As part of my own personal education in the world of internet marketing, I read and watch a lot of material, and much of it is good, much is not so good, and once in a while I run across something that is just plain useful. This following ten-minute video by Perry Belcher is great because it puts the concepts of social media marketing very plainly and clearly. In specific - you cannot look at social media marketing as a way to make direct sales, because you will turn people off and have no effect. Instead, you have to look at social media marketing as making friends and gaining network - it's just like real life, only online.
Give the video a view, and please tell me what you think in the comments of the blog. I think it's pretty clear, but I'd love to see what everyone else thinks.
Thought I should share with you a video someone took of my presentation to the Marin Business Now Seminar. The topic was "How to Grow Your Business: Online Social Networking." The talk was delivered to a mixed audience of business professionals. It includes ideas on where and how to network, and ideas for time-saving tools to help with online networking.
Currently I'm blogging in from a vacation rental in Stinson Beach at the end of the first day of 2009, and so far, things are looking great. We have a number of very interesting clients we're working with, a number of very interesting leads, and two new excellent employees. We have our challenges, and will have to work our tails off, but I truly believe this is going to be a great year. We have a new administration coming into office that achieved the improbable but absolutely necessary in their election, we've had a serious shake-down in our economy, but I believe that will leave us poised for even greater gains and innovation in the coming year. I believe that in our own business cycle, Julia and I have learned a great deal and are now ready and equipped to make use of our augmented knowledge and experience.
It's 3:42 AM, Christmas morning, and even though it is the case that I am Jewish and do not celebrate this particular holiday in a religious sense, I come from a family that does, and therefore this time has it's own nostalgic sacredness to me. It's been storming all night long, and I've been in the living room in my pajamas catching up on tasks for work.
When you own your own business, it's hard to let go and give yourself the vacation that you give your employees, or even expected and took for granted when you yourself were an employee, but the truth is, in the quiet time created by a lack of external pressures and client attention, the entrepreneurial mind wakes up and starts to tackle the creative tasks and administrative menialities both that one never seems to have the time to handle in the day to day. The truth is, these days those that run a small business are running with a tight belt and are overworked, and it's only in the quiet moments that the pressure seems to decrease enough to let the mind wake up and remind us why we went into business in the first place.
For me, what is percolating in the noggin, other than the bills I have to pay and the payroll I have to make sure gets out, and the fact that I'm taking a short (sorta) vacation next week at the beach with family, is how I should make sure to get a post in for Christmas, because there are lots of queries on Christmas, and it's a good time to try to pick up some relevance in traffic. Sound mercenary? Well, perhaps it is, but the truth is, if people are reading my post, then I guess I'm relevant to them, and however I get in front of their eyeballs is just fine with me.
One of our big goals here at Archer Web Solutions is to be ecologically sustainable. For us, going green is a growing process. We're recycling, bringing our own grocery bags to the store, shopping locally, supporting local environmental organizations and being mindful of our consumption. However, there's always more that can be done.
One thing that crushes me during the holiday season is the use of wrapping paper. I love the opening of presents, the excitement of gifts, but then I get depressed at the sight of the huge pile of wrapping paper and packaging that cannot be recycled. Then I imagine the same pile of crap multiplied by the millions of families around the Western world.
So this year I decided to do something about it. I started wrapping presents in fabric.
I wanted to take a moment and report on an experience I had this week with a client that seriously kicked me in the behind and made me think long and hard about making sure that one's own house is in order, especially if one is a house-builder for others.
I'm sure everyone's heard the expression 'the cobbler's children have no shoes', and it describes the phenomenon that so often happens with service-oriented professions, where what you provide (and often with excellent quality) to others, you somehow fail to complete or fulfill for your own personal needs. Plumbers have leaky sinks, mechanics' cars don't run, house painters' houses are in need of a new coat, etc. On one level, this is totally understandable, because if you're in the business of doing service 'a', it's always more motivating to be doing that service for pay then doing it for free. Also, in most professions, you can get away with it.
This is Angela and I'm the project coordinator at Archer Web Solutions. Project Coordinator is only my latest title. In my tenure at AWS I've been Joomla Queen, Child Wrangler, Quickbooks Scouter, Task Cheerleader, Marketing Guru, Business Evangelist, Customer Service Handler, Meeting Scheduler, you name it. Unfortunately, these things don't all fit cleanly on one business card so we had to go with a broader title that encompasses my many responsibilities.
Today I'm wearing two hats: Blog Writer and Adwords Junkie!
Greetings and welcome, my fellow target shooters! It's been a while since we've paid attention to our own internal blog, and believe me, it is not for a lack of things to talk about. We've been jumping with new clients and new challenges, and I'd like to take a moment to reflect on what I am thankful about in our business and in our particular place and time.
Even on the heels of news on the worsening recession, threatening to become a depression, we are finding that people are still needing our services more than ever, and I think that this has a lot to do with our particular messaging, and that we are focusing our market on small-to-mid-size businesses that have a small budget, but understand the need for an effective web presence and an intelligently planned web marketing strategy. I am thankful to be positioned well, and to be able to help others find the right way to take advantage of a market that appears to be shrinking.
The truth is, that every market has its opportunties and its challenges, and the trick is to keep your eyes out for the advantages, and avoid the pack mentality that leads you along with the herd, instead of striking out and taking chances where others may fear to tread. This is especially true in down economies, as many are pulling themselves and their businesses out of markets in which they may feel over-extended, but truthfully, they may be leaving behind revenue that others (such as yourself) can locate and take advantage of. The real secret is to pick a genre and to specialize, and then, go one genre more specific. If you know quite a bit about birds, you might want to write an ebook on a specific subtype of bird (the hummingbird, for example), and in doing so, capture a small market by dominating it. Do this enough times, and you can create quite a nice revenue stream. Many make the mistake of thinking that by trying to appeal to a larger market, you will get more business, when this is exactly the opposite, especially in a down market. Tight competition in a popular space becomes even tighter, and a buyer's market drives down costs and favors the volume producers (large companies that can through scale, affort to make less per transaction, but make it up in numbers). Through super-specialization, you can dominate a smaller market, but grab a larger portion of the business in that market.
I've been looking for some good "intro to Joomla" tutorials to adapt for end-user client use. Most of the tutorials that are out there are aimed at developers (like us), and are a bit more complicated than your average "how do I change a date or add a picture" user needs. That being said, however, I think these guys at Joomlatutorials.com do a pretty good job with the intro info. They even have nifty animated tutorials! Anybody have any other suggestions? Drop them in the comments.
And we'll keep you all posted as to when we've got those end-user handouts finished. Drop us a line if you want to get on the list to receive them when they're done. (Obviously the more people want 'em, the more likely we'll be to get 'em done sooner rather than later!)
Welcome to the Archer Web Solutions blog, where we will provide you with regular updates, tips, tricks and information to help you hit your own individual targets regarding web technology, internet marketing, or any other interesting information we think you should be aware of.
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"Archer Web Solutions' customer service is beyond belief. Not only did they create a polished and professional web site for me, they helped me articulate and communicate my message far more effectively and succinctly than I could have without them."
--click here to read more testimonials from our clients!
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Hello everyone,
It's 3:42 AM, Christmas morning, and even though it is the case that I am Jewish and do not celebrate this particular holiday in a religious sense, I come from a family that does, and therefore this time has it's own nostalgic sacredness to me. It's been storming all night long, and I've been in the living room in my pajamas catching up on tasks for work. 
Hello, Joshua here.
I've been looking for some good "intro to Joomla" tutorials to adapt for end-user client use. Most of the tutorials that are out there are aimed at developers (like us), and are a bit more complicated than your average "how do I change a date or add a picture" user needs. That being said, however, I think 
Welcome to the Archer Web Solutions blog, where we will provide you with regular updates, tips, tricks and information to help you hit your own individual targets regarding web technology, internet marketing, or any other interesting information we think you should be aware of. 
