How Help, How and What can Help Get Your Videos Watched

Getting found on line is always a challenge. It is more so for video, because in most cases your content is not being catalogued.  So you need to improve your odds.

For those of us who are doing information videos including the words How, Help or What can improve your chances to be found.  If you are looking to be found by a search engine or decision engine, one of the key variables is word match.  The more words in your title that match the query being made, the better chance you have of being selected.

Since more users are asking questions when they search, adding How,  Help or What can will make it more likely the video will be found..  When I recently posted a video on behaviors that make a good sales person, which is the most frequently asked question on the blog, I integrated What into the Title: “What Behaviors make a good sales person?  I could have just called it “Behaviors that make a good sales person”.  But adding “what” will help improve the odds.

To see this video,  check out this blog posting .  http://learnedatscore.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/what-behaviors-make-a-good-sales-person/

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No Interest in How to Have Fun

One of the nice things about writing a blog is that you can see what subjects resonate with your audience.  I wrote this piece below  about two weeks ago.  Did my usual promotion on Twitter.  Picked up the usual volume of visitors from our SCORE Chicago web site.   Almost any posting gets traffic.  Some get more, some get less.  This posting got no traffic.

Now, I have a pretty diverse set of followers on Twitter.  Thought for sure that I’d get some traffic.  But, I guess that people aren’t too interested in fun.   Curious, during the glory days of Motorola, there was in the HR world a view that we should at least try to create some fun.  Maybe that is one of the reasons that Motorola is not what it used to be… but I think not.

Probably when you are trying to survive, fun seem to not be a priority.  Too bad

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3 Tips on Having Fun at Work

In today’s times, sometimes it is difficult to have fun at work.  Here are 3 tips to help out.

1. Recognize accomplishment.  When something good happens, you get an order, or solve a problem, announce it and celebrate it.  When I worked in the cell phone business,  when someone, either us or a competitor found a creative way to improve a product, that accomplishment was celebrated.  Then in a competitive situation, we challenged ourselves to do better.  Caution, don’t let someone else’s accomplishment, turn into accusation.

2. Enjoy being in your working group.  Create a regular process of getting together and having a good time.  The most successful collaborative efforts create events to enjoy just working together.  I worked on a project with a customer, internal people, and suppliers.  Every month, we’d get together in another location do a business review and have a nice dinner.  One of my colleagues stated that “you can’t be too upset with someone you eat with”.  Caution: don’t let the celebration become dominated by one person or group. You don’t want to turn it into a coronation.

3.  Announce that one of the goals of the group is to have fun.  Just saying it gets you half way there.  Caution: if you say it, you need to do it.  See points 1 & 2.

3 Tips on having fun at work

In today’s times, sometimes it is difficult to have fun at work.  Here are 3 tips to help out.

1.  Recognize accomplishment.  When something good happens, you get an order, or solve a problem, announce it and celebrate it.  When I worked in the cell phone business,  when someone, either us or a competitor found a creative way to improve a product, that accomplishment was celebrated.  Then in a competitive situation, we challenged ourselves to do better.  Caution, don’t let someone else’s accomplishment, turn into accusation.

2. Enjoy being in your working group.  Create a regular process of getting together and having a good time.  The most successful collaborative efforts create events to enjoy just working together.  I worked on a project with a customer, internal people, and suppliers.  Every month, we’d get together in another location do a business review and have a nice dinner.  One of my colleagues stated that “you can’t be too upset with someone you eat with”.  Caution: don’t let the celebration become dominated by one person or group. You don’t want to turn it into a coronation.

3.  Announce that one of the goals of the group is to have fun.  Just saying it gets you half way there.  Caution: if you say it, you need to do it.  See points 1 & 2.

Own your own name as a brand?

You have a brand that your carry through out your life.  It is on your driver’s license, your passport, and you are universally known by it.  It’s your name.  So consider owning your name as a url.

I just purchased  www.markegoodman.com .  Five years ago, when I was working for Motorola,  I would have never have thought about it.   I felt that I was a subset of the Motorola brand.  But with job changes and the fact that search has become the yellow and white pages of the 21^st century, how can I insure that I can be found.   Not only be found, but insure the continuity and integrity of your brand.

Granted, social media sites like LinkedIn,  Facebook, and Twitter can help give you presence.  However, they can come and go.  Who remembers Prodigy?   These sites often require membership from the searcher.  In addition, for the most part, they control the routing.

Think about it.  What is more important than your own brand?  When it comes to building your image and furthering your career, who is more important than you?

4 Considerations when you are creating a Marketing Plan

I am doing the  Monthly Marketing and Sales Workshop for SCORE Chicago tomorrow, August 6th.    Here are a few highlights.  Information about the workshop is at: http://bit.ly/MarketingSelling

Marketing is key to your success

• Keep it simple
• Know what business you are in

No one perfect marketing plan

• Understand your key metrics
• Set goals consistent with those metrics
• Revisit on a regular basis

Don’t fall in love with a business idea too soon

• Do your research
• Understand your competition
• Reach out to a set of advisors who can provide feedback
• Listen to the sales not made as much as the customers you land

You’re not ready to start a business until you can do a credible Year One monthly sales and profit forecast

• Your numbers are another way of expressing you plan
• Ask youself realistically  “Can we really do that”
• Come up with a “Slow Day” – “Average Day” – “Busy Day” … Understand the impact if every day is a  “Slow Day”

Know your Credit Score before you Talk to a Bank

Knowing your credit score before you talk to your bank can save you significant time and consternation.  In this excerpt from a CANTV inteview that we did with Meghan Kearns from Harris Bank, Meghan emphasizes the importance of a credit score.   She also relates a couple of examples where she worked with clients to recognize inconsistencies that held up the loan process.

I host a weekly cable access TV show for SCORE.  Meghan will be a guest on CANTV 21 Hotline show tonight at 6:30.  If you live in the City of Chicago, please watch it live.  If not,  you can check it out on our BLIP.TV channel http://scorechicagocantv21.blip.tv/ in  a couple of weeks.

10 Trends to Consider

• Aging Boomers
• Economic Recovery
• Greater Education
• Rising Hispanic Influence
• Increased Immigration
• More Government
• Healthcare Reform
• Green
• Globalization
• Web 2.0 and Social Media

What’s the Best Name for my Web Site?

Small business people often ask about picking out a name for a website.  In many cases, the name that is a 100% match for the business (mycompany) is already taken.  So the company asks should they take out mycompanyinc or mycompanyco etc.    Alternatively, a company has a long name  mysmallbusinessisbrilliant.   They ask about if customer expects a shortened URL.

In today’s world,  customers will go into Google, Yahoo, Bing etc and put in your company’s name in the manner that they think of your company.   Remember, the average search phrase is 4 words, so you have some latitude in matching.

Here are a couple of suggestions.

Most importantly understand how your customers think about your business.  If you are Hilltop Garage in Big Mountain, Iowa make a list.

• Hilltop Garage in Big Mountain
• Hilltop Garage Expert Foreign Car repair
• Bob at Hilltop Garage
• Bob over in Big Mountain at Hilltop Garage
• Bob’s Hilltop Garage

Second, when building your website, don’t just think about the URL, but think about the Title, Description, Keywords and Headings on each page.   By putting the appropriate words in these areas, Hilltop Garage will have a better chance of being found.  In the title of the home page, Bob should consider having “Expert Foreign Car Repair – Bob Smith Hilltop Garage Big Mountain, Iowa. ”

Remember, you don’t have to limit yourself to one URL.  Bob could beHilltopGarageBigMountain, but he could also purchaseBigMountainHilltopGarage or even BobsHilltopGarage.  It is fairly simple to route alternative sites to one main site.

When you do pick a site, use that  URL in your email, Twitter, Facebook etc.  Instead of being hilltopgarage@globalemail.com Bob should bebsmith@hilltopgaragebigmountain.com.

If you do have a site, go back and look at your titles, descriptions, keywords and headings.  If you are not sure where they are, ask your web developer.  When it comes to social media, pick one and get started.

ASK SCORE:Taking advantage of the Downturn

Ask Score is a feature that SCORE Chicago is doing in conjuction with Crain’s Chicago Business.

Ask SCORE: Taking advantage of the downturn Posted by Ann D. at 7/29/2009 6:45 AM CDT

We’ve invited SCORE Chicago, the small business coaching and counseling organization, to answer readers’ questions on all aspects of running a small business. Every Wednesday, we’ll publish SCORE Chicago’s advice on issues that matter to you.

If you have a question or problem that you’d like to run past SCORE Chicago’s counseling team, send an e-mail to adwyer@crain.com. Be sure to put “Ask SCORE” in the subject line.

This feature is fairly new, so allow us to pose a question that’s on everybody’s mind in this painful recession: “How can I take advantage of this downturn?” 

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Many SCORE counseling sessions revolve around helping our clients survive these difficult economic times. Jim Stoynoff, a SCORE member, has this advice.

Whatever you do, don’t stop marketing. Make a special effort to explain to your customers why your product is important. Jim notes that your competitors may have stopped their marketing. Therefore, your message can come through more clearly and loudly.

Look at today as an opportunity to get in the door. With the cost pressures that your customers are facing, many of them are more open to change. Take advantage of the new openness.

Jim also suggests that you take the time to meet with your customers and vendors in person. Take the time to share strategies, and work to form a common bond.

Jim recently talked about this issue on SCORE Chicago’s YouTube channel; you’ll find a brief clip here.

The entire interview with Jim is available on SCORE Chicago’s CANTV 21 Channel on Blip.TV.