By this point, you’ve developed a list of ideas for potential marketing tactics, and you’re now ready to begin weeding through them to find those that you think are most likely to work for you.

Tools to Help You Plan Your Marketing

When you begin brainstorming the possibilities for promoting your business, things can start to get overwhelming and confusing. It’s a good idea to find a way to track and organize your options and then begin prioritizing them into a plan of attack.

One of my favorite tools for this kind of brainstorming is mind mapping tools like bubbl.us. I use a mind mapping system from Todoodlist, which is what I used for the sample plan included below.

I begin by putting my business name as the central box, and I then add my options for marketing around it like spokes on a wheel. This gives me a full overview of the possibilities and allows me to move them around into a logical order.

Some of the marketing tactics you select might already be in the works, like blogging or sending out a monthly newsletter. I like to distinguish those by color so that I know I need to do them on a recurring basis (for this illustration, I used blue for recurring tasks). I then add related tasks to those tactics in a lighter shade of the same color.

The next thing you’ll want to add are all the new possibilities you have for marketing your business. I begin by adding those in all the same color (yellow). At this point, just add them all, and you can narrow them down later. If there are steps that need to be completed in order to set up any of the given tactics, add them as connected steps under the task so that you’ll know what needs to be done to get started, and so that you can organize all those stray notes and ideas into actionable steps.

Then begin narrowing your options by eliminating those that are not well-suited for your situation or business, require more resources (time, money, people) to get off the ground than you currently have available, or that you otherwise think are not a good fit at this point. If you want to keep them for future use, change their color to something less prominent (like gray), and that way, you can pull them into your plan down the road.

For the remaining tactics, select those that you want to implement right away and that will work alongside the recurring tactics you already do. Denote those with a new color (red). You should be left with:

• Your current, in-progress marketing tactics (blue),
• The new marketing tactics that you will begin implementing now (red),
• The new marketing tactics that you will begin implementing soon (yellow), and
• The someday/maybe tactics that you want to hold off on for a while (gray).

Implementing Your New Marketing Plan

Now that you have an easy-to-follow chart that encompasses your entire marketing plan, you should be able to quickly refer to it on a daily basis and begin carrying out the strategy and tactics you’ve developed for your business.

I always start by running through my current, in-progress tactics (blue) in a clockwise fashion (I organize them by priority and/or frequency).

Once I get through those tasks, I begin with the next-in-line priority tasks and tactics (red). Ideally, there should only be one open tactic and one open task under any given tactic,  so that you stay focused and moving the top priority elements of your plan forward. As you complete tasks, delete them. As you integrate new tactics into your ongoing plan, change them to recurring (blue), and then select your next tactic to be bumped up and integrated (for this example, “PR/Media” would be next in line).

In essence, you want your entire plan to be straightforward and to provide you with an obvious and visual plan of attack. When you open this plan, for instance, you would know to start with the recurring tasks (post your blog entry for the day, write/publish any guest posts or your newsletter, and do some online networking). Then you would move on to the marketing tactic you’re trying to employ next (your podcast), which means your next step is to decide on its format. Using this illustration, go to blue first (recurring), red second (to integrate now), yellow third (next-in-line priority), and then gray if you decide to use those tactics (someday/maybe).

By creating this kind of plan, you’re able to avoid over-committing or getting sidetracked mid-stream, and it allows you to remain focused and consistent, while still being able to explore other options and remain current and relevant. You’ll have a clear plan of attack at the start of each day that allows you to see your progress and move your business forward.

Good luck with your marketing!

What tools and techniques do you use for planning and implementing your marketing plan?

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Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req.):

• Enabling the Web Work Revolution
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• Social Media in the Enterprise

Before you can begin any kind of marketing or promotion, it’s important to have a firm grasp of the purpose, mission, and values you want for your business, but for the sake of this post, we’ll assume you’ve gotten that far. You know your unique selling proposition, your target market, and what your business represents. Now you just need to find a way to create a more focused and consistent plan for increasing awareness and, ultimately, finding more customers and clients.

Finding Your Marketing Strategy and Tactics

One of the hardest things about marketing is selecting the overall strategy and individual tactics for promotion. There are hundreds of ideas; narrowing them down can be a challenge, especially if you’re new to marketing.

One of the best ways to get your initial direction for marketing online is by looking to other successful companies or entrepreneurs and learning from their experience. For example, if you want to build a blog, find a few bloggers that you admire and follow, and then dig back to the very beginning of their blogging days. This will take a bit of time, since most successful blogs take a while to establish. If they’ve published two or more posts per week, it might take a while to get back to their very first post, but keep digging!

Once you reach the beginning, get ready to take notes. You’re going to begin going through all their posts looking for clues as to what has made them such a success, and here are a few things to look for as you go.

• How often do they publish to their blog? Weekly? Twice-weekly? Several times daily?
• Are their posts long or short?
• At what point did they starting getting consistent comments, and when did their comments start to steadily increase? Was there something that they changed or were doing during those times (and the months before) to generate those comments?
• How is their site laid out, and do you notice anything about their site that might be particularly helpful for capturing visitor attention and converting them to subscribers or customers?
• How has their writing evolved over time?
• What kinds of posts do they regularly publish? Interviews? Advice? How-to articles?
• Many bloggers tend to create “How I Created a Successful Blog” posts, once they reach a certain level of success. Keep an eye out, and if you find this sort of post, pay close attention to the blogger’s advice, and then think of ways you might be able to apply that advice to your own marketing efforts.

Be aware that there is no single answer to some of the questions listed above. If you can find a successful blogger who advocates short daily posts, I guarantee that you can find another who prefers long articles posted weekly. The key is to find an approach that you think will work best for your situation, personality and style.

Also, a note of caution, you’re not looking to copy any other blogger (in fact, that would be a good way to fail). You want to be original and unique with your business, so the point of this exercise is not to copy anyone else, but rather to emulate the marketing strategies that they’ve used to build their blogs. Think of these bloggers as mentors and role models, not people to clone.

Brainstorming Your Options

As mentioned, the options for marketing and promoting a business are virtually endless, but here are a few that I like best:

• Blogging, guest blogging and article marketing
• Podcasting and video casting
• Interviews and appearances for relevant websites and media opportunities
• Online networking

Once you have some ideas for potential marketing tactics, you’re ready to begin weeding through them to find those that you think are most likely to work for you. In next week’s post, we’ll discuss tools to help you with tracking and organizing your options and then begin prioritizing them into a plan of attack.

What tactics do you use to market your business now, and what ideas are you thinking of adding to the mix soon?

Photo by Flickr user dps, licensed under CC 2.0

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req.):

• Enabling the Web Work Revolution
• Report: The Real-Time Enterprise
• Social Media in the Enterprise

As I frame my view of where mobile is going, I can’t avoid starting with some numbers I just saw in Seth Weintraub’s post in Fortune about Android.

Globally, market intelligence firm IDC counted 269.6 million smartphones sold this year, compared to the 173.5 million units shipped in 2009.

In 2011, we might see half a billion phones sold worldwide. Smartphones will likely blow by traditional computers next year as the way most of the world gains access to the Internet.

If that doesn’t blow your mind, I don’t know what will.

Are you thinking about mobile yet? And if so, how are you thinking about it? Let’s plant our feet firmly on the ground and talk about how you should be thinking about mobile. Here are some guiding thoughts:

1. Don’t think product; think platform. People are excited about devices and apps: that is, products. As a marketer, you need to look at devices and apps as platforms for communication, conversation, conversion; pick your “C” word. Develop your app or apps with that broader concept in mind. Look to integrate mobile into your current marketing mix as a new communications and marketing platform. Don’t try to sell a product now; you can add sales later.

2. Leverage the ubiquity. Smartphones — and more recently, iPads and other tablets — are becoming essential tools. Their ubiquity is going to be unprecedented. We love these devices even more than our laptops. We are bringing them into places and situations we never imagined. There’s an intimacy, a necessity, that these devices are engendering in us. Whether that’s good, bad, or indifferent, it’s our new reality. So, as a marketer, how can you leverage this intensely personal, can’t-live-with0ut-it feeling smartphones generate? How can you be present on these devices in a way that’s meaningful, useful, and purposeful? How can your app be indispensable? Don’t think, “I want to create a cool app.” Think, “I want to solve real problems, offer real solutions, create a must-have feature” for your audiences’ mobile device. Create something essential.

3. Put goals in the driver’s seat. Don’t go crazy and forget the fundamentals of business and marketing. We saw companies forget these when they first went on the Web. They thought that they could spend a lot of money to build a website, and all their business problems would be solved. We have seen similar madness with people getting on Facebook and Twitter without any sense of why they should be there, who they are trying to reach, and what they are trying to get their friends, fans and followers to do — other than “buy our product” or “do business with us.” Without a clear plan and strategy, mobile will become this new year’s huge time and money suck.

Mobile can be a new platform for building brand loyalty, stimulating traffic, and enhancing interaction. Eventually, sooner than we think, mobile will drive sales. If you’re going to “go mobile,” make sure that your efforts are framed by clear and attainable goals.

What will be your mobile strategy in 2011?

This post was inspired by Fred Wilson and his post The Smartphone Explosion which references Seth Weintraub’s post in Fortune about Android.

Image by sxc.hu user mrceviz

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Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. — Thomas Edison

There comes a point when being a business owner gets really hard (and I mean really hard). You’ve come up with your big idea, you’ve done all the initial legwork to set it up, and now comes the hard part: Getting the word out about your business and, more importantly, hanging in there while you get the word out about your business. The hard part now becomes not giving up too soon.

The Real Work

When you start a business, when you start a new product or service, when you launch anything really, that’s when you feel like you’re working really hard. That’s when you’re willing to stay up late and get up early to get all the groundwork completed so that you can start making money. As hard as it can seem during this time, you generally know what to do, or you can at least figure out what to do, and you just plow through getting the work done. Then you finish the work. (Cue sound of crickets.) Now what?

All right, now you figure out that you need a marketing plan. Great, that gives you something else to do! You finish the marketing plan and begin implementing it. (You believe in this plan. You’ve given it a lot of thought. You feel really confident about it. It’s going to generate the business you need.) You run through your plan for several days, maybe even several weeks, and then … nothing. Nothing happens, and in our instant-gratification-seeking world, this is where things start getting testy:

• When you’re over the rush of your big idea,
• When you’ve completed the work of creating it,
• When you need to pay the bills, and
• When it feels like you’re sitting on your laurels.

When you’re doing all that initial setup (building your website, creating the product, etc.), it feels like real work. Marketing doesn’t feel like real work, and it gets harder to justify and explain to those around us, particularly those who don’t have businesses. Marketing? What’s marketing? Building a website people get; that sounds like real work. Marketing? Marketing on Facebook and Twitter? All right, now you’re just playing around. Those are the conversations you have, both with yourself and with others, for justifying what you’re doing.

Writing posts for your blog, replying and posting on social networks, doing interviews, commenting on other sites and forums, searching for opportunities to guest post — all these things don’t feel like work, but they’re very necessary for building a successful business, and sticking with these activities for the bulk of your time each day for the six months or year it’s going to take you to gain some traction seems impossible.

Not Giving Up

So, how do you do it? How do you avoid giving up too soon?

1. You make a commitment. Do you want to do this? Are you willing to bet the next 6-12 months of your life on it? You have to be willing to say, “This is my commitment. These are the milestones I intend to reach. This is my intention.”
2. You maintain discipline. Each and every day, you have to say, “This is what I’m committed to doing. These are my top priorities.” You have to focus on what you believe to be the “highest and best use” tasks that will get the word out about your business and start generating income for you. You stay focused, not only on what you’re going to do, but also on what you’re not going to do (compulsively checking email, surfing the Internet, taking a dozen breaks each day, etc.).
3. You trust your plan. You’ve given a lot of thought to the best way for promoting your business, and now you just have to believe in it. Don’t keep switching plans and changing things up. It’s going to take time to see results. Give yourself at least a 90-day test with your current plan before doing any tweaking.
4. Be willing to stay up late and get up early. Although it’s not easy to think about, success isn’t just going to be handed to you. You’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and do the hard work to get things going. No one’s going to do it for you. As you start to get more successful, you still have to continue getting the word out, and juggling priorities can be a challenge. Know that handling incoming work and generating opportunities for future work are equally important.
5. Find support. Get an accountability partner to help you stay the course. It’s a lot easier to waiver when you don’t have someone else holding you responsible and accountable for your original plans and intentions.

Finding a way to hang in there and not give up on your vision can be the hardest thing you ever do to see your business to success, but you have to figure out how you’re going to stick with it for the time it will take to gain some momentum and start seeing results.

In the past, how did you find ways to hang in there until your idea took hold?

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On rare occasion, you can find one shop that does all of these tasks and does them all well. More likely, as new forms of communications and marketing crop up with the development of new technologies, you have to go to a newly formed shop that is well-versed and immersed in the new ways.

So what happens when you start your foray into social media marketing by outsourcing to a new agency? You face a number of challenges, not the least of which is some tension from your existing agencies who may insist they know everything there is to know about social media while simultaneously scrambling to get up to speed.

Bringing in a new agency can be fraught with pitfalls, but the most common seems to be the creation of “silos.” Your other agencies — or even in-house marketing and communications departments — can cut out the new guys from key conversations or withhold critical information so your social media marketing team can’t properly integrate their work into your outreach efforts.

What you want to see happen is:

• Communication. Open discussions from the moment the new agency is introduced to establish that nobody is in competition but are all working toward a common goal.
• Cooperation. Willingly and frequently sharing information and assimilating the new agency as an integral part of your communications team.
• Collaboration. Bringing the new agency into projects from the start, not as an afterthought.

But with dispersed teams often vying for as much of your business pie as they can slice off, how do you foster an atmosphere of cooperation instead of competition?

If You’re Hiring the Team

If you’re the one hiring the new team to bring into the mix, there are some steps you can take to ensure that all your teams work together:

• Be open. If you are hiring others to carry out your communications work, everything starts with you. So from the start, make sure you are open with all your teams as to your expectations, particularly as to how you expect them to work together.
• Be clear. Clearly define roles, communicate who is responsible for what tasks, and outline your expectations to everyone separately and then together so everyone is playing by the same rule book.
• Be inclusive. If you are leaving someone out of the critical initial strategic conversations, you set a tone and pattern for others to do the same.
• Don’t create new silos. Including new teams at all stages of your planning and execution processes could mean discovering new opportunities and enhancing existing tactics.
• Don’t take sides. You may end up taking an almost parental role if your agencies begin finger pointing, but nip that in the bud immediately and always do what is best for your company as a whole, not what satisfies one agency or team versus another.
• Ask for something from everyone. If you want to see some creative from the advertising team, you should include your PR and social media marketing teams in the mix. Integrated marketing is not a new concept, but you need to put that into practice every day.
• Re-examine your workflow. Have touch points over time (maybe monthly and quarterly) to make sure that your new social media marketing team is becoming an integral part of the process. Have open and honest conversations and get critical feedback to make sure everyone is on the same page.
• Measure and leverage results. Don’t look for ways to prove or disprove that one type of marketing is better than another. It isn’t about pitting PR against advertising against social media marketing. It is about finding what works and building upon successes.

If You’re Part of a Team

The flip side of hiring an agency is being part of a team or agency that is being hired to assimilate into an existing group to provide social media marketing services. Here are a few things you should consider as you enter into the new relationship:

• Be aware. Understand the dynamics of different business interests. Each agency has their own bottom line on their minds but all the teams should be working toward a common goal: Helping the client to succeed.
• Be available. Establish and maintain open lines of communications so other teams or agencies can’t accuse you of being unavailable or unwilling to participate in planning sessions or other key events in the creative and execution process.
• Extend a hand. As new kid on the block, look for ways where you can help other teams or agencies get a win. Offer to help where you see others needing additional support. Prove yourself to be the asset that you know you can be by making the first overtures to participate.
• Play nice in the sandbox. Your goal should not be to win additional business by taking work from another agency. If you win new business from the client, it should be on the merits of your work, not because you stepped on toes, threw sand in faces and undermined others. You’ll lose in the long run.
• Look for collaborative opportunities. Maybe the other agencies aren’t bringing you into the fold as readily as you’d hoped. Don’t be discouraged but instead look for ways to bring them into the social media marketing realm in meaningful ways. Prove that everyone can win when working together.
• Give kudos. Regardless of how other teams are reacting to you, be the first to say something positive about others. Compliment their work, celebrate their wins. You know what they say about honey versus vinegar. But be sincere. You’re all part of the same team even if you might reside at a different company.
• Keep good records. Even while keeping a positive attitude and being professional, you shouldn’t be Pollyanna about everything. Keep careful records of work rendered, goals achieved, lessons learned and communications and interactions with other teams. It’s both good business practice and also protection in case there is ever a conflict.

No matter which side of the fence you sit, it is up to everyone at the top to set positive examples to everyone else on each team. Don’t approach inter-agency relationships from a position of scarcity but instead employ an attitude of abundance. There is enough work to go around for everyone who does good work. And the more you all work well together and better serve the client, the more work they’ll gladly outsource to build on that success.

How are you working social media marketing teams into your process?

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Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Social Media in the Enterprise

1. Run an interview series on your blog, video cast, or podcast.

It might seem counter-intuitive to provide promotion and publicity for others when you’re trying to provide it for yourself, but in reality, an interview series can actually accomplish both of those goals at the same time. Decide on a great topic that’s relevant to your target audience and that you’d love to get the perspectives of others on. For example, if you are a virtual assistant, you might run an interview series on the topic of getting things done.

Next step, set a target quantity of interviews. A good starting point would be 25, but you could go much higher  (“100 Business Owners’ Tips for GTD”). You want to do at least 10 interviews, because the more interviewees you have, the more people there are who will promote the series and the more attractive it will be to readers, viewers, or listeners.

The setup doesn’t have to be very complicated either. You could ask 100 business owners, for instance, one question through Facebook and Twitter, like, “What’s your best tip for getting things done?”

2. Hold a free (and irresistible) tele-seminar.

Think of an in-demand topic, something that concerns or interests a lot of people (one idea could be “Take Control of Your Facebook Privacy”). Consider sending out “formal invitations” to 50-100 VIPs in your network (making sure to let them know they’re your VIPs) and ask them to “bring a date.” The setup for this can be simple, too. A free conference line will fit the bill.

3. Arrange a “coffee date” or informal luncheon around a favorite book.

Pick a book that’s relevant to your target audience and set up a discussion or “one-day book club.” A great idea would be to get local sponsors, too. One business owner I know coordinated a luncheon at a local farm to discuss her favorite book.

If you’re really nervy and live in a good market for it, you could even try to coordinate a book signing, especially if it’s for an up-and-coming author who would love the publicity (and on that note, why not call in local press to let them know about the event?).

4. Hold a dinner party.

Invite 10-15 special guests who are nearby, maybe people who run complementary businesses to yours. If you want to keep the cost down, make it a potluck and ask everyone to bring a dish. Get together to brainstorm joint venture possibilities for marketing and co-promotions. You might even put together package deals and steep discounts when customers purchase something from every vendor in the group.

5. Coordinate a group-sponsored contest.

Put together a really awesome “business start-up” package or something enticing to your ideal audience. Then run a week-long event where folks tweet for chances to win. Get creative (the more creative, the better), because that means more interest and buzz around the contest.

6. Host a blog carnival or content round-up.

Remember those? Decide on how you want to set it up, set some ground rules , and then invite people to participate through Twitter and other social networks.

7. Go on a “promotional tour.”

You know how actors heavily promote their new movies in the week of their release? Why not set up a promotional tour for your business? Decide on a topic that’s relevant to your audience, one on which you’re very knowledgeable. If you’re a child safety blogger, for instance, there’s your topic. Contact 10-20 related and complementary bloggers and offer an interview on the topic of choice (so, if you’re the child safety blogger, contact 10-20 parent bloggers to offer up an interview on the topic of child safety).

In the week before your “promotional tour” begins, start internal promotion of the tour, mentioning that you’re participating in upcoming interviews on the topic on your blog and on social networks. As you do the interviews, link back to them, and at the end of the tour, send out a “round-up” blog post or email newsletter with all the links.

Promoting a business doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore and can actually be a fun way to interact with your target audience and fellow business owners. Instead of having to worry about direct mailers and business cards hitting the trash can, email marketing pieces ending up reported as spam, or being turned away from disinterested prospects, wouldn’t it be great to have folks saying, “I can’t wait to see what you come up with next!”?

What’s the most creative, buzz-worthy marketing you’ve ever done for your business?

Photo by Flickr user lululemon athletica, licensed under CC 2.0

Below are the questions I received and the (paraphrased) answers I gave.

1. How do social media marketing tools work?

Many social media marketing tools — blogs, social networks or media sharing sites, for example — have similar functionality, such as providing for conversations between users, interaction within communities, collaboration and sharing. Many of these tools and allow users to set up a profile to establish their identity and interests, and to connect with others — friends, fans, followers, subscribers, contacts — and to interact with those connections.

Every site and tool might have its own proprietary terminology and some unique features, but in general, there are similarities between most blogging platforms and some recognizable features that all social networks share.

2. How can you best use social media tools?

When using social media tools and tactics, you first need an overarching strategy and plan. What are you trying to achieve? Who are you trying to reach?

When you market using social media tools and tactics, you are interacting in a “social” space where trust and etiquette are critical. Many tools may allow you to broadcast, but broadcasting should not make up the bulk of your participation in social media spaces. Instead, you should be looking to first listen, and then meaningfully engage in conversations with your connections.

3. What’s the best social media tool to start with? (Blog? Facebook? LinkedIn?)

Choosing the social media sites and tools that are right for you depends on your overarching objectives: What are you trying to achieve and who are you trying to reach? There are wider-reaching sites such as a blog or Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but also more narrow or niche sites and tools such as social networks specific to particular industry or interest, such as Care2 for environment, animal and human rights issues, or Behance for graphic designers. If you had to start with one site to help you in business, a good place to begin is with a professional profile on LinkedIn.

4. How do I discern which social networks are best for my market?

To find your audience, start with a search on Google for keywords specific to your audience to cast a wide net. You can also drill deeper by performing the same searches on specific general networks, such as Facebook or Twitter.

5. What are the big “don’ts” in social media marketing?

Never lie. Never spam. Never just broadcast a message out to your connections and call it good. Never be too promotional.

6. What are your social media marketing “must dos?”

You must listen first, respect existing online communities, enter conversations politely, start conversations, respond to others, be generous, share and provide value.

7. I’m involved in social media, but am not sure how to use it to grow my business (i.e. monetize it)?

Think of social media marketing as another tool in your marketing toolkit. Social media marketing is not currently a direct sales tool, but can lead to sales. Think of social media marketing more as a branding and loyalty tool. How do you quantify the value of brand building and loyalty building? Look at customer service as well. What are your cost savings in the area of customer service and customer relations because you’re getting to the heart of complaints and issues more efficiently via social media channels? There are clear and sensible ways right now to determine your social media ROI. Now is the time to set benchmarks, goals, and to regularly analyze your numbers.

8. How do you “vet” clients you meet or who find you via social media channels?

How do you vet clients that you get from other channels where you don’t have a common contact? You do your due diligence, which can start with a Google search of the person or entity’s name. With social media conversations, you can find out more about people, companies and organizations than ever before. But also see if you do have a common contact, even if they’re a few degrees away from you. LinkedIn is a great place to start to see if you know someone who knows someone who knows the potential client, but Facebook can be just as useful to glean some feedback.

9. Which tools are best for graphic designers?

There are online portfolios for graphic designers including Behance, design:related, Coroflot and and online communities on social networks such as Facebook and Flickr. Designers can showcase work on a Facebook Page, a Flickr account and a blog or even a microblog such as Tumblr.

10. How do I best get started using social media marketing, and should I focus on using it for myself first and getting comfortable with it before using it for clients, or should I learn for clients first?

Everyone thinks they can offer social media marketing services to their clients. However, it takes more than having a Facebook account and knowing how to tweet to provide quality and comprehensive consulting and services. If you aren’t even engaged in social media channels, hold off on trying to offer social media marketing to your clients to avoid damaging your reputation. You first need to start using the sites, tools and tactics for yourself, and even if you master them to market your own company, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can now provide similar services to others.

Stick to your core competencies and instead consider partnering with someone who is truly engaged in social media marketing consulting. Form a mutually-beneficial relationship where you can refer new business to one another and both work within your areas of skill.

What are your burning social media marketing questions? I’ll be sure to answer them here over the next few months.

stock.xchng image by immrchris

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): The Dos and Don’ts of Social Media Marketing

Soho OS has some similarities to 5050biz, which I talked about a while back. Soho’s navigation system is more cohesive than I found 5050biz.com’s to be, although it still has its quirks. The main menu consists of three enormous buttons (“Business,” “Networking,” and “Services”) on the left, which then display section submenus at the top. The home page includes widgets that can be moved around, but can’t be edited or removed.

Soho’s business management and development functions include:

• A calendar and to-do system that allows one to share and assign items.
• A CRM system.
• A section for tracking marketing campaigns. Integration with AdWords is lacking, and is definitely needed.
• Fairly sophisticated invoicing and inventory systems, although several of their functions weren’t yet operational as of this writing. There are apparently plans for a full-fledged financial management system.
• Systems for creating and managing trouble tickets and FAQs.
• Tools to create and manage access to Soho. Internal and external users can be assigned to groups, and given different levels of access.

Soho’s contact management and networking tools include:

• A “Social Stream” reminiscent of private microblogging solutions like Flowr.
• An IM function, controlled from a bar that looks very much like Facebook Chat.
• An address book, in which contacts can be shared among group members, and which allows imports and exports of CSV files.

Soho also offers services (free during the beta period, but premium options later):

• Tools for making outgoing VoIP calls; sending SMS, faxes, and mass emailings; processing credit card transactions; and creating voice messaging campaigns.

Soho’s strength is its integration, so those who only need certain of its tools will probably be better off using stand-alone apps. Having one customer list that all of its services can access is potentially its most useful feature. But while it has a lot of useful tools, the whole is less than the sum of its parts. And it assumes that business owners are going to be willing and able to entrust a huge amount of business data to single system. Until it offers ways of interacting with the tools that business owners are already using, its usefulness is probably limited to the smallest of companies and those that don’t have a lot of information already stored elsewhere. Soho is still in invite-only beta, and it’s definitely rough around the edges; many features aren’t yet working or are incomplete.

Editor’s note: If you’re interested in working in the cloud, check out our Structure conference in June.

Who said that the advertising models of print and yesteryear would be sustainable online? Everyone just hoped they’d translate, because porting old models onto new platforms didn’t require much innovation or effort. I’d argue that any publisher that has their eggs completely in the ad banner basket is missing the boat and is in for a Titanic-sized rude awakening.

The good news is that I’ve seen inklings of integrated campaigns online from some forward-thinking advertisers who are realizing that the old advertising methods don’t work so well online and that ad banner fatigue hit consumers in about, oh, 1999. Kudos to the companies who may not yet be getting it right, but are fighting the good fight to bust out of the old models and create some new ones.

So what are the new options for advertisers to reach potential customers? I don’t have a magic bullet for you, sorry, but I do have some wild and wacky ideas about advertising (hate it) versus social communications (love it).

• integration — think of how you can integrate your brand appropriate into conversations. Hint: Strategic social media marketing.
• placement — find interesting ways to place your brand into someone’s information stream. Hint: Virtual goods and gifts.
• overlay — develop ways to put your content into new places and spaces. Hint: Augmented reality.
• cross-platform — don’t just think Mac/PC or Firefox/Safari/Chrome. Hint: Hybrid online/offline.

I’ll leave you with these final thoughts and then let you ruminate — or argue with me, if you like. Most people do not want to consume ads. Many just barely tolerate them. A growing number of people completely reject them. If you look at the trends in communications over the last two decades, the patterns are clear. Learn from our past mistakes. Don’t be afraid to be different. Just make sure you have a strategy, some patience, and a flexible plan.

And please…don’t be an ostrich.

What is the future of advertising on the social web?

Photos by stock.xcnhg users flaivoloka and josecarli respectively

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Some of the tactics people use to generate online buzz are understandable enough. There’s the Twitter contest, which has become very popular of late, in which a company will give away a free product or service everyday to one random person who’s tweeted their message. And then there’s the virtual Facebook event, usually at launch or in celebration of some other milestone, like a certain number of units sold.

I’ve been invited to a number of Facebook events in my time, the majority of which I couldn’t actually “attend” per se, short of just marking the time on my clock at home and being done with it. I’ve attended a few, too, but mostly when I was already quite excited about the product or service in question, and more than willing to buy it when it became available.

A case in point was the Asus Eee PC 1000HE (the first netbook with all-day battery life) Facebook launch event. I attended it, but I was going to buy that machine on launch day anyway, so I only signed up for the event in order to get updated about release date information. The event didn’t sell me the product, but it did ensure that I was as informed as possible about when and where I could buy it.

I’ve used events myself before to launch publications, but again, the value of the virtual event as a sales tool was questionable. In all cases, almost anyone who RSVP’d to the event did so either because they had contributed to the publication in question, or because they were being good friends. The problem with a virtual event is that you can RSVP without consequence: no one is making appetizers or arranging seating based on your promise to come or stay home.

So as a sales tool and as a gauge of consumer anticipation, Facebook events aren’t ideal. But even if they aren’t ideal, are they worth the effort? And how much effort is required? On the surface, making an event seems like an easy enough thing. Just set a time and date, choose an image and enter a description and you’re done, after you invite some people and encourage them to invite others.

But that’s not really all there is to it. You have to encourage discussion on the site in order to keep people interested, which is one of the hardest tasks anyone working on the web can do. You also should consider sending out updates to draw people back to the event page, and to keep everyone up-to-date. The problem is that if you do this too frequently, you can quickly become a pest, and the threshold of what constitutes annoyance will vary person to person.

In the end, I’ve decided not to continue trying to use Facebook virtual events to help with my marketing efforts. It’s true that they have some advantages over Twitter marketing (they are stable, non-repetitive and discoverable), but the effort required doesn’t seem to justify the payoff. Better, I think, to just wait until something launches and send out a notice then, although you won’t generate any kind of buzz ahead of launch using that method. But it might depend on the level of anticipation to begin with; my experience has mostly been with extremely niche products, where it’s hard to generate much fervor outside of a core demographic anyway. Maybe Facebook marketing is best left to the big boys.

What’s your experience with Facebook virtual events, both as an administrator and as an invitee/guest? Do you think they are an effective marketing tool?

The most common option is to brand yourself under a company, which works well when your company name is unique, brandable and broad enough to encompass a variety of products and services. This option works well for technology companies, for example, like Google and Apple.

Another option is to brand yourself under your own name. This is the way I ultimately decided to brand myself, but coming to that conclusion wasn’t quick or easy.

How It Works For Me

In years past, I tried to identify and promote each of my business ventures individually, but more recently, I asked myself what my main mission was for my work and business. I was able to succinctly say that my goal was to be a resource for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Once I realized that I had that one central objective, I saw that it really served as an umbrella for all that I do.

All of my work in some way supports small business owners and entrepreneurs. I have one site that provides articles and podcasts on issues related to small business owners, as well as products and services to help them along their way. I have a radio show that covers topics relevant to this same group, as well as a web design company that serves, for the most part, solo entrepreneurs. And, of course, I write for sites like this one on topics relevant to the group.

That unifying thread of serving small business owners and the entrepreneurial crowd shows itself in everything that I do, and usually, clients who work with me through one of my sites end up working with or following me through one or more of the others, so I decided to simply introduce myself under my own name. I changed my email signature, Twitter handle, Posterous handle, etc. to my personal name (or a shorter version of it), and now, when I introduce myself, my business card points people to my main web site (the domain is my name), which then links them to any of my business ventures that fall under the umbrella of what I do.

Instead of trying to wrap my mind around all the different products, companies, or spin-off sites that I develop, which will likely be an ever-growing and changing list, I now focus on thinking about what I personally want to represent and be known for: helping small business owners and entrepreneurs through a variety of resources, products, and services. People start with knowing me and what I do and then figure out which of the sites under that umbrella might help them.

Other Successful Examples

Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, and Gary Vaynerchuk are examples of successful entrepreneurs who identify themselves by their own names rather than those of their companies. They each have two or more sites, books, or companies underneath them and are considered experts in a particular area or niche. Seth Godin is known for marketing, Chris Brogan for social networking, and Gary Vaynerchuk for parlaying passion into business. Their followers know the niche that they serve, and they know them by their individual names first then that of their companies or products.

Michael Port is another example. He has his main, personally-branded site, MichaelPort.com, which directs visitors to any of his books and programs. People know him as a marketing expert, or maybe as the “book yourself solid” guy. They don’t necessarily remember every one of his books or products, but they know him and his name, and they know what he represents.

When to Go With Your Name

I think that if there’s even a remote chance you’ll start another business, sell your current one, or change directions, it’s probably better to go with your name over that of your company. This option works well for entrepreneurs and writers especially. If you think that you’ll start spin-off companies, products, or services and want to be known as an expert on a particular topic, then going with your name might be the easier choice when it comes to branding and promotion.

For me, it’s been much easier to promote myself, definitely, but I’ll also say that it seems to be a lot easier for new contacts to wrap their mind around what I do as well. They immediately see that I do a variety of things, all geared to help them as small business owners. It has made things easier to manage, and I’m much more confident in my marketing efforts as a result.

How do you promote yourself, as your name or that of your company? What made you decide to go that way?

Photo by Flickr user Frogman!, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Waiting to be discovered, however, probably won’t get your business to the level of success you hope to achieve. You can’t wait for people to stumble on your site, thinking that that’s going to be enough to generate the leads required to sustain your revenue goals. You have to be proactive. Here’s how.

1. Find a way to quell the nerves. This starts with being willing. I’ve approached many business owners in recent months to ask them to be guests on my blog, podcast and radio show. Most of them emphatically accept, but occasionally, I do run into people who turn me down simply because they’re too nervous. In many of the cases, I convince them to start with an interview for the blog, and if they feel comfortable moving on to the podcast or radio show from there, great, but if not, at least they’ll get the traffic from the article. Inside tip: Start small. Inch your way into bigger and more visible media outlets.
2. Be prepared. Another concern I run into when asking business owners for interviews is that they worry they’ll look or sound silly. What questions will I ask of them? What bio or leading information will I use for the article, podcast or segment? What photo of them will I put on my site? These are just a few of the questions I’m asked from prospective guests. Mostly, their concerns stem from wanting to control the image that is presented of them and their companies. I reassure them by letting them know that I intend to portray them in the best light possible. Inside tip: Be prepared. Create a media page on your site that houses this kind of information (topics you’re prepared to discuss, sample questions you can answer, your bio and your photo). From my own experience, I can tell you that the job of a writer or interviewer is hard enough, and any bit of information like this that you can provide will not only be appreciated, but will also be used, so you can better control the direction of your media appearances.
3. Take the initiative. I’m finding this out for myself, so I know other media outlets, reporters, bloggers, podcasters and anyone else who generates any kind of content on a regular basis are always on the lookout for great stories and great sources. With a business to run on top of that, it’s especially helpful to have someone approach me with an idea or source for an article or segment, but I can tell you that it doesn’t happen nearly as often as I’d expect. What does that mean? Most small business owners don’t think about approaching bloggers and podcasters to pitch their stories (let alone radio shows, magazines, and larger media outlets). Inside tip: Go for it!  Pitch your story to that blogger or podcaster. If their content focuses on the audience that you target, then you have valuable information that could be shared. Make their lives easier. Send them a quick note to say, “Hey, I’d love to be on your [blog, podcast, show, etc.]. I’m an expert on [your topic of choice], and I think it would be a great topic for your [site/program].” It’s really that easy.
4. Get help. If you’re still worried about tackling media and publicity for your company. Find an expert to help you get started. These folks often have direct access to the media reps and can help you get your foot in the door. Nancy Juetten of Main Street Media Savvy is a personal favorite and has an arsenal of free and reasonably-priced resources to get you started in the media.

Be proactive. Take charge of your company’s publicity. Find ways to get in front of new and bigger audiences so that you begin to grow your own following. It doesn’t have to be so intimidating, and if youl inch your way into it, you’ll be a media favorite in no time!

How do you proactively market and promote your company?

Photo by Flickr user hiddedevries, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

I saw Mel Gibson on a talk show last night. He was there to promote a new action flick he has coming out, and the host asked him about his “Three E” approach to movie making. He responded that there are three things he tries to achieve with his movies: first entertain, then educate, and then, if possible, elevate.

I instantly thought these were admirable objectives to shoot for in almost any kind of communication, though the order of priority would vary depending on the type of communication and its purpose. It may seem like I’m stating the obvious, but what came to my mind right away was how appropriate these three objectives would be for a content development strategy.

Then it occurred to me that in this context, there has to be a fourth “E,” one that is pretty critical in the social Web: engage.

I wrote about content strategy not too long ago. It’s a hot topic and a rising career field. So if you create content (and who doesn’t these days?), you might want to ask yourself if your content satisfies any of these four criteria. Think of them as a kind of quality control standard.

The content you create — from animated demos to blogs to tweets to videos on YouTube — all influence your clients’ and peers’ perception of you. As a professional, you understand the importance of the quality of your product, and you should consider your content as one of your products.

Think about the people you follow on Twitter or whose blogs you read. Chances are your favorites provide a lot of Es. I looked at the tweets of one of the people I enjoy following, and found that most of his tweets qualified:

Just for fun, take a look at what you put out there and do a quick analysis to assess the quality of your content based on the four Es. What do you see?

If you want to learn more about content strategy, don’t miss “Content Strategy Forum 2010,” two days devoted to the topic in Paris in April.

What guidelines do you use for the content you create?

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For a blue-eyed girl in my homeroom class

Trying to find the courage to ask her out

Was like trying to get oil from a waterspout

What she would’ve said I can’t say

I never did ask and she moved away

But I learned something from my blue-eyed girl

Sink or swim you gotta give it a whirl.

- John Michael Montgomery, “Life’s a Dance”

I’m surprised sometimes by business owners who turn down opportunities for promotion. We can all feel intimidated by the thought of putting ourselves or our ideas out there, but whenever that happens to me, I stop and ask myself, “Are you serious about this?”

If there’s one thing I’m figuring out, especially lately, it’s that you have to be willing to make the approach. You have to be willing to ask for what you want. Ask the person to be a guest for your blog or podcast. Ask to be covered on another person’s site or radio show. Ask someone to join you for lunch or coffee. Just ask.

Maybe they’ll say yes. Maybe they’ll say no, but who cares? There are a million other people to ask.

It’s nerve-racking, spine-numbing and absolutely intimidating to get out there and tell the world about yourself and your business, but at some point, you have to ask yourself just how serious you are and how willing you are to let go of your fears and inhibitions and just do it.

The point is, you’re not going to get anywhere by staying holed up behind your computer screen tweaking, thinking, lurking or waiting. You have to take the initiative. Marketing, promotion and publicity – it’s all intimidating, and very few people are comfortable with it. That’s OK, though. If you admit that you’re nervous, people will be quick to support you and will actually see you as a real person who messes up and has feelings and is just like them, and that’s what you want — to make a connection with others.

What’s the best thing you ever accomplished by putting yourself out there?

Image from Flickr by geeknerd99

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Building conversations anywhere in the world of social media develops relationships, grows brand recognition and expands expertise. The formula for starting and building a community around your topic calls for a heap of passion, a large scoop of planning and a big bowl of promotion – the three P’s.

Passion

In “Man v. Food,” a Travel Channel TV show, Adam Richman ends every episode by taking on an eating challenge. It could be eating the fieriest food or a ginormous dish that can feed five people. In one episode, he faced an ice cream tower known as the Kitchen Sink Sundae, a two-gallon sundae with eight giant scoops of ice cream. He had to eat the whole thing within an hour.

You could almost feel Richman’s pain past the halfway point with his droopy eyes, slumped body and bowed head. The taste became too much for him that he ordered French fries to cut the sweetness. In the end, the man with passion for food won the challenge. Of course, he has lost a few battles with food, but that doesn’t stop him from trying again and again.

The groups and chats that flourish online have leaders behind them who show similar passion for their topic. Picking a topic to discuss, just because you think that’s what people want or because it’s a moneymaker will lead to burnout and boredom. Working with a topic means constantly staying on top of it, talking about it, researching it and living with it for hours, days and months. Without passion, the fire will never truly catch, but with it you can develop a thriving conversation. For example, Wine Library TV’s Gary Vaynerchuck oozes passion; people see it right away on his show, in his talks and in his book, “Crush It!“

Planning

The creators of the Kitchen Sink Sundae thought ahead by creating the sundae and setting boundaries with two rules: The challenger must eat everything within one hour. Without those boundaries, challengers could easily win by slowly eating the whole thing throughout the day.

The restaurant behind the sundae most likely added this to their menu to challenge people, promote the restaurant and to be a “purple cow.” “Hey, have you heard about the bottomless sundae at San Francisco Creamery?” makes for great word-of-mouth promotion.

You need similar planning in order to build successful conversations in social media. How does the topic fit in with your business goals? How will you benefit from the topic? Setting boundaries keeps the discussion tight and on track. Discussions without boundaries lose control and interest.

Promotion

San Francisco Creamery extended the life of the Kitchen Sink Sundae promotion with a new contest. It gives you a chance to win free ice cream for a year if you finish the sundae within 30 minutes. Unless challengers can finish the sundae, they’ll have pay for the $39.95 ice cream.

Conversations allow you to share your passion with others. But without promotion, no one will show up to share that passion with you. Hard selling makes many people uncomfortable, so focus on their needs. If they stop by your community, what will they get out of it? Use that to promote your topic. Promote it in the right places such as on social media profiles, in your email signature and via any colleagues who are willing to help spread it through their networks.

These three steps can work for many areas of social media. You can apply the three P’s to a blog, a Twitter chat, a Facebook page, a LinkedIn group, or wherever your community waits for you and your passion.

What ingredients make up your conversations around your passion?

Photo credit: Swamibu

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You don’t have to limit your marketing and promotional efforts to content creation, though. Here are a few other ideas to help you get the word out about your business.

1. Create and maintain a high-quality, easy-to-use, self-explanatory web site.

Your web site works for you 24/7/365, so it’s important that it does a good job. It doesn’t need to be beautiful or showy. As a web designer, I would actually recommend clean and easy-to-use over pretty, fun or cute.

When thinking about your web site’s design and functionality, focus on answering these questions for your ideal visitor:

• What is this site about?
• What does this person/company do?
• How much does the service/product cost? How does the service/product work? What else do I need to know about this service/product?
• How can I sign up or purchase this service/product? How can I contact this person/company?
• Should I keep up with this person/company (through a blog, newsletter, regular email coupons/discounts, etc.)? If so, how do I sign up or follow the person/company?

Your site should quickly and obviously answer these questions so that visitors can find their way around your site easily and so that they take action as quickly and painlessly as possible.

2. Use a short and effective email signature.

Every time you send an email, it’s a chance to remind your followers and new contacts what you do. Take advantage of the opportunity. Don’t be spammy. Don’t overdo it. Just provide a concise message to jog their memory and get them to click over to your site every once in a while.

Here’s my signature.

Amber Singleton Riviere
http://www.ambersingleton.com/

I also like my friend Betsy’s.

Betsy Talbot | www.marriedwithluggage.com | Twitter @marriedwluggage

3. Be a guest on other video blogs, podcasts and radio shows.

Monitor places like Twitter, Blogger Linkup, and HARO for opportunities to be interviewed for video blogs, podcasts and radio shows. It’s a great way to expand your reach and get known for your expertise.

4. Invite others to be guests on your blog, video cast or podcast.

One of my best methods for networking actually revolves around guest posts, whether I’m inviting people to contribute to my site or offering content for their sites. It’s been a very effective way to generate interest around my business. It takes a lot of effort to keep up, but it’s worth every minute of it.

I offer guest posts regularly on my site (usually ten or more per month), and what’s great about it is that you usually get the added benefit of promotion to the person’s followers and audience.

5. Participate in online networking.

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are great places to meet new people and get the word out about you and your company or site. Also, be sure to follow and comment on other blogs that target your ideal customer or client. By participating in conversations surrounding your niche, you’ll become known as an expert and a valued source of information.

6. Run promotions and discounts on your services periodically.

Getting potential customers and clients to take action and actually purchase your products or services can be tricky, but if you run occasional discounts, you’ll find customers coming out of the woodwork, and it’s a good way to get new prospects to test the waters with you and your company.

I offer a discount in each of my newsletter issues, as well as occasional discounts on Facebook and Twitter. On that note, running contests can also be a good way to get attention for you and your business, especially on Twitter.

Promoting a business doesn’t always have to be difficult. The key, though, is consistency.  Select the methods that work best for you and then stick with them. Do them on a regular basis, even if you’re not seeing immediate results. It takes some time to gain traction, but if you’re persistent, you’ll eventually hit the tipping point and business will start to snowball.

What other easy ways do you promote your business?

Image from Flickr by Slack pics

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