Busy People Get ‘er Done

How many times have you heard ‘If you want something done, give it to a busy person’?

Have you ever wondered why? I can tell you.

Busy people are organized.

The most successful people in business have a daily ritual of items to be completed. In many cases, one of those items is a daily to do list. This keeps priorities straight, offers a workload method and more importantly gives a sense of accomplishment when an item on the list is checked off!

Sure, there are probably thousands of on-line to-do list tools available. Your email software has one built-in, more than likely so does your accounting software and your CRM system. And believe me I use them all. But, I find the only to-do list that truly keeps me organized is the one I manually write-out each and every morning before starting my day.

Why? I can re-prioritize it each day for one. The biggest reason however is, it keeps what I have to do fresh in my mind at the beginning of the day. As the day progresses, I cross out each item I accomplish. When feeling unproductive, I only have to glance at my to-do list to see what I truly have accomplished. In most cases, it is quite a lot. Nothing feels better than crossing off an item and moving on to the next one.  Funny — I don’t get the same feeling of accomplishment by checking a box on a computer file.

The handwritten list also lets me easily add to the list with each phone call or email that comes in throughout the day. Rarely is something forgotten by using this method as everything from going to the bank, appointments, calls to make and projects to be completed are written down. The one problem with my system is that the list is never empty, nor is it ever complete.

I guess that is a good thing however — if my to-do list had nothing in it, I probably wouldn’t have a business to worry about keeping track of what I had to do for it.

You have probably tried a number of different to-do list tools in the past. So, one more won’t hurt – Visit and LIKE my facebook page and get my free download for the handy Daily To-Do List form. Click the Download button if you have previously liked my page.

Print enough forms for each day of the week. Try it and let me know if I’m right.

Oh – and for a real sense of accomplishment. I never create a to-do list on Saturday and Sunday. Even though I work through the weekends, I work from Friday’s list throughout the weekend, usually catching up on all the items that were moved from one day to another. So…. comes Monday morning, the list is not as long and it can build again!

Good luck.

No one plans to fail, they simply fail to plan. 

 

What to do if your facebook profile has been duplicated

Last week I received a panic call from a business associate – apparently his wife’s facebook profile had been duplicated. She was quite upset, not only because part of her on-line presence had been compromised, but also because she represents a few businesses and charitable organizations with money changing hands. She was very concerned and at a loss for what to do.

So what do you do when you suddenly find you have a second facebook profile out there that you did not create?

First report it to facebook by following the directions here: https://www.facebook.com/help/263149623790594/

As facebook’s directions are a little vague – you will need to go to the fake page. Click the gear beside the word message on the fake person’s profile and select Report/Block – follow the directions from here.

After you have done this, email your facebook friends telling them what has happened. You should mention to them, they may receive a request from the fake you to ‘friend’ again. They should not do this. If they have already done so, ask them to unfriend the fake you and then report/block as per the directions above. The more people that report the problem the faster facebook is likely to do something about it.

This is 4 days later, and still the business owner I spoke with on Friday still has two facebook profiles – her real account and the fake account. I wonder how long it will take for facebook to remove the fake account.

So why does this happen. Here are a few reasons – none of them good.
1. Someone is bored and decides to have some so-called fun.
2. The account is created to be used to ‘LIKE’ pages and click on ads (there are businesses out there that sell ‘LIKES’ and do so by creating fake accounts to get the ‘LIKES’ for their paying customer’s business pages. Note: There are legitimate businesses that offer the ability to get ‘LIKES’ for your page. Be careful if utilizing one of these services.
3. The account is created as an alias for someone to watch the feeds of another person.
4. The account is created to be able to chat with people anonymously. Believe me, I have had my fair share of these. People request to be my friend and the next thing you know, I’m being asked out, or asked to join a mission, or religion — I’ve even been asked to send money.

To repeat. First report the fake profile yourself. Second warn your facebook friends. Third, have your facebook friends report the fake profile as well. Usually once the ‘profile thief’ finds out you or one of your friends has reported the account as a fake, they drop it and move on to someone else’s profile.  Stay on facebook to remove the account as well.

 

The Quirkiness of the English language

as printed in Walden Today, February 2014, author unknown

You think English is easy??
I think a retired English teacher was bored…THIS IS GREAT! Read all the way to the end…………….. 

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture..

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? 

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’? 

Web domains will never be the same gTLD

Have you heard about the new gTLDs available for your website. What’s a gTLD you ask?

gTLD:  generic Top Level Domain 

Move over .com, .ca, .org, .net and make room for .auto, .food, .music, .marketing, .eco, .guru and more.

Domain name extensions have been opened to allow for creation of new extensions to specifically gear your domain to the nature of your business. For example: Our website could be http://www.ydvgroup.marketing instead of www.ydvgroup.com. This will be a definite asset for businesses like mine that do not say what they do in the name and allow for search engines to pick up your main content easily.  Currently, a number of TLDs have already been released with more being released each month. Check here to see if the TLD you would want is available yet or when it is expected to be launched.

For the big brands, it means even more. Large brands can bid to have a TLD created for their brand so Nike’s website could be http://www.nike.nike for example. This feature does not come cheap however we’re pretty sure the big brands will pay to get their own TLD. For the average business and if you wait for general availability, average domain registration fees apply. We have pre-registered for ydvgroup.marketing as .marketing has not been released yet.

What do you think – will this take hold? Do you see a rush to get specific extensions quickly or will businesses wait? Let us know your thoughts.

 

Are you a Rebel? A Mouse? or Both?

A while back we are asked to try a new app – if you want to call it that. We are quite frequently asked to try up and coming web applications for social media. Some we like, some we don’t and some we love!

We love this one!

If you are tired of posting “Like Our Fan Page” and “Follow us on Twitter” etc., RebelMouse takes care of it all.  Simply have your customers follow you on RebelMouse – there they will see all your relevant posts from your various social sites and blogs. Further, if you would like to keep visitors at your website or your blog – you can embed your RebelMouse page directly in to your website or blog.

Allow your fans and customers to see all that you are doing socially (including your personal profile if you so choose) instantly. They will not have to bounce from social site to social site – not that all do. We have found that people generally have a preference of social sites to visit. Some stick with facebook, others are twitter nuts. Either way – they can see it all at a glance. For those that are socially active it is a great way to show how creative you are with posts, what you’re talking about and so much more.

Check it out and of course…

Follow us by
clicking the
RebelMouse!

Facebook ads work

Have you tried advertising on facebook recently? Did it work for you?

Advertising on facebook works if you take the time to target your ads carefully and making the message compelling. You have approximately 4 lines to do this with, so it takes a little planning on just what you want your message to say, what is visible and what link the ads will take readers to when they click.

Over the past several months we have conducted quite a few facebook ad campaigns – some more successful than others.  One of our campaigns increased a client’s fan numbers by 352% and drove a substantial number of new orders throughout North America.  Watch for a case study coming soon.

But in the meantime, try a campaign or two – you can start for under $10/day if placing an ad. It is worth your time to try….  Be sure to know what you want the ad to accomplish so you can monitor the results.

 

These two infographics from Kenshoo Social tell it all.

If you are not sure where to begin, visit http://www.ydvgroup.com for our contact information.

 

Don’t search: Have content come to you

Have you ever wondered how all those pages on facebook get relevant content? Or maybe how they manage to post a link to an article before it is published in the print version of the local newspaper? Here’s the kicker: how do people find news about your business before you do?

The answer: Google Alerts
Have you used this handy little app from Google? If you haven’t you’re missing the boat.

Monitor the Web for interesting new content

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries.

Enter a search query you wish to monitor. You will see a preview of the type of results you’ll receive. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

• monitoring a developing news story
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• getting the latest on a celebrity or event
• keeping tabs on your favorite sports team

Google Alerts are so simple to use.
1. You will require a google account
2. Login to Google Alerts
3. Enter your search query: the name of your business for example, or your name.
4. Select the type of result you would like: everything, news, blogs, photos, video, etc.
5.  Select how often you would like results reported to you
6. Select how many results (we find selecting ‘only the best results’ works best, otherwise you may end up with too many non-relevant results
7. Select to which email address you would like the results delivered
8. Select Create Alert and you’re done

It’s that simple. Now wait for the results.  You can set up many google alerts. For example: Your business name, your personal name, brands you sell, news relevant to your industry, news from a business group you belong to, etc.

Don’t spend hours searching for content – have it come to you!

Which social platform works best for business?

Almost every business owner asks the question ‘What social platform works best for business?’ We hear it time and time again.

The reason they ask is if they are going to embrace social media, they want to spend the least amount of time with the most benefit. Of course this is true of almost everything a business owner does. With social media, however it is not usually this simple.

In truth – there is no right answer to the question ‘which social platform works best for business?’

Here are a few qualifiers we use before making recommendations for our customers, not necessarily in this order:
1. How tech-savvy is the client or the staff member assigned to social media marketing for the business?
2. Does the client currently use facebook personally and how comfortable are they with it? How many friends do they have and the percentage of personal friends vs business friends?
3. How much of their business do they conduct on their cell phones? Do they receive and respond to emails, read news items, etc. on their cell phones?
4. I ask to see their existing marketing material for insight in to their current marketing efforts. I look to see if they provide ‘useful’ information or simply a sales pitch.
5. Is the client a story-teller?
6. Of course, the industry or nature of their business is important as well
7. Target market: consumers, b2b, etc?
8. And finally, we ask if the business hosts events, offers workshops, etc.

There are actually quite a few more questions we ask, however this is a good beginning. We ask these questions to get a feel for what the business would be capable of accomplishing by utilizing social media in the most efficient manner and with the least effort possible. Social media works better if it comes naturally.

How do we determine what to recommend: Many times the recommendations are based on the answers above.

For example — We are not likely to recommend twitter to a business owner that never uses a cell phone. Twitter tends to be more instantaneous and requires a certain amount of diligence in responses, sharing and viewing of tweets. Twitter is just easier with a cell phone in our experience. It can be managed from a computer as well, however – the twitter accounts that do extremely well in attracting followers and engaging those followers are those where their operator is always active, providing photos and tweets on the go.

If you have questions about social media, or would like an opinion about your business, please email debi@ydvgroup.com with your question, or for a no obligation mini-analysis of your marketing.

 

Great tool for analyzing your facebook business page

Here is a very helpful tool for helping you analyze your facebook business page. It not only analyzes the page in a simplistic form for ease of understanding, it gives you hints and tips as to how to increase likes to your page. It also gives you information on how to create more engaging posts and tells you how you compare to others in your industry.

LikeAlyzer by meltwater is amazingly simple to use. You will love it.

Working the web

How a website makeover can help Canadian companies soar

(NC) In a few short years, the Internet has become indispensable for business. Today, a website is a vital tool for many companies. However, Canadian entrepreneurs lag in using the Internet to boost sales and reach customers. Only 40% of small businesses in Canada had a website in 2012, according to Statistics Canada. And even those with a website often don’t use it effectively.

It means Canadian businesses are missing out on huge opportunities, says Michel Bergeron, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Public Affairs, at the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). “This is how customers find products and services today, when more than 50% of the purchasing decision process takes place online. A website is your digital storefront and lets you showcase your products 24 hours a day to a worldwide market.”

Start with a plan

To get started, step back and create an online strategy for your website, Bergeron suggests. It doesn’t have to be fancy or incredibly detailed. The idea is to sit with key staff and hammer out your website’s goals, target audience and key messages.

You don’t need to invest in a big, costly website at the outset, Bergeron says. Free and low-cost services such as WordPress and GoDaddy allow businesses to design and update a site quickly, with no programming know-how. Social media pages also let companies promote themselves with no upfront cost.

Make sure your site is aligned with your online strategy and tells visitors the essentials of your business—what your company does, what your main products are, and what makes you special. Also, prominently display your contact info and a “call to action”—for example, a button or pop-up that invites visitors to call you or sign up for a newsletter.

“As you become more sophisticated, you can expand your site and add content,” Bergeron says.

If you use one of the free or low-cost website design services, it’s easy and cheap to test different layouts, photos and text to see what gets the best reaction from web visitors, he adds.

“That’s why digital marketing is so powerful. It gives you great tools to measure, learn and optimize.”

Website makeover

George Tsopeis says a website makeover helped his employer, Zenith Jet, boost annual sales growth from single digits to double digits. Zenith Jet is a Canadian aviation services consulting company whose customers are almost all outside the country. They often get their first impression of the company from Zenith Jet’s website.

But the company’s site was bland and dated. It was bogged down with too much text, but gave only sparse details about Zenith’s services. The company hired a website design firm to improve its site and then brought in a web consultant to help develop a strategy for getting more prospective clients to visit the site.

The result: a new site with a clean, sharp look. Stunning aerial photos pull in visitors on every webpage and underline the fact that Zenith is in the airplane business. The redesign made it easier to quickly find information with a minimum of scrolling and clicking. Zenith’s contact details are prominently displayed on every webpage.

Sprinkled throughout the new site are so-called keywords—terms that Google and other search engines use to rank sites in web searches. Zenith learned that choosing the right keywords is a science—and is critical in ensuring that a company’s site ranks high in web searches.

The changes caused Zenith Jet’s site to shoot up exponentially in web search results—where it had gone virtually unseen—to the top of the first page. “Traffic to our site went up from double digits each day to triple digits,” Tsopeis says.

Even more important, Zenith was finally drawing in the right visitors—ones likely to contact the company and become customers. “To say we hit a homerun is an understatement,” Tsopeis concludes.

Bergeron says Zenith’s experience shows how critical a good website can be for a business. “The first judgement of a brand is online right now.”

http://www.newscanada.com