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Online Portfolio 2012 (by WickedSmartSocial)

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Automation is a beautiful thing...

All small business owners are busy.  I know - I am one.  You have to do everything.  From minding the store, to doing the accounting, to performing customer service, to networking, to HR, to marketing.  And on and on and on...  When are you supposed to have time to do all that?  And if really do all of these things, will your business suffer because there is no one looking at the big picture (profitability, supply vs. demand, liabilities)?

There are multiple solutions to this problem - hire an accountant, hire a lawyer, hire an HR firm. But I'm here to talk about your marketing.  In the past you may have needed to hire an outside marketing firm.  But not anymore.

The solution is marketing automation!

Gone are the days of writing your leads on an index card, and scheduling the follow up on a desk calendar.  Gone are the days of entering the contact into your smart phone and scheduling the follow up on your Outlook or Google Calendar.  -- Seriously...

Imagine now that someone is interested in your product.  They can express that interest by entering their email address into an online form they find in Facebook or on your website.  They can scan a QR code on the back of your business card to learn more.  They can text a password to your short code (that they saw on the side of a truck or at your store front) to opt-in to a special offer.  That's cool right?

But take it a step further.  Then all of these leads are automatically put into your online database.  From there you can do pretty much anything you can imagine.  Really, the sky is the limit on how you can use the information they have volunteered to you.

You can create custom campaigns based on how they first contacted you, their interest, their demographics, etc.  Then you can track their engagement in those campaigns, you can follow up with them automatically, make sure they convert from lead to customer - all while making the entire process seem personal.

Sure, you have to spend some time setting the whole thing up, but once that's done, kick your feet back and just let it run!

Is that cool or what!?!

I'll share more in my next post.

Until next time, stay Wicked my friends!

For FREE tutorials on all thing online and social media marketing, visit my website at wickedsmartsocial.com.

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All brand pages will be switched to the Timeline on March 30th, like it or not.

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Chapter #4 - Starting a business with no $$ - Tumblr and Google+

I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Personally, I hate the cooking, but love the leftovers - still working on my turkey :)

So, in today's blog I wanted to talk about Tumblr and Google+ for business.

  According to Tumblr's About -

Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors, to your theme's HTML.

So obviously, Tumblr is a good - and FREE - place to host your blog.  Its easy to use and fully customizable.  You can even get a custom URL.  Mine is: http://wickedsmartsocial.tumblr.com/

I haven't had the time to really customize my blog page yet, but to demonstrate the power of what you can do on Tumblr as far as branding goes, check out this blog.  

Additionally, you can follow others and they can follow you, send messages, questions (public or private), respond to your post right on your page, etc.  Its really a social media site after all.

Eventually I plan to put my full blog on WordPress. But until that time, I'm loving what Tumblr's allowing me to do.  I publish here and then provide a link here from my other sites as applicable - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Even once I move my full blog to WordPress, I will still continue to post to Tumblr, as it can be a useful SEO tool.  I will explain more about that as I go.

Google+ for business was just unleashed on the public one day before I started my business.  To be honest, all I have done so far is claim my page before someone else takes my name.  

I recommend that even if you can't devote any time to Google+ right now, at least claim your page - its FREE.  Bottom line is that Google+ for business so new its still a bit of a ghost town.  So, if you can't dive in right away, don't worry. Because its Google, it will be there when you get to it.  And right now, they are not offering anything that much different than Facebook does anyway (except for hangouts).

I will post some how-to information as I get to it.  For now, I want to start focusing on getting a website up and running.

Until my next post, stay wicked my friends!

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what have you done? proffesion? start a business?

In reading your blog, I see that we are doing things a little similar in that we're letting people go on our journey with us.  I have just started up an Online Marketing Business.  I'm letting people see that they can do it on their own by sharing how I'm capitalizing on all the free marketing opportunities that are out there on the web.

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Goal #2 - Inspire Startup Entrepenuers

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Let me explain myself...

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Chapter #3 - Starting a business with no $$ - LinkedIn

The one thing that social media gurus will tell you over and over is to present yourself as an expert.  Well, I'm not exactly saying I'm not an expert here, but (as you can see by my measly number of facebook fans and twitter followers) I have just gotten started.

My belief is that everyone has to start somewhere, and I refuse to buy "likes" and "followers."  So, I may not come off to you right away as an expert, but I'm ok with proving that to you over time.

For now, I want to pick-up on my last blog about being a startup with no money. The best way to get in front of your potential customers without having a huge marketing budget is to take advantage of social media marketing.

Is it easy? I'm not going to fool you - NO, it can be confusing. The purpose of my blog is to take you step-by-step through my journey so that you can see that you can do it too!

In my last blog, I discussed branding, logo, youtube, facebook, and twitter in very basic terms.  I will continue here with very basic discussions of LinkedIn.

Remember, my blog is all about small budgets, so bring on the FREE!

After I'd gotten my video blog on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, I moved to LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a professional networking site above all.  It is completely based on you as a professional.  It has been misunderstood as a career/job search site (like Monster.com), but is so much more powerful on so many levels.

So, because I was already employed in a professional field, my LinkedIn account existed before I started Wicked Smart Social.  I have been using LinkedIn for about 6-8 months so far.  Setting up my profile was easy and FREE.  

The key points to remember when getting started with LinkedIn are these:

1) Post a close-up, professional picture of yourself - not your dog or your kids. People are looking to connect with you as a professional.  For those of you who are not photogenic (like me), just keep trying until you find a picture you like.  

2) Think of adding a tagline instead of your boring old job title.  For instance, instead of calling myself the CEO/Owner/Founder, etc. of Wicked Smart Social, I used that space to include my tagline "Brilliant Online Marketing." Use this space wisely to promote your brand, but be careful not to be cliche or too cutesy.

In later blogs, I will share with you how to optimize your LinkedIn Profile and how to establish yourself as a expert and thus gain more sales leads.  

Until my next blog - stay wicked my friends!!

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Chapter #2 - How I'm starting a business with no $$ (Okay, just a little money).

Obviously the first thing I needed was an idea. Duh. Then I needed a name. Duh. 

Then I needed a brand.  A lot of people don't stop to think enough about their brand. Big mistake.  Why?  If you don't present a consistent message, look, and feel for your company, people will be confused or won't remember you.  When determining your brand, think about who you want your customers to be.  What appeals to them, where can you find them, what will make them trust you.  

The good thing about generating an idea, a name, and a brand is - it was all FREE! Now what?

I knew I wanted to go online immediately because part of my brand is to let people go on a journey with me. So, what's the first thing you need if you are going to go online? An email address!

I wanted all my emails associated with Wicked Smart Social to go to a dedicated email address.  The best - and FREE - way to do this is through Gmail (Google's free email service).

Next is where the little bit of money comes in. The quickest way to advertise your brand (online or anywhere) is through use of a logo. So, I researched how to get a free logo.  I found several sites that advertised free logos.  But it turns out there's a catch. Its only free to design your logo.  If you actually want to download a copy of it to use, you have to pay - BUMMER.

But, I found a nice little site called Logo Garden that had a wide variety of icons and effects (although not many fonts) and would give me my logo in all of the formats I needed (web and print, .jpeg and .png) plus 100 business cards for $79.00.

Once I had my logo, I was ready to rock and roll.  

This is where it can get confusing. So, I tell people to start with the Big Four - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. I will discuss each of these in detail in later blogs, (including how to's), so stay tuned. But for now, I'll tell you how I started.  

The first thing I did was to setup a YouTube channel - FREE.  I recorded my first video blog - FREE.  Ok, one down three to go.

Then I chose to create a Facebook Page.  A Facebook Page is really just a Facebook profile, but for businesses.  Just like your personal Facebook Profile, your company's Facebook Page is totally FREE. After I created Wicked Smart Social's Facebook Page, I posted my video blog. Then I invited all my personal FB friends to "Like" my new page. 

Next was Twitter. I had to think about whether I wanted to post as myself on behalf of Wicked Smart Social, or whether I just want to be Wicked Smart Social to my future Twitter followers.  This is an important question that you shouldn't take lightly.  The answer will vary from person to person and business to business.

Once I decided, I setup Wicked Smart Social's Twitter Profile - FREE. Then I chose a few choice people to follow. And finally, I tweeted a link to my first video blog. Ok, three down, one to go.  

This is where it gets a little sticky for me, so I'm going to save LinkedIn for another blog.  In my next blog I will also cover Tumblr and Google+.

Until next time, stay wicked my friends.

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Chapter #1 - Taking the leap, starting my online marketing business

So, you may have seen my first video blog about why I decided to launch a startup small business with no money (especially one in such a highly competitive market as online marketing).  What you definitely don't know is that I think I was subconsciously influenced by Sesame Street.

I have a two year old daughter named Roxy who is in love with all things Sesame. Sometimes when I am working on my laptop, she will sit on my lap and ask for "the good one."  I know this is my cue to pull up a split screen - on one side I do my work, on the other I pull up YouTube.  

"The Good One" (as she calls) it is actually a cute little Sesame Street musical number where some muppets are singing "Change the World."  Now, do I think I'm going to change the world with my startup?  Certainly not.  However, I think some of the lyrics got me into a gung-ho attitude to start my new business.

Specifically, "I'm gonna be the best me that I can be," and "Nothing's gonna stop me, Nothing's gonna get in my way."  I didn't really think a lot about it except that it was great that my daughter is getting such a great influence from YouTube (of all places).  But, night after night, I woke up at 2 or 3 in the morning with that song in my head; I walked around all day singing it to myself.  

Then, all of a sudden, I had the courage to launch my business - with no money, no prospects, and a plan in its infancy.  It only took me a couple of days to realize that maybe, just maybe, being inundated with such a positive message effected my attitude about myself and my ideas.

By no means am I trying to say I believe in "the Secret," but I do believe that optimists reap more out of life than pessimists.

So, here I am, the eternal optimist - and I'm ready to share my journey (good and bad) with the world.  Yikes!! 

Next in my blog series, I'll start talking about where to start if you have no moola. Stay tuned!

See Chapter #2 - How I'm starting a business with no $$ (Okay, just a little money).

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Wicked Smart Social's Mission

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Why I decided to launch an online marketing service for small businesses.