Working From The Basement

I received a Tweet this morning that stated the Micro Enterprise Resource Group of Connecticut had closed its doors after 5 years.  This really doesn’t surprise me that much because micro businesses seem to be too diverse and distracted to get any kind of political message out.  Most of us hunker down and go to a chamber meetings or small social media networking gatherings, but seldom spend much time thinking about policy and politics.  I think we all agree the micros don’t get much respect from the government, banking institutions and even our slightly larger peers.  How many times have you heard “Oh you work from home?” I think most people just think we are unemployed.

So the question remains can micro businesses come together if not physically or on a specific agenda but more philosophically in a virtual community.  Could a Facebook Fan Page or group foster some kind of community spirit that wouldn’t take much effort or more importantly time.  I don’t know but it’s just a thought, let me know your opinion.

Don’t forget to click on the MERG CT link on the left of the page the organizers left a little treat for you there.

Thanks for visiting Working from the Basement

Michael Lawson
WFTB

Sorry for the month long absence folks, but I’ve been working on a few things and trying to catch up with some other projects.  Anyway for those of you that know me I’ve had this side thing going on for awhile now where I got out and listen to local music on the weekends.  Well a few weeks ago while I’d been working on the website (which isn’t finished), I decided to promote my fan page on Facebook.  Initially I had convinced 4 of my friends to join but hadn’t posted anything, but with about 50 videos up on YouTube I finally had something for people to see.

Initially I sent invites out to about 100 people that are my friends this generated about 50 people signing up within a day or two.  Well I wasn’t exactly happy about that number, but eventually it organically grew to about 100 fans.  Considering I have slightly more than 150 friends on Facebook that’s not a bad number, but I really wanted to see if there was any interest in what I was trying to accomplish.  So I decided to take the plunge and set aside some money for a Facebook advertisement.

Well I am a newbie at this but Facebook has a really easy system for creating an ad, especially for Fan Pages.  I am not going to go into detail on how to do this part because it is really simple and Facebook has some great help documents on how to do it.  The biggest decision I had to make was in the pricing section either Pay per 1000 Impression (CPM) or Pay per Click (CPC).  Based on Facebook’s advice I went with CPC which means you only pay when somebody clicks on your Ad.  I targeted my Ad with the criteria listed in the image below, which gave me a pool of around 175,000 people.  Wow really, that’s a lot of people to reach, what’s the circulation of a typical daily paper?  No wonder the paper’s are losing advertising revenue, and remember these are targeted.

So after about a week and a half of playing with the daily maximum that I was willing to spend, along with the cost per click out of 175,000 people, 77 people clicked on the Ad and 42 people signed up for a total cost of $54.99.  The Ad actually was displayed over 175,000 times but that is irrelevant because I choose CPC, it would only have been a factor if I had chosen CPM. 

So here in a nutshell is what I learned:

• It was in my mind over 50% effective in getting people to become a fan when they clicked on the link.  This was with hardly any effort in producing the Ad, I took my logo and mission statement and did a cut and paste.
• Fan Pages have a viral quality, since the people who joined the Fan Page also had friends with similar interest for each person that became a fan other’s joined. This is because the newsfeed now posts when somebody joins a Facebook Group or Fan Page.
• I wasn’t selling anything so your results may vary if you are promoting a product or service.
• People on Facebook don’t click on the Ads very much, but this is irrelevant if you select CPC.
•  Know your target demographics bid as close to the suggested maximum and keep an eye on it; reduce it when you don’t think people will be into what you have to offer.  I increased my bidding in the afternoon, because if you’re into local bands and have been out I doubt you’re going to be up early.
• I now have the confidence to go through with the project, based on the feedback and people I have met through the Fan Page.

So the inevitable question becomes will I continue promoting the Ad and I have mixed emotions on this one.  While I want to promote the community the final website isn’t up so is it worth paying a $100/month, I’m not sure.  Once the website is up, yes I would use Facebook advertising to drive traffic to the Fan Page, then ultimately to my website.

Anyway I hope everyone is having a great year so far and check out my Local Band Review Fan Page and the Local Band Review YouTube Channel.  Also make sure to go see some of our hard working local talented bands most of them work  for little money and they put on a great show.  Technically all band members work from the basement or at least the garage.

WFTB
Michael Lawson

I would like to share something that happened this past week with one of my clients.  I’m working with a local family.  The wife works for a large multi-national company and the husband works as a handyman.  They became my clients this past summer and they recently asked me to research the husband’s current business insurance.

Of course, I agreed and the first thing I noticed in their current policy was that the husband was classified as a carpenter.  So I asked him…are you a carpenter?  Well guess what he’s not, because in the course of his work week he does do some light carpentry, some electrical work, and minor home repairs, etc… In fact he is a handyman!

The commercial “class code” on his policy was wrong.  This means that if he had a claim while doing something un-carpenter like he ran the risk of having the claim being denied by his insurance company and having his policy cancelled.  On the other side of the coin, his current agent (no, not me…but a LARGE state-wide chain) has a possible errors and omissions exposure.

As a quick side note-a class code is the code for a type of business.  This code is in turn associated with a rate.  Each business type has a different code which means each code has a different rate.  For example a carpenter is generally a less expensive rate than a roofer.

Sometimes an agent might misclassify a business deliberately because the rates are more favorable.  An agent that does this might lose the ability to sell insurance for that company, especially if he/she does this often. While this may save you money on your insurance it could cost you a good deal more if your business is not classified correctly.  The point is; check with your insurance agent to make sure that you are correctly covered for what you do.  When you receive your commercial policy, please review the declaration page(s) carefully to make sure the information about your business and its operations are correct.   Commercial insurance policies are very specific about what they will NOT pay for.  If you see something there that either does not make sense, or you don’t understand…ASK.

When you receive your commercial policy and you have questions, your agent should be very willing to answer any and all your questions about it.  By the way, when shopping for commercial insurance, you may want to consider using an independent insurance agent (like me!).  They have more than one company they work with and if the rates go up with your current carrier, they can always “shop” your business with another company.

Charlie’s Info:
Hi my name is Charlie Schein and I’m an independent property/casualty insurance agent.  I’ve been in the insurance industry since 1988…but have been working “from the basement” since September.

Charlie can be reached via his contact information listed below:
(860) 513-1055
(860) 819-9810-Cell
(877) 513-6363-Fax
charlie@starschein.com
www.starschein.com

To keep up with Charlie follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cdschein
FaceBook Fan Page

WFTB – Charlie Schein

We all know the story of the cobblers kids walking around shoeless.  Well, I have been feeling that way for awhile now.  While Diana has had the B-Law LLC Fan Page up, I’ve been negligent and hadn’t done one for either WFTB or 2ndot, so last week I took the plunge.  The experience so far has been interesting in that, while I am used to getting followers on Twitter, a Fan Page can be a one-way street.  Twitter encourages conversation, while Fan Pages are more passive and the only way to talk to people you don’t know is to become their friend – unless they participate, which kind of defeats the purpose.  You can start a discussion, but there is no guarantee that anyone will participate and sending a Facebook email seems too invasive.

So what use are they, you may ask? Well, it does provide you with a fairly low-maintenance way to interact with potential clients and build a referral network without much work.  I have always found it annoying when people update their personal Facebook status from TweetDeck or some other Twitter-related tool because most of the time it is Twitter speak (lots of @ symbols and short talk).  Facebook now provides a link to go the other way, which seems more effective as long as your first 120 characters gets your point across.  (The other 24 characters get turned into a shortened link pointing back to the Facebook post). It is also easier to update than a Blog, which actually takes time to think about, write, add links, and check your spelling and grammar etc., while adding an external link, photo or status update in Facebook with a comment is a fairly quick and easy process.

So the next question is what do you put up there? Do you just rehash the same thing that you put on Twitter?  My answer is no.  Since I started with the 2ndot Fan Page, let me explain a little bit about what I did with it.  Since @2ndot is my primary work-related and personal online personality, I wanted the page to reflect that persona.  So I decided to provide links to information that an everyday computer user would find interesting or useful.  My business normally doesn’t provide home computer support, just business-related services. But I have a wealth of information that can help home users, so a Facebook Fan Page provides a perfect platform for this.  A bonus here is that I don’t need yet another website to maintain, and it’s a totally opt-in relationship.  Also being able to use the discussion feature allows people to ask home computer related questions.  Facebook is also a great product to use for event scheduling, with attendance tracking and just notifying people in general, so having a Fan Page opens up another communications avenue.

While my personal profile on Facebook is very active, I don’t like spammy Fan Pages, so I have decided to limit my posts to only one or two a day maximum.  I think this may even be too much and I will adjust it if I get complaints.  As for the WFTB Fan Page, well, for now I will probably use it to promote the site much in the same way I do in Twitter.  Since WFTB is a blogging website I think you would use it to direct traffic to the blog, but only time will tell.  I am really interested in any feedback about my techniques used here and how other micro-businesses use their Fan Pages, so feel free to comment.

Again thanks for visiting WFTB…

WFTB – Michael Lawson

We write a lot about networking events here on WFTB, for the obvious reason that they play a major role in meeting clients and finding resources.  These events are not strictly business-oriented, and people attend for various reasons. While it is a great way to socialize and make some real connections, it doesn’t always work out that way.  I’ve had this article sitting in draft mode for awhile now, and after reading Chris Brogan’s “Stop Humping My Leg” post on his blog yesterday, I finally decided to publish it.  I have met many people I like at these events and whom I would consider real friends, but as Chris mentions in his article, simply: “if you hump my leg, you risk screwing yourself.”

One of the benefits of Social Media is that it can accelerate trust, friendships and client interactions, based on the amount of information you can find about people and their companies on Social Media sites.  This usually works to each person’s advantage, but once and awhile, just like in real life, it is one-sided.  Like Chris mentions in his article, it is about building relationships, and that is not as simple as just knowing about the other person from their online presence.

Social Networking events such as the CT TweetCrawls are a good way to meet people, and I have been both promoting and reviewing them on WFTB.  My own social media guidelines allow anyone to become a LinkedIn Connection, but don’t assume I am going to let you be a Facebook friend.  Notice that LinkedIn calls people “connections,” which is not a big commitment in my view, while Facebook uses the word “friend.”  This may be the crux of the problem and may just be a word to most people, but to me it means something.  I use Facebook to communicate with the people that I know and have usually met in person.

When you do meet in person (and if you have been following somebody on Twitter and they followed you back), don’t assume that they are your best friend.  Just like in any social setting introduce yourself in a respectful manner and let the person know that you are a follower, then start a conversation.  Even if you have had a conversation online don’t assume the other person remembers it. There is nothing more annoying than somebody assuming that you know all about them, too, especially if they use an alias.

The way you post information about yourself may also be exacerbating the problem, if your posts are too personal you may want to rein them in.  Using your real name as your nickname can also be an issue, but it is up to you to create your online identity and presence.  I have multiple Twitter accounts for exactly this reason, and for me that strategy has worked well.

A lot of people are using Social Media resources in different ways to promote products, services and themselves, so your views may not agree with the other person.  If you consider someone a spammer, for instance, you should not feel guilty about unfollowing or unfriending them; but, you can also use filters to hide their posts as a compromise.  We are all learning the rules as we go (and the problem is there are really no set ones), so for now I would suggest be patient and understanding, but don’t allow people to be abusive.  Just like in real life, we have to interact with people that we don’t exactly get along with – you should use the same techniques with Social Media.  Just remember to bring your Miss MS Manner’s book and we should all get along.

WFTB – Michael Lawson

When Diana and I started this blog it was pretty much for shits and giggles, well almost.  After attending Podcamp in Boston this year we wanted to try publishing content centered on small and micro-businesses.  Initially promoting the site just using the Social Media skills we had acquired in the past year also seemed like a good idea.  Since I already had this domain name registered it was just a matter of installing WordPress on one of my servers and setting up email.   If you ask me I don’t even remember registering this domain name, but the name fit and we where off to the races.

Our goal was to create a collaborative site; the reason for this is that both of us had gone very spotty on our independent blogs.  Writing one or two posts a week isn’t as hard as writing the three or four a week which is what I believe is the minimum you need for an independent blog site.  Still with our busy schedules it is still fairly difficult to maintain the pace, but we did it.  This will be our twentieth post in a month’s time which is right in line with what we wanted.

A funny thing happened though – I don’t think Diana and I have written very many articles from our original lists.  This is because we picked a really broad subject area to write about based on our everyday experiences and interactions from which we get fresh ideas. A lot of these ideas come from the comments left by our readers; these outnumber the articles 3 to 1, when you consider all the Social Media postings. The feedback we get when we attend networking events has also helped drive and motivate us like we never imagined.  So what started as a cathartic release on the joys and frustrations of the small business owner has became something bigger.

I included a chart at the beginning of the article to depict our traffic patterns using WordPress statistics which show some predicable results.  When we tweet and link the articles on Facebook, traffic is double or triple what it is if we don’t do anything.  Our rise in Google rankings is also helped by our frequent updates and posts linking us to other sites.  So anyone thinking of a way to drive traffic to their blog or website needs to post frequently and share the information using Social Media techniques.  Diana’s articles also usually rank higher than mine when we measure direct links back to the posts. This may be because I tend to promote Diana’s posts more than mine or she is just more popular, either way it is an interesting phenomenon.

We intend to expand the blog over the next few months to include podcasts and video to keep it fresh and interesting.  We really appreciate everyone’s feedback and comments both good and bad, and if you want to contribute please let us know.  We are particularly interested in expanding WFTB beyond Connecticut so if anyone is interested in covering events in different States please contact us.  Thanks again everyone for a great first month and for reading what Diana and I quietly refer to as the Seinfeld of blogs (it’s about nothing and everything, but it’s always entertaining).

WFTB – Michael Lawson, Diana Bartolotta

Bet the title of this article got your attention didn’t it, well that’s the point. Sticking out in the crowd with all the information available to us today is hard. The real title of this post should be how to write a ransom note, but the serial killer title just sounded too good to pass up.  While you can’t really plan on what is going viral, you can stick out from the crowd by just being different. A good example of this is the wedding entrance dance video that even made it to an episode of the Office. I’m sure they didn’t plan on it being such a phenomenon, but it was unique and got passed around on the Internet.

 Just look at your mail box to figure out what does and doesn’t work. How many of those slick and square mailers with lots of colors do you use as Frisbee’s and throw toward the circular file. On the other hand look at those fake governmental mailers that trick you into opening them, with special seals and wording.  I am not recommending these practices but it is obvious that just a slick flyer with pretty colors doesn’t grab your attention anymore.

In my last business I signed up for Robin Robin’s Technology Marketing Toolkit and while I am not endorsing this product I must say at the time she had some good ideas.  One that caught my attention was sending out a plain typed paper, like it was done on a manual typewriter, believe it or not this stands out especially when it is about technology. A friend of mine makes sure that he buys the most colorful and varied stamps to put on an envelope with different denominations.  He also slaps them across the envelope so they stick out; this ensures that his envelope will at least be looked at. If you are still engaging in traditional marketing and it is no longer working for you try something different next time.

On the Internet you have to learn how to get noticed and draw attention to yourself.  After all this is what Web 2.0 is all about getting people interested in you or your services and seeking you out. Social Media sites such as Linkedin, FaceBook and Twitter let people learn about you and your brand at a more personal level. So don’t be afraid to take a few chances and be funny, or supply information that relates to your personal interests.  You have to be very careful about not spamming them, so creat a Facebook Page and Linkedin group and invite people to join. If you have a flair for writing then start a blog, especially if you produce a newsletter now.  Wordpress.com is a great place to start, or you could just contribute an article to WFTB or another collaborative blog. If you are handy with a camera consider doing videos and posting them on YouTube, try and keep them under 2 minutes though, but we’ll discuss more about that in a later article.

My main point here is that if you are broadcasting a message that is the same as everyone else you are not going to be able to use Web 2.0 techniques to your advantage. If you’re doing traditional marketing it has to stick out from the crowd or it  gets thrown away.  So start thinking viral and send out your first Ransom note to your prospective clients.

Sidenote: I created the Ransom Note on my Iphone here, just for some fun.  In case you can’t read it, it says “Buy my Product or Else!”.

WFTB – Michael Lawson