact
Even with the economy slowing down and businesses closing there are still new companies opening up left and right. With every new company that opens, there is a new owner who is presented with the question… “Do I need a website?” The answer is unequivocally YES. However, with that being said more questions are pondered such as How much do I spend? or Who is a good 
designer? and What capabilities should it have? This obviously puts a lot of stress and pressure on each individual and even more important its a huge expense that most businesses starting off cannot afford.
So what do you do? Well, the answer is simple… start a BLOG. Many people misunderstand the purpose and use of a blog and blow it off as a personal online journal that only narcissistic, computer geeks keep to talk about their feelings. Which may be true to an extent, but it definitely isn’t its only use. Blogs these days are free, easy and can be up and running in a matter of minutes. No matter what you do or sell every company should have some sort of web presence and the easiest way to start is by getting a blog.
I suggest you go to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of “The Huffington Post: Complete Guide to Blogging”. It’s a great book that will help you get pointed in the right direction. It’s easy to read and more importantly its fun to read. It’s not as dry as a user manual, but still it is jam-packed with helpful information. This will help you sort out your preconceived and probably incorrect notions of what blogging means.
With that being said, Do you think you need a website?… the answer now should obviously be no. The money, time and energy it takes to build a website will leave you wishing you never started your company in the first place. So smile and shake off a little of that website stress and go spend a part of your marketing budget buying those really cool, high gloss, super expensive business cards. In the end, they will probably bring in more business then that overly priced, static website that took 6 months to build and is outdated before it even goes live on the web.
Written by Melissa Perea
Leave a Comment » | Small Business, Social Media, blogging | Tagged: blog, economy, Huffington Post, new business, stress, website | Permalink
Posted by coreimpact
In the business world the first integration of the World Wide Web was through static websites. Most small businesses have only entered into internet marketing within the past five years. And the majority have only done so through a simple on-line brochure – style website. This was followed by graduation from information only websites to selling goods and services on-line. Again, many businesses have fallen behind on implementing on-line “shopping carts” and some have yet to take the next step.
If you are like us and you feel like you are always playing catch up to the new strategies and technology of business on the internet, take heed to what we are about to say. This is the first time that you and your business can be at the forefront of internet presence, with the most user friendly and interactive platform to date – The Blog.
Blogs and Blogging have almost been considered a four letter word to professionals and businesses. This is no longer the case through the advent and advancement of Blogging platforms such as wordpress.com, typepad.com and 
blogger.com. Through these easy to use free platforms, you can create your professional business Blog in a matter of minutes. Now let’s back up a second, exactly what is a Blog? A Blog is a form of a website that allows you to have an interactive two-way conversation with your customers. This is done through the posting of articles and comments that stimulate conversation and traffic to your website. Let me reiterate, a Blog (from the term web log) is simply an advanced, dynamic form of a website. You can have a Blog to compliment your existing website or you could integrate the two into one website that has your static informational pages, and/or your on-line shopping cart. No matter what you choose to do, you need to get started.
You might ask yourself why? Why do I need to have a blog if I am already connected through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. Well, don’t just take my word for it. You need a Blog because the way we perceive, use and funnel 
information through the internet is changing. Having a web page that just sits there isn’t going to cut it anymore. Your business may be thriving right now and that could be the result of very successful website, but its not going to last. You have to be able to understand that the world around us will always be changing, especially the way we approach business.
The paradigm shift that you need to make today, is that your website can no longer be just a billboard TELLING your customers about you. It has to be about making a connection and not just a simple transaction. Your customers want their voice to be heard… Are you going to listen?
Written by Scott Stay
Edited by Melissa Perea
6 Comments | Small Business | Permalink
Posted by coreimpact
