Heather Villa » Blog

“What Should I Do?” – Teaching

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:57:19 +0000

Periodically I’ve been posting about social media marketing based on an excellent MindMeister mindmap on the topic. I take a “branch” and talk about their recommendations and provide ideas that might help.

So far I’ve been going in order, clockwise around the mindmap but I’m going to skip a couple of the branches because I want to deal with them later and I’m going to talk about teaching.

Three teaching resources are given – screencast tools Jing and Screentoaster and the webinar tool GoToMeeting. I’ve used Jing and GoToMeeting but I think there are other tools that are missing from here. Camtasia, for example, is one of my favorite screencast tools. I know there are others out there.

In this blog post I’m less interested in talking about the tools themselves than about what you can do with them. There are so many opportunities!

Use screencasts to train your staff. This is useful both for onsite and for distributed/virtual staff. Show them what you are talking about when you need them to do something that they haven’t done before. They can watch the screencast on their own and review it again and again if there’s something they’ve missed.

Use webinars to meet with your staff quarterly for an update on the business and to train them collectively in something. Where you might normally run a face-to-face meeting and use a Powerpoint, run a virtual meeting and use a webinar.

Test a webinar system for client meetings and see if they are more fully engaged or get more out of your calls as a result.

Do a whole bunch of screencasts as a digital download product that you can sell. This might not work for everyone but if you’re a coach or consultant (especially with a very technical or interface-specific service) then screencasts can help and they’ll make a good product.

Use a screencast as a way to market your business: Create a screencast that starts with a picture (while you introduce yourself in the voiceover), show them your blog, show them how to sign up for your email, click to some client logos, talk about the programs or systems you use.

If you’re looking for a new revenue-generating opportunity for your coaching business, consider a group roundtable conducted periodically through webinar. These might be 4 business owners and you talking about their situations. It’s like a conference call but a little more focused and some people don’t mind signing up for coaching with other businesses they don’t know because there is a networking element as well.

Create a series of screencasts (or pre-recorded webinars if possible) and ask clients to view them prior to a coaching call. That way, you can get even deeper into your consultant sooner because some of the preliminary material was already covered.

The teaching element in your business is wide-open and there are so many exciting (and even profit-producing) opportunities for you to pursue. It’s worth taking some time to brainstorm and explore what teaching technology can help you.

Happy Blogging!

Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 6/11/10

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:45:28 +0000

Through The Eyes of an 8 Year Old – Johnathan is such a great guy – he always talks about his walks with his daughter and the fun they have together. I loved this post – he handed over his fancy camera to his daughter and let her capture all things she loved. He posted those pictures in this blog. That girl has some talent!

Competing On The Web & In Business – Lisa Barone describes growing up being the one that was picked on. 100lbs soaking wet, accident prone, and the bollocks to (after some serious schooling) stand up for herself and fight back – over and over until she made her mark and others would leave her alone. It is just like surviving on the web. She describes techniques and tactics in this blog in the form of 5 key items to keep in mind!

Your Stop The Bus Moment - Allison uses the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun” as a metaphor. She describes how you can chose to stay on the bus or make that bus stop at an unfamiliar location in which you decide to start from scratch and follow your gut!

What is a Website Audit? – Have you ever thought about a website audit? How does your website rank in ease of use, readability, flow, etc. Here is a list of 20 things to check to make sure your site is the best it can be. Once I read through it I thought these questions could actually be pretty good if put to use in some sort of a survey to online customers. What do you think?

How To Be Happy – Poster – A while back Marelisa created a document in poster format that listed words that described how to be happy. She re-posted it and let us know that you can now purchase this as an actual poster! Congrats Marelisa!

How Young is Too Young? – Have you ever read a blog post and were amazed by how much thought and time was spent at putting it together? Would you still feel the same way if you found out that the blogger was 16? What about 12? Do they know more about social media than you? Who cares! I was shocked when I saw this blog from Tamar and then read the bios of each of the bloggers she spoke to. Every single one of these kids are under 17 and their drive, focus, and knowledge is astounding! Sow hat do you think – how young is too young to be online blogging?

Camping is For Other People – I like camping, when it has such luxuries as – oh – access to a toilet! Ha! Here is a flashback to Kathy’s experience with her Girl Scout troop and their first experience “camping”. OMG this is funny. To top off the very descriptive nature of the sleeping quarters, and the “facilities” Kathy notes that this is literally the first time her parents will come to know the true story of her illness way back in ‘77; when they had to pick her up from camp!

Check out HeatherVilla StumbleUpon to see more of my favorites.

Have a great weekend!

The 7 Things Coaches MUST Do In Their Business Today

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:42:40 +0000

I work with a lot of coaches and I see a lot of the same missed opportunities and mistakes over and over. If you are a coach, consultant, or advisor, you’ll want to implement these tips right away.

1. Set up an online scheduling system to help automate the scheduling process. Even something as simple as embedding a Google Calendar into your website will help your clients find a day and time that works for you and them.

2. Tighten up your non-billable client time. Do your one-hour sessions go an hour and a half? Maybe the client shows up or calls 5 minutes early, you speak for 10 or 15 minutes before starting the clock, you wrap up an hour later (to make sure they get their full hour of coaching) and then you chat briefly for another 10 minutes or so after your billable time (scheduling the next appointment or whatever). Tighten this up. Chat less. It’s okay to take just a moment of your billable time to schedule the next appointment.

3. Charge a cancellation fee. It doesn’t have to be as high as your normal fee but it will show that you are serious about providing your service and you take their presence and participation seriously.

4. Record your calls. Offer this as a free service to them and assure them that you’re not going to publicly post the recordings. Send them the recordings after the call but save them for yourself because there are lots of ways to reuse the material. (I’ll tell you how in an upcoming blog post). Oh, and be sure to let your clients know that you are recording the call before you record it!

5. Email each client and ask them for a referral. Everyone knows they should do this regularly but no one does it. Why not email your clients right now and say: “I just wanted to let you know that I have a space open up and I’d like to fill it… but before I make it available to anyone, I thought I’d invite you to refer someone to me. I’ll give a free coaching session to anyone whose referral books with me.”

6. Conduct a survey. Ask your clients what they would like to hear from you and what the biggest problems they face today might be. You may get some suggestions that you simply cannot implement but you should get a ton of ideas that will help you shape your business and add even more value to your clients.

7. Make a list of the problems your clients come to you with that you cannot help them with and get in touch with a professional who can. Build a good relationship with them and refer clients to them. You might not get anything out of the deal (except for being able to help your client even when you can’t actually help them) but you could end up with some reciprocating referrals.

Your business is like a machine that runs along basically on its own. But from time to time you need to tune it up, and these 7 tips will help to optimize it.

Happy Blogging!

Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 6/4/10

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:24:01 +0000

You Can Learn A Lot From Your Customers – Do you sell a product or services to your customers? Have you ever made the time to reach out to them individually by way of a phone-survey, or email survey, or heck even an old fashioned snail mailed survey? Michael Fleischner reminds us of the importance of doing so. He also provides some tips on how to (creatively) get your customers interested in taking a survey or learning about survey’s in which they can be rewarded for taking!

What the Lost Series Finale Taught Me About Personal Branding – Flash sideways is apparently a concept introduced through Lost. It is somewhat confusing but take a look at what David Trahan thinks of it. And don’t forget to look at the tips he includes!

How to Create Guest Post Guidelines for Your Blog- This is a really great and highly informative blog that discusses the hows and whys of writing a guest blog. Sometimes bloggers forget about the simpler ways of going about marketing themselves. Why not get your name out there – everywhere – and use other people’s influence and audience to your advantage.

Why BP Should Embrace the Fake BP Twitter Account – We all know about it; it’s the talk of every media outlet imaginable! This environmental disaster involving BP also made it onto twitter via a fake account @BPGlobalPR Outspoken Media came up with a compelling and well thought out list of reasons for BP to embrace the falsies out there!

Beware: Baby Lambs Cause Computer Viruses – The internet is an amazing thing and I can hardly remember life before www. This is a really great blog from one of my favorite bloggers. She wrote how she received an email from a friend of her who described how she got a virus from a website about baby lambs. Seriously – baby lambs! Take a look at this article and make sure you read the comments.

Rubber boots and sales copy – Poor Aaron. Working in his living room because his office is full of water. Poor guy! Take a look at what he had to face and then the awesome advice he gives about writing amazing sales copy at the end. Great advice from his temporary office on Hoos Island!

A Beginner’s Guide to Trail Running – Literally, this is a blog that gives you instruction, guidance, and tips an what is required to begin making a habit of Trail Running. I will admit, I am not an avid Trail Blazer but it is something that I have thought about doing. This is the most thorough articles I have found on the topic!

Check out HeatherVilla StumbleUpon to see more of my favorites.

Have a great weekend!

Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 5/14/10

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:28:43 +0000

Are You Managing Your Community Or Is It Managing You? – Does your blog have a firm grip around your ankle? Do you constantly check your crackberry for comments to your most recent post? Do you UberTwitter from the potty at work (it’s ok – we have all done it before!) Do you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night to see who’s doing what in the world of Facebook? We are disgusting! We have let social media push us around like rag dolls until we know no better; until we feel the need to constantly be connected to “see” or “read” or “tweet” almost in a state of subconscious. Lisa is not afraid to admit that she could have answered yes to any of these questions when she first hit the blog scene. She provides us with some preventative measures to keep from turning into social media zombies.

Pictures of Insanely Cool Creative Workspaces – What comes to mind when you think of what you hear about Google.com’s office? Amazing? Fun? Creative? Here is a group of photos from various well known businesses “behind the brand” in their most intimate thinking place, their office!

Freedom’s Just Another Word (Um…No It’s Not) – Allison is clearly big on “Freedom” considering how much she has grown and found herself over the past year. She takes an in-depth look at what Freedom means to her and what can potentially be a freedom blocker. This is a really great empowering read and if you look at the very end of the article she has included a link to an exercise that will help you uncover your “4 words”.

Smart Phone, Dumb Life? – How many people out there do you know that don’t have access to the internet from their home? What about those that do not text message from their cell phones or go online from that same cell phone? Not too many!! Have you ever thought about the term “Crackberry?” Think about it. Once you live with it, experience it, and love it – you will crave and become reliant on that little bundle of technology with that cute little keypad, and the beautiful little full color screen….. Uh-oh! Where did I put mine? =)

A little Chipmunk’s Story- OMG, what an adorable story about this little guy (or girl). He was found on a trail by a hiker. Here is his story of survival and recovery. File this one under too cute!!

Your VA is an essential part of your Social Networking Strategy – Social Media – time consuming, involved, time consuming, lead generating, time…. (You get the idea.) Carol Ann Quibell posses a good question. Is it possible to have your VA take care of your social media site(s) and still have your sites be running like well oiled machines? Heck yeah! For everyone out there who has a VA or IS a VA read this blog. Whether it is idea inducing or points you can bring up in interviews about your skills you will take away something from the info. Oh, not to forget, hiring a VA to take over your social media upkeep really frees up your time to work the leads uncovered and all other aspects of your business!

Great Designers Are Spawned From Mediocrity – This is great. And if you sit there for a second, I am sure everyone can think back to a moment where you took on a new task, like writing your blogs, and you hated it. You knew the final product was not what you wanted but you tried your damnedest! So you kept at it, hopefully! Then there was that one day in which you though – I am pretty damn good at this! Melody writes about just that in this article. It is inspiring!

Have a great weekend and check out more of my favorites on HeatherVilla StumbleUpon.

“What Should I Do?” – Content Sharing

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:31:55 +0000

I’ve been blogging from time to time about a MindMeister map that outlines various social marketing activities you can do to promote your business. I’ve talked about advertising and about blog commenting. Today, I’m going to talk about content sharing sites.

You can see that the map creator has divided the category of “content sharing” into sub-categories based on the type of content sharing that you can do: Text/Slideshows, Audio sites, Image sharing, Music sharing. It’s an interesting mix of opportunities and some readers might be wondering where they’ll find the time to do all of it.

Here’s what I would suggest:

First, don’t bother trying to do all of it. You won’t be able to. Or, if you are able to, you won’t have time for stuff like revenue generation. So forget trying to reach out to everyone. Instead, pick a few places where you can make a splash.

Start by figuring out where your customers like to hang out. Pick 3-5 of the places and see if your target market is spending time there. (Is there content for them? Are they linking to those sites from their sites? Are they talking about it on Twitter?

See what the competition is like there. Are your competitors already dominating the discussion? If they are, have they left any room for you to shoehorn your way in or are you going to be just another voice in the crowd?

If there is room on a site where your customers are hanging out but your competitors haven’t tapped out, then get in there!

Second, once you’ve found a couple places, decide what you are going to do there. I would recommend that you don’t post the same content everywhere. Don’t repost your Squidoo content on HubPages, for example. Make sure you’re taking the time to produce unique content at each place according to the types of things that your market is looking for in those places. For example, perhaps I find that my readers on Squidoo typically look for productivity content that has a business-building aspect to it, while my readers on HubPages might be looking for business-building content with a productivity twist. It’s a subtle distinction but the important thing is that you figure out what your readers want and give it to them (while staying true to your brand, of course).

Third, avoid taking on new channels until you have built up good habits and a reputation in these channels. As I coach clients, I’ve found that many of them can be tempted to add the latest, shiniest opportunity to their marketing arsenal without first excelling at the ones they are already using.

Troubleshooting: If you look at each of the content sharing sites and you think that they are so jam-packed with competitors that your voice will never be heard, then consider a different approach. Perhaps, on that channel only (and not as a broad marketing plan for your business), consider doing something totally different. Write some news on your industry and post it on Squidoo instead of yet another tips page like all of your competitors are doing. Take photos about your industry and post them on Flickr. Do reviews of the products in your industry and post them on Triond. In other words, find something that meshes with your brand but takes a fresh approach to the ideas that your readers are looking for.

Content sharing isn’t just about you finding another place to share your insight. Of course that’s important, but I believe content sharing is about a targeted approach to finding places where your insight will be valued and then understanding what you can do to provide content that meets the needs of your audience.

“What Should I Do?” – Blog Commenting

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:32:09 +0000

In a previous blog post I wrote about a really helpful MindMeister mind map about social media marketing. Each week (or so) I’ll be writing about one of the techniques described in the map and giving you additional details and tips.

In today’s blog post I want to talk about blog commenting.

Blog commenting is exactly what the name implies. There are a couple of reasons why I leaving blog comments are good:

Blog comments give you a nice, happy backlink to your blog. (That’s why spammer use it). Who doesn’t love backlinks? They’re awesome.

Blog commenting gets traffic to your own blog when people see your insightful comment and follow you to your own site. (More on this in a moment).

Additionally – and I would say “more importantly” – blogs are conversations. They’re social. If the blogger offers comment functionality on their blog, it’s because they want to have comments.

Commenting on other people’s blogs can build traffic to your own… under certain circumstances. Here’s what I mean: There are three kinds of blog commenters and I’m going to lay them out right here (but before you get offended by what I write, be sure to read the whole post first!).

Type 1: Adders.
Type 2: Agreers.
Type 2: Spammers.

Blogs are social media conversations. The blogger starts the conversation on his or her blog with an insightful, compelling, and perhaps witty post about their subject matter. And the commenters are the other folks in the same conversation, and they’re not that different than in a real life conversation:

The adders. You have some people who contribute to the conversation with something like: “You make some good points, Heather. Another thing to consider is…” This is Type 1 comments. They add to the conversation. These are often the people who keep a conversation going and make it an enjoyable dialogue.

The agreers. You also have some people in a conversation who simply nod in agreement. And they appear in blog posts, too: “Great post, Heather!”. This is the Type 2 comment. They don’t necessarily add something to the conversation. (By the way: I called them “Agreers” but I am aware that “agreers” is just a made up word).

The spammers. You know what I’m talking about. They can range from ones who pretend to be agreers (“I read with such interest” – but they link to a generic drugs site) to ones who offer “Hot Russian Wifes!” or something even less appropriate.

As a blogger, just like in real life, you want lots of Type 1 comments if you want a conversation. That’s because blogs are part of the social media realm – a big, online conversation. (Having said that, let me say that Type 2 comments – the agreers – are welcome and if you tend to be an agreer on my site, I’m not complaining. I’m just pointing out that in every conversation, whether online or offline, you’ve got the people who participate in the conversation, you’ve got those who agree, and then you’ve got one or two losers who talk about hot Russian “wifes” and generic drugs.) You can build up traffic to your site by going to other blogs and adding insightful comments there.

Here are some additional tips to help you:

Make sure you are going to blogs that connect with a target audience who are similar to your own.
Don’t sell! If you want to be a Type 1 commenter, add insight, experience, and ideas.
Use Disqus, and Gravatar to help create a better experience for you as you comment, and for those who might read your comments and link to your site.

Happy Commenting!

How Entrepreneurs Can Get the Benefits of a Team (Without Selling Part of Their Business)

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:44:38 +0000

I have the very good fortune of meeting a lot of entrepreneurs and working with them to make their businesses more successful. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that entrepreneurs who work with others are more frequently successful than those that work alone. I’m not saying that solopreneurs will be less successful than those who partner to start a business. Rather, I’m saying that solopreneurs, freelancers, coaches – the “one person show” business owners – will be more successful when they collaborate with others in some capacity.

In this blog I want to talk about some ways you dial other people into your business so you don’t have to do it all yourself.

1. Outsource. You’ve heard me beat this drum before. Outsourcing parts of your business costs less because paying someone to do it for you is usually faster and cheaper than you doing it yourself (And, depending on what it is, they may do it better). Start by outsourcing the administrative work and then, as you regain capacity, look for a salesperson who can help you generate more business. Lots of people start with more marketing, which is okay, but marketing will only get you so far without sales. Once you have a sales system in place, and humming smoothly, then start marketing.

2. Joint venture. You may not want to split your business in half and partner with a co-owner, but you can joint venture on specific projects. You’ll split the rewards, split the risks, and likely enjoy greater success because 1+1 often equals way more than 2. To get started joint venturing, find someone who you work well with and who has a similar target market as you (even if they do something completely different for that target market). Set up a handful of these JVs with various people and work hard to get them running as much on autopilot as possible.

3. Intern. I’ll be honest, I’m torn about this one. I like the idea of an intern and I know there are a lot of people who are willing to give up some of their time to work for free to learn the ropes from someone who is more successful. But I’ve also seen internships go very wrong and basically turn into indentured servitude. And I’ve seen entrepreneurs who offer internships to unsuspecting people (in a veiled effort to get free labor for their administrative tasks). An intern, though, should receive some kind of money AND attribution for their work (the money, however small, honors their time and the attribution gives them a foothold to branch out on their own) and their work should cover critical aspects of the business so that they actually learn the ropes. To create a “check and balance” for yourself, make sure you have a scope of responsibilities and time limit in place so that everyone comes away feeling that it was a winning scenario.

4. Mentor. If you think of an intern as a “hands-on mentorship”, you yourself should also consider finding a mentor that you can learn from. I’ve seen all kinds of mentors, from those who mentor in broad general concepts to those who mentor for periods of time in very specific elements. Because I believe that we are each building unique businesses, I prefer the “limited time” approach to mentorships in which you find someone to mentor you for a period of time to attain a specific level of success in business. Then find a new mentor for the next step of your business.

5. Coaches. Yes, I consider these to be different from mentors. Mentors are someone you look up to and aspire to be like (at least in one area), and often have to do with attaining a level of success in business while coaches (at least in my experience) give you the tools and resources to help you achieve something specific. Think of mentors as creating overall success horizontally across the business while coaches often develop strength in vertical aspects of the business. As well, since you are more likely to pay to be coached, there is a certain amount of motivation to follow-through that you don’t even get with mentors.

With these 5 people on your “team”, every entrepreneur can create and grow a thriving business without having to give up part ownership in their company.

Go Team!

Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 3/5/10

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:10:15 +0000

Reinventing Yourself Through Mindfulness – A very thought provoking post with some incredible case studies. How much better quality of work can be done when we are mindful? The mind is a powerful tool.

Car Dancing for the Greater Good – Come on! You know you wanna! Check out the video.

How to Donate or Recycle Old Office Equipment – Don’t know where or how to recycle your old office equipment? Kelly provides many great ideas and links.

Diagnosing Technical SEO Issues – This is just one of the great posts that Lisa has on her blog outlining the session at the (Search Marketing Expo). Every post makes you feel like you are there.

Slow Motion Dog Treat Commercial Beguiles Internet [Randomly Viral] – Couldn’t resist sharing this one. I love dogs and this is a cool commercial.

Catch more of my favorites on HeatherVilla StumbleUpon.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy reading!

“What Should I Do?” – Advertising

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:15:56 +0000

In a previous blog post, I give you a link to a fantastic map on MindMeister that contained nearly every marketing technique known to humankind and I promised to go through each of those techniques and show you how to do them well, without spending a lot of time or money.

In today’s blog I’m going to talk about advertising (which is in the top, right-hand position on the map.

The map’s creator lists 3 different advertising channels:

Affiliate
Other networks
Pay per click

Affiliate advertising is when someone else sells your products or service (or, at least points people to your sales page where you sell them your products or services) and they get a cut of your revenue. This is basically a commission-based sales program but it’s automated, which makes it convenient for you.

If you want to succeed at affiliate marketing, you really need to make sure you offer good affiliate support. Your affiliate should be rewarded for his or her effort. There’s a temptation among marketers to try to squeeze out every dollar of profit for themselves and minimize affiliate commissions, but the higher the commission for the affiliate, the more likely they are to sell your product. Also, your affiliate should have the tools to market you appropriately, which means you need to think about buttons, banners, and sales page content. If you support your affiliates, it’s like enabling a sales team and they will sell more for you as a result.

“Other networks” sounds mysterious! And there’s nothing in that part of the map. I would put a site like Craigslist here. Craiglist, which is basically like a giant classified ad section of the newspaper, lets you advertise your services. But there might be local online classified ads, too, so check to see if your local newspaper or media outlet has these. Make sure the content is fresh and relevant for your audience. And if it’s a local advertisement, be sure to highlight that you are local.

Pay per click is exactly what its name suggests: You advertise and pay every time someone clicks. This is most (but not all) banner ads, Google AdWords, and similar ads. The secret to success here is to spend a bit of money and measure everything and then do it again and again. Figure out how many impressions your ad is getting and compare that to the number of times it is clicked. Then compare the number of times your ad is clicked to the number of people who buy from you. Tweak your ad to get more clicks and tweak your sales page to get more sales.

These advertising channels are all about putting out a little bit of teaser content to entice people to go to your site or to contact you for more information.

Good luck!