Ron Passfield – Small Business Odyssey

September 15, 2012

How To Write A Google+ Review

Google has begun to give a social ranking to websites and a key element in that ranking is the Google+ review. So if you have not got any reviews for your Google+ Local website, now is the time to start. There are some traps in this, so I thought I would create this post on how to write a Google+ review.

Google has become a lot stricter about reviews on Google+ in order to stamp out false reviews (e.g. reviews written by website owners themselves or by people paid to make up reviews).

Google’s new rules for reviews on Google+ are:

you must have a Google+ account and be signed into your account to leave a review
you cannot use nicknames or be anonymous
your review will automatically be public with your name attached (on Google+ and possibly on search engine results).

How to create a Google+ review – the steps

The steps to create a Google+ review are quite simple, but there are a number of them and it is important to follow them closely to maximize the benefit of your Google+ review.

1. Log into your Google+ account

2. Access the Google+ account of the website you want to review. If you don’t already know the web address, you can search for this via Google by entering the name of the business and “Google+”. Alternatively, if you search on a related keyword, you could access the Google+ account from the search result entry as in this illustration of Acupuncture Gold Coast:

3. CLICK THE BLUE BUTTON for “Write a Review”

This button is in the top right hand corner as illustrated in this Google+ account for Alan Jansson’s Japanese Acupuncture clinic on the Gold Coast:

4. READ GOOGLE’S WARNING about going public and Click “continue”

Google will immediately advise you that your review will be public with your name attached. Here is the warning I received when I clicked the “write a review” button;

5. WRITE YOUR REVIEW and RATE the business/service – 0, 1, 2, or 3 (where 3 equals excellent)

It is important to record your rating as Google takes this into account when determining the social score of a website and overall ranking. You can see the ranking options illustrated below along with the write-a-review block:

6. HIT the PUBLISH BUTTON

The publish button is illustrated in the image above.

7. SHARE YOUR REVIEW – ADD CIRCLES and HIT “SHARE”

Google gives you the option of informing your circles of your completed review. Indicate which of your own Google+ circles you want to notify about your review. Going public is not optional. However, you can choose what circles you want to be informed of your Google+ review (so this is a viral feature if you choose to use it).

When you click “add more people” you will be given a drop-down menu to indicate who else (which circles) you want to share your review with.

Here’s an example from my review of Acupuncture Gold Coast, an acupuncture clinic run by Alan Jansson who has provided acupuncture services to my family over many years:

DON’T FORGET TO CLICK THE “SHARE” BUTTON – then you are finished!

It seems a long process but the steps are simple. It is important that you don’t attempt to dupe the system or take shortcuts. I’ve provided this post on how to write a Google+ review so that you can offer your service provider/ offline client the maximum benefit from Google+ reviews.

July 28, 2012

WordPress Backup Creator: Backup, Clone and Transfer Your WordPress Blogs

The WordPress Backup Creator takes the pain and anxiety out of three important tasks – backup, clone and transfer your WordPress blog.

If you have ever tried to backup your WordPress blog or transfer it to another web host, you will appreciate the angst involved and the complexity of the task, particularly if you want your widgets and plugins copied or transferred at the same time.

I’ve tried several WordPress backup programs but they were either too complex or unreliable. In one case, I was issued with an update (to fix a bug) almost weekly … and this did not inspire confidence.

Recently I purchased the WordPress Backup Creator and found not only was it reliable but very simple to use, with very clear written and video instructions. The beauty of it was that it took so few steps and these were very easy to execute (I don’t know about you, but I lose patience if the steps are too unclear or too complex).

I had wanted to transfer my personal productivity membership site because the original hosting was way too expensive. This productivity membership site is based on WordPress. It is fairly complex because not only does it incorporate membership details, payment options, sales page and optin page but also 50 plus lessons (blog posts) and audios.

I am delighted to report that, using the WordPress Backup Creator, I was able to transfer my whole Productivity membership site without loss of data, plugins, posts or widgets. I was truly astounded at how easy and efficient it was (and I am one very relieved person). The Backup Creator enabled me to save more than $20 per month hosting fees.

As a result of this success, I have been able to reduce the price for anyone who wants to access my personal productivity membership site. The price has been reduced from $19.95 per month to $9.95, one-off payment.

Just purchasing and using the WordPress Backup program has improved my productivity no end.

Just think of all the work that you have put into your WordPress blogs and imagine what would happen if you lost your blog (and the associated comments). This WordPress plugin is so ridiculously cheap when you think of all that pain and anxiety you can save by just using the plugin to protect your WordPress sites.

If you are into cloning WordPress sites, then this is the tool to make that task so easy and profitable.

I certainly have no hesitation in recommending the WordPress Backup Creator:

WordPress Backup Creator

July 6, 2012

Integrating Online and Offline Marketing: Snap South Brisbane

Snap business card — Snap South Brisbane

Snap South Brisbane provides an excellent example of how to integrate offline and online marketing through the use of a creative business card. Snap was a traditional printing business that has diversified into web design, online marketing, email marketing, e-publications and QR Codes. In the process, Snap offers integrated offline and online marketing services. This integration is reflected in the Snap South Brisbane business card.

Integrating offline and online marketing through your business card

Who would have thought that the business card (the old bastion of offline marketing) would be an important means of integrating offline and online marketing, particularly in this era of social media marketing? Snap South Brisbane illustrates this integration through their own business card.

You can see from the Snap business card pictured above that it incorporates images depicting their various services as well as QR Codes for mobile marketing. The marketing solutions offered by Snap and illustrated on the business card include graphic design, print, web design, creative concepts and online marketing.

The reverse side of the business card has the tag line, “We do more!”, along with icons for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. This is illustrated by the business card for the Group Manager, Sales and Marketing, Jeff Polley:

Using the business card as stimulus, you are able to quickly access social media sites for Snap South Brisbane or alternatively you can access these sites via the Snap website through scanning the QR Codes with a mobile device such as an iPhone or iPad.

The relevant social media sites for Snap South Brisbane are:

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

I think there are some lessons here for other small to medium businesses not only in the way Snap has reinvented itself to take account of the Internet age but also through its own creative marketing. Snap South Brisbane offers integrated offline and online marketing and illustrates this integration though its creative business card.

May 17, 2012May 17, 2012

Pinterest: Pinlet Magic for Small Business Marketing

Pinterest is a social networking site where people share images and photos by adding them to “pinboards”. It has achieved phenomenal growth – growing faster than Twitter and Facebook during the same early stages of its growth. Pinterest is now the 3rd ranked social networking site behind Facebook and Twitter and is ranked 39th in the world in terms of website traffic.

Some interesting facts for small business owners:

Pinterest is generating more traffic to blogs than Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn combined (www.mashable.com)
Pinterest users are 10% more likely to buy than users who arrive from other social media sites*
Pinterest’s percentage of all social media driven purchases is growing and is expected to reach 40% (while Facebook will drop from 82% to 60% and Twitter drop out of the purchase picture)*
Facebook bought Instagram for $1billion to ward off competition from Pinterest.

* Source: http://mashable.com/2012/04/29/pinterest-interest/

[Image source: Screen capture taken from my Pinterest site: http://pinterest.com/ronpassfield/]

Adding images and photos to Pinterest

Pinterest enables you to create pinboards on any topic and to add pins via upload from your computer or via a pinmarklet tool which is added to your browser toolbar. So you can pin images from any website of your choice but what you have to watch here is the copyright restrictions of the source site. Some websites owners are particularly aggressive about protecting their copyright.

The pinning tool (pinmarklet) is shown below together with the image it creates:

You can see from this illustration that you have a thumbnail image taken from the website, the option to post to one of your established pinboards (using the drop-down menu) and the ability to add comments before you post. Pinterest will automatically pick up the website address of the image source. However, you can also add your website address to the comment section and it will be automatically hyperlinked (made clickable).

Some websites have the Pin Symbol to enable you to easily pin from their site. Popular sites that people pin images from are:

http://www.squidoo.com
http://www.masterchef.com.au/
http://www.wizzley.com
http://www.tumblr.com
http://www.flickr.com (Flickr has recently developed an arrangement with Pinterest to ensure that photos are properly attributed and to prevent the sharing of photos that the originator does not want to share – check out the Creative Commons Attribution option).

Pins are shared by “likes” (as with Facebook) or by being repinned by another Pinterest member. To build up your following on Pinterest, you should like pins and repin images that you are interested in and follow people you admire or who share the same interests/geographic area.

Pinterest, Pinlet Magic and small business marketing

Two types of Pinterest pinboards that are attracting heaps of traffic are quotes and inspiration. What Pinlet Magic brings to Pinterest is the ability to create your own quotes, inspirations and affirmations by using a special purpose Pinmarklet which is also added to your browser toolbox:

When you click on the pinmarklet for Pinlet Magic you see the following image:

Here are some of the features of Pinlet Magic:

you create your own quote or affirmation (in the left box)
you can decide the font, font size and font color
you can add an author name or your website address to the bottom of the quote/affirmation
you can preview the quote as you create and customize it.

Additionally, you can decide the color of your background, the border, add one of the preset colors/templates or upload an image to serve as the background. This part of the Pinlet Magic tool is very flexible:

As you can see from the extract from my Pinterest site in the header image for this post, I have two pinboards covering Inspirational Quotes and Affirmations – and I create quotes/affirmations that are consistent with the nature of my offline human resource development business.

Here’s an example of an affirmation I developed using Pinlet Magic and my own photo (the emphasis is on active listening):

Here’s another example. This time I have developed an Inspirational Quote using Pinlet Magic and my own photo of a Stradbroke Island view at sunset:

Each of these images on Pinterest has a link back to my small business website, Merit Solutions Australia.

When you purchase Pinlet Magic you also receive other resources such as sources for quotes, updates, hints and ideas and free access to a closed Facebook discussion group where a growing community shares their quotes and willingly gives “likes”, repins” and “follows” for quotes they admire.

Pinterest has opened up a new arena for small business marketing and Pinlet Magic provides a great boost to building your personal branding, business brand and website traffic.

May 9, 2012May 9, 2012

Developing a Small Business Plan in Times of Economic Crisis

A silver lining behind every economic crisis

It’s difficult to develop a small business plan when you are confronted with an economic crisis which impacts differentially in parts of your market. Some aspects of your marketplace may suffer severe downturn while others experience growth. Even in our marketplace, the public sector, you can experience severe downturns. The challenge is to develop flexibility to build organizational resilience. However, as the image above shows, behind every dark cloud, there is a silver lining.

One of the results of an economic crisis, is that you are forced to go back to basics and rethink why you exist, who you serve and how you are doing things. This was what we experienced in the Global Financial Crisis when our human resource consultancy business lost 50% of its income in 6 months owing to expenditure constraints imposed by the State Government and the loss of a major client.

What I found sustaining in that situation (and in our current economic crisis) is our vision – to enable the public service to be the best that it can be. We pursue that vision through the human resource services we provide – recruitment and selection, psychometric assessment, career development, development of HR policy and practice, organisational design, training and development, organisational development, research and analysis, management development and team building.

We are very conscious that if the public service delivers effectively and efficiently, the quality of life of many people in the community will improve – whether in transport, child safety, education, economic support, childcare, health, public safety or other arenas impacted positively by quality public services.

[Photo: Copyright Ron Passfield – Sun breaking through dark clouds in an autumn sunrise in Brisbane]

Options for a small business plan in times of economic crisis

When we were confronted with the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) we adopted two core strategies for our business:

broaden our client base
broaden the range of services/products we offer.

These are classical strategies frequently discussed in the strategic marketing books and articles. When we adopted these strategies for our human resources business, we were able to rebuild our income after the GFC. What we did not do enough of, is expand our client base within the public sector and this has left us more vulnerable to the current economic crisis for our small business resulting from budget measures introduced by the new State Government in Queensland.

The State Government has introduced a freeze on public sector recruitment, travel and non-essential (non-front line) training and conferences. This effectively freezes our major sources of income and is likely to have an even more dramatic result on our income than the GFC had.

When considering expanding your client base, you really have to revisit why you exist as a small business and who you want to serve. We had explored the idea of expanding into the private sector but decided that the public sector is the client group we want to serve because this group is more closely aligned to our values – including service to the community.

When you are considering expansion of services/products, it is important not to over-extend yourself beyond your areas of competence. We were lucky enough to have untapped core competencies amongst our human resource consultants to make this service expansion an easy transition. The challenge has been to extend our branding to incorporate these new services.

A small business plan when your business-to-business market dries up

With the freeze (of indeterminate length) on recruitment, travel and non-essential training/conferences in the State public sector, we are confronted with a short-term drying up of our business-to-business market. The challenge for us now in our small business planning is to find innovative ways to provide our services and products to a wider client base.

Some of the strategies that you could adopt in this kind of constrained environment are:

switch from a business to business (B2b) focus to a business to consumer (B2c) focus
offer free seminars/workshops/e-books to retain and build client loyalty and expand your client base
expand the geographical offering of your face-to-face services (e.g. offer them interstate)
offer your services in a different format (e.g. by webinar instead of face-to-face)
develop products such as e-books, podcasts and videos that you offer globally rather than locally (break through the local geographical barriers)
explore under-utilized capacity
develop capacity in anticipation of the release of pent-up demand.

Every economic crisis forces small businesses to build flexibility and innovation into their small business plan if they are to survive and grow their income.