I was listening to the Tony Kornheiser show this morning and they read through a direct mail piece that Tony received from the Washington Kastles Tennis Team.  The letter was a form invitation from the owner of the Kastles to an upcoming event and seemed to be pretty well done for a direct mail piece.  Tony and the crew absolutely ripped the Kastle organization for it though.  The problem – the letter started out “Dear Anthony”.

Boy, if you could take back a direct mail piece!

Most of us understand the methods for gathering names and information for direct mail, and that there are many mistakes in the names, titles or even gender.  Where the Kastles really messed up though is that they didn’t use public relations to address the media audience separate from the direct mailing to the general population.

For those not familiar with the Tony Kornheiser show, it is a daily talk show on a local DC sports radio station.  They talk some sports, but it is more about entertainment and, well, just stuff.  The Kornheiser crew/posse/team (what exactly are they?) loves to latch on to a product or company, for good or bad, and use it as conversation fodder throughout the show.  At the end of the show there is an email pile-on where the audience sends in their take on the day’s topics, usually dominated by the product or company in the spot light.  You can imagine (or you can probably go listen) how much fun they had with a letter from a local sports group to a national sports celebrity and local sports icon that started out “Dear Anthony”.

When you are planning your marketing campaigns, especially for upcoming special events, do some public relations planning first.  How would this have been different if before Tony received this impersonal, promotional invitation he had received a personally signed invitation, or even a phone call, from the owner or a public relations person?  Do you know the ten or twenty media people in your industry who have the power to make or ruin your day because they have an audience?  You should be communicating with these folks through public relations.

Many small business owners mistakenly limit public relations to periodic press releases about their business.  PR is much more than that, and unless you are a company popular enough to be newsworthy, self reporting press releases are useless.  Public relations is about knowing and building relationships with the media and providing information and resources that help them provide more value to their audience.  Of course your hope is that the end result reflects positively on your business.

The Prince William Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations Strategies conference in September and the focus this year is on Public Relations.  Wouldn’t it be great if Tony Kornheiser somehow found and read this obscure blog post and offered to come to the September 22nd as the keynote speaker!  “Mr. Anthony”, you can email me at jlgorman@sigmabizlearning.com if you’re interested.  It’s more likely that they read this post and publically humiliate me for my poor grammar and shameless use of their name to promote my blog and MAPS event!

A couple weeks ago, I finally purchased my new Droid phone.  This led to an increased frequency in my Foursquare posts – the posts you see on Facebook and Twitter stating that someone has just “checked-in”.  Now that my friends and followers are seeing these posts I’m getting more questions about Foursquare, so I decided to shed some light for those that are in the dark on this unique social media application.

It’s Good for Businesses

Quite frankly, if it didn’t show some value for my small business customers, I wouldn’t be so enthusiastic about Foursquare.  It’s good for business because it has the potential to send out your brand from a trusted source to hundreds of people every time a customer enters with a cell phone!

Here’s How it Works

Let’s say I am sitting at the Sigma College of Small Business offices in Haymarket, VA and decide that I need a cup of coffee and something sweet.  I walk across the parking lot to Cupcake Heaven.  While I wait for my tall decaf coffee and afternoon treat, I turn on my Droid, open the Foursquare app, select Cupcake Heaven from the list of nearby venues, add a note about how great the service is and “check-in”.  This automatically sends a post to my Facebook and Twitter accounts and all my friends and followers see my comment and that I am at Cupcake Heaven.

So, do the math.  If 5 customers like me walk into the store and each of us has 200 friends and followers, the name of that store is promoted to 1,000 people that day.  Cost and effort to the store – ZERO!

Why Would a Customer Check In?

Just read your Facebook posts.  I get posts from people when they wake-up, go to bed, eat, stub their toe, etc… So people will check-in just to be social.  However, Foursquare offers tools for businesses to encourage customers to check-in.  As the manager of Sigma College of Small Business I “claimed” my venue and can now offer specific promotions to people who check-in.  Promotions can be based on number of check-ins or given to those who check-in the most – The Mayor.  That’s right, if you are the person who has checked in to an establishment the most, you are given the title of Mayor, which is announced to all your friends and followers.  People will definitely check-in for free stuff and a title!

There’s More!

As the registered owner of your venue, you have the capability to see who is checking in at your place and how often they are checking in – a great way to keep tabs on some of your most loyal and vocal customers.  If you are a retailer or restaurant and not using this free tool, you need to put it on your list of things to check out.  I’m still researching all the benefits, but this one seems to be a no-brainer, just set it up and let your customers promote your business!  Did I mention FREE?

I’ll certainly be adding a few slides on Foursquare to my “Leveraging the Online Social Network” class this coming Tuesday!

Subscribe! Part 1 covered the importance of getting interesting blog content brought to you in a convenient, efficient manner.  Part 2 is a bit more hand’s on in showing you how to actually subscribe.

Decide where you want to see blog content

A great thing about RSS is that there are multiple ways to manage content.  You can set it up in your web browser, through email or even feed it to your personal or business home page.  I actually have some feeds that come up in my iGoogle home page, some that feed to a tab in Internet Explorer and some that go to an email folder in Outlook.

To determine which tool to use for feeding content you should ask yourself, “Do I want to see this post immediately, or have as a reference for later”  The posts I want to see immediately, the timely information I want to comment on, are fed to my iGoogle personal page through Google Reader.  Those I use for reference to search later feed to my browser or an email folder, and some feed to multiple places.

Don’t forget that following and commenting on other people’s blogs is an important part of social networking.  It is how you listen and interact in the discussion, building trust and credibility with each thought and comment.

For step-by-step on three basic RSS feed techniques, click the links below.  If you have any questions, suggestions or run into problems, drop me a comment.  Although the directions are specific to an application, most similar apps have the same functionality.

Using Google Reader and following blogs on your iGoogle home page

Tracking RSS Feeds as Internet Explorer Favorites

RSS Feeds in Microsoft Outlook

Google Reader is a great little tool that helps aggregate the blogs you are tracking to your Google account.  The reason I like it is that I have an iGoogle “portal” page (a page that I can personalize with info I want to see) and there is a “Gadget” that puts my feeds right onto my personal home page, the one that I see first every time I open Internet Explorer.  This is what I use for those blogs I want to see and review quickly and then comment, especially on blogs related to educating small business owners.

 1.  Sign into your Google Account.  If you don’t have a Google account:

1. Go to www.Google.com
2. Click “Sign In” at upper right
3. Click “Create an Account Now” under the Sign in box
4. Follow instructions for setting up an account

Click on Settings in the upper right to add new Google apps

2.  In the upper right of your Google page click on the “Settings” drop-down and select “Google Account Settings”.  You can do a lot here to personalize your page and account.

3.  If “Reader” isn’t listed under “My Products”, go to the “Try Something New” section and click on “More”

4.  Under the “Communicate, show & share” section, click on “Reader”.  This will place Reader into the “My Products” section where you can open and start using.

Open Google Reader by clicking the link

5.  Open Reader by clicking on the link and you should see your Google Reader Page

Go to www.SigmaBizBlog.com or another blog you want to feed

Click on the "Add Subscription" Button

Click on the Subscription to see the latest posts from that source.

Add the Google Reader Gadget to Your iGoogle Home Page

Click on "iGoogle" at the top right to open your iGoogle page

1.  Go to www.Google.com and sign in if you aren’t already.  This should open your iGoogle page (if it doesn’t, click on the “iGoogle” link in the upper right) and you should see something like this.  Each of the little blocks is called a gadget and you can customize which gadgets you want on you page.

Click on the "Add Stuff" link in the upper right to get new gadgets!

2.  In the upper right click on the link for “Add stuff”.  In the search area type in “reader” and search.  This will show you the Google Reader gadget and clicking “Add It Now” will put it on your iGoogle home page.

Search for "Reader" to find the Reader Gadget and "Add it Now"

3.  Now, when you go to Google.com, your subscriptions will show up for a quick review.  If you click on the title a preview window pops up so you can take a quick look without even leaving the page.

Although I walked through the Google method for putting subscriptions on your home page, most other portal sites that let you customize a home page will have similar functionality.

See Related Blog Posts on RSS Feeds:

Subscribe! Part 1

Subscribe! Part 2

Tracking RSS Feeds as Internet Explorer Favorites

RSS Feeds in Microsoft Outlook

In Subscribe! Part 1 I talked about the importance of tracking and commenting on relevant blogs and news feeds to building your online presence.  Internet Explorer and other browsers have the capability to help you manage your RSS feeds and this post will walk through how to send news and current blog posts to the “Feeds” tab in Internet Explorer 8.  Other browsers should have similar functionality.

If you are someone who routinely uses the “favorites” functionality in IE to manage the web sites you visit frequently, then this may be the best place to track important RSS Feeds that you want to comment on immediately.  I don’t routinely use the favorites part of IE so I use this method for sites that don’t update often, or for sites that I want to track for reference when I’m developing business curriculum.  Remember, in social networking it is important to follow and comment, so keep your “high interest” content where you will see it often through your normal work routine.

1.  Go to SigmaBizBlog.com or another blog or news site that you want to subscribe to.

Click on the RSS Icon in the upper right of the IE window

2.  In the upper right of the window, in the menu area is the little orange RSS icon.  If the icon isn’t orange, either you are already subscribed or the site doesn’t have RSS capability.  Click on the RSS button and a “feed” page will load.

3.  Click on “Subscribe to this feed” and then “Subscribe” in the window that pops up.  The subscription will be placed in the “Feed” Tab in Favorites.

Access your saved RSS feed through the Favorite window on the Feeds Tab

4.  To see your feeds, click the “Favorites” button in the upper left of the window and then the “Feeds” Tab.

5.  Click on the subscription to see the latest post!

Remember that a big part of building credible online relationships is to listen and comment on the thoughts of others.  Subscribing to interesting blogs with RSS, reading them and consistently commenting is a great way to be part of the discussion! 

See Related Blog Posts on RSS Feeds:

Subscribe! Part 1

Subscribe! Part 2

Using Google Reader and following blogs on your iGoogle home page

Tracking RSS Feeds as Internet Explorer Favorites

RSS Feeds in Microsoft Outlook

Another great week of weather and business.  If you are willing to listen and reflect there are always oppotunities to learn.

Who Cares?

A great tip came from Asha Sedalia Bruot of ASHA Public Relations during a MAPS committee meeting this week.  When preparing to write your next press release, ask yourself “Who Cares?”.  Her point was that choosing the right audience is a must in deciding what to write, how to write and which media channels might be interested.  The upcoming MAPS (Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations Strategies) Conference on September 22^nd will be focused on developing a good public relations strategy – more to come!

“Customer Service” should always be top of mind

Kris Johnson of the PWCGM Chamber shared a story at Friday’s MB3 breakfast that we can all probably relate to.  She was calling a relatively new member to offer a sponsorship opportunity and was deep into her explanation of the benefits of this particular sponsorship.  The member gently interrupted and jokingly said, “Oh, you’re calling to sell a sponsorship, I thought you were calling to thank me for membership and see if all is well”.   Knowing Kris and her record of customer service, she surely recovered and impressed by the end of the call.  Her point was that we can all learn much more about customer service Wednesday at the Insight Series Luncheon “Customer Service” , with guest speaker Bobbie Walker, Partnership Marketing Education Director for Virginia Tourism Corporation, but this was a quick reminder for me.  Everyone says that repeat business is the most profitable, but make sure you have successfully delivered on the previous sale before launching into the next!

Gas Mileage, Gravity and Centrifugal Force

I learned this week that a late model Toyota Avalon can go from Warrenton, VA to the PWCGM office in Manassas, then to the Western Chamber Office in Gainesville and finally to the Sheetz in Haymarket with the orange gas light on.  In further news, on that same day I learned that a well placed gas cap wedged between the rear windshield and the trunk will last against wind and centrifugal force from the Sheetz in Haymarket to Warrenton and that 2 of 5 people on the road will take the time to slow down and try to point that out to a motorist on a cell phone.  And for those kind people – Ok, ok, I know now what you were trying to tell me!  Thank-you!

Shout Out!

News and events on the friends of SigmaBiz

Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary to my little sis Kristy MacIntyre and her husband Jamie at MacIntyre Engineering!  Congratulations to the “Rev Man”, Scot Small of RevBuilders who hosted a wonderful Grand Opening at his new office in Gainesville this week.  I heard that Chow Now was featured in an article in an upcoming Flavor Magazine – looking forward to reading that.  My daughter Jessica Gorman finished a summer semester of classes in France this week, with flying colors I’m sure.  Way to go Jess!  And finally, a big Sigma Shout Out to all the recent graduates of Leadership Prince William “Third is Superb” class.   I hear nothing but great things about this program and they are currently recruiting for the next session.  Congratulations!

Fifty Years is a Long Time!

Started the week on Sunday with my parents 50^th Wedding Anniversary Celebration!  Wow, a lot can happen in 50 years.  Amazing how many lives you can impact, it was a page right out of “It’s a Wonderful Life”.  Got me thinking how what I learned from my parents has affected me as a husband, father and….business owner.  You see, when my parents were about my age, Dad quit his job and they bought Sleepy Hollow Campground in Schellsburg, PA.  Neither one of them had a business degree or any experience owning a business, but they were passionate and determined to make it work.  I’m certain that the joys and struggles of that experience are what sparked my love for working with small business owners.  There aren’t many things in the world more satisfying than helping a passionate, determined business owner with a great idea, become a great business person that turned that idea into a successful business.

The campground was sold long ago and they followed another path.  Dad is retired and Mom is working on her writing career (that she started just a few years ago).  Thanks to both of you for the inspiration and example of having the guts to follow your heart, dreams and God’s will.  Congratulations on a great 50 years!

Social Networking Boosts Regular Networking

Earlier in the week I posted a book review on SigmaBiz Blog for Terry Bean’s The Universal Guide to Business Networking.  After posting, I tweeted, commented and sent Terry an email letting him know I posted and inviting him to comment if I missed anything.  I didn’t know Terry, but we traded a few emails and he even gave me a call to talk, which was impressive since he recommended a follow-up call as a tip in his book.  It was pretty cool to have a published author contact me directly, and we had a nice quick conversation about leveraging social networking tools for your local business network.  We aren’t planning Thanksgiving together, but it shows how solid social networking techniques can more easily open good business relationships.  Thanks Terry.

Example Two.  I finally met Jeff Crites of Brick and Click, right here in my home town.  I’ve been following Jeff on Twitter and Facebook and subscribing to his blog for a few months now.  We finally met at a Greater Warrenton Chamber luncheon on Wednesday.  He’s the first one that I’ve met face-to-face after first meeting through online social networking.  It was pretty cool because instead of that awkward discussion on what we do and who we know, we were able to jump right into a solid conversation on social networking (his expertise) and business education (my expertise).  Jeff even explained how to do “lists” on Twitter to help me manage followers!  Social media provides a great way to get over the initial awkwardness of meeting new people in person, and you can use it to build and improve your network.

Shout Out!

News and events on the friends of SigmaBiz

I attended the PWC-GM Chamber Excellence in Business Awards Luncheon on Tuesday.  It’s amazing how much time and resources our members are willing to provide for the building of our local business community!  Congratulations to all winners:

BR Associates – Business of the Year (up to 5 employees)

Cardinal Bank – Louis E. Maroon Business of the Year (6-15 employees)

Advantage Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation LLC – Business of the Year (16-34 employees)

TML – A Xerox Company – Business of the Year (35+ employees)

City of Manassas Park – Behind the Scenes Business

Jamie Medders, Tri-Ed Tutoring, LLC - Behind the Scenes Individual

Michelle Riordan, Photography By Exposure - Rookie of the Year

 Sue Seymour, BB&T – Chamber Member of the Year

 Prince William County Public Schools and SPARK – Nonprofit Arts & Education Member of the Year: (formerly called the Education Foundation for Prince William County Public Schools)

Prince William Healthcare Auxiliary – Nonprofit Community Service Member of the Year:

 Deb Jewell, The Traveling Vineyard and Vanessa Watson, City of Manassas Park – Karen F. Brown Spirit Award

Which One Are You?

Last year I attended a Brown Bag seminar at the Prince William County – Greater Manassas Chamber of Chamber of Commerce in Manassas, VA.  The topic was on “networking” and presented by a couple of the chambers best.  As we covered the different tips and tricks for how to work a room, how to target the right people, polite ways to transition between leads and setting goals I noticed something.  With about 20 people in the room, about half were heavy participants in the conversation, adding comments and suggestions and asking questions – these are the networkers.  The other half were content to sit quietly, listen and hope that they didn’t somehow get the spotlight turned on them – these are the non-networkers!  Which one of these is you?

The sharp contrast struck me and I realized that most of the great networking tips out there today are either to help people who are already natural networkers improve or require a non-networker to change the core essence of who they are, unlikely in a one hour seminar.  So, I decided to build a class around some tips and techniques that I have used to overcome my life as a “Non-networker”.  The class is called “Business Networking for the Non-networker” and is offered free at Sigma College of Small Business, both live in person and live online.

Non-networker Networking Tips:

1. Realize the importance of the network – Continually remind yourself why networking is part of your marketing strategy.  It will help your patience, discipline and courage.
2. Time and Touches – A quality network takes time and multiple touch points
3. Referral Principle – A new contact’s referral is more likely than their business
4. Meet Small, Build Big – Use small groups to meet new people then reinforce in big groups
5. Forced Opportunity Principle – Develop techniques where an easy action forces networking.

When you approach building a professional network as a long term marketing strategy rather than a quick sell opportunity, it removes some of the stress in meeting new people.  It puts you in the mind set of building new relationships that may result in a direct sale, but more importantly will probably result in multiple referrals!

The class “Business Networking for the Non-networker” is a free class offered by Sigma College of Small Business.  If you are interested in attending live in person or live online get more information here.

Relationship.

To summarize Twitter Power by Joel Comm (@joelcomm) in one word, I’d have to pick “relationship”.  And, the more I read and learn about this new magic marketing fairy dust called social networking, the more I see that these are just new tools for good networkers to be great networkers.  Joel does a great job of laying out how we can specifically use Twitter to help build relationships and our networks.

Building Relationships

Building relationships is a theme throughout the book and most of the techniques and tips are focused on improving your capability to build relationships.  Here are a few of the techniques I thought were especially helpful and unique:

• Reply and Retweet – this is how you use Twitter to have discussions with your Twitter network and how to gently refer and recommend their thoughts to your followers.  Joel stresses the importance of the reply and re-tweet throughout the book in much the same way I stress listening and referring in my business networking classes
• Build Your Profile, Then Your Followers – When you sign up for Twitter is quickly takes you to a screen where you can search your email accounts to find potential followers.  Joel recommends skipping this step and coming back to it after you have built your profile and followed a few others to get a feel for Twitter.  It’s the networking equivalent to establish a good message and listen first before speaking.
• Add Value – by providing information, discussion and a personal touch along with your promotion.  If all you provide is promotion, your followers will not see the value and will most likely drop you.  Joel offers some great techniques for mixing the types of tweets and setting up a schedule that adds value.

Twitter Power was a pretty good and easy read, and in addition to these and other techniques for use, Joel provides directions on how to customize your Twitter site, build applications around Twitter and more.  He closes the book with some good reference chapters, including third party tools to leverage your Twitter presence and a 30-day calendar that reinforces the techniques throughout the book.

Thanks Joel for sharing your knowledge and experience in a way that was both understandable and enjoyable.  I recommend this book for anyone who wants to make Twitter part of their marketing strategy.

This post is dedicated to my good friend Tom Schultz, CEO of Acuity Audiovisual.  He gave it to me so he wouldn’t have to be on Twitter, but I’ll get him there eventually!  thanks Tom

Already May and it’s kicking off with a bang!  There is a lot going on in business and community – get involved.

What to Do with “No”

Jenn Rader of Fund$cribe presented a Brown Bag seminar this week on writing grants.  Very similar to a normal sales process, she recommended continually working to build longer term relationships with grant providers.  One specific suggestion was to send a thank-you note, even when you DON’T get the grant.  A great way to start setting yourself up for the next sale.

This point was further driven home for me with a story from Jan Sutton of Farmer’s Insurance, in an after-class discussion we were having.  In her early days of cold calling, Jan caught one women on a ladder decorating the Christmas tree and she caught an ear full, an obvious “NO”.  Since she was using the phone book and had an address, Jan took the time to write out a Christmas card, apologizing for the bad timing and suggesting that the woman call her after the holidays.  That family became Farmer’s customers for several years!  (Follow Jan on her new Twitter account @jsuttoninsuranc)

Some of the best long-term relationships that I’ve had with customers were a result of how I dealt with a bad situation and my reaction to “NO”.

Lead v. Referral, A Grudge Match

Wednesday’s Piedmont Professionals, always a great source of networking and learning, were asked by Terry Dixon of Castle Realty the difference between a “lead” and a “referral”.  A referral, of course, is backed by a person known and trusted by the prospective customer, leading to a much warmer introduction.  This definition was reinforced later in the week with a story from Sandie Barkeit of Deer Park Cleaning Services.  Sandie was just getting into her presentation of the quality commercial cleaning service provided by Deer Park to a referral she received from Cliff Glier from Touching Hearts at Home.  She was abruptly stopped mid-sentence and told, “Cliff referred you, which is good enough for us.  Just show us your pricing and let’s get started.”  The Referral wins every time!

Shout Out!

News and Events on the Friends of SigmaBiz

The Partnership for Warrenton and all the participating businesses put on a great “First Night” in old town Warrenton, VA last evening.  Food, wine, moon bounce, live music – there is something for everyone the first Friday evening of every month.  On Mother’s Day, May 8th,  Hospice of the Rapidan will be hosting their 8th Annual Butterfly Celebration, complete with Butterfly Release, at Germanna Community College.  Businesses looking for some high visibility in a high traffic area, combined with helping a great cause need to see Vince Buono of Costco.  For $250 you can have your company above the cash registers at Costco in Manassas, VA and proceeds benefit the Children’s Miracle Network.   Fauquier Faith Partners is holding their “Defeet” Abuse 5K run on Saturday, May 15.  Email ffpmoreinfo@yahoo.com for more info.   John Stewart of Vantage Economics announced this week that his Vantage Leading Economic Index is positive for the first time since 2007.  Amidst some stock market turmoil this week, this is a pretty good sign for the economy as a whole.  You can get Johns weekly newsletter for 4 weeks free and learn how to leverage the economy to be more successful in business.