The Insatiable Solopreneur™

Succeeding and Surviving as a Solopreneur

Archive for the category “Marketing”

The Perks of Crossing the Facebook “Friend” Line with Clients

As a solopreneur and professional services provider, you are your brand – so your clients can’t help but think of you andAdd as Friend your company as one. As clients get to know you and feel more comfortable with you, you can expect to get occasional friend requests from them on Facebook. Though some might “friend” you to dig into your background, I believe most simply and genuinely seek to reach a new level of camaraderie with you because they sincerely like you.

Certainly, some cons go with the pros of crossing the Facebook friend line, but there are some very real benefits to making your clients your friends. By accepting their friend requests and letting them into your personal Facebook world, you can:

  • Strengthen your bond – Having a means to communicate and interact on a more personal level can lead to  stronger emotional connections between you and your clients. They see you with your family…your friends…your pets. They get to know you more deeply and will feel more vested in you professionally as a result.
  • Impress – By seeing all that you’re involved with outside of your business, clients will get a feel for your sense of – and contributions to – your community. Demonstrating your commitment to improving the world around you can be a wonderful way to showcase your good works and give clients the peace of mind that they’re doing business with someone who cares about others.
  • Entertain – Assuming you’re a bit more casual in tone and in the topics you present on your personal Facebook account than you are on your professional social networks, your less-businessy, fun side will shine through. Your clients will relish getting a glimpse of your sense of humor and quick wit. And they’ll feel more at one with you having experienced your lighter side.

But before you get stoked about the perks potential from friending your clients, objectively evaluate whether your activity on your personal Facebook account will generate a positive or negative response. If you believe (or someone has told you) that your content is borderline offensive or inappropriate, friending clients might not be a good move for you professionally.

Also, set a policy for how you’ll handle Facebook friend requests from clients – and be consistent with it. Treat all clients who seek to cross the line the same. Assuming you value your professional relationships with all of them, don’t pick, choose, and alienate individual clients while letting others into your personal circles. That could hurt not only feelings, but also your business.

What’s your rule on having clients as Facebook friends? Have you ever ignored a client’s Facebook friend request?

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4 Sure-fire Ways to Boost Your Freelance Business

Starting out as a freelancer is exciting – but it can be scary, too. When you’ve got specific income goals you want – or Freelancerneed – to meet, you’ve got to find ways to effectively get the word out about your services. And you’ve got to prove yourself. The pressure is on!

Fortunately, you have it within your power to give your freelance business the boost it needs to move it onward and upward.

  • Don’t be shy! When you decide to enter into the world of freelancing, you need to come out of your shell. It’s up to YOU to raise awareness of your services to everyone you know and then some. Tell everyone you come in contact with (friends, family, doctors, your kid’s teachers, fellow gym rats, former work colleagues, your pastor, the guy in line behind you at the grocery store, and on and on) what you’re doing and that you’re ready to serve clients. Seriously, prospective clients sometimes come from the most unexpected places. For example, I met three clients through taking Kung Fu classes at a local martial arts studio. You just never know – so view every interaction as a potential opportunity.
  • Beef up your portfolio with pro bono work. If you’re just starting out as a freelancer, volunteering your skills and talent can help you build a repository of real world samples to share. Even as an established freelancer, a portfolio is essential to show prospects what you’re capable of. But as a new solopreneur, it’s even more important because you won’t have a long-standing reputation to back you up. And doing pro bono work can also help you garner testimonials from prominent people within your business community. Just be sure to temper the time you spend on volunteer endeavors – if you over-commit, you’ll find it difficult to focus on growing your business.
  • Link up with LinkedIn.  And for goodness sake, complete your profile! LinkedIn is the most powerful professional social network online. Yes, it takes some upfront time to set it up, but it’s easy, intuitive and FREE. With a profile that’s well-written and full of relevant information about your experience, skills and capabilities, you increase your chances of getting found by prospects looking for a professional in your field in your geographic area. For me, my time on LinkedIn has absolutely paid off. 15% of my clients have come directly through LinkedIn – most of them are local, but they also include a mobile-app development company based in NYC who found me via a search for a freelancing marketing content writer geographically located in the Lancaster, PA area. Yes, LinkedIn can be a freelancer’s best friend.
  • Spend a little – time and money. To make it as a freelancer, you’ve got to invest yourself to the cause. That means spending time on establishing your personal brand. Social media networks give you a phenomenal opportunity to do that. The key to success is to consistently put forth the effort to build a loyal following around your professional persona. And consider putting some cold hard cash toward making yourself known in your local business community. Local chambers of commerce and networking organizations provide all sorts of face-to-face meeting opportunities that – over time – enable you to develop strong professional relationships that lead to new clients. Just remember, what you get out of memberships to these organizations directly reflects what you put into them. Don’t expect to attend just one mixer all year and walk away with a dozen leads. Besides the promise of new business, I love my chamber membership for the opportunity to maintain a personal connection with existing clients and other wonderful people in our local community. Though I’m a huge fan of social media, nothing beats talking up close and personal.

Above all, be diligent in all of your efforts to build your freelance business. There’s no fast track to success. Developing your reputation, assembling a respectable portfolio and making the right connections will take not only time, but also a heck of a lot of energy. Remember to keep your eye on the prize – a career of flexibility, variety and limitless possibilities – and you’ll stay motivated to move forward.

What strategies and tactics have helped you build your freelance business the most? What online and offline networking efforts have delivered results?

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LinkedIn Tip for Solopreneurs: Go Light on your “Skills & Expertise”

More isn’t always better – especially when posting your “Skills & Expertise” on LinkedIn.Scale

LinkedIn recently introduced a “Skills & Expertise” feature to enable us to enhance our profiles by adding single words or phrases that represent our specific talents, organizational and interpersonal skills, software aptitude, sales and marketing prowess, technical abilities, industry knowledge, etc. It’s nice in that it adds keywords to your profile to help others find you via the Skills & Expertise page of the LinkedIn site. But resist the urge to splurge!

LinkedIn lets you add up to 50 skills and areas of expertise to your profile. Fantastic, right? Great in theory, because it seems logical that the more you have, the more impressive you’ll appear to prospects. Unfortunately, that can backfire as your connections seek to help you by endorsing your specific capabilities.

I discovered quickly, that if you have too many options listed under “Skills & Expertise,” people might very well endorse those that really aren’t what you want front and center on your profile. Not that any particular skills or areas of expertise are bad (unless bank robbery or money-laundering happen to be among them!), but they could pull attention away from the talents that truly matter to prospects. If your connections endorse your “lesser” or “in the past” skills more prolifically than those that are pertinent to your current status as a solopreneur, potential clients might not feel as confident about your ability to meet their needs.

How can you ensure that your top traits get the spotlight?

Keep these things in mind as you set up or review your LinkedIn “Skills & Expertise” list…

  • 50 is overkill. I have 22 on my list and need to whittle it down even further.
    1. Check your own list to see if you duplicated any skills.For example, if you’ve listed “Marketing,” “Marketing Strategy,” “Product Marketing,” and “Marketing Management,” you might eliminate one or two of them so only those that you’d like emphasized on your profile remain.
    2. Remove skills that are implied in other skills.I axed “Microsoft Word” from my list. As a freelance writer, I believe people will correctly assume that I have proficiency in using Word or some equivalent word processing software. If a skill naturally “goes with the territory,” you probably don’t need to list it.
  • LinkedIn prioritizes and puts your skills and areas of expertise with the most endorsements at the top of your list.
    If you have any that you would rather not highlight, remove them so your connections don’t have the option to endorse them.
  • Don’t feel obliged to keep endorsed skills and expertise in your profile.
    Even if others endorsed you on them, pull the plug if they are diluting your professional focus.

Of course, there is the double-edged sword effect of not being found if someone searches on the LinkedIn Skills & Expertise page for a capability that you removed from your profile. However, if you’ve got a comparable skill there instead, users will see it among the list of “Related Skills” provided. And if they’re seriously looking for professionals with your specific abilities, they’ll continue their research to view profiles (yours included) that have the related skill. No guarantees, of course, so the choice is yours! My preference is to work toward a profile that displays a meaningful Skills and Expertise list with appropriate endorsements, rather than bulk load for the sake of search. Your thoughts?

 

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“If Only Facebook Would…” Rantings and Rational Thought From a Facebook Page Owner

I admit it. I suffer from some degree of “entitlement syndrome” where my business Facebook page is concerned.Like button

“How dare they not share all of my posts with my page fans?”

“How dare they decide what posts are important to me and which are not?”

“How dare they expect me to pay if I want my posts to get more exposure?”

Like a lot of other business page owners that I know, I’m frustrated. Whenever Facebook announces a new change, we see our reach take a nose dive and that leads to a lower level of engagement. It makes me aggravated, particularly because I’m posting the type of content that I know my audience enjoys and that has always lead to healthy interaction and conversation on my page.

It’s not fair. Or is it?

Reality Check
Facebook is free.

OK, not free in terms of time and energy, but free monetarily unless you opt to pay for ads, sponsored stories or to promote posts (that last one is what’s grating on most of us!).

Realistic Expectations
Do I…do you…have the right to complain about a platform that isn’t charging us a nickel to use it for the benefit of our businesses? Yes, it sucks that we’re not getting as much bang for our theoretical buck than before, but we’re still getting that watered-down bang for free. After all, Facebook isn’t a not-for-profit human services organization. It’s a business. As a business, shouldn’t we expect their folks to want to make some money off of their hard work, smarts and sweat?

Psychology
Logically, I think, “Yes.” Still, I find myself illogically feeling cheated. And I think I know why.

It almost seems like Facebook is holding our posts for ransom. If we pay up, they’ll let our fans (who presumably want to engage with us) see our posts again.

As both a fan of other pages and as a page owner, I think the concept of “promoted posts” is ridiculous. As a fan, I want to see what the pages I follow are sharing. That’s why I liked their pages. If pages post far too frequently and clutter my news feed or if they don’t post anything worthwhile, I want to make the decision about whether or not to hide their updates or unlike them. I’d rather Facebook not be the gate-keeper. And as a page owner, I don’t anticipate ever doling out the dough to promote a post.

On the Other Hand
But that’s not to say I would completely deny Facebook its right to monetization. What if Facebook would do like LinkedIn, Evernote, Buffer and Hootsuite do? Give page owners two options: one free, one paid.

We could choose a free “Basic” membership that throttles post reach in the manner it does now, or select a paid “Premium” membership that presents all of our updates in our fans’ news feeds. I would be far more open to paying for a Premium Facebook membership than I am to promoting posts.

As for price point, Facebook could conceivably do quite well if just 5% (1,850,000) of its 37 million pages would pay $4.99 per month for a Premium membership. I’d think an annual take of $110,778,000 is worthy of consideration. And of course they’d still have the ads and sponsored stories revenue rolling in…and they could continue offering the option of promoted posts to Basic page owners.

I’d pay $4.99 per month (Don’t tell Facebook, but I’d pay even more.) to know that I have the capability of delivering consistent content to my fans on my terms and theirs. No more guesswork. The burden of engaging fans and keeping them interested would wholly be on me – not on an algorithm.

Simple. Think it could work?

Time for your thoughts! As a page owner, would you be receptive to a premium membership type of offering if Facebook would extend it to us? 

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Getting the Most from a Fan Page Follow Fest

I was skeptical at first when I commented on Mari Smith’s Facebook Fan Page Friday post last Friday morning.Like button

“Please add your fan page URL or @ tag on this post or on my wall. It’s a great way to discover new fan pages, make new friends, and get new fans.”

I had been down that road before on LinkedIn group discussions, chamber of commerce Facebook pages and other social spaces that encouraged a mass “follow fest” – only to find lack of reciprocal participation. Disheartening most definitely. And those past experiences almost stopped me from making the effort on Mari’s page.

Not sure why I decided to do it anyway, but I’m so very glad I did for my Facebook page and two others that I assist with.

The results in fan growth:

  • My page – a 12% increase
  • Client A’s page – a 38% increase
  • Client B’s page – a 22% increase

Why such favorable outcomes when past efforts didn’t provide this level of return? Well, I think a lot of it has to do with the mind set of Mari Smith’s community of fans. She has built a following that believes in reciprocating – and knows the value in it!

Of course, it’s true that number of fans doesn’t always equate to quality engagement and conversions, but I believe this Fan Page Friday exercise was absolutely the right thing to do and well worth the time and energy expended for these reasons:

  • My two clients’ pages were just ramping up and had few followers. They needed a “shot in the arm” to build their numbers so their posts are more likely to get some air time and interaction. Maybe not all the new likes are in their target markets, but fan count and engagement definitely adds appeal and builds momentum. It certainly won’t hurt their pages to have a higher fan count – and judging from what I’ve seen so far from the new likes that came from Mari’s community, my clients’ pages will experience more ongoing likes, comments and shares on their posts.
  • In my case, virtually all businesses are either potential clients or sources of referrals.

I’m not sure how often Mari offers the opportunity to promote your business on her page, but I highly recommend that you “Like” her page and keep your eyes open for the next time she does. When the door opens again, keep these things in mind as you embrace the chance to expand your reach:

  • Over a thousand people commented on Mari’s posts that day – she actually did two identical posts, probably to keep the comment stream more manageable. Therefore it’s quite impossible to show love to every worthy page who participated. Take about a half hour to scan the thread to find and like business Facebook pages that fit one of these scenarios:
    • They might be potential clients.
    • They might be a good source of referrals.
    • They offer services that are complementary to yours.
    • They’re local.
    • You find them interesting.
  • If you manage more than one Facebook page, don’t undertake this exercise for more than two pages at a time. I had to step lively to keep up with three, and I’m so very happy I didn’t participate with all the pages I administrate. Just two would have been ideal.
  • When liking a page, do so when logged in as your Facebook page and also as your own personal self. Here’s why…
    • Business pages’ fan counts don’t increase when other business pages like them – only when unique people do.
    • You want to gain exposure for your business page, so make it easy for other page owners to discover and like your page in return. Logging in as your page to like them and when commenting on their posts makes your page known to them and their followers.
  • Write a note on the pages’ timelines that you’ve just followed to make them aware of your like and to introduce yourself, your business and the type of content you share regularly. With likes coming in left and right during an event like Mari Smith’s, it’s challenging to keep up with new followers. Your introduction will ensure you don’t get lost in the shuffle.
  • Reciprocate! Make the effort to like the pages that have proactively followed your page, and reply to comments that they made on your timeline. Getting off on the right foot by building goodwill will lay the foundation for continued interaction.

The incremental value gleaned from the several hours I had spent liking, reciprocating likes, and posting introductions and gratitude remains to be seen, but I’m encouraged. For me, it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time…for you, my hope is that you’ll put your senses on alert to purposely take advantage of the next opportunity to grow your network when Mari gives the green light!

Your turn! What success – or lack of – have you had with Facebook page fan posts that facilitate page likes? What growth have you experienced in fan counts and ongoing engagements?

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Are You on the Right Track with your Social Media Efforts? A 3-Point Checklist

There’s no arguing that the many social media platforms out there have both subtle nuances and in-your-face Checklistdifferences. But regardless of which ones you’ve tapped into for your small business, there are attitudes and approaches that are universally helpful in moving your brand forward.

Fail to embrace these practices as a solopreneur, and you could find yourself spinning your wheels…

  • Be about “them” not you

In spite of the multitude of articles and posts that have preached about NOT using social media as a one-way advertising tool, many small brands continue to push their sales messages to their audiences. That’s OK now and then, but people will tune you out if that’s all you do. Nobody likes a “Me, me, me” kind of person…and they don’t appreciate that in a business either! Instead, focus on providing info that will help, inform or entertain your followers. Tips on this or that, hot news that’s relevant to your industry and your clients, local events, etc. Give them something of value and interest, and they’ll keep coming back.

  • Respond

Ever leave a well-thought comment on someone’s blog post or a question on a Facebook page, only to be ignored? It sucks. If someone takes the time to read your post and even more time to provide input and feedback, the least you should do is acknowledge that you received it – and that you appreciate it. Yes, I know, you’re busy and it can be a challenge to keep up. If finding time to check for commentary is a problem, adjust your account settings so you receive notification of interactions via either email or your mobile device. Not only is it good manners to respond, it’s also important for projecting that you care. I know you do!

  • Reciprocate

When you’ve got fellow business fans, followers, G plussers, connections or pinners who regularly like, share, and comment on your posts, return the favor. Social media gives us a wonderful opportunity to generate good will in that way – and that can be exceptional for business. By simply reciprocating on a consistent basis, I’ve garnered new project opportunities and gained referrals. That said, be genuine and put some thought into it. Select to acknowledge and pass along content that you truly do find interesting or informative.

Social media is absolutely a two-way street, so don’t miss the mark by ignoring these ever-important ways to move your online presence in the right direction.

What do you think? Are there any other best practices that apply across all social media platforms? 

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Could Your Business Make It Without A Website or Social Media?

 Having a kick-a$# web presence can do a lot for solopreneurs and small businesses. There’s no shortage of compelling Question markreasons to have a killer website and actively interact on social media. But competitively critical as they may be, there’s one thing that serves as the ultimate factor for success: Quality service that makes you the talk of the town.

Example in action
While researching and writing content for a web app focused on directing business travelers to local hot spots in particular communities, I happened upon Yelp reviews of a little bakery in Hazleton, PA. Aside from its limited business-specific info on Yelp, Senape’s Bakery has no other online presence. No website. No Facebook page. No Twitter. No blog. No Google+. No Pinterest. Just 12 reviews on Yelp that got me interested enough to give the owners a call to find out if they have any other real estate online.

Senape’s has been around for a long time, and has become a favorite of both locals and visitors alike. Why? Not because of its well-thought business development strategy and prowess in the digital marketing realm. Senape’s has a stellar reputation because it has consistently produced quality products at reasonable prices throughout the years. Apparently people go ga ga over its house specialty, “pitza” (cold pizza bread of all things), and will travel miles and miles to buy it fresh.

Senape’s doesn’t run Pay Per Click ads on Google. They don’t tweet daily specials. They just do what they set out to do exceptionally well – bake for people who like to eat.

Simple. Effective.

Take-away

Although most of us in our businesses – for a variety of reasons – do require more of an online presence than does Senape’s Bakery, we can still learn from their example.

Deliver excellence in all that you do for your clients, and your business reputation – on- and off-line – will keep them coming back for more.

Your turn! Know of any other businesses that have succeeded without any significant online presence? What makes them stand out from their competition?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Blurred Lines: Your Professional and Personal Social Media Personas Are One

Fact: The lines are blurred between “professional” and “personal” personas on social media.Blurred personal and professional lines

Is that a positive thing? Is it negative? Quite honestly, I think it’s a little bit – or maybe a lot – of both.

Like it or not, you are your brand on social media. Whether you’re a small business owner, a professional working for someone else or someone looking for a job, what you post on your personal social media accounts will, without a doubt, color how others see you professionally as well.

So what? Do you:

  1. …walk on eggshells and only post plain vanilla content and commentary so you never ruffle any feathers?
  2. …take a “devil may care” attitude, speak what’s on your mind, and say “to hell” with anyone who doesn’t like it?

Really, that’s up to you. But be aware that choice “b” will probably have consequences. Assuming that not all of your business colleagues, clients, bosses and potential employers hold the same position on issues like politics, religion (or lack thereof), gay rights, and other potentially volatile topics, you’re likely to either piss off or completely alienate people.  And that could hurt your business, ax your chances of a promotion, or put you out of the running for a new job.

I’ve focused on the extremes here, but I believe there are also ways to respectfully share your positions on certain topics and beliefs without appearing confrontational and exclusive. Your approach means EVERYTHING when addressing sensitive topics. If you invite civilized discussion and respond without attacking those who respectfully disagree, you stand a better chance of maintaining good will and keeping relationships intact.

Your turn to share! How do you manage the lack of divide between your personal and professional social media personas?

Marketing Essentials Round Up: What Every Small Business Needs!

Last month, I contributed a series of 4 articles to SCORE for their Small Business Success Blog. The topic they asked me to

Marketing image address is one near and dear to my solopreneurial heart: “What Marketing Essentials Do I Need?” Like just about every other small business owner I know, I ask myself that question ALL the time.

Marketing your business services, your brand and you the entrepreneur is a continually evolving process. Just when you think you’ve got “a system” in place, a new media platform or trend seems to come out of nowhere to unsettle the market dynamics – and sometimes your marketing self-confidence gets shaken as well.

So beyond the subject and points in each of my guest posts, there’s one over-arching essential none of us can ignore: Adaptability.

Keep an open mind, be flexible and don’t resist change when marketing your business. Your willingness to harness new tools and to tailor your marketing activities to meet morphing customer expectations will help you stay relevant and approachable – two traits that will never go out of style!

If you haven’t already read my guest posts, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check them out, and let me know what you think…

What Marketing Essentials Do I Need?

Part 1: A S.W.O.T.

Part 2: A 2-Way Marketing Mindset

Part 3: A Grasp on Your Value Proposition

Part 4: A Manageable Social Media Presence

What else have you found essential to successfully marketing your business?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Getting Found Online: 3 Behaviors Essential to DIY SEO

Being part of the small business community as not only a solopreneur, but also as a volunteer with the local chapter of SEO DiceSCORE and my town’s Main Street organization, I know my fair share of new business owners who have websites that aren’t ranking well in online searches and who don’t know how to otherwise draw attention to their sites.

It’s frustrating for them – to say the least. When you’re getting your business off the ground, you want and NEED to be found. But most startup entrepreneurs don’t have the cash on hand to hire an SEO/SEM expert to help them drive traffic their way.

I’m certainly no SEO expert, but I’ve learned a lot and have realized some favorable results through my own experimentation with my online presence “formula.”  And there’s no reason why you can’t economically (i.e. free) make improvements to your online situation. My advice: emulate much of what web hosting and managed services provider Dynamicnet, Inc. published its blog post, Do It Yourself Search Engine Optimization

In a nutshell, blogging and social media hold the key to making others aware of your business, your offerings and your value proposition. And there are some core behavioral practices you’ll need to make part of the equation as well:

  • Be willing to do the hard time. – Setting up your blog and social media profiles takes thought and more time than you’ll want to spend, but you’ll need to suck it up and do it. The more consistent your brand is across each and every one of your points of online presence, the better your chances of being found when prospects are looking for someone who offers the services or products that you do.
  • Keep up keeping up. – Blogging and social media require discipline and ongoing attention. You need to be consistent in your efforts to engage and interact with your audience on those marketing channels. Luckily, your blog posts can serve as content for your social media posts, so you can kill multiple proverbial birds with one stone when you publish new blog articles. And there are tools (for example: Hootsuite, Buffer, Tweetdeck and others) that automate the sharing of content on – and simultaneously across – various social media.
  • Stick with it. – DIY SEO is not for the faint of heart. You may not see results the first day, or in the first week, or in the first month. Heck, you could be looking at a year or even longer before you actually get emails and phone calls from prospects who say, “I found you on Google.”  That doesn’t mean that your blogging and social media efforts won’t be driving people to your website or generating leads sooner, but getting found via organic search results can take much longer as a multitude of variables comes into play. And remember, not everyone can be on the first page. You might indeed need to hire someone to increase your chances of ranking there.

Recognize that getting noticed on the web won’t happen overnight. But with consistent effort to cross-pollinate by blogging and staying current with your social media, you’ll steadily increase the visibility of your business online.

 

 

Your turn! If you’ve done DIY SEO, what challenges and triumphs have you experienced? What strategies and tactics have worked best for you?

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