Heard the latest example of a company receiving negative public relations via the web and social media? Alaska Airlines apparently gave a paying customer’s ticket away to someone on standby because that customer had to run to the bathroom to change her baby’s diaper. That customer service error led fully fledged public relations debacle: Alaska Airlines Hates Families After reaching a dead-end with the company, the couple turned to the Internet to air their complaints (which seem reasonable). All this negative PR could have been easily stopped before it happened, without any fancy technology or marketing — provide good customer service.
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Nov
09
2010
How Much Does Each New Customer Cost?
How much does each new customer cost your business? Businesses love to dump money into Google AdWords campaigns, but then they ignore what the results are telling them. A lot of companies are spending more on a acquiring a new customer than that customer is giving them in return. Cost per acquisition is a valuable statistic for understanding whether you’re actually getting something for all the money spent in advertising.
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Nov
08
2010
Understanding the Value of Your Customers
Most business owners know the average purchase amount they get from their customers (amount of sales divided by the number of purchases), but few bother to understand how much value customers give over the lifetime of their relationship with the company. Advertising and marketing is vital to the growth of any company, but knowing how much a customer is likely to spend while they’re doing business with you is important for setting the proper budgets (and expectations).
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Nov
04
2010
Social Media for Search Engine Optimization
If you mention the word “SEO” to most business people, their ears will perk up. Everyone is concerned about how well their website performs on search engines and are even willing to pay mucho bucks to show up on the first page (but for what keywords?). A more cost effective method is to use social media to boost your SEO, which, if done properly, can also improve your reputation with customers and potential buyers as well.
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Nov
03
2010
Review: Real-time Social Media Monitoring with Social Mention
Keeping up on what’s being said about a company or brand can be difficult with so many different channels. It’s even more challenging when people expect real-time responses via social media to problems and issues. A lack of response when there’s a problem can be more harmful than the problem. Social Mention makes it easy to monitor, not only what’s being said, but also who is saying and what the general sentiment is towards the company or brand.
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Nov
01
2010
Girls in Tech Detroit
Tech Girls unite! Metro Detroit women who work in any tech-related industry now have a local organization tailored specifically to them. I’m excited to be a part of Girls in Tech (GIT) Detroit, a social network focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent and influential women in technology. Our first initiative is Laptops for Ladies, a charity laptop drive during the holidays to support the technology needs of women who are under-served.
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Oct
29
2010
Build a Social Network and Do Amazing Things
So let’s say that you’ve put the time and effort into building a social network online and off. Other than knowing more people, and possibly getting a bit more business, can you do any amazing things by knowing more people? YES! Here are three examples from the Detroit area of people who were able (or are doing) amazing things because of the social network they’ve built. Hopefully you’ll get inspired to try some new things too!
Oct
28
2010
6 Consequences of NOT Using Social Media
I’ve heard from a lot of business owners who are interested in using social media, but when it comes down to actually doing it, they complain about the time and/or money involved. Yet these same people will make time for other things they deem crucial — networking, advertising, etc. Finding the time or hiring someone else to help with social media isn’t an issue if you think it’s important enough. But, there are consequences to not using social media:
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Oct
27
2010
Networking on Steroids
Pretty much anyone will agree that networking is important, whether or not you’re in business for yourself. Most of us will put networking events on our calendars and make an effort to attend, at least occasionally. If we agree that networking is important, why then are we so hesitant to connect with these same people online? One of the best ways to have conversations online is to connect with people you’ve already met offline.
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Oct
26
2010
Blogging in a Vacuum
I had a meeting with a client yesterday who was getting very discouraged because he hadn’t yet received any comments on his blog. His discouragement meant that he wasn’t blogging as often as he should because he wasn’t seeing the value in it. Unfortunately, this sporadic blogging can lead to a downward spiral which will lead to a self-fulfilling failure. While blogging at first can feel like you’re talking to yourself, patience and dedication almost always pay off.
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