Hub You - Internet and Businesses Online

How to Use Flyers to Increase Your Business
What benefits will you get from flyers?Flyers are much different from postcards in that they convey product sales to the consumer. Safeway, Costco, Albertsons and other grocery chains are excellent at putting out flyers. Many consumers will look at the specials and head out to purchase them either when they need them or simply to stock up. Do flyers work in this respect? Yes, or they would not be doing them. If you are not in a high demand product line such as groceries, then a multiple page flyer may not be what you want to send to your local area. You may want to stick to postcards or one-pagers that have more impact.You can also be part of a flyer program that is offered by coupon book companies, and that way you are grouped together and your readership will likely be higher than if you try to go it alone. There are many really good coupon co

ained the situation online, even explained how dealers were being given instructions for fixing the situation, and the issue was resolved. Based on this Toyota has a full time blogger just for hybrids today. There are other companies following this direction as well. Expert blogs are powerful because they impart advice quickly and honestly – definitely a great aspect of building an online brand.

• Experts tackling disgruntled customers’ problems need to be fast and furious. Companies who have these expert blogs are learning that when a disgruntled customer gets online and posts their problems in getting service, that speed and accuracy of response are everything. Having a one-on-one response within 24 hours that moves closer to as resolution is critical; in fact doing whatever it takes to solve the problem and deliver exceptional customer service is what is needed in this instance. You want to start creating a legendary level of service here; earn a reputation for responsiveness and that will go a long way. Whatever happens don’t institutionalize the response with canned e-mails.

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The Art of Giving Great Service
Sales is tough to get right, and depends on retaining those customers, yet people do it badly and unprofessionally all the time. It's really not difficult to learn the art of good service, and if you get it perfect, you will see those rewards.Let's look at an example of service from my point of view:I usually buy a sandwich from one place only. I always go there, as I get top services and the sandwich is nice. I could go anywhere, but I choose to go to this place.Price has nothing to do with it. I can get a sandwich cheaper elsewhere, but the reason that I don't go elswhere is so simple, and it's scary that so many businesses fail to capitalise on this easy technique. The answer is that the guy knows what my order is I only have to walk in and they prepare my sandwich without asking what I want. I suppose speed of service is part of it -

The collection of technologies that enable customers to be participants in and not just the passive recipients of communication is what many are calling Web 2.0. While there as just as many definitions of Web 2.0 as there are people writing about it, I’d say its safe ground to include the following as blogs, peer-to-peer networking for both files and music, RSS (Real Simple Syndication), social media, social networking sites including LinkedIn, wikis, and the combining of web applications, called mash-ups, which I first learned of from reading Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Charlene Li’s blog. Taken together, those are the building blocks of Web 2.0. Some claim tagging is part of Web 2.0; others don’t, but decide for yourself by checking out del.icio.us and Digg to see what they are about.

In fact Web 2.0 is transforming the Internet into an operating platform unto itself, and from that vantage point the revolutionary product ideas that Google must be exploring are, I am sure, fascinating. One can only imagine what Google must be thinking regarding Web 2.0-based customer centric initiatives based on their advances in several key technology areas, all visible to the outside world at Google Labs’ papers section, which is worth a look from time to time just to see what’s going on in their R&D departments.

Salesforce.com + Google = The Beginnings of Customer-Driven Web 2.0?

Tim Reilly’s article on What is Web 2.0? from 2005 got me to thinking about how Web 2.0 has progressed in the last year and a half since he wrote this piece, and reflecting on the Salesforce.com integration to Google AdWords, which sounds much like what Mr. O’Reilly is speaking of in terms of Web 2.0. For nearly every enterprise software company under $30M in Sales, AdWords is the biggest lead generation spend category in the yearly budgets. Integrating Salesforce.com and AdWords is another data point towards the rewriting of the CRM landscape towards being every more Web 2.0-centric.

Creating a Customer Listening System

Given many tools that comprise Web 2.0, many B2C companies are experimenting with each and working to synchronize content across each through a content management system. According to work being completed at several large consumer goods products (CPG) manufacturers this is working out very well, and is in fact leading to potential new product innovations. These CPG manufacturers rely on blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds to create a more collaborative level of communication with consumers. In addition the CPG manufacturers began tracking and monitoring activity across all Yahoo newsgroups for example. One of th CPG manufacturers in the set opted to outsource their customer listening system efforts to Cymfony, which is a company worth monitoring as their technologies and direction are fascinating in this area of listening to customers via Web 2.0 consumer-generated media.

While many smaller companies want to create an active customer listening system and aren’t ready to partner with Cymfony or a comparable vendor in this area, there are steps that can be taken. Here are some recommendations to get started on your own Customer Listening System:

• Online communities for building product development panels. One globally known manufacturer of building products began creating an online community using first interest groups and then created an online panel of over 2,000 design, development, production, purchasing, procurement, sales and service professionals to assist in their new product development and introduction process (NPDI). From this group of 2,000 the manufacturer allowed much discussion in the community and 20 emerged as the leaders – the cognoscenti if you will – of the group. This group was placed into a second online community and interacted with design engineers from the manufacturer and hosted at a two day design review session. The result was the development of an entirely new building product that had greater global reach and led to the development of entirely new channels of distribution.

• Start building an Expert Blog. That’s what Toyota did with their blog on the hybrid engines, assigning a development engineer to monitor the blog for technical support. Customers complained about the first hybrid engines catching fire due to a fuel line accidentally designed too close to the engine housing, and the design engineer owned up to the flaw, explained the situation online, even explained how dealers were being given instructions for fixing the situation, and the issue was resolved. Based on this Toyota has a full time blogger just for hybrids today. There are other companies following this direction as well. Expert blogs are powerful because they impart advice quickly and honestly – definitely a great aspect of building an online brand.

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The Dreaded One-Page Resume Rule
You've probably heard it since you were in college, writing your first resume:"A resume should be only one page."Nope. Wrong. Dead wrong.Having said that, the one-page rule IS a good rule of thumb for most resumes. But once you've been working for a couple years or more, one page simply isn't enough to market yourself effectively. That's what your resume is supposed to be about.If you're straight out of college and don't have lots of experience yet, stick to a page. If you're an experienced executive, one page is a joke. It's time for a new rule:"Make your resume long enough to cover everything, but short enough to be interesting."This is a general rule for writing (it's called The Miniskirt Principle, actually), but it's particularly important for resumes. And here's a rule of thumb to go along with it:"Limit

itiatives based on their advances in several key technology areas, all visible to the outside world at Google Labs’ papers section, which is worth a look from time to time just to see what’s going on in their R&D departments.

Salesforce.com + Google = The Beginnings of Customer-Driven Web 2.0?

Creating a Customer Listening System

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More Signs of Digital Signage Adolescence
Last week, another sign that dynamic digital signage is entering media adolescence emerged with the announcement that global information and media company VNU and the In-Store Marketing Institute will jointly launch a new service to help marketers better understand how to reach and influence consumers while they shop.A key component of the effort is the measurement of the audience for a new array of in-store marketing vehicles, including digital signage, television and radio, shelf talkers and other point-of-purchase displays.Offered by a new VNU business unit called Nielsen In-Store (part of NielsenConnect), the service aims to give marketers and retailers alike a way to quantify in-store audiences and measure the impact of their in-store marketing efforts. The service also will deliver a means for marketers to assess the value of their in-stor

According to work being completed at several large consumer goods products (CPG) manufacturers this is working out very well, and is in fact leading to potential new product innovations. These CPG manufacturers rely on blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds to create a more collaborative level of communication with consumers. In addition the CPG manufacturers began tracking and monitoring activity across all Yahoo newsgroups for example. One of th CPG manufacturers in the set opted to outsource their customer listening system efforts to Cymfony, which is a company worth monitoring as their technologies and direction are fascinating in this area of listening to customers via Web 2.0 consumer-generated media.

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How to Get Started Blogging in 5 Minutes or Less
I put off starting a blog for a long time because I thought it would be hard. I thought it would be technical. I thought I'd have to install scripts and tear my hair out getting them to work. At that point, most of what I'd read about blogs and RSS was just so much geek-speak.Was I ever wrong!When I finally got the courage to give it a go, I went to blogger.com and signed up for an account. To my amazement, I had a blog set up in about 5 minutes. My first post was uploaded to my site about 10 minutes later.The only thing even remotely technical I was required to do was enter the FTP settings for the website my blog would be published on. But even that wasn't a requirement. With Blogger, you can set up a blog on their site, Blogspot, and not even worry about FTP settings.Since then, I've started 3 Blogger blogs on different sites. B

ating an online community using first interest groups and then created an online panel of over 2,000 design, development, production, purchasing, procurement, sales and service professionals to assist in their new product development and introduction process (NPDI). From this group of 2,000 the manufacturer allowed much discussion in the community and 20 emerged as the leaders – the cognoscenti if you will – of the group. This group was placed into a second online community and interacted with design engineers from the manufacturer and hosted at a two day design review session. The result was the development of an entirely new building product that had greater global reach and led to the development of entirely new channels of distribution.

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Small Business Marketing - How Important Are Your First Words?
"What do you do?" It just might be one of the most asked questions there is, at least here in America.Are you prepared to answer this question and make a positive impression for your business at various networking (and social) events you attend?How about this one... When you go to a business event and everyone in the room gets to make a 30-second introduction, do you feel like you know how to gain attention and interest from any potential prospects or referral sources in the room?Just how important are your first words?Being prepared for these two most common small business scenarios can literally mean the difference between great marketing success and ongoing marketing frustration.You know you need to be out there getting the word out about you and your services. But, if you're not sure how to command attention and i

• Giving Your Customers A Chance to get their Groove on with YouTube What’s turning into one of the hottest Web 2.0 trends this year is the sponsoring of commercial contests where customers have the opportunity to get their groove on with YouTube. It’s been fascinating to watch the uptake of this trend, and the blog Church of the Customer has a good entry on this subject. Of all the ones viewed the TurboTax one is one of the most entertaining and the Southwest Airlines ones are hilarious as well. In a sense, these videos from customers reflect back the branding values projected by your company. Thought for the day: what kind of YouTube videos would your customers create if you sponsored a contest? This is an interesting question and one work pondering – even for a laugh during the day.

In closing, wouldn’t it be great if Google bought LinkedIn, and instead of people there were entire company groupings up there? Complete with YouTube videos, both from the company and from customers online? In the new Uber-LinkedIn you could get comprehensive view of any company from a customers’ perspective complete with videos and a real sense of who they were. This would be sales force automation on steroids, and just one of the many implications of how Customer-Driven Web 2.0 will change how companies present themselves to customers forever.

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Finding office furniture is not easy, and it can become very expensive. Learn how to plan before you buy and save money.

In recent times, aspiring entrepreneurs have seen the benefits of tapping into an angel investor to get the capital they need. This is because of the numerous benefits that they can get out of the funding and the managerial expertise that angel investors provide them. As a result of the demand for angel investors, some companies have started to provide services to aspiring entrepreneurs in the form of assistance in helping them find and meet with angel investors.

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