Finding Influencers
In the last post I outlined what and influencer is, who mine were, and how to take the first steps in finding your influencers. For this article, let’s dive into the actual tactics I use to root out the truly influential humans for my clients. Coincidentally, I was scheduled today to work on a client’s influencer […]
Influencers and the Small Biz Owner
In the last post I outlined some basic tactic for injecting humanity back into your business. If you are anything like me, when you saw the list of sales tactics, you likely chose “Get someone to refer customers to your business for free.” The first step to generating human (and effective) referrals is to establish […]
Inject Humanity into the Digital World – Interaction vs. Sales
“Interact first. Sell Second” – Seth Godin I preach that line again and again and again to my interns. Constantly I find myself telling my clients repeatedly, “just stop trying to sell to them”. And finally, you’ll find pasted on the top of my marketing calendar in the largest font available “BE HUMAN”. Why is crucial […]
Widget Logic – A Quick Guide
Widget Logic is a great way to selectively choose which widgets appear on which pages. Very helpful for non-profits with sponsors whose contract is limited to certain services. Here’s a screenshot of Widget Logic being used to limit a sponsor logo and text to a particular page:
Must-Have WordPress Plugins for Non-Geeks
To be clear, I’m not a web designer. I’m not a web developer. I’m just a marketing guy who has broken my WordPress site … well … a LOT. Over the years and countless late night, “please help me for the love of god” calls to my savvier friends, I’ve come up with a list […]
Jason Fried's Design Checklist Applied to my own Website
Here’s a checklist Jason Fried (from 37 Signals) wrote for reviewing a design. It popped up on my Basecamp to-do’s that I needed to review the design for SmallBizTriage.com, so I figured I’d do it publicly. I’ve removed some items from the list not relevant to me. SITE: www.SmallBizTriage.com What does it say? About – good […]
If Conversation is Ice Cream, What's Your Customers' Favorite Flavor?
I caught myself re-using the ice cream flavors metaphor AGAIN when talking to one of my clients, so I thought I’d ask myself that same question: If conversation is ice cream, what’s your customers’ favorite flavor? And cone? And time of day they prefer to eat it? And what flavor, cone, and time of day do […]
Best Small Biz Owners on TV
1) Captain Malcolm Reynolds – Firefly Skill: Use Grit as a Management Tool. I relate to Mal more than anyone else on the list. Occasionally cranky, constantly screwing up, and holding his rag-tag crew with nothing more than emotional duct-tape and grit. Quote:Malcolm Reynolds: I mean to confound these bungers. Take my shot at getting […]
6 Hard Rules for the Small Business Owner
(or How I Barely Survived My Own Idiocy) 1) Practice Ruthless Efficiency In my second year of running a small business I averaged 80 hours of work per week. One week I can barely remember I clocked in over 100 hours. Then I had my inevitable breakdown, lost a bunch of clients and damn near […]
New York City "Corporate Retreat"
an open letter the family, a.k.a. the 1099 Mafia a.k.a. those people Hey guys (and gal), You all have your own kingdoms you’re building. You all work your asses off. You all have helped me out a ton over the years. I want a way to thank you by getting us all in the […]
