Facebook now charging for personal page posts

I have to say, I was quite shocked when Facebook decided that in order to reach a large amount of fans on your business page, you now have to pay to reach out to the fans that you tried so hard to collect in the first place assuming that you would be able to reach them easily with your business page. But now Facebook is offering this for your personal page as well. They have a button now on your post that says "promote" it then wants you to pay $7 in order to make your post "important news" on your friends newsfeeds.

This seems like the beginning of Facebook slowly becoming a paid site which will ruin the while concept of Facebook completely.

I'm wondering what the push is for these new methods of making Facebook users pay? Are the billions of dollars Facebook is making off advertisers not enough? Are they just getting greedy? Or are advertisers backing out because, in my opinion at least, Facebook advertising is less effective than google advertising.

I understand hitting up the advertisers and small businesses for cash, but hitting up the typical consumer Facebook user is just going overboard. What is going to be paid next? Does this mean that my posts aren't going to be seen by as many of my friends if I don't pay?

The big question is, what do I really get out of paying the $7 to promote something to "important news" on my personal page. Lets say I want people to know about my small business or my event, am I really going to make $7 worth of profit from advertising to under 1500 friends? Not necessarily. Maybe if I was a medium sized business with a personal page but I'd say the majority of people are not.

Now I'm just wondering what the next social media site that's going to be coming up if Facebook wants to keep hitting us up for money, I know everyone will be gone soon enough. Maybe google plus? I'm not a fan of their layout but I'm also not a fan if paying for posts!

Facebook coupon offers

I think I like this new promotional tool on facebook business/fan pages. You can pay to offer a coupon to your network and you can choose how many it reaches. I don't like the fact that it has a limited reach, because I feel like when I got all those "likes" on my page, I should be able to reach them like I would with an email address only on their facebook wall. But the good thing about the coupons is that if someone see the coupon and clicks on it to redeem it, it comes up in their friends newsfeed that they have redeemed a coupon from this business.

It's cool for me as a consumer because then I can see some offers that are out there that my friends were interested in and it's cool for me as a business because my coupon code and like to my page gets posted on that persons page so all of their friends can check out my offer as well and possibly go to "like" my business too or redeem the offer. I will probably use this each time I want to post about a coupon code for my online jewelry sales business. I like that it reaches out to more than just my fans, it can reach their friends and friends of friends too. That in itself if worth it more than just letting my fans see a post. Also, the fans that click on the offer are more likely to see my future posts in their news feed than they would have before because now they've shown interest by clicking something I posted.

Before/After Photo editing

Photo editing in photoshop is an interesting technique. I feel like I'm always learning more about fixing colors and lighting and how to warp things into the way I want them. It's not just something you learn by doing a few hours of editing, it definitely takes a lot of practice to make it look right.

Here is a picture where I did a lot of editing. I had to change the middle girl's jacket completely because the client wanting a different colored jacket on the girl. Then, I changed the zippers on the girl on the right to black thick zippers instead of silver colored thin zippers. Lastly, I took out the girl on the left because the client decided that she wanted this image with only 2 girls instead of 3. There are other small changes made throughout the image like lengthening the girls pants or taking out extra pockets on the black coat on the left, but overall the image came out great and the poster is being hung in the window of a women's clothing store in Beverly Hills, CA for fall 2012.

Skype for business

For several years, I have been working with a client strictly over the phone doing design work. In the first year, it was me just sending him .jpgs through email back and forth and him calling and asking for changes. This took up so much time and it would get frustrating trying to understand what he wanted and I kept having to send him a bunch of new versions. He kept asking me to come up with a way that he could see my screen and work over the phone.

I had been using Skype previously because a friend told me about it. I realized that they had a way that you could share your screen through the messaging feature. It calls from one username to another, so it's not charging you for a phone call. Skype only charges you for a phone call if you are calling a phone line, not when you are calling another skype username within your country.

Skype has made it so much easier to communicate with my client who is now several states away from me. He can see my screen and tell me to move around text and pictures the way he wants them while I am on the computer doing it at the same time so he can see it. It has become a normal everyday type of thing to use Skype for work. He doesn't have a microphone on his computer, so we still have to use the regular phone to speak to each other, although if you both have speakers, you don't even need a phone. If you have a business where you need to show someone a design or information on your screen without being right next to them, I would suggest using Skype.

Online forum creation

There are a lot of websites now that let you create an online forum free. They let you host it free on their website and give you a custom URL attached to their domain. You can always buy your own .com domain and have it forwarded to the domain link they give you.

I recently tried out out called www.lefora.com 
It's not too bad, they don't spam you with ads all over your forum. There seems to be pretty good protection from spam bots joining your forum. They make each person that joins your site click through a bunch of ads with promotions just to join but afterwards, it is pretty clear from ads, except for some text ads at the very bottom that your barley notice.

Forums are useful if your trying to communicate with a group of people all at once. For example, when your throwing an event, you can create a forum to find out who wants to attend, who wants to perform, who wants to work, get every one's opinion on a topic, etc... It also helps create buzz for the event because talking about it hypes up the excitement of going to the event.

They are also useful for weekly or monthly clubs, sales groups, groups that want to discuss a topic like art or doing charity. Forums have been around for a very long time on the Internet. Much longer than facebook and myspace. It used to be harder to start a forum, get followers, etc... but it was like a private group facebook page where you share ideas, funny pictures, talk about current events, etc... There are a lot of forums out there today dedicated to computer tech support also.

One negative thing about starting a forum is that once you get a group of people on there and things start rolling, they really start to suck you in and somewhat waste your time in the same way that facebook does. Also, if you were the creator, you may want to check back often to administer the board. You have to decide what you want to allow on there and what you don't want to allow as far as topics, NSFW (not safe for work) posts, bad language, rude things people say, etc. On one hand, moderating a forum too much, you can lose some people with too much censorship, but not moderating it enough, you can also lose some people because they may not be protected from being harassed. If it is something to do with a business or event you are running, you may want to be on there enough to moderate the negative posts. Just be careful what you censor, because people will call you out of you censor your board too much also. It's all a balance.

Turning Customers into Brand Ambassadors

Check out this article posted on PRWeb about getting your customers to talk about your brand. See the original article here.


You know that social media has the power to amplify everything you say about your business. But there's a flipside: it also amplifies everything your customers say. While this lack of control might seem like a cause for concern, it's actually a great opportunity to leverage your customers as brand advocates.

Some of the most effective marketing you can do is good old word-of-mouth. When happy customers spread the word about your business, new customers will soon be knocking at your door.
Thanks to the speed of social media, word-of-mouth now works faster than ever. Here are four ways to generate it from your customers.

1
Reward loyalty.
Make sure your customers know that you value their business. Even a simple "Thanks for your business" can make a difference. Tactical tools such as loyalty cards or discounts are great, but they're even better when offered in conjunction with face-to-face gratitude. If you're feeling confident on social channels, try recognizing your most loyal customers on Facebook or Twitter with a special "customer of the week" feature and discount just for them.

2 Embrace the good and the bad.
People tend to share extremely positive or extremely negative customer service experiences. However, some of the most compelling stories arise from companies responding to bad customer experiences effectively. If someone shares a negative story about your company online, respond to their complaint, do everything possible to remedy the situation, and communicate what you're doing. Think of complaints as opportunities to improve customer relations and earn more word-of-mouth.
                         

3
Get more social.
Apps like FourSquare, Yelp! and Open Table to name a few, allow customers to leave real-time reviews about your business. Make sure you know what people are saying about you on these forums, and respond appropriately. Better yet, become an active presence yourself, thanking people for positive reviews, responding to concerns, or even offering discounts or promotions for users. To encourage reviews, you can add buttons to your website which link directly to these sites.

4
Give customers something to talk about.
Neutral sentiment does nothing to further your brand. Customers don't talk about 'average' experiences with brands. What they'll remember—and share with others—is how your company goes above and beyond to make customer interactions easy and pleasant. Check out these "10 Examples of Shockingly Excellent Customer Service" for some inspiration!

By managing relationships with your customers effectively, you can turn them into marketers for your brand, as well as keeping them happy and satisfied.

The LOL's of casting/ hiring people

When I used to be the one looking for a job, I always wondered what people thought of my responses. What I could do better, what I was doing wrong or right. Then, when I had to post for jobs and casting for photo shoots, I realized how difficult, annoying, comical and interesting it is to get responses from people that want the job you are offering.


Some people reply with:

- almost nothing like- "I'm interested. Here's how to contact me." (delete)
- a question like "so what exactly do you want?..." (like I have time to answer every question- and some of these don't even have any info, they want you to respond first before they send info.)
- "can you change the date that you posted for the shoot?" (uh no, I can find 50 more people that can make that date I asked for)
- "I would like to work with you if we can negotiate on more pay" (who do you think you are?)
- " I need you to fill this out for me and tell me exactly what you need" followed by a long list of questions. (I'm 100% more likely to respond to someone who didn't want me to spend 20 min. on a survey.)
 - It is stated in the post that I need people to interview on Tues and Wed. - "Can I come in on Thursday for an interview?" (Obviously if I asked for Tues & Wed., I'm probably already making the decision by Thurs.)
- A million replies to person casting. (likely, the person who posted the job is sifting through 100 people and is extremely busy, also they are likely not the person making the final hiring decision)



Responses to when I ask for someone local in LA:

- some people just send their info anyway and never even say that they are located on the east coast
- "I may be in another state but I work well remotely" (yeah but that's not what I asked for)


Some tips on replying:

- You don't want to be the last person to interview. Maybe not the first, but definitely within the first day, especially if it's for a gig that's time sensitive on picking someone.
- Reply with a little info about yourself, what you do and a hook as to why we should hire you, but not too long. And attach your resume in the same email.
- Don't ask questions about the job in your first response to the post.
-  It's helpful to change the name of the email you send back instead of using "re: Looking for Photographer in LA" (everybody responded with that and it's hard to tag which email you sent)
- Don't call, unless asked to. And if you do, only call once, not 5 times. (It's annoying, I'm busy)


When your coming in for an interview:

- Ask what to bring (always a resume, and a portfolio if it calls for one in your job)
- Ask what to wear (most likely dress conservative, unless you know you are interviewing with someone from a really alternative artsy type of job)
- If your job has something to do with computers and you need to show examples on a computer, be sure to bring the computer or iPad with you. Don't assume the client has one right there to use.


Whatever you do, don't make someone have to jump through any hoops for you. Hiring and casting people is a pain in the ass most of the time anyway. It's best to just get your interview time and date, show up on time, look like a million bucks and have a great personality and portfolio. 

Negative emails accomplish nothing

Let me start off by saying, don't say that you can do something like say, set up a fashion photo shoot when you've never done it before, because you think it will be easy. The first time is always a learning experience... with anything you do.

I've been working with my client on getting together her fashion photo shoot but more standing to the side to let someone handle getting the crew together. There was some miscommunication with the make-up artist/ hair stylist for the shoot. First, the person who is in charge of getting the crew confirmed a tentative date with the stylist, which they must have mistaken for being a set thing. Strangely enough, the models weren't picked and the clothes hadn't completely arrived to even do the shoot. So the coordinator asked the client to pay a $100 fee for "cancelling" 5 days ahead of time to the make-up artist, which seemed strange enough considering that usually that much time would be enough for most professionals unless otherwise noted.

Then, when the dates were finalized, the client called the stylish who originally quoted through the coordinator that her day rate was $300, now states that her rate is $150 per hour and that it is more than usual as a "penalty" for the cancellation of the previous date. Then the client and stylist come to an agreement as to the final price. Two days later, the stylist writes the client a rude email stating that she feels like she is being "taken advantage of" by giving this rate and explaining that she missed out on a higher paying gig and also spent a lot of money on the make-up kit for the original date. The client received the email and immediately writes back cancelling the stylist completely.

My thought was, "what was the stylist thinking writing that email?" Did she really think that she would get paid more by saying that she thought she was being taken advantage of? Instead, she burned a bridge with the client and got fired from the job. If she was unhappy with the pay rate and felt that it wasn't high enough, she should have just cancelled instead of writing an offensive rude email back. Not even making a phone call, just passive-aggressively writing an email.

The moral of the story is "think before you type" and instead of being negative and offending the client, nicely cancel and explain that you re-assessed your finances and don't feel that you can offer the rate you previously offered and apologize for the misunderstanding. At least in that case, you wouldn't be blacklisted completely from the clients universe.

Another point I'd like the bring up is the fact that the people who think they are can't be replaced, are often the easiest to replace. lol I have about a dozen new excellent professional hair/make-up artists lined up to for the job.

Update on the customer complaint blog

Today I received a chargeback notification from Paypal that was started by the lady who emailed me to complaint that she didn't receive her package, the froze the $108.00 from the payment in my account.  So I responded immediately to Paypal with the tracking number of the package. Then, I called Paypal to ask if they needed anything else from me. They said that all they needed was the tracking number, then the girl checked online and saw that the package had been delivered and released the funds to my account saying that this was protected under the paypal seller protection policy. They said that they will deal with the credit card company about the claim. I'm pleased to hear that paypal does protect you, as long as you have a tracking number.

I still wonder what happened to the package that the customer claims was never received. Her emails were very rude and threatening but it's hard to tell if she really didn't receive the package or if she is just lying about receiving it. So that means that there are only two possibilities, either the package was stolen from her porch or she's lying about receiving it in the first place. If it was stolen, there's nothing I can do. The only thing to do would be to see if I can offer "signature confirmation" as an add on to shipping in my online store. It costs $2.50, which would make the shipping cost that much more, so I wouldn't just add it in the price, but maybe if someone ordered a package and they knew that there was a possibility that someone could steal a package from their porch, they would opt for spending the $2.50 extra to get the signature confirmation. I feel bad if it was stolen, but there is no way to tell if what the truth is and either way, and I can't just refund someone $100 if I don't get anything back from it. You can't run a business where you let everyone get away with everything just because they complained. 

The customer is not always right

I've heard of all kinds of Internet scams. I've gotten the scam emails claiming to be PayPal or a credit card company or someone wanting to send you a check and you send them back money. Those seem to be obvious ones to me. But I haven't had a lot of experience with people personally trying to scam me as a business so I was shocked when I started getting mean emails from someone who had ordered an item from me online.

The person claimed to not have received the item, eventhough the post office had confirmed that it was delivered. They told me that I was scamming them by taking their money and trying to claim that I had never sent anything. They told me that they were going to refer my company to their friends but now they are not. Not only did they ask for their money back on the exact day that the package had been confirmed as delivered by the post office, but they told me that they had also called their credit card company to "inform them of the bizarre situation"

Then the went on to say that they contacted the post office and the post office told them that something had been delivered but they couldn't confirm that it was a package and it could have been a letter. Although obviously wouldn't they have gotten a letter in the mail that day that had "delivery confirmation" on it if that were the case.

At first I felt very threatened. Obviously it seems like I would be receiving a chargeback dispute from PayPal someone was claiming that there was a problem. The person even went on to say they were going to contact a lawyer. I laughed a little at that wondering what lawyer they knew was going to take a case over not only a $100 dispute but over a very small online business.

So I contacted PayPal to make sure they had me covered for this. I had shipped out the package through paypals USPS shipping label service with delivery confirmation. There is even a message on the PayPal page that says I'm eligible for seller protection.

I spoke with a representative from PayPal who informed me that I had absolutely nothing to worry about. If the post office says that the package was delivered, then I'm covered from someone trying to scam me.

So far, I don't see any dispute being claimed. I've heard of this type of thing happening but I didn't realize it would come with horrible threatening harassing emails. Then again, this type of thing just comes with running any type of business. You can't fear this situation happening, you just have to be as professional as possible and nicely let them know that their scam won't work on you.

How to Get Celebrities to Show off Your Brand

Here is an interesting article about how to get celebrities to show off your brand by Under30CEO. I have been involved with gifting products to celebrities in the past so this article makes a lot of sense to me.

"Getting the attention of a celebrity or someone relevant in your market can be a huge advantage for your business. I was involved in very competitive high-tech startup companies for most of my career. These businesses were enormously challenging for reasons that would require lengthy dissertations; additionally; they had very long sales cycles. Overcoming these challenges has helped me maintain infinite patience with my own business. This has been critical because my venture as a jewelry designer/entrepreneur also falls into a highly competitive industry.

As a strategic edge to differentiate my collection from what seems to be an endless number of indie designers, I’ve chosen to utilize gifting as a marketing tool for my business. This strategy can be impactful, but it’s not a tool with guaranteed effectiveness. Like all strategies, it’s subject to failure and dependent on preparation, follow-through, product quality, and timing. Here are a few suggestions to help you find celebrity matches for your own product."... click to read more here...

from:
http://under30ceo.com/get-celebrities-show-your-brand/

Customers without a face

Today I was thinking about how crazy it is that you can sell things to people without ever meeting them, speaking to them or even emailing them. Buying online becomes so impersonal and automated but as cold as that sounds, it's actually really great! Who would have thought years ago that sales would go from in person, to through the mail, to over the phone, to over the Internet. Sure mail orders came before the Internet but the whole idea of having to send out a printed catalog was so expensive for printing and postage, and now all you have to do it list something online, someone finds you, puts in their card, and you never see or hear from them.

I first experienced this with graphic design when one of my design clients who had found me on craigslist had went from email to speaking over the phone and I didn't actually see or meet him in person until over a year later when finally I met him to drop off some lanyards to him and actually meet for lunch. I had no idea what he even looked like. To this day, I work with people even over the phone who I have no idea what they look like. What a strange concept it is.

The Internet definitely makes it easier to meet these faceless clients and customers and exchange work, products and money with them without worrying too much about the payment not going through. In a way, it's actually better because you can't make any judgements about the person. Like for instance, I got an email from someone who wanted to send me a personal check to buy one of my jewelry kits. I don't accept checks for that business because to me, it's too risky and takes too much effort to have to deposit the check, hope it doesn't bounce, wait until it clears and then days later send the product. And if it does bounce, your stuck with a bounced check fee from your bank. I only accept checks from clients that I trust and have an ongoing business relationship with. But I was thinking "well, maybe this person is older and doesn't have a credit card and doesn't know how to use paypal." I imagined that if I could see what she looked like and how old she was, I would be able to judge whether I think she was trying to scam me or not. But that's not really a good way to judge someone and either assist trust to them or not. I decided not to accept the check on the main basis that even if you don't have a credit card, you can still pay through your bank account on paypal. If this person found me online, chances are that they know enough online to purchase through paypal or at least have someone help them. Maybe I'm assuming too much one way or another but when it comes down to it, it's best to stick with your original policies.

Tips for getting your business seen on Pinterest

Pinterest isn't really set up for advertising. It's set up for sharing photos and information. But using Pinterest can help you get more traffic to your website and make more sales!

Here are some tips for getting your business seen on pinterest:

- Place your logo or website address as a watermark on your picture either in the center or better in the right bottom corner.

- Make sure you add a link to your website to your post. All you have to do is write the web address in and it automatically becomes a link.

- Use popular keywords to describe your product so that it can come up on google searches.

- Use tags like (gold like) ("celebrity name" like) (vintage inspired) ("celebrity name" inspired) for items that could be associated with common words that are looked up relating to your target market.

- If your product has a price that you would like to use in your advertising such a (only $2.99!) be sure to add that to your description because pinterest will add a little banner to the top left corner of your image to let everyone see the price right there at the top of the image.

- Place your images in folders that relate to the category you are trying to market to. For instance, jewelry could be in a folder titled "hot jewelry and accessories" or "my fashion style"

- Take great wonderful artistic shots of your product for pinterest. People are a lot less likely to even look at your picture if it is poor quality. Get professional photos if possibly, it makes a big difference!

- Make a step by step description or tutorial on using, wearing or putting together your product if applicable. There are a lot of "how to's" on pinterest. People like to learn about something if they find it interesting and if your selling something, helping them understand what your selling helps a lot!

- Be sure to post your pinterest posts to your Facebook so your friends can see your activity on there and repost it!

So far, I haven't seen a huge response from Pinterest, and I feel like it's better for some "one time purchase" products and not necessarily other products. So spend your social media time wisely and spread out your time between social media sites.

Don't ASSUME anything about someone's budget

If your in the type of business where you have to give out a quote to a customer, don't assume anything. Some clients that seem like they have unlimited funds can be the ones with the tightest budget.

No matter what, it's hard to know what to quote because you don't want to guess too high or too low. The best plan is to keep your prices at a moderate range and don't go by what you assume your potential client might pay. Clients are likely to shop around and find the best deal. If you don't have the best deal, they may like your skills, customer service, quality or willingness to get the job done quickly so don't fear if your prices aren't the cheapest, but don't blow them up either just because you see that the client is in an expensive location.

Another thing to keep in mind about giving a quote is to make sure all of the changes, exchanges and potential customer service issues are covered in your quote. Also, don't quote too low on the first job just to get in the door. Sometimes this can work if your using special one time coupons, but not if it's a potential ongoing paying gig. If you quote too low, they will expect to get that low price forever or they may look elsewhere if you quote higher later.

Get your posts seen in your fans newsfeed

Want to get your fans to see your business page posts without having to pay for them to see the posts on facebook in their newsfeed? Post a picture like the one seen here to give information to your fans about how they can set it so that they are actually getting your posts in their newsfeed. If they are really interested in your business, they will want to see your posts and do this. It can't hurt to ask! And it's always good to pass along this sort of knowledge.

You can now schedule a post on Facebook

Now you can schedule a post on your facebook page. Scheduling posts is great because you can schedule posts for your business page for your entire week or month without having to remember that you have to post again every few days. There are also several other websites that let you schedule posts like www.hootsuite.com A lot of blog websites like blogger let you schedule your blog posts also so that it automatically posts them at a later date. This is also great for when your going out of town but you want to keep up on your posts without having to jump on the computer while on vacation.  Here is some more information about how you can schedule posts to appear on facebook at a later date:

You can prepare a post and schedule it to appear later by adding a date and time in the future before you post it. You can schedule a post up to 6 months in advance in 15-minute intervals. 

From your Page's sharing tool:

1. Choose the type of post you want to add to your Page
2. Click the  icon in the lower-left of the sharing tool
3. Choose the future year, month, day, hour and minute when you'd like your post to appear
4. Click Schedule

If you choose a date in the past, the post will appear immediately at the appropriate place on your Page's timeline. All times correspond to the current time zone you're in.

Click here to go to the facebook forum page about this

Facebook gets greedy

We all know that facebook runs on advertising. Facebook will let you create a business page for free but to promote it to people in that demographic you want, you have to pay ad space on the side of the page. This makes sense. But now, facebook is making businesses pay just to send posts to fans who already "like" their page. So all the work you did to collect those fans, they won't even be seeing anything from your business without paying some more? I think it's time to go back to email maketing. Why bother putting time and effort into social media when no one is going to see it without paying more?

This is not very good ROI (return on investment) to me. On my page, it's telling me:

$5 reaches 700
$10 reaches 1,300
$15 reaches 2,000

So this just means that my post will show up on someone's busy feed. It's doesn't mean they will click, or respond or anything. I could pay less to reach someone's email address. Why did I bother to put all that effort into getting likes on facebook when I could have just stuck to email?

Here's info from facebook: http://www.facebook.com/help/promote

I wonder what some other companies are doing about this when a lot of their business rely on sending messages to their fans about contests, events, etc. Why are we bothering to make business pages? I'm starting to think turning a personal page into a business page is a good idea, although they try their best to only let you used real names for your profile name. I guess they have to do something in order to bump up their profits even more after going public. Thoughts?

Facebook ads vs. Google ads

I've tried both facebook ads and google ads. Both will get you clicks, but the objective is to get the most out if your clicks.

The main difference is that when people are clicking the ad on Facebook, they are just generally browsing the Internet with no intent to buy anything. On the plus side, this can get people to your business Facebook page where it's easy for them to click "like" and you can send them updates. There's a chance that by sending them updates on Facebook, they are likely to see your product several times before they decide to buy, which is good, but you can get similar results also from google.

On google ads, people are more likely to be searching for something with the intent to buy in the first place. Personally, I've never bought anything from an ad I clicked on Facebook. But many times I have searched through Google for something I've wanted to buy. This is a better chance for impulsive buys but also you want to grab their contact information for future messages. It may take someone seeing a product up to 8 times before they decide to buy. So repetition is always a good thing. Have a place on your website page where someone can enter their email address for more information and also click "like" on your Facebook page. The more contact options you have, the better.

The other argument on google's side is that even when someone likes your page on facebook, it may not even reach your entire fan base. If you have someone's email address, you are more likely to be able to reach the person through email and also the email addresses you collected from google are more likely to be people who are actually interested in your product then someone on facebook who just clicked "like" because they took the time to enter in their full email address.

In conclusion, I've had much better luck with ads on google because the people who clicked my ad found me because they were interested in what I was selling in the first place and wanted to connect. When using Facebook, I prefer getting likes by other means on social media rather than by ads on facebook, if anything. I've just found that I get less return on my advertising investment if the audience isn't interested in the first place and though you can target market based on people's interests, it doesn't mean that they are interested in buying.

Now, when it comes to Facebook vs. Google Plus, I don't see Google Plus winning. I don't even remember the last time I checked my account on there.

11 Things Not to do When Trying to Raise Capital From Family or Friends

Under30CEO.com asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs what’s one thing NOT do when trying to raise capital from family or friends for your start up?

Don’t Rely on Memory Alone
Don’t Assume They Know Everything
Don’t Think It’ll Be Easy
Don’t Make Grandiose Claims
Don’t Oversell
Don’t Take Money They Can’t Afford to Give
Don’t Beat Around The Bush
Don’t Think They Can Automatically Comprehend
Don’t Accept Investments Essential to Their Retirement
Don’t Give Passive Investors Control
Don’t Wait Any Longer!

See the full article online at: http://under30ceo.com/11-things-not-to-do-when-trying-to-raise-capital-from-family-or-friends/

Survival in the computer generation

With every new computer related or online marketing skill I learn, I wonder... how does anyone survival with minimal computer knowledge? There is a whole generation of kids growing up using ipads at age 2. How can anyone expect to not become obsolete without advanced computer knowledge anymore? It seems like the order generation that did not learn to use a computer until later in life is either learning from their younger employees or having them do the computer skill jobs while they manage people the old fashioned way. If you're at the bottom of the latter with minimal computer knowledge, I'd watch my back if I were you. Unless you are able to manage someone with more skills than you, you are likely to fall behind fast.

It's true that you can't learn it all. That's why you generally have to eventually hire someone to help you do something that you don't have the time to learn yourself. But the truth is that you should always be looking to stay ahead of the rest and keep up on the latest and greatest technology just to keep up. 

I'm surprised where my career has lead me. I'm doing things now that no one had any clue about even teaching back when I was in college 8 years ago. A lot of what I learned in college is obsolete to a certain degree. I can't imagine where I'd be now if I haven't kept learning on my own. It's really never ending. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying college wasn't useful because it was a huge step into developing this learning process. Some of what I learned was from being around other people who taught me things I would have never learned if I hadn't been put in that situation among many other people who had a passion for learning. I do miss that about college actually. But alas, I spent my time there, moved on and now I've learned how to learn on my own through reaching online, reading marketing books, and real work experience. 

Types of clients

The main difference I've seen working with clients who have a higher budget vs. clients who have a tight budget is obviously the concern about money. Everyone is concerned about not spending too much whether they're making lots of money or if they're just starting out and have a very limited budget. The difference is that the more experienced clients with a higher budgets main concern is getting what they want, when they want and getting it perfect. You still have to make sure that they are aware of the price increase if there is one for more time and effort being out into their work, but they are more likely to pay the extra to get it perfect.

On the other hand, when you work with someone who has a limited budget or maybe their business isn't yet making a profit, so they are paying you straight out of their pockets. They are more likely to make sure they are getting the most out of their money without going over their budget. They may even decide to settle for what they can get for the price instead of making it perfectly the way they wanted. Which is something I think most businesses have to do in the beginning in order to get going.

In my experience, I prefer to work with the ones who want their work done to perfection vs. have a definite budget. Even though the perfectionists can be frustrating, they are less likely to short you in the end.

Every client should be treated equally no matter their budget but you must be aware of their budget in the beginning and make sure that you have an agreement upon what amount will be spent and a plan for it there is a chance they will need more work than you originally quoted them in the price.

SEO email overload

I've been getting a lot of emails from companies that find my website on google and want to do my website's SEO (search engine optimization). The thing that really bugs me is that, first of all, they most likely clicked my ad and I had to pay for that click. Second, they aren't really looking to see how and where my site ranks, they just send the same email to everyone. One company even claimed that I only have 2 back links to my site when I know for a fact I have a lot more than that. Third, obviously you found my site, so probably many other customers found my site also.  You can check where your website ranks nationally and internationally, and how many back links you have at www.Alexa.com.

Having someone do your sites search engine optimization is somewhat time consuming and therefore can be expensive. I've built up some back links on my own but it does take time and obviously the knowledge to do this for a website. There are so many companies out there doing it, that it's hard to tell who you should go with and what's the best deal out there. None of these companies ever list their quotes on a website. Most don't even have a website for you to see anything else they've done.

The main question you have to ask yourself about getting SEO back links made vs. just advertising on google can be answered by seeing how much your google ads traffic is really costing you. Keywords can cost anywhere from 5 cents per click to $8 per click. Obviously if the keywords you want to use for your site are $8, it might be a good idea to look into having someone do your SEO. But if they're lower like 5-30 cents, it may not even be worth it. SEO companies usually charge anywhere from $100 (if your lucky- more like $200 minimum) to $500 per month for SEO backlinks.

I'd say that the ideal person to have is a friend that will give you an honest opinion about who to hire, where to put your marketing money, and how to filter out all of these sales emails that claim they will help you... and won't charge you an arm and a leg to do so. Unfortunately we don't have this luxury, I do this for one friend/ design client. Maybe a good title would be "Bullshit filterer" Too bad my email spam filter doesn't completely filter out all of this but it does do a decent job for the most part. haha

I want to come up with a smart ass reply to all of these companies that email me about SEO. Any suggestions? :p

Your neighbors may be ignoring you

There's a salon on the corner of my street that I drive or walk by at least once a day or more but I've never been in there. I started thinking, "well why not? I need my hair done sometimes" one reason for this is that I'm pretty cheap when it comes to getting my hair done because I've had several not so great salon experiences with both cheap and expensive salons, but I tend to be more unhappy if I paid more and the salon visit resulted in a not great hair do.

The other reason is that even though it's so close, which is an obvious plus, I have no idea what their rates are, what they specialize in, or any other reason to go in other than that it's just there. On the other hand, the new free delivery restaurant 2 blocks away dropped off a menu that has been sitting in my living room. I've bought food from them at least 3 times already since I first got their menu in my hand. Hmm.. See where I'm going with this?

Though sometimes those flyers on your car or door or mailbox get annoying, it's more likely that you'll buy from a business after you see a flyer on your door vs. not having any other info about it.

I also feel like they lack some significant signage. Sure, hey it's a salon, they obviously do hair work, I haven't seen what their web address is, their rates, any specials, first time customer specials, a URL to their Facebook fan page, etc. so I walk by, then out of sight again, out of mind again. I'm more likely to drive a few miles away to a salon that I got a living social deal for or go to the last place I got my hair done then walk literally across the street to this salon.

So basically, signage and advertising do make a difference. You may losing potential business because your store lacks the distribution of info to your neighbors! Flyers and signs aren't that expensive and it's worth it to get your neighbors interested because once they go one time, they will see the convenience of your location in proximity to them and they'll for sure be back for more!

Project fan boost starts today!

My $49 Jewelry Giveaway starts today...

Click here to enter and to see what it's all about: http://www.facebook.com/MyAccessoryBusiness?v=app_204684816209053

Email me if your interested in adding your business to this giveaway for $5- it's not too late to be added, contest runs 2 more weeks! (see http://www.facebook.com/events/410302165654890/ for more info) or email questions or your payment to: liquidreddesign (AT) gmail.com

I was actually a little surprised that many people that I thought might be interested in listing their business, hadn't answered. I really hope that it's not the mere $5 I asked them to pay to be listed on the contest. After all, I'm the one paying for the prize and running the giveaway. Or if it's lack of confidence in the fact that I can get them fans.

On the other hand I can see that some may not have wanted to be listed in the contest because the fans involved would be from a national level, not a local level. So, if your product is only local, I could see how you would not necessarily want fans from outside of your area.

And then there is the fact that not everyone even checks their facebook to see my posts or event page. Honestly, for me, the events pages are starting to get so filled with events I'm not interested in attending, I seem to miss the important ones sometimes. But I don't want to delete all of the people sending those events because every once in a while I am looking for something new to check out.

Anyway, back to the reason you should add your business page to the contest. For fans. I will update you days from now on just how many fans the fan pages who actually entered have gotten and you will wish you hadn't missed the start of the contest and will beg me to do another contest, but honestly, I may or may not do another one, we'll see. This one was aimed at getting my friends more fans on their facebook pages, but since I have too many friends with fan pages that want fans, I asked for $5... if this breaks the bank for your online marketing budget, you don't even want me to continue down that rant...

Everyone thinks that they're your only client

No matter how much or how few work you do for a single client while having multiple clients, they all expect that you can just drop everything and do their work immediately or answer their phone call or email immediately. The truth is that when your independent and rely on multiple clients for income that's just impossible to be available to everyone at once 24/7, even if you have an office that you work out of the majority of the day every day, sometimes you just get tied up on the phone or over Skype with someone.

There's a very thin line between keeping the customer happy and the customer just asking for too much. Some people just plain ask for too much attention. You have to find a balance between getting back to your clients in a timely matter, being sure not to ignore them, but also making sure you are not ignoring another client in the meantime. Generally you figure out how to deal with each client individually, and juggle your time by being honest with them and explaining that you are unavailable because you are busy with another client, but will get back to them as soon as possible. You also can't let it drive you crazy and in the long run, you have to figure that you just can't always work perfectly with everyone.

You are NOT a Graphic Designer just because you learned photoshop!

Whew.. it's like a never ending conversation about learning photoshop vs. being a graphic designer. I like to compare notes on this with photographers who dislike how everyone who picks up a camera thinks they're a photographer. The truth is that though the use of photoshop and digital cameras have hurt real graphic designers and photographers rates to a certain extent, the reality is that there is no real competition if your a good seasoned graphic designer or photographer.

Here are couple reasons I came up with:

1. I don't know how many people have come to me saying "my friend said they'd do this flyer, business card, poster, logo, etc.... free (or extremely cheap) but never called me back." Time is money and your friend wanted you to know how cool they are for knowing how to use photoshop, but really have no interest in doing it for free for you. Besides, unless you don't mind the use of 5 fonts in 6 colors on a pixelated background with lens flare that is turned down by a printer who asks why your design doesn't include the bleed, you might want to try using someone who actually IS a graphic designer next time. (P.S. Freelancers do design for as cheap as your gonna find, "insert www.liquidreddesign.com plug" and also craigslist is there for you too!)

2. I've been to at LEAST 3 interviews for design jobs where they first showed me an average flyer design and asked "can you do this?" I of course said "yes" Followed by "oh because several people we interviewed said no right away." LOL! Don't embarrass yourself! My 8+ year design portfolio will destroy the flyers you did for your friends house party kegger. I admit, everyone has to start somewhere and it was really difficult finding jobs that wanted entry level designers in the beginning. But if you have never taken a design class, I suggest at least taking one or several because they don't just teach you photoshop believe it or not. They teach you what not to do, and the "secrets" to using fonts correctly and not making your design into a horrible piece of garbage.

3. You can't do everything! There, I said it. Though it's also hard for me to admit sometimes. You just have to suck it up and realize that even though you are really good at your current profession whatever it may be, you may want to leave print design, web design, and photography up to the experts so your business doesn't look cheap because you had your assistant design your flyer in word. I always look at the menu design when I go into a restaurant and decide on the quality of the food based on how well designed their menu is. If the menu looks cheap, I know not to go in if they want $19.99 for a turkey sandwich. This goes for every type of business. Everyone can tell that you "designed" your business cards on Vista Print and got them for free.

4. I admit, I've been stuck in a situation where the business I was designing for didn't have good photos or any photos and wanted me to shoot the product photos and/or photoshop the photos to look decent. Not only should (I) you be supporting the use of a professional photographer, but it really does look that much better when professional design is accompanied by professional photography. And vice versa to you pro photographers!

I help you get more Facebook fans NOW!

Hey fellow business owners, I'm doing a giveaway contest on Facebook that you can be a part of!

I'm giving away a $49 "My Accessory Business" Jewelry Sales Kit from www.MyAccessoryBusiness.com. The "My Accessory Business" fan page has 3000 fans and I want to help you get tons and tons of fans too! Plus my personal page has over 1200 other friends and 2 other business pages with 300 different fans. I'm looking for other businesses to join my giveaway that will be broadcast to over 4500 TOTAL Facebook users. Here's how it works:

- 4500 Fans from my 3K fan page, friends page, and 2 other business pages want to enter my contest to win a $49 sales kit
- They go to the contest page and they get one entry for each business page that they "LIKE"
- Most people will like every page in the contest to get a better chance of winning the prize
- I entered my business page in a similar contest and got tons of new "LIKES"
- Getting new fans increases your chance for getting your message out to more people to promote your business
- Even if the fans you get don't have interest in your business or are not located in the area your business is located, the more fans you get, the more popular and therefore trustworthy your business will look online.

Here's how you can be a part of my giveaway:

OPTION #1: Your business page listed on my giveaway as an option to "like" your page for 1+ entry in the contest- costs only $5

OPTION #2: Your business page listed on my giveaway as a mandatory option to "like" your page for 1+ entry in the contest & they MUST click "Like" on your page in order to enter the contest- costs only $10

OPTION #3: If you have more than one business page you want to enter, you can have BOTH listed on the giveaway- costs only $8

For your business to be part of the giveaway:
- Send correct payment through www.paypal.com to liquidreddesign@gmail.com
- Mention which option you are choosing
- In the message box, write in the Facebook URL for your Facebook business page

Be sure to enter your business now and try it out, the cost of entering your business in this type of giveaway may increase at a later date.

The contest starts on May 1st, 2012 and goes until May 15th, 2012 (2 weeks!). You may send your payment for this at any time from now until the end of the contest but the earlier your business is entered, the more fans you will get, so enter your business page now!

If you have any questions, you can email "myaccessorybusiness AT gmail.com" or message me on Facebook.

-Megan

Getting seen by your fans on Facebook

It seems that not only do you have to get fans to "like" you business facebook page, you need to get them to engage in the conversation on your page. Why? Well, if you haven't noticed, you don't see every single post on every single page you liked or from every single friend all the time. Facebook uses an algorithm to determine what you see on your news feed and what slips through. So how do you get your posts to show up on your fans news feed?

Here are a couple tips that can help your posts show up:

- By commenting on their page your news feed posts are more likely to show on their page later. So connect with your friends and fans often by replying to them, even when it's not directed towards you.

- Post as yourself on your fan page. You have the option to post as your business, or your real name on your business page and posting as your real name will help show your post to not only your business page fans, but your personal page fans as well.

- Private messaging on your business page is great! I was so happy to see that this was finally available because it seemed too hard to figure out who to contact on a business page before. Now, potential customers can easily get in contact with me and I can easily get in contact with other business page owners. This will also help your posts to show up in their news feed.

- You can tag other businesses and fans that have commented in your thread. This can help with cross-promotion of your business on other business pages.

- Sharing content works to get seen on that person's news feed. It also give you more content to post on your page. Also, when you do post something that is "share-worthy" you can ask people to "re-post" or "share" and if it's interesting enough, they will.

Ever feel like online ads are following you?

Well, maybe they are?! Yes, but it's not magic. It's called "retargeting."

What is retargeting?

Generally 2% of shoppers convert on the first visit to an online store. Retargeting brings back the other 98%. Retargeting works by keeping track of people who visit your site and displaying your retargeting ads to them as they visit other sites online.

How does retargeting work?

Technically all that is necessary is to place a JavaScript tag in the footer of your website. This code creates a list of people that visit your site by placing anonymous retargeting "cookies" in their browser. This list allows the retargeting vendor to display retargeting ads to your potential customers as they visit other sites. 

Basically, someone goes to your website, check it out and then leaves. Will they ever come back? Who knows? Well, with retargeting, your ad will pop up on display ads around the internet. I just saw one of my "My Accessory Business" website ads on another site I was looking at randomly. The customer may or may not even remember going to your site but now they have a new opportunity to visit your site again, and maybe this time they might have thought more about making a purchase on your site since they visited it last, so they are more likely to go back and make a purchase. 


The website I have been using to do my retargeting is called AdRoll http://www.adroll.com They have a free trial and lets just say that unless your site is getting massive traffic already, you won't be paying a fortune to use it after the trial is over. The CPC seems to be close to the price of google ads. 


If you need ads designed to fit in the ad roll art requirements, I'd be happy to help design those for you. Email me at: liquidreddesign AT gmail.com and visit my website at www.LiquidRedDesign.com

Facebook "Interest Links"

As you may or may not know, now you can make "Interest Links" on your facebook page. It's basically a newsfeed of specific business pages and friend pages that you can set up on your own or follow a set of businesses in a certain category that other people are following. See more info on this Facebook Newsroom post: http://newsroom.fb.com/Announcements/Introducing-Interest-Lists-109.aspx

I've been brainstorming on ways to use this to my advantage to promote my business pages. I made a list up for "My Accessory Business" in the category "Jewelry Business"that included other similar top businesses in the same field and I posted links on their business pages letting them know, hoping to get a couple of followers. So far, no one has seemed to catch on and join my selected newsfeed after a week. Maybe people don't even know that they're there? Or maybe "Jewelry Business" is not a popular category. Either way. I wouldn't have known about these interest links if I hadn't come across the facebook newsroom blog post about it, so why would anyone else know about it? It's always good to jump on something early anyway and see if it takes off. So far, not so good... but over time, I guess I'll find out. 

Step... repeat... step... repeat

I've had my picture taken in front of many step and repeat boards with logos galore in Hollywood, but for the first time, I had my picture taken in front of MY logo on a step and repeat board in Hollywood at Smooth Sound Multimedia's Grand Opening Party.

Step and repeat board logos only really work to brand your logo and business name. It's unlikely that you will get a lot of direct business. Well, unless you are going around saying "hey my logo is on the step and repeat!" Which I did... a little, but mostly just handing out my business card does the trick when talking business. I always get asked "What do you do for work?" and of course I say "I'm a graphic designer" and hand them my business card. It really only works well when said person is actually looking to get some design work.

That's me on the left. And I also designed the "Hollywood Entertainment Services" logo and helped re-make the "Smooth Sound Multimedia" logo.

My near 3k fans will eat your 300 fans

Not that I'm complaining. Well maybe I am. But when approaching a company to donate something to your online auction, giveaway or any other promotional type things you are doing... be sure that you either:

A. Have a good cause that your working to promote or raise money for.

B. Have close to or more friends/ fans than I do on your business page. 

I suppose it never hurts to ask. But, if you do ask, don't use your 300 fans as the only incentive for me to donate something that includes a product, postage, maybe a picture, and my time. 

The whole cross promotion thing on facebook fans pages with giveaways and product reviews and photo page auctions is very interesting. It's like a world in itself. Some business fan pages do these types of things often. 

Giveaways have helped out my "My Accessory Business" page a lot. I like using this one called "Sweepstakes" by Hooplasoft.com There are other ones out there but some charge a lot and this one is free. I found another giveaway program and I was impressed by what they had said about how their giveaways had gotten businesses a lot of fans so I went and started to design a giveaway on their page. They wanted to change for every day it was posted, and a flat fee of $25 just to do the giveaway. I emailed them asking if they somehow were able to get my giveaway in front a large network of people that they had online, and they wrote me back saying "no, you have to market to your own friends and fans online" Uh... so I have to pay to do the giveaway, give something away out of my pocket, pay for shipping, do all my own marketing online for the giveaway to the fans I already have, then every one of my fans see what software I'm using to do the the giveaway so their giveaway software gets promoted for free. Yeah, you lost me. Then they sent me an email to give their software a review, needless to say, I was very blunt about explaining how and why they lost me, but hey, I'm just nice enough to do that favor for them by filling out their survey. 

Keep them coming back for more

In any sort of business, you want returning clients. If you're selling to a lot of people that you don't come in contact with personally, you are more likely to keep them updated on new products, specials, coupons, and news through email marketing and social media. It gets expensive to send paper mail out to people, especially when they are likely to buy online, it's better to throw a deal at them while they're already on the computer where they can easily just click over to your site and put in their credit card.

When you run a  business that is more personal, you need to be a little more personal with your clients. Sending an email that addresses them and their business personally is a good start to see how they are doing. But a step beyond that is by mailing out a "Thank you" card to clients. I like to include a personalized hand written message in a cute card, my business card and something they are less likely to throw away like a business card magnet that they can stick on their metal filing cabinet or fridge to remember me by and think of me when they see it. Sending the card helps to stir up business with a client that you haven't heard from in a while, it puts a smile on their face, and also the magnet helps for them to remember you in the future.

Welcome to my new blog, "Nerdy Vixen" I like the idea of being a walking contradiction. A lot of people look at me and assume that I'm a model or actress, especially living in Los Angeles. Though I have done a decent amount of modeling, I have a whole other side to me. Usually you either know the daytime computer geek who sits in front of a computer for hours on end, working with a client, over the phone or while watching some TV show or movie while working away at a desk in my home office OR you meet the nighttime party girl, tall, knee high stiletto furry boots, long blond hair down, low cut top, dark eye shadow, short skirt, wine glass in hand, latex dress wearing vixen. The truth is that I'm 100% both sides along with my athletic side which mostly comes out while in the pool, running up a very large hill or pumping iron in the weight room.

I think the really interesting thing about being this contradiction is how few graphic designers out there fit my profile. First of all, I never realized how few women there working at independent graphic designers. Also, I dislike how the stereotype of graphic designers seems to be that most dress like hipsters. I wouldn't be caught dead looking like a hipster. If I need a stereotype, I'll call myself a goth or rocker. Even though I don't dress goth 24/7 and have bleach blond hair, I wear a lot of black and have more of a rock n' roll background than most actual musicians I know.

But this blog is dedicated to my nerdy side because I feel like I need more of an outlet to talk about my thoughts on marketing, graphic design and social media and hopefully eventually get some feedback from my peers and online readers.

A little more about my business side: I've been a graphic designer for over 8 years now and I have a bachelors degree from Eastern Michigan University in graphic design and marketing. So, no I'm not an 18 year old writing this blog. My graphic design business is called "Liquid Red" www.LiquidRedDesign.com I also have an online jewelry sales kit business called "My Accessory Business" www.MyAccessoryBusiness.com - I have worked with a variety of clients on creating their business image through my design work and have helped many market their businesses online through a variety of marketing techniques. I've also taught graphic design private lessons and helped people to launch their social media, email and online target marketing campaigns.

There you have it. Hello world, welcome to "Nerdy Vixen"