When was the last time someone asked you what you want? What you’d prefer to have, over what their perception thinks you’d like to have? Are you looked after by the services you use on a regular basis? If not, why not – isn’t it about time you were? I’m a business owner, but I’m also a consumer and a customer. So why am I told what I need instead of being asked what I need, as a customer? When…

Welcome to a new episode of Sunday Brunch, where we talk about your questions on social media, marketing, business tips, entrepreneurship and more. Today’s question is from Claire of Selection Criteria, an Australian-based recruitment firm for government (and my apologies for getting it the wrong way round in the video!). Claire asks: “What would your advice be for small business with limited time and budget in terms of setting up a social media strategy? There are lots of avenues to pursue,…

This is a guest post from Ingrid Abboud. You’re at a dinner and someone compliments the outfit that took you 20 minutes to pick out. What do you say? You’ve written an article which took you 15 minutes to research and another 30 minutes to write. Your friend likes it and shares it with some of his friends. What do you say? Besides the Ghost Busters tune that’s now ringing in your head, err…at least in mine, do you get…

So you’re thinking about jumping into social media. You’ve read a whole slew of blog posts, news stories as well as examples of how social media has helped businesses like yours cut costs and market more effectively. So now it’s your turn. But have you really thought it through? Have you laid out the groundwork, reasons, measurement and more before you make the leap? Or are you just jumping in, because everyone’s telling you that social media isn’t for toe-dippers?…

You wake up. You wash or shower. You shave (or not). You brush your teeth. You comb or brush your hair. You get dressed. Have breakfast, drink coffee. You go to work. Safe. Routine. You know what you need to do so well that it becomes automatic. You don’t even need to think about it. Routine is good. Routine makes your day easier. But your routine is also killing you. Think about your business. Your customers. Your clients. Your contacts….

Welcome to a new episode of Sunday Brunch, where we talk about your questions on social media, marketing, business tips, entrepreneurship and more. It’s a little later today due to technical issues with my web host, so my apologies for that. Today’s question is from Kevin Murray, who runs a family driven online marketing company over at WorkWithTheMurrays.com. Kevin asks: “Other than running a sweepstakes or contest, what real campaign or Social Media Strategy can be run to promote not…

So you want to be a social media rockstar? You want to get your Klout score to that magical 100, and get free trips to Disneyland and have everything you say shared across Twitter and Facebook even when it’s nothing interesting? Worry no more – help is at hand. Below you’ll find all you need to know to become a bona-fide social media rock star, with insights from some folks over at my Facebook page who were kind enough to…

When something goes wrong, how it’s resolved says a lot about the person or business. It can mean the difference between being perceived as not caring about your customers or users, or showing that you recognize your userbase is a key part of your success. Evan Carmichael and team fall squarely in the latter category. I recently became an author over at EvanCarmichael.com. It’s a well-respected resource centre for small businesses and entrepreneurs, and offers a ton of great advice…

This is a guest post from Joe Hackman. I received an email this week from Yelp reminding me that they do not understand my business. The first thing in bold red header images I read was: What Yelp continues to fail to understand is that many small businesses and self-employed professionals don’t have a massive amount of customers. To put it bluntly, if we did not ask our customers to review us, there probably wouldn’t be any reviews, and we…

One of the biggest questions most businesses have about social media is what you should do when someone posts something negative about you. This could be a tweet, a Facebook status update, a mention in a LinkedIn group, a blog post, a video response to one of your YouTube videos – basically, anywhere where there’s a chance to post something, there’s the possibility of a negative mention. So the question is – when do you respond, and when do you…