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Hub You - Interview with Holly Preuss of Granular Solutions
As we near the end of summer, here is a question I have for you, “Are you using the right form of energy to grow your business?” Are you having trouble growing your small business as fast as you want? Are you making all the right moves and still the business just inches forward? Read this article and see if you are using the right form of energy to grow your small business?Head EnergyMy consulting experiences have taught me there are two types of business energy. I call the first type “head energy”. This is the energy that comes from wanting to do better or more with your small business.You want more profits.You want more customers.You want better marketing.Head energy is very powerful. It can inspire. It can achieve dreams. It can drive you forward.Head energy also has limitations. Head energy promises fulfillment in the future. Before the future arrives you must sustain yourself along the way. If you fail to sustain the head energy, your hopes and aspirations tumble down. They become “the good idea that was never achieved!”Gut EnergyI call the second type of small business energy “gut energy”. This energy invo
Holly: Absolutely, yeah. I'm in agreement with that. Yeah.
Shawn: Another thing I wanted to ask you about is what do you think about the difference between Search 2.0, which I keep reading about, versus traditional search, and whether or not that would be a threat to Google. I've seen that Search 2.0 is considered the third generation of search. It takes the existing search, say Google or Overture, and it adds various improved relevancy models to it. Do you think that's just a buzzword or is it something people should be looking into?
Holly: I think it has, unfortunately, become a bit of a buzzword. Essentially all of these search engines have got extraordinarily smart engineers who spend their time on the web and looking at how best to categorize all of this information that they are trying so desperately to categorize in a very legitimate way. So there is a little bit of a "we're one step ahead" of people who may be optimizing for words that don't apply or some black hat stuff that might be going on behind the scenes.
But I think ultimately that the thing that
I’ve written often on the subject of leadership development and talent management because very few things in business can catalyze change and create sustainable growth like leaders who understand how to leverage their talent and resources. It takes more than charisma and subject matter expertise to be a leader it also takes a keen understanding of how to create organizational leverage.One of the main keys to generating organizational leverage is for C-suite executives and entrepreneurs to know when, where and why to deploy (or redeploy) talent and resources. It has been my experience that it is much easier to recruit talent or acquire resources than it is to properly deploy talent and allocate resources.Jack Welch the former head of GE built a reputation as one of the great business leaders of this era. When asked how he transformed a lack-luster, institutional, global corporate giant into a dynamic culture focused on innovation and growth, Welch responded by saying; “My job is to put the best people on the biggest opportunities and the best allocation of dollars in the right places. That's about it. Transfer ideas and allocate resources and get out of the way." Welch clearly not only understood the conce
Holly Preuss: Well thank you for having me, this is great!
Shawn: Cool! Let's jump right into it here. One thing I was curious about is the whole thing with social tagging. I was wondering what you thought about social tagging and perhaps the impact on SERPs.
Holly: Yeah, I think it is definitely having a major impact on how people are showing up on the results page. Being able to be tagged with the key words that are very important to your business is just a huge impact to how you show up on at the top of the results page. And it's a very difficult thing for you to manage as a business, or as an individual but I think definitely it's being shown that the search engines are seeing it as a huge positive and pushing people up who have been tagged up to the top.
Shawn: Great, and maybe for the benefit of anybody who isn't totally familiar with it could you just give a ground level view of what social tagging is all about?
Holly: Yes, absolutely. Social tagging is essentially the ability of the user to label something that they are looking at through a variety of different applications be it del.icio.us or digg or something like that, where they basically tell those software programs "these are the keywords that this page is about". And it's great because it's a semantic look at the content of the web verses the individual spiders of the search engines crawling through and trying to establish what these keywords are. It's having somebody read it and notifying these different software programs "hey, this is what this is about". That's essentially what it is.
Shawn: OK, great! Another thing I wanted to ask you about and the issue you are going to speak about at the Affiliate Summit is just basically managing you reputation online. Just curious about some strategies you might have around that, and some tips that you could share with some people here?
Holly: Yeah, absolutely. Your web reputation is a complex thing in search engine results in that you have what we would consider above the fold results on the various different engines. So it's one thing for your site to show up at the top of a results page for a given amount of words. But the next question is is that what is the other four or five that you are seeing right there at the initial stage and how do you control positive references to yourself? In certain instances some people may have maybe a news clip that wasn't flattering or a bad book review that may show up at the top and how do you make sure that at least the first few are very positive about you?
Maybe something negative might show up. A good example of this is a Starbucks.com. If you type Starbucks into Google the first result page is all about Starbucks the corporate parent, but another one that comes up is a site that is being hosted by some people who want independent coffee houses to be the standard and not Starbucks and so it is not a great reference to them and that tends to come up at the top.
So in terms of how do you control it, it becomes an interesting thing because you no longer just have to worry about your first site. You need to possibly have other mini-sites or you may decide that you want to work with somebody like a life-tips and then your name or your companies name then comes up to the top at these other places where maybe you are sharing some content. These are some of the things that we are recommending for people that run into this particular situation.
Shawn: So would you say that you try to control the first five results, maybe the first ten?
Holly: Yeah, you know ten would be ideal, that's really the first page. But definitely the top five, above the fold is really important.
Shawn: Yeah, I forget what resolution I have my screen at, but for me above the fold is the first eight results. I'm seeing almost all the results there. I happened to look at the one for Starbucks there and I see right now for number five is "I hate Starbucks.com".
Holly: Yes, exactly.
Shawn: Well, interesting. And do you have any thoughts on the recent announcement by the FTC about regulations around word of mouth marketing and how there should be disclosures if somebody is getting paid in any way? Like when in instance, I see sides a lot with PayPerPost where people were being paid to evangelize about certain companies?
Holly: Yeah, absolutely. I think on the surface it's always a great idea. If you've brought somebody in to write about you, there are definitely ways to word that so that it's not a, "OK, we just hired a guy off the street to discuss our company and he doesn't necessarily know that much about it." There is a way to disclose it that I think can be professional and let your readers really know what's going on. Disclosure, of course, is always the best approach.
In terms of them coming in and trying to regulate it, I think it's going to become a very difficult thing. It reminds me a little bit of getting a corporate email from somebody. They all have that little paragraph on the bottom, "If you've received this email in error, you need to destroy it and notify us right away." I'm getting the sense that if that were to move forward we would start to see something like that and it would almost become a blur because it gets standardized, it gets posted some place on the bottom, and people are just going to gloss over it. Versus, the community doing it themselves as a best practice, it's going to come out in different ways and it's going to be a lot more cleaner. You've got to rely on the public to vet out this type of behavior instead of trying to regulate it, is my position on it.
Shawn: Yeah, hopefully it will be some kind of a clean solution. I know a lot of affiliates are concerned that it would be very obtrusive in the way that they post to a blog if you have to put after each link, maybe in parenthesis "AFF" or something, to signify that it was an affiliate link. People were a little freaked out that it would ruin the flow of the way they are doing things.
Holly: Absolutely, yeah. I'm in agreement with that. Yeah.
Shawn: Another thing I wanted to ask you about is what do you think about the difference between Search 2.0, which I keep reading about, versus traditional search, and whether or not that would be a threat to Google. I've seen that Search 2.0 is considered the third generation of search. It takes the existing search, say Google or Overture, and it adds various improved relevancy models to it. Do you think that's just a buzzword or is it something people should be looking into?
Holly: I think it has, unfortunately, become a bit of a buzzword. Essentially all of these search engines have got extraordinarily smart engineers who spend their time on the web and looking at how best to categorize all of this information that they are trying so desperately to categorize in a very legitimate way. So there is a little bit of a "we're one step ahead" of people who may be optimizing for words that don't apply or some black hat stuff that might be going on behind the scenes.
But I think ultimately that the thing that i
The retail stores back in the 80s did not have any competition hence it kept growing and competition was minimal. Back then you could buy like crazy, load up your stores with a vast variety of inventory, do a fair job with merchandising, and customers of all ages and sizes would come flocking in to buy and buy. Those were the days, but times are different now. As a business grows and changes, so does its customer base. As I speak with business owners in my audiences from across the world, I am constantly amazed that many cannot articulate to me who their core customer is. Some have been successful for years, but they are wondering why they are now losing their edge and, even worse, losing customers to the growing competition. These businesses are oblivious to change. They continue to do things the same old way instead of adjusting their marketing efforts to keep up with changes in the industry and, more importantly, the needs of their customers.A retail store I recently consulted with was throwing lots of money away by advertising in the same newspapers with the same ineffective ads they had been using for years. When we focused on rediscovering their customer base, it was clear why the advertising campa
Shawn: OK, great! Another thing I wanted to ask you about and the issue you are going to speak about at the Affiliate Summit is just basically managing you reputation online. Just curious about some strategies you might have around that, and some tips that you could share with some people here?
Holly: Yeah, absolutely. Your web reputation is a complex thing in search engine results in that you have what we would consider above the fold results on the various different engines. So it's one thing for your site to show up at the top of a results page for a given amount of words. But the next question is is that what is the other four or five that you are seeing right there at the initial stage and how do you control positive references to yourself? In certain instances some people may have maybe a news clip that wasn't flattering or a bad book review that may show up at the top and how do you make sure that at least the first few are very positive about you?
Maybe something negative might show up. A good example of this is a Starbucks.com. If you type Starbucks into Google the first result page is all about Starbucks the corporate parent, but another one that comes up is a site that is being hosted by some people who want independent coffee houses to be the standard and not Starbucks and so it is not a great reference to them and that tends to come up at the top.
So in terms of how do you control it, it becomes an interesting thing because you no longer just have to worry about your first site. You need to possibly have other mini-sites or you may decide that you want to work with somebody like a life-tips and then your name or your companies name then comes up to the top at these other places where maybe you are sharing some content. These are some of the things that we are recommending for people that run into this particular situation.
Shawn: So would you say that you try to control the first five results, maybe the first ten?
Holly: Yeah, you know ten would be ideal, that's really the first page. But definitely the top five, above the fold is really important.
Shawn: Yeah, I forget what resolution I have my screen at, but for me above the fold is the first eight results. I'm seeing almost all the results there. I happened to look at the one for Starbucks there and I see right now for number five is "I hate Starbucks.com".
Holly: Yes, exactly.
Shawn: Well, interesting. And do you have any thoughts on the recent announcement by the FTC about regulations around word of mouth marketing and how there should be disclosures if somebody is getting paid in any way? Like when in instance, I see sides a lot with PayPerPost where people were being paid to evangelize about certain companies?
Holly: Yeah, absolutely. I think on the surface it's always a great idea. If you've brought somebody in to write about you, there are definitely ways to word that so that it's not a, "OK, we just hired a guy off the street to discuss our company and he doesn't necessarily know that much about it." There is a way to disclose it that I think can be professional and let your readers really know what's going on. Disclosure, of course, is always the best approach.
In terms of them coming in and trying to regulate it, I think it's going to become a very difficult thing. It reminds me a little bit of getting a corporate email from somebody. They all have that little paragraph on the bottom, "If you've received this email in error, you need to destroy it and notify us right away." I'm getting the sense that if that were to move forward we would start to see something like that and it would almost become a blur because it gets standardized, it gets posted some place on the bottom, and people are just going to gloss over it. Versus, the community doing it themselves as a best practice, it's going to come out in different ways and it's going to be a lot more cleaner. You've got to rely on the public to vet out this type of behavior instead of trying to regulate it, is my position on it.
Shawn: Yeah, hopefully it will be some kind of a clean solution. I know a lot of affiliates are concerned that it would be very obtrusive in the way that they post to a blog if you have to put after each link, maybe in parenthesis "AFF" or something, to signify that it was an affiliate link. People were a little freaked out that it would ruin the flow of the way they are doing things.
Holly: Absolutely, yeah. I'm in agreement with that. Yeah.
Shawn: Another thing I wanted to ask you about is what do you think about the difference between Search 2.0, which I keep reading about, versus traditional search, and whether or not that would be a threat to Google. I've seen that Search 2.0 is considered the third generation of search. It takes the existing search, say Google or Overture, and it adds various improved relevancy models to it. Do you think that's just a buzzword or is it something people should be looking into?
Holly: I think it has, unfortunately, become a bit of a buzzword. Essentially all of these search engines have got extraordinarily smart engineers who spend their time on the web and looking at how best to categorize all of this information that they are trying so desperately to categorize in a very legitimate way. So there is a little bit of a "we're one step ahead" of people who may be optimizing for words that don't apply or some black hat stuff that might be going on behind the scenes.
But I think ultimately that the thing that
Step 3. Evaluate the risks and decide whether existing precautions are adequate or more should be done.Consider how likely it is that each hazard could cause harm. This will determine whether or not you need to do more to reduce the risk.Even after all precautions have been taken, some risk usually remains. What you have to decide for each significant hazard is whether this remaining risk is high, medium or low.Firstly, ask yourself whether you have done all the things that the law says you have got to do.As an example, there are legal requirements on prevention of access to dangerous parts of machinery. Then ask yourself whether generally accepted industry standards are in place. But do not stop there, think for yourself, because the law also says that you must do what is reasonably practicable to keep your workplace safe.Your real aim is to Make All Risks Small by adding to your precautions as necessary.If you find that something needs to be done, draw up an action list, and give priority to any remaining risks which are high, and those which could affect most people.In taking action ask yourself:1. Can you get rid of the hazard altogether?2. If not, how
So in terms of how do you control it, it becomes an interesting thing because you no longer just have to worry about your first site. You need to possibly have other mini-sites or you may decide that you want to work with somebody like a life-tips and then your name or your companies name then comes up to the top at these other places where maybe you are sharing some content. These are some of the things that we are recommending for people that run into this particular situation.
Shawn: So would you say that you try to control the first five results, maybe the first ten?
Holly: Yeah, you know ten would be ideal, that's really the first page. But definitely the top five, above the fold is really important.
Shawn: Yeah, I forget what resolution I have my screen at, but for me above the fold is the first eight results. I'm seeing almost all the results there. I happened to look at the one for Starbucks there and I see right now for number five is "I hate Starbucks.com".
Holly: Yes, exactly.
Shawn: Well, interesting. And do you have any thoughts on the recent announcement by the FTC about regulations around word of mouth marketing and how there should be disclosures if somebody is getting paid in any way? Like when in instance, I see sides a lot with PayPerPost where people were being paid to evangelize about certain companies?
Holly: Yeah, absolutely. I think on the surface it's always a great idea. If you've brought somebody in to write about you, there are definitely ways to word that so that it's not a, "OK, we just hired a guy off the street to discuss our company and he doesn't necessarily know that much about it." There is a way to disclose it that I think can be professional and let your readers really know what's going on. Disclosure, of course, is always the best approach.
In terms of them coming in and trying to regulate it, I think it's going to become a very difficult thing. It reminds me a little bit of getting a corporate email from somebody. They all have that little paragraph on the bottom, "If you've received this email in error, you need to destroy it and notify us right away." I'm getting the sense that if that were to move forward we would start to see something like that and it would almost become a blur because it gets standardized, it gets posted some place on the bottom, and people are just going to gloss over it. Versus, the community doing it themselves as a best practice, it's going to come out in different ways and it's going to be a lot more cleaner. You've got to rely on the public to vet out this type of behavior instead of trying to regulate it, is my position on it.
Shawn: Yeah, hopefully it will be some kind of a clean solution. I know a lot of affiliates are concerned that it would be very obtrusive in the way that they post to a blog if you have to put after each link, maybe in parenthesis "AFF" or something, to signify that it was an affiliate link. People were a little freaked out that it would ruin the flow of the way they are doing things.
Holly: Absolutely, yeah. I'm in agreement with that. Yeah.
Shawn: Another thing I wanted to ask you about is what do you think about the difference between Search 2.0, which I keep reading about, versus traditional search, and whether or not that would be a threat to Google. I've seen that Search 2.0 is considered the third generation of search. It takes the existing search, say Google or Overture, and it adds various improved relevancy models to it. Do you think that's just a buzzword or is it something people should be looking into?
Holly: I think it has, unfortunately, become a bit of a buzzword. Essentially all of these search engines have got extraordinarily smart engineers who spend their time on the web and looking at how best to categorize all of this information that they are trying so desperately to categorize in a very legitimate way. So there is a little bit of a "we're one step ahead" of people who may be optimizing for words that don't apply or some black hat stuff that might be going on behind the scenes.
But I think ultimately that the thing that
The path to profit for an online home business is usually tied closely to smart planning, smart tactics - following key steps - and a willingness to undertake the necessary action.Creating a strategy for your home business and following it will ensure that you enjoy the journey as much as getting to your final destination.So what is strategic business management? Very simply, it's the process of defining the goals and objectives for your business, creating an action plan so you can reach them and then following the plan.How do you prepare a strategic plan for your business?1. Research. Study those who've developed successful online marketing strategies and identify the techniques that you believe will prove fruitful during the coming year. One year is a long time on the internet but it offers an achievable goal.2. Develop a plan for this year. These are the specific objectives you plan to accomplish this year that will lead you closer to your long-term goals. Remember to be "SMART" when setting your annual goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-oriented). Include a list of the barriers that are stopping you from getting where you want to go. Figure out what resources
Holly: Yeah, absolutely. I think on the surface it's always a great idea. If you've brought somebody in to write about you, there are definitely ways to word that so that it's not a, "OK, we just hired a guy off the street to discuss our company and he doesn't necessarily know that much about it." There is a way to disclose it that I think can be professional and let your readers really know what's going on. Disclosure, of course, is always the best approach.
In terms of them coming in and trying to regulate it, I think it's going to become a very difficult thing. It reminds me a little bit of getting a corporate email from somebody. They all have that little paragraph on the bottom, "If you've received this email in error, you need to destroy it and notify us right away." I'm getting the sense that if that were to move forward we would start to see something like that and it would almost become a blur because it gets standardized, it gets posted some place on the bottom, and people are just going to gloss over it. Versus, the community doing it themselves as a best practice, it's going to come out in different ways and it's going to be a lot more cleaner. You've got to rely on the public to vet out this type of behavior instead of trying to regulate it, is my position on it.
Shawn: Yeah, hopefully it will be some kind of a clean solution. I know a lot of affiliates are concerned that it would be very obtrusive in the way that they post to a blog if you have to put after each link, maybe in parenthesis "AFF" or something, to signify that it was an affiliate link. People were a little freaked out that it would ruin the flow of the way they are doing things.
Holly: Absolutely, yeah. I'm in agreement with that. Yeah.
Shawn: Another thing I wanted to ask you about is what do you think about the difference between Search 2.0, which I keep reading about, versus traditional search, and whether or not that would be a threat to Google. I've seen that Search 2.0 is considered the third generation of search. It takes the existing search, say Google or Overture, and it adds various improved relevancy models to it. Do you think that's just a buzzword or is it something people should be looking into?
Holly: I think it has, unfortunately, become a bit of a buzzword. Essentially all of these search engines have got extraordinarily smart engineers who spend their time on the web and looking at how best to categorize all of this information that they are trying so desperately to categorize in a very legitimate way. So there is a little bit of a "we're one step ahead" of people who may be optimizing for words that don't apply or some black hat stuff that might be going on behind the scenes.
But I think ultimately that the thing that
Healthcare managers are discovering that a “best practice” imported from another organization is not a panacea. First, one size never fits all. Second, managers charged with process improvement often think of the search for a best practice as a one-time effort. In truth, performance improvement is always ongoing. That’s why smart organizations are intensifying the search for best practices with “knowledge communities” – groups of people who share a common interest and are committed to exchange information and solve common problems together on a continuing basis. Here’s how knowledge communities can make a difference in patient care and the organization’s bottom line.Why the Search for “Best Practices” FailsThere are five approaches to best practice “search and implement” missions that strangle management. They all begin with a vague project to find a best practice without any certainty on search parameters or desired outcome. What usually happens is one of the following:Scenario 1:The manager cannot find a better performer that is similar to his or her own organization in terms of size, scope, structure, environment, trauma level, profitability, etc. Therefore, there is no one from whom to l
Holly: Absolutely, yeah. I'm in agreement with that. Yeah.
Shawn: Another thing I wanted to ask you about is what do you think about the difference between Search 2.0, which I keep reading about, versus traditional search, and whether or not that would be a threat to Google. I've seen that Search 2.0 is considered the third generation of search. It takes the existing search, say Google or Overture, and it adds various improved relevancy models to it. Do you think that's just a buzzword or is it something people should be looking into?
Holly: I think it has, unfortunately, become a bit of a buzzword. Essentially all of these search engines have got extraordinarily smart engineers who spend their time on the web and looking at how best to categorize all of this information that they are trying so desperately to categorize in a very legitimate way. So there is a little bit of a "we're one step ahead" of people who may be optimizing for words that don't apply or some black hat stuff that might be going on behind the scenes.
But I think ultimately that the thing that is really on the horizon, and this ties back into something that we were discussing earlier, is this concept of a semantic web, where it's not going to be all these spiders trying to read what this website is about, and how it's going to start to incorporate what humans are actually viewing and what humans have decided this is about into their search. I think that's really where the different search engines are going to have to go if they are going to keep up and it's definitely something I think that various affiliates need to be thinking about as they move forward is where the search engines are looking next. I think that this is part of it.
But as an overall thing, Web 2.0 is keep up with what the search engines are doing. Make sure that what you are doing on your site is working for how the search engines are looking at it today. It used to be all about Meta tags. It used to be about other things. Now it's a little bit different in that you just have to keep up with it and make sure that you're following best practices and keeping up.
Shawn: Sure. Just one last question I was curious about whether you have any favorite blogs that you generally go to or any resources you'd be willing to share?
Holly: Absolutely. I'm a big fan of a blog called JenSense.com. It's a really good blog especially for content providers. She just seems to be absolutely on top of those things. I head over to John Battelle's blog pretty regularly. He seems to catch things really quickly.
Generally speaking, I just keep up with any other searchenginewatch.com and those just as a general overview of what's going on. Of course ReveNews.com is amazing as well.
Shawn: OK, great. Well thanks a lot for your time today and all this great insight into what's going on with search. I really appreciate it.
Holly: Great.
Shawn: We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit.
Holly: Thanks for having me.
Shawn: Thank you. Take care.
Holly: Goodbye.
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