Working From The Basement

While attending the TweetCrawl in Glastonbury last month Suzi Craig and Lisa Davenport announced that they would be throwing a party to raise money for Operation Home for the Holidays (OHFH).  Which at the time seemed like it was going to be just another CT TweetCrawl event; well it didn’t turn out that way.  Along the way this was planned to be a Rave Party, Dinner Event and ended up being something even more spectacular. Now I really don’t think Suzi or Lisa actually sleep, because to pull this off with all the changes in less than a month is simply amazing.

The goal was eventually set to raise $25,000 which even in a good economy with only a month’s time frame is a tough task.  This was to be done originally through traditional large business sponsorships of the event, well that didn’t happen.  Money is really tight and trying to get even smaller donations from larger clients is harder than ever. So what happened instead, the little guys pitched in, and I think we did really well (and by “we” I mean everyone who donated or helped)!  Not only did the event go from being a traditional fund raising dinner (albeit in a warehouse), but it became kid friendly, fun and spawned these other events listed in this article here.  I also got up on stage and raised money by singing bad karaoke.

A lot of small businesses, micro-businesses and individuals donated and continue to donate without having to go through corporate hoops. (Hint: check out the sidebar on the right of this blog to donate until December 4^th, 2009.)  Dealing with the smaller donors is harder, but with the Internet and an existing Social Networking presence it is a lot easier than it used to be.  Suzi and Lisa where able to rally the troops (literally, just check out the pictures in the resources at the end of this post), and raised over $12,000 which is a pretty good amount with still over 2 weeks left to go.  It wasn’t even the money that was the most amazing thing, but the donations of time, food, auction items and raffle prizes that rolled in.  (yes I won the first raffle with no superglue this time, but I still got yelled at…) I was by no way an insider into this, and other than going to TweetCrawls, participating online and raising money I can only imagine the amount of work done to pull this off.

So to everyone who participated, I think congratulations are in order for a great fund raising effort, especially Suzi Craig, Lisa Davenport, Enza Dandeneau and The Marlborough Business Association who planned the whole thing.  The food was also excellent and was provided by Agave Grill which was one of the first TweetCrawl hosts.  The MCs where Ann Nyberg and Damon Scott who did a great job keeping the event moving along throughout the day, and announcing the winners for the auctions and raffle prizes.

To everyone wondering how my efforts paid off I was very close to my goal of $250 most of which was handed in at the Karaoke event. My personal thanks to everyone who showed up to watch me make a fool of myself and to anyone else who donated.  One thing I learned from this is just because your business is small doesn’t mean you can’t contribute to a larger cause and do great things, Micros Rock!  On that note I’ll leave you with a serenade…

Resources:

Suzi Craig’s The Deep End Article here:
Stephan Krauchick’s Video here:
CT TweetCrawl Page here:
Brent Robertson’s Photos here:
Seshu’s Photos here:
NEW: Order T-Shirts online here:

The photo used in this article courtesy of  Brent Robertson, his other photos of the event can be found on Facebook by using the resource link.

As I mentioned above we are still trying to raise money so please click on the ChipIn widget on the right sidebar to donate or buy a Limited Edition T-shirt for $15 (Leave a comment on this article if you want one). Also you can order prints ($10 each, 5×7) from Seshu, and 20% of the proceeds will go to Operation Home for the Holidays.

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

Me and Lisa Davenport holding the rug I won

I went, I saw and well I didn’t Crawl, but I did gingerly step around things.  This week’s TweetCrawl was held at Lisa Davenport’s Home Gallery in Glastonbury.  The Home gallery was the first TweetCrawl I’ve been to that was not in a restaurant and I must say it was fun.  My only problem was that I was afraid to put my drink down on any of the nice furniture.  Another thing that was really interesting was that I stood all night while the people new to the TweetCrawl just sat down in the comfy chairs, how’s that for conditioning.

This was the first time Diana and I went out to specifically promote this blog, and based on the results the day after I found that the TweetCrawl is a great place to get traffic to your site.  I also won the door prize again and I am beginning to wonder if my business cards are embedded with superglue.

This TweetCrawl had over 60 people registered for it, and I think most of them attended. A lot of people new to Social Media took up refuge on the couches and received some training on a laptop.  I had a lot of great conversations with people about contributing to this blog and picked up on some great people to follow.  This didn’t stop me from mingling with the group now known as the regulars, and heading out to the Diamond to continue our conversations afterward.

Suzi Craig has been working hard on these events and announced a couple of changes.  In the next month there will be an event or two every week and even a Party in a warehouse.  I emailed Suzi about this and she made a couple of points.

• December is a bad time to schedule anything so there will be nothing in December (as of now).
• A lot of people have been unable to make these events so she is scheduling them throughout the week.
• By spreading to different venues and more diverse locations more people may attend.
• Suzi also announced a fund raising campaign to help Governor Rell bring troops Home for the Holidays, which means you need to have an ambitious schedule.

Suzi also hinted at more changes to come next year, not bad for something that’s only 6 months old and was initially promoted just on Social Media sites.  While I hope to keep trying to make a lot of these, I am afraid even a person normally stuck in a basement like me won’t be able to keep up.  This is by far one of the most fun networking events in Connecticut at the moment and attracts a great bunch of people.  I also promised Suzi that I would not put my business card into the drawing for the next few weeks, so come out while you still have a chance to win something.

Some semi-irregulars and new people hanging out at TweetCrawl

Suzi’s Deep End blog can be found here.
Additional Information can be found at the TweetCrawl Group page on Facebook here.
TweetCrawl Twitter name @CTTweetCrawl.

Again we would like to thank Tim Tracey for contributing to yesterday’s blog and being our first guest blogger.  Anyone interested in contributing to Working From the Basement please just signup as a registered user and shoot a message out to @WFTB on Twitter.

pictures courtesy of the CT TweetCrawl Group on Facebook…

WFTB – Michael Lawson

Your reputation has preceded you.  That’s right.  We’ve been talking about you.

And it’s not just us at WorkingFromTheBasement (WFTB). Heck – your customers, your neighbors, your fellow business owners – they’re all talking about you. As scary as this is, it can be a secret to your success.

For good or bad, word-of-mouth is unstoppable and the most powerful form of advertising. Small businesses tell us that 80% of their new clients result from referrals.   And these clients are more profitable since they take less time and effort to close. They’re also more likely to result in future referral business.

Here are some hard-learned reputation marketing tips from successful CT business owners:

1. Current customers are a good place to start. Let them know you welcome referral business.

a. Ask them for referrals early and often.

• Make it a habit.
• Bring it up in conversation and during your follow-up contacts.

b. Reach out to your past customers as well as neighbors, friends. The 20% of them that give you 80% of your new clients are like gold. (See Pareto Principle, also known as the “80/20 Rule”.) You should continually stay in close touch.

• Use phone, mail, email and face-to-face
• Consider a structured rewards/loyalty program.

2. Chambers and networking groups are great. So hit the road.

a. Meet with other owners face to face at networking groups.

b. Put yourself out there – get beyond the shallow networking chat.

c. Be a hub – invite other owners to attend. Be a friend to your fellow networkers.

• You’ll be happier.
• Work will be more fun.
• And, by the way, you’ll probably have more of it.

3. Capture the buzz. Networking is great, but limiting since you can only be in one network meeting at a time. (And sometimes not even that if you sleep through a 7AM #BreakTweet.)

Remember that while you’re chatting over coffee or adult beverages, your customers and neighbors are “out there” talking about you. And they’re doing this more and more on social media sites.

So multiply your efforts by connecting with your customers and your network on a social site

a. spend 15 minutes a day. Start slowly – it will get easier

b. Facebook is the most widely used social site

c. You might prefer Twitter – it compliments Facebook and makes it easy to find and follow more people you may want to connect with

d. Social media guidance is available

These steps cannot make your reputation. Your skills, enthusiasm and attention to your clients’ needs do that. But by employing these tactics you can allow your reputation to spread, increase word-of-mouth referrals and generate profitable new sales.

Disclaimer: As founder of YouGottaCall.com, LLC – “Good referrals. Doing good.” I am an admittedly biased observer of the B2B & B2C word-of-mouth referral scene.

Tim Tracey is a self-described “Web 2.0 Connect-gineer.“  His business, YouGottaCall.com, connects consumers with local, trusted businesses. His network is free to join and free to use for consumers.  Businesses (i.e., “trusted service providers”) compensate for the service through referral fees, so they only pay for what they get. You can sign up for YouGottaCall.com here.

WFTB – Tim Tracey