Air & Water

My first job out of college was as an environmental scientist for the state of California.  I was significantly younger than the other engineers and geologists who worked there, and they all had one piece of advice for me – “Get out now before your mind turns to mush!”

It was while those words were still echoing in my head that my brother that first told me about the online business world. He had successfully started up his own online business, and was convinced that all I needed to do was fine the right niche. I started to research the industry, and saw there was a high demand for air conditioner-related searches online. I had been going over the idea in my head for a while, and then one day while driving home from work, I was going over the freeway and the name “Air & Water” randomly popped into my head. Call it a moment of inspiration or whatever you want, but I went home that night and immediately began working on the site. I wish at this point I could simply say “the rest is history,” but we all know that’s not the way it goes for small businesses. The actual history is always a lot more interesting.

My background was in microbiology and chemistry – so calling the site development slow would be an understatement. To make things as easy as possible, we first started developing the site as a Yahoo store. My wife and I had just had our second child, and I would come home from work every evening, eat dinner and play with the kids until they went to bed, and then work on the site until the wee hours of the morning. This went on for weeks and weeks, but eventually we were able to roll out the site right from our condo in Huntington Beach, CA.

Our first few products were really quite basic. We had a few of your basic heaters as well as some thermostats – that was it. To make matters even more difficult, suppliers didn’t want to deal with me initially, since we intended to sell their products online. To this day, we still run into the same issues with vendors who just do not want to deal with online retailers, despite the obviously successful results!

Before I left my government job for good, we wife and I decided to upgrade from our condo to a house. The only problem was that the escrows were off by about six months, so we ended up moving into my Mom’s house while waiting to close on our own home. I don’t think she knew what she was getting into, as shortly thereafter we were shipping between 20 and 40 products a day from her garage. We would drive out every morning to pick up orders directly from the manufacturers and then ship them out from my mom’s house by that afternoon. As things got busier, we would miss the UPS pickup from time to time. My wife would load the van with different orders and drive around Orange County looking for a UPS truck that would stop and let her drop off the shipments with them. Amazingly, she was able to find a willing and able brown truck every time!

When we finally moved into our new house, I was ecstatic about the great new warehouse we had – our 400 square foot garage! It was so nice to finally have a place to put our products. We eventually turned the entire garage into an operations center, and were finally able to hire employees to help out with the daily operations. It wasn’t long before we outgrew it, though. So we moved operations down the street to an 1800 sq foot warehouse, a location that I never imagined we’d outgrow. We made a few more hires at this point, including finally adding some much-needed IT help. Yes, we waited that long to hire a real IT professional. But not only did we eventually outgrow this warehouse, but two more as well!

We truly did everything by hand at this point, until we just couldn’t stand it anymore. Prior to buying our first forklift, we actually would move pallets of product onto the trucks by hand! It typically took four or five of us just to move some of the larger orders.

Two orders stand out in particular from those early days. In one instance, one of our vendors drop-shipped too many products to a customer – way too many. Rather than the single heater someone had ordered, they sent him an entire case! The customer was located in San Francisco, and it just so happened I was scheduled to head there for a work conference. I spoke with the customer and told him not to worry about shipping the heaters back to us, and that we instead would send a courier over to pick them up. Once I got to San Francisco, I hitched a ride in our rental car with a few coworkers, and had them drop me off at his apartment building. I walked up to his apartment and picked up the product myself, as if it was straight out of a movie. He just couldn’t believe the service!

We’ve always had a loyal local customer base here in southern California, and we try to make a big deal out of offering will-call pick up for orders. That process started early on in our, too early perhaps. In our infancy, one vendor was again supposed to ship some heaters to a customer in Corona. Well, rather than have them shipped, the customer wanted to come pick up the units from us. The only problem was that we were still running the company out of my condo! We improvised and told the customer we’d save him some time and meet him halfway – at Anaheim Stadium in the parking lot. There we were, just like in a mafia movie, handling a transaction in an empty parking lot at a baseball stadium.

Jump ahead four warehouses and eight years later, and we’re now operating out of a 35,000 sq ft space in Santa Ana. With all the moves, I’ve just stopped making predictions about how long we’ll be in any one location, but I will say that our latest spot is perfect for us right now, and we’ve certainly enjoyed working with the city.

I’ve learned a lot through all of us, the most important being – if I can borrow the famous slogan from Nike – “Just do it!” The more I think about the trying times that led up to this point, the more I realize how important it was for us to just jump right in and do it. You can plan and over plan and over think every detail, but there’s nothing that can really prepare you for actually doing it. Not only can nothing prepare you for it, but at the end of the day the only way to guarantee your ideas make it to market as fast as possible is to just do it and not waste any time. Some may call it reckless, but this one thing kept us ahead of the competition. We spent much less time thinking than doing.

The other important key I learned is to just keep moving forward. Again, it’s nothing new, but I never liked getting stuck on projects. Even if the current results are not 100%, keep moving forward and don’t let yourself get bogged down with analysis and over-planning. With these two philosophies we keep things fresh and new. We also get to test our new ideas in the best lab of all – the real world market!

Like any business, there were a lot of hurdles along the way. But we managed to overcome anything and everything thrown our way, because I believe we’ve found the formula for success. While we’re in a relatively new business, it’s the same simple concepts of hard work and having great people that have worked for businesses for year. The best part is that it’s simple enough that really anyone can do it. Our combination of great people and hard work makes me confident that we’ll be able to withstand whatever the future holds.

Luke Peters is the founder, owner and president of Air and Water Inc., an online retailer focused on meeting customers’ heating, cooling and other home appliance needs. Established in 2002, Air and Water has grown into one of the Internet’s premier online retailers of portable air conditioners, evaporative coolers, coffee makers and other appliances for the home or office.

Jeff Brady

Did you catch the Red Bull “Art of the Can” Exhibit at the Dallas Galleria this summer? If not, you may have missed some of the most blatant next-gen advertising ever.

50 pieces of “art” either made of, or inspired by, Red Bull energy drink cans. The Art of the Can C’mon. Red Bull cans as Art? Welcome to the Golden Age of Content Marketing. And Red Bull is just the tip of the iceberg.

Proctor and Gamble has re-launched Rouge magazine and now delivers it to 11 million US households.

Kraft publishes Comida Y Familia – the largest hispanic women’s magazine in the US – and has now entered the short-film business with a series of 2-3 Minute Info-tainment Segments profiling the Oscar Meyer and Ritz brands. They’ve been playing during the previews on more than 15,000 US screens this year.

Mountain Dew launched a record label – Green Label Sound – and is now sponsoring a “Green Label Tour” this summer with the Kool Kids.

Quiksilver was ahead of the curve six years ago when the apparel company co-produced a surfing movie – remember Riding Giants? More recently, they’ve scored with the ‘Dynamite Surfing’ YouTube series. Amazing stuff. Now they sponsor surfboarders, skaters and recording artists.

And of course, those of us in North Texas remember the infamous attempt by Chesapeake Energy to launch Shale TV with my friend and fellow former newscaster Tracy Rowlett. The experiment in branded TV content never got off the ground. But the vision was grand, if perhaps a little premature.

Regardless, it’s not “brand” new (pardon me), but it’s not a temporary trend either, and in fact, the whole content-as-marketing concept is now reaching a maturity that portends a shift of the tectonic plates for all advertisers, for all time. No more interruption. No more distraction and circus-barker shouting about sales and prices and product features. Branded Content is here to stay. At our agency, we call it “Organic Media” – that is, content that originates internally and not in a distant newsroom or an agency’s creative think-tank. Time to be useful and pertinent and honest and smart and resourceful and solve some pressing problems or vanish in the cluttered jungle of by-gone media. Solve your customers’ problems, answer questions, provide service and solutions, or become irrelevant.

Well, that’s fine if you are Mountain Dew or Quiksilver and you have an eight-figure ad and marketing budget. But if not?
How does content marketing work for the rest of us?   Great question. The answer = sorry, it’s the same path. Publish content or exit stage right. And as modern marketing guru David Meerman Scott preaches in his books and articles, everyone can and should be a publisher these days. And it doesn’t have to involve your own recording label or national art exhibit.

How?

You need to be smart, first of all. You need to KNOW THE CUSTOMER. Listen. Watch. Pay attention. Ask the right questions. Know what keeps her up at night, tossing in bed or tapping at Google. What problem is she trying to solve? And how can you help her with a quick, affordable solution? Be the fix. Also, find out what media platforms she is most likely to use. Does she Facebook? Does she read the local paper? This is a crucial first step.

Second, you need to BE STRATEGIC. Don’t start tweeting willy-nilly or blasting out pretty marketing e-mails without a strong, identifiable plan and a purpose. Who do you want to be?  
What’s your strategic position? What’s the powerful tag line? Does it work? And is it WORTHY OF CONTENT MARKETING? Is it WORTHY OF PR? (Journalists may be struggling these days, but they still won’t do your marketing for you. However, if you have something useful and unique, they might want to quote you!)
Find someone who can ask the really tough questions. Do the difficult work of deciding what strategic position you want to occupy among your competitors. If you’re competing on price alone, I wouldn’t waste the time and mental effort to develop a serious campaign.
Generic platitudes along the lines of “We’re Just Better” or “Quality and Value” or “We Stand the Test of Time” really don’t trigger the kind of emotional response on which strong brands are built.
Neither do they help solicit news media coverage. Instead, ask ‘What is the one thing we do better than anybody else?’ or ‘What is the single most powerful advantage we have?’

Third, BE CREATIVE. If you’re not a writer, but you’ve discovered that your typical customer reads blogs and a company blog fits into your budget (what’s it cost, again?) – then HIRE A WRITER! Find someone who can tap into your corporate braintrust and interpret the know-how for the layman. Find someone who’s writing you enjoy and who’s written about your industry. Give away (some of) your secret sauce. Where? Well, online first. Realize that as soon as you launch a website, you’re basically in the content marketing business. Meerman Scott preaches (and I’m para-phrasing) ‘great content is what BRANDS A RELEVANT ORGANIZATION and DRIVES ACTION’. If your website is fun and engaging and pertinent, then your company is viewed the same. If your website is stale and flat, then…. well, you get it.
(Be sure to include some call to action online. How will a visitor to your website be asked to take an action that initiates the sales cycle? How can you add them to a mailing list or capture the e-mail address?)

These days, some of us just are NOT readers. Fine, then how about video? (Yes, as a former TV news guy, it’s my preferred format…) Why not post a quick interview with the CEO or a few satisfied customers?
How about a virtual tour of your factory or warehouse? Why not let web browsers see how proud you are of the people you employ? And if you don’t own a little Kodak Zi8 or High-Def Flip Camera – then HIRE A VIDEOGRAPHER! It’s really not terribly expensive. Again, find someone who’s previous work you appreciate. Ask about the day-rate for shooting and (additionally) for editing. Ask about the format, and remember to ask your web-master about an appropriate video format. The finished product has to be compatible with your website. Still, it’s not a big deal.

Fourth, THINK LIKE A JOURNALIST! What kind of interesting, useful content would you like to read about your industry, product or cause? Can you sponsor an on-line poll? (Check our Survey Monkey or Constant Contact.) Can you interview an industry or association leader and write up a summary? Can you offer a ‘behind-the-scenes’ snapshot of one of your major projects – and how you tackled a particularly tough job?
Can you offer advice on going ‘green’? What are some pertinent thoughts on customer service? Or warranties? Or a recent trade show you attended? Keep it short. Most of us don’t want to be bogged down reading multiple pages. Highlight the key points. Summarize. Offer references. Valuable websites. Tips. Hints. Insider stuff.

Fifth, ENGAGE. Frightening as it seems, the branding equation is no longer a one-way street. If you’re not involved in a dialogue with your client or customer, rest assured that someone else is. Probably one of your competitors. Allow public commentary of your blog and photos and YouTube Channel (don’t have a YouTube Channel yet? Then STOP reading this blog post and GET ONE NOW! Anything with your corporate name, if it’s still available.) Try to elicit a response on your website or any social media platform. If you just ‘don’t have the time’ for the Facebook fan page, then find someone in your organization who does, or simply make it part of his or her job description. Yes, it’s that important now. Think of it as you might consider a community garden. Yes, it takes some time to weed and fertilize and water. But imagine the beans and carrots and peppers you’ll grow! And who knows? You might just meet a neighbor. The internet magnifies the networking possibilities almost infinitely.

Another opportunity to engage is to think like Red Bull and sponsor something. How about a local lecture series? (Post the video!) Or a live concert? (Post the video!) Or a community service project? (Sure, post the video!) Maybe you can’t publish a glossy news-style magazine, but what sort of stylish e-mail newsletter can you send out? If you’re not a graphic designer, fine. HIRE A GRAPHIC DESIGNER to organize your ramblings once a month and then blast out the product to your mailing list.

Or maybe you hire the freelance videographer to come in once a month and videotape something interesting and worthwhile for your website. Or you hire a freelance still photographer to shoot your service project, or maybe to capture a ‘day in the life’ of one of your best employees. Or maybe you sponsor a kid’s contest to write speeches on a topic that pertains to your industry. And then videotape the winner giving her speech and – again – post the video on your website.

I know, it’s often a Time v. Money question for the small business-owner or entrepreneur. Publishing new content on the website or sponsoring a concert are often the LAST item on the to-do list.
But old advertising is stepping aside.

And the Age of Red Bull Art is on the rise.

By Jeff Brady – Brady Media Group

Robb Reinhold

Please describe in layman’s terms what it is that Maverick Trading does.

Maverick Trading is a proprietary trading firm.  The firm’s traders invest the firm’s capital in a variety of financial instruments, including stocks, equity options, and foreign currencies.  Maverick then splits the profits of those investments with its traders, with the lion’s share of the profit going to the traders.

With the market in turmoil recently, how is it that Maverick has been able to remain in business?

Maverick elected to remain small (less than $100M in assets), in order to remain nimble.  This has allowed the firm to take advantage of both bull markets and bear markets.  In recent years, Maverick has posted double-digit returns, despite, or even because of the market downturn in 2008 and the subsequent recovery in 2009.

Maverick seems to be in a very specialized industry.  Is there really anything that you can share with other entrepreneurs who aren’t in the financial industry?

Absolutely. One trait that has translated directly from Maverick’s trading strategy to its business plan and is applicable to any entrepreneur is that an entrepreneur must view the market as it is; not how he or she would like it to be.  The key is to view the market, business environment, or niche without any preconceptions and then determine how to generate a profit in that environment.

Additionally, any business owner must be able to act, not react, in a changing environment.  Entrepreneurs have to constantly ask themselves, “what if”, and have plans in place to capitalize on change and opportunities.

Maverick has been in business through several business cycles and entrepreneurialism is a risky landscape.  How has Maverick managed its risk and survived and thrived as a firm?

Another trait that we’ve adopted from our trading methodology and implemented into Maverick’s business plan is the manner in which we mitigate risk.  You can never eliminate risk, but you can hedge it and limit it to an acceptable level.

Firstly, whether we’re talking about individual trades or strategic initiatives for the firm, we define our risk and carefully examine what we expect a realistic potential reward to be.  For every business decision we make, we have an amount we are willing to commit and lose, and an expected return on investment from that decision.  In trading and in business, we expect at least a three to one risk to reward ratio.

From what I’ve seen, too many new entrepreneurs throw capital at problems without defining their risk or having a reasonable ROI target.  These problems then become black holes for capital.

You need to know what the downside is before committing to a course of action.  If you don’t you’re just gambling.  Not every decision will be correct, but if you limit your risk and the decision doesn’t work out, you still have resources to try another course of action.

What is the primary strength of Maverick Trading?

Maverick’s greatest asset is its traders.  We recognized this at the beginning of the firm and have worked to ensure we train people to be the best traders they can be.

One thing that distinguishes Maverick from other proprietary trading firms is the comprehensive nature of its training program.  We are very selective about the people we bring on board to the firm and then methodically train each new trader to follow our system.  We couple this with testing and require new traders to develop a track record in a mock account before we let them trade with the firm’s capital.

The end result is that our traders are justifiably confident on the first day they begin trading with the firm’s capital.  This protects both the firm and the trader and allows each to be more successful than if we were to throw them into the deep end of the pool on the first day.

Maverick has adopted a virtual office model where their traders operate remotely rather than reporting to a brick and mortar trading floor.  How has that worked out?

Adopting a virtual office model has been one of our most successful strategic initiatives.  Technology advancements have allowed Maverick to source the best talent available without geographic constraint.

Management is in contact with the traders at least weekly and is always available by phone and e-mail.  Additionally, Maverick hosts events for its traders about three times a year in locations we’d all like to be in, to develop and maintain camaraderie among its traders.

The virtual office model offers some significant regulatory hurdles.  How has Maverick surmounted these hurdles?

All Maverick’s traders are independent contractors and we’ve worked with our corporate counsel and our traders to ensure that our traders remain firmly in that box.

To further facilitate this, the majority of our current traders conduct operations through their own separate business entities, such as S corporations or LLCs.  Moving forward, all new traders that come on board with the firm will be required to have their own business entities.

We’ve received no pushback from our traders on this topic, because we’ve taken the time to explain the advantages to both the firm and to the individual trader.

In expanding start-ups there are often significant growing pains in maintaining employee relations, or in this case, independent contractor relations.  How has Maverick addressed this issue?

It boils down to communication and alignment of interests.

Maverick communicates its strategic initiatives with its traders and always addresses four issues: what is the situation, why it needs to be addressed, what the firm’s course of action will be, and how it will affect the traders.  This keeps the waters calm and we’ve actually had some very valuable feedback from our traders that we’ve incorporated into our strategic plans.

Early on in the operations of the firm, Maverick decided that in order to succeed, the firm’s interests needed to be aligned with our traders.  The firm engineered its business model so that the firm does not profit unless the trader profits.  Some proprietary trading firms make the bulk of their revenue from marking up trading fees and infrastructure fees or encouraging high-frequency trading. Maverick does not prescribe to this and is only profitable if its traders are profitable.

This ethos has brought Maverick talent from more well-known firms and has contributed to the firm’s microscopic attrition rate, which is unheard of in the financial industry where people are constantly changing firms.

You’ve grown Maverick Trading very methodically and been successful.  Do you have any further plans to expand?

Yes.  We’ve just started two strategic initiatives.  The first is the creation of Maverick’s Foreign Exchange Division, Maverick FX.  With recent developments in the monetary arena both in the US and in Europe, we see the opportunity for excellent profits in currency trading.  Maverick has committed substantial capital to this initiative and offers its FX traders some of the best execution spreads in the industry.

The second initiative is to expand our network of affiliated traders.  We are executing plans to systematically grow the number of traders by 150% by year-end 2011.  Given the current and foreseeable job market, this may be an opportunity for motivated people to not only earn a good living on a yearly basis, but to build generational wealth. This being said, Maverick has no intention of ever becoming a huge firm. Management strongly believes that the backbone of the firm is based in the fact that they are completely in tune with the traders and can adequately offer each trader the support and guidance that they require to do their jobs successfully. We would rather have a select number of exceptional traders than copious numbers of mediocre ones.

Curated by Deepak Gupta.

Jason Morrison

Self-starter Jason Morrison helped build Capitol Media Solutions from the ground up, and he has been featured in national media outlets including MSNBC, Entrepreneur, and Business Week for his establishment’s work. As a principal at Capitol Media Solutions, Morrison says CMS has increased sales by 500 percent in just the past two years. He attributes a large part of that growth to networking and to Capitol Media’s unique business model; Capitol Media is one of the only agencies in the country that both buys and sells media.

What is Capitol Media?

Capitol Media is an integrated media solutions firm specializing in customized media strategy, planning, buying, and selling

What kind of clients do you serve?

Our clients range from midsized businesses to Large Fortune 500’s in multiple industries.

How do you use networking to grow your business?

Networking roughly constitutes about 80% of the business we receive currently.  All of our sales people attend different marketing relevant events, connect with prospects via LinkedIn, and network with other marketing agencies to bring us the majority of our current clientele.

How do you find people to bring into your organization that truly care about the organization the way you do? How important have good employees been to your success?

This is a tricky one.  Some of our best employees have come by way of Craigslist but we have also had good fortune on marketing-specific sites such as mediabistro.com, mediapost.com, adweek.com, and mediarecruiter.com.  Without good employees continuing to come on board, our success would not continue at the same growth rates.

How do you build a successful customer base?

To build a successful customer base, you need to target your ideal client down as specifically as possible.  Once you do, go for those types of customers with everything you have and allow the waters to then navigate your ship where the ultimate focus should end up being.

To what do you most attribute your success?

Hard work, dedication to our clients, and a passion that is exuded through conversation.  Persistence and effort have brought us much of the luck that we have experienced in the few years since inception.

What has been your most satisfying moment in business to date?

My most satisfying moment has come recently when we made it to the final stage with two different organizations that had media budgets north of $35 Million.  I never would have imagined that we would even be entertained by that size of firm in this short of a time span.

How do you go about marketing your business?

What has been your most successful form of marketing? We take a multifaceted approach to marketing through networking, Google Adwords, prospect newsletters, public relations, and trade show exhibiting.  Our most successful form of marketing has been Google.

How has social media changed your business?

Social media has impacted our business substantially because it has allowed us yet another avenue of staying in touch of current prospects while getting in front of new ones.  We have a full time in-house team that focuses solely on our social media accounts making sure that they are up-to-date and current.

Do you think that social media is a legitimate way to gain success in business today? How and why?

Yes, I do but it needs to be done correctly.  For smaller firms, the focus needs to be on one of two specific sites or blogs, maximizing the communication through both.  For larger ones, I recommend hiring an agency that holds social media expertise to be your extended voice.  It can be the best thing that happened to your organization if done correctly and the worst thing if not.

To reach Jason Morrison or for more information on Capitol Media’s services including media buying, interactive media, and media sales, visit www.capitolmediasolutions.com or call 1-800-517-0610.

Mike Morucci

As you may have noticed, there is a tremendous amount of recycling on Twitter, and I don’t mean in the eco-friendly way. Followers come and go. One would assume you want to keep as many as you can.

Let me begin by saying I’m not an expert in marketing, Twitter, Facebook, social media, social networking or thermodynamics. I’m just a dude with a blog who is very active on Twitter. I also notice patterns, especially the grating kind.

You’re still reading? Excellent!

You’ve most likely heard the axiom “It can take months to find a client and seconds to lose one.” It applies on Twitter ten-fold. When someone follows you back, it’s either automated or you’ve offered something that’s interesting for the nanosecond.

Unfollowing can alsobe automated (they were just looking to boost their own follow count and have no clue who you are OR you didn’t follow-back fast enough), or it’s a statement that you pissed them off or you’re boring.

What you really want to avoid is a block – a very bold unfollow statement that says they don’t even want you following them. It also scores as a bad demerit in the Twitter police log.

The worst is if they block you and report you as spam. That means in their eyes you’re tweeting garbage and don’t even deserve the privilege of an account. You get too many of those and Twitter will suspend your account. Permanently.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Here are my Nine Simple Rules to Prevent the Unfollow. (Top 10s are so cliché.)

1. Don’t spam.

Sounds simple enough. Do not tweet the same text or URLs over and over. Repeating the same message may work in advertising, but in the Twitterverse it’s Boresville. You can be consistent without being annoying. I strongly suggest you familiarize yourself with the Twitter Rules, Following Best Practices and Automation Rules and Best Practices.

2. Enough about you already.

If all you talk about is yourself, your company, your product or “actionable opportunities, you’ll lose. Yes, you want to promote your message, but high school rules apply: be cool, fool. Don’t get carried away and don’t be annoying.

Twitter is all about engagement and two-way communication. If you only tweet out, you’re being ineffective. And kind of a dork.

Don’t hire someone to tweet 24/7. Don’t use a bot to tweet 24/7. [HINT: when someone checks out your feed, if all they see is via API or via HootSuite, it screams automaton spam.]

Mix it up. When checking out a tweeter’s stream, I look for the following:

• Interesting content
• Kindness and humor
• RTs (retweets) of others content – what do you think is retweetworthy?
• Human-like conversations – your @ replies to followers, and they better not be “Hey @ToastMastersLead, DM me your phone number so I can sell you my product/service.”
• And for heaven’s sakes, don’t just tweet quotes. Everyone on Twitter quotes, and RTs the RTs of the quotes. That real estate market is saturated.
• Don’t RT URLs that everyone else is RTing, especially if they’re unrelated to you or your product. You just sound like that student who repeats everything the teacher says with a minor re-ordering of words. I hated that kid.

3. Don’t play the numbers game.

It’s honestly not all about the numbers. Anyone can have a ton of followers, but are they listening when you tweet? Only if they’re engaged.

Using tools to boost your count and unfollowing those that don’t follow you back in 48 hours means you’re just about the numbers and impatient. Don’t be so quick to unfollow. I often give it a few days before I follow back because (a) I’m busy and (b) I want to know what you’re all about.

And ignore the Bieber factor. It’s temporary. It gains you nothing to connect with, follow, or mention anything about him unless you genuinely work for him, which you don’t. I’ve got two words for you: “Spice. Girls.”

4. Speling kounts.

Don’t look stupid. Yes, we judge.

5. Don’t misrepresent yourself.

We can smell a PhDuh a mile away. Don’t call yourself an expert unless you’re truly an authority. I see “social media expert” in bios every day. Most are far from it, or the field is so new you’re on equal ground with everyone. Words like “enthusiast” sound less douchey and more realistic. “Hey, I’m not an expert but I love this stuff!”

6. Tools are for tools.

OK, tools can be helpful when used for good. I connect with people all over the world. Some of them use tools to post tweets because of the vastly different time zones and to keep their stream fresh, but not overflowing. I appreciate seeing their tweets when I’m awake and they’re in the land of slumber. Just don’t overdo it.

Using a tool to tweet 25 times an hour, 24 hours a day, especially repeating the same tweets, will guarantee a buh-bye. If you spam, you get blocked or suspended – not exactly how you want to build your reputation.

And watch the tools for building followers. They scream “bot” and insincere. Organic growth is healthy in the Twitterverse. It also gives you time to observe and learn. Make your mistakes when your follow count is low.

7. DM me? You don’t even know me.

Don’t direct-message (DM) someone you don’t know. Just because they’re now following you doesn’t mean they’re welcoming your one-on-one personal contact. Especially seconds after the follow. Read the tweets and blogs – most people are quite annoyed by the automatic DM “Thanks for following! [Insert your self-serving-statement-and-URL here].

Think of it like this: If you met a potential client at a business conference, and they handed you their business card, you wouldn’t call them at their home while you’re still standing next to them at the booth. Chillax. DM is for personal, one-on-one correspondence when it’s appropriate and welcomed. It’s OK to @-reply someone asking if it’s OK to DM. See? Etiquette.

8. Folla back, girl.

Why wouldn’t you follow back someone who sought you out and is following you? You can wait a few days to make sure they’re not phishing, spam bots or demon-spawn. And when you do follow back, it doesn’t mean you’re expected to read their tweets. There is no quiz.

This is especially true for the entertainment networks and large companies. You have hundreds if not thousands of employees. You don’t have to read our tweets (maybe @-replies), but a follow-back would be nice. Check out @PleasureEllis. “He” follows back over 141,000 people and RTs mentions, and the crowd goes wild. Believe me: a little acknowledgment goes a long way.

9. Don’t make Twitter a less fun place to hang out.

This statement is found throughout Twitter’s own best practices documentation for a good reason. Like a 67-slide PowerPoint review session, get-rich-quick, grow-your-followers or let-me-tell-you-what-I-can-do-for-you type tweets drain the fun. Share interesting information in an interesting way and you’ll keep me on.

Remember, this is a social network. It means etiquette applies. Just because someone is behind an avatar doesn’t mean they’re hiding or anonymous, whether they are corporate, a brand or a level-seven dungeon master. Twitter is not a billboard. It is not an invitation for you to bombard potential customers with your message. But it is a wonderful opportunity for networking with those potential customers, colleagues and human beings. Just remember: two-way discussions and engagement is the key.

Folks will find you. They may connect with you because tweeps they follow also follow you. People who are interested in a particular book, writer, program, actor, artist, celebrity, network, topic or brand will seek them out. And there are Twitter celebrities that have nothing to do with any of those examples, yet they’ve grown to superstar status. Their secret? They tweet interesting information, they interact and they’re nice.

That’s right, the secret to making this thing work is to be genuine and kind.

I wish you luck! And if you’d like to follow me on Twitter, I’m @GCGeek. But there are no guarantees I’ll follow back. At least not right away.

About the author:

Mike Morucci is a humorist, blogger, tech writer, freelancer and TV writer in the making. He writes the blog Do I Amuse You?. You can connect with him on Twitter, where he’s @GCGeek and speaks in the first-person. He also loves puppies.

Tisha Oehmen

Too often, when we consider branding, we focus entirely on the name of the business, the smartness of the tag line, or the commercials we produce. But branding should be about creating a consistent experience for the customers — and the way that is best accomplished is actions.

We all know that that we believe a person’s actions more than the words they use, and the same is true for a business. Want to be known as a customer-centric organization that cares about the community? How about a knowledgeable resource? The best way to position your company to be known for those things is to actually be those things. Any good marketing agency will tell you that the words are important, only after the actions match.

Focusing on actions in this economy makes sense, especially since actions are the foundation for a great brand. A company that can demonstrate consistent actions is still, sadly, unique. You note those companies – you talk about those companies – and most importantly, you promote those companies. This is a big opportunity for businesses that are paying attention. In order to get your share of all that free buzz, all you have to do is to make all the actions in your business consistent with what you want to be known for.

Admittedly, the actions are the hard part. It is a lot easier and more gratifying to hire a flashy marketing agency and roll out an exciting new brand position. However, that will cost a lot of money for the agency, the brand, and the promotion. In reality, a “lot” of money is in short supply in this economic environment. Making our actions match what we want our brand to be is hard work, but getting it right is fantastically gratifying.

I have spent some time discussion how to actually accomplish consistent actions at my blog Finding Brand | Branding Doesn’t Have to be Expensive. But common sense will rule the day here: for just an hour, take an observer’s view of your business. Watch customers coming in, where they go, what they do, and who the talk to. Pay attention to what they ask, what they say, and how they say it. If not every action is telling a consistent story about what you want your brand position to be, then you have an extraordinary chance to dramatically enhance your brand position by editing your company’s actions so that they are both consistent and imparting the feelings you want your brand to stand for.

Examining your business’ behaviors and making the necessary changes to ensure your business’ actions are in alignment with what your brand aspires to will give your brand position an unparallel boost and let your actions speak louder than words.

Tisha Oehmen is the author of the Finding Brand Blog and a principal at Paradux Media Group in Medford, Oregon

Nitin Aggarwal

Free is everywhere!

• We get free food samples at our supermarkets.
• We get free ebooks when we opt in to someone’s list on the Internet.
• On iTunes, most if not all podcasts are free, and there is always a selection of shows, music, and audio books that are free.
• We get free trials of software we are thinking about purchasing.
• We work while on the move via free WiFi internet access.

In his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Chris Anderson (author of the Long Tail and editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine) offers all kinds of examples of how “free” works to sell.  A key message in the book is that “free” has a very strong impact on the psychology of the consumer. Give it away and it can easily go viral; charge even just a little bit for it, and it won’t move much farther than your bank deposit slip.

Google is a prime example of the use of “free” as a business strategy. Gmail went so viral that it has become a “must have” for many businesses, in spite of the use of other free services for company email addresses being frowned upon.

For small business marketing, “free” as a strategy has two schools of thought:

1)     Don’t give too much away.

2)     Give lots and lots of stuff away.

In the first instance, the free is a gimmick, like bait on a fish hook.  It is intended to tantalize the prospect to the point where they part with their money to get the “real” product. In the second instance, the prospect gets so much value from the free stuff that they are more than willing to follow through with paid offerings.

In terms of client lifetime value, the second strategy is the hands down choice. Being openhanded, giving away “too much” in the eyes of your competitors, is part of establishing a relationship with your market that is based on trust and credibility.

Here are some suggestions to put into play when you use free as a way to build your business:

• Make your free thing whole and complete in itself. This doesn’t mean it can’t point to something that costs money. In fact, it should pitch a “for money” offering. Just be sure that your freebie is of value on its own.
• Consider giving some of your stuff away for nothing in return. Nothing. Meaning that the person can get it from you without giving you any of their contact information. This kind of action takes advantage of the principle of reciprocity; the receiver feels a sense of obligation when given something completely for free.
• Give participants the not-free thing they helped create for free. If you create software, reward your beta users. If you conduct a free teleclass and turn that material into a book or audio CD that you then sell, give the teleclass participants the book or CD for free. We give away free trial for our virtual assistant services. This not only helps our customers actually experience it but once also helps us get convert those prospects who have been shying away from the idea of having a virtual assistant.
• Finally, Don’t skimp or give “b” quality because the thing is being given away. Put the same quality into your freebie that you put into your priced offerings. And just like your priced offerings, make sure it provides real value to the recipient.

Do keep in mind that while you are giving away loads and loads of stuff, the end game really is to have prospects buy from you. Free won’t be effective unless you link the free stuff to opportunities to buy from you. So before you spring your free offers on your market, be clear about how and when you will present the “for money” opportunities to them.

About the author:

Nitin Aggarwal is a full time internet marketer and founder of Offshore Ally – A one stop virtual assistant company. In accordance with his philosophy for free – Offshore Ally offers a full one week trial for their virtual assistant services. You can connect with him on his website or Linkedin. You can also follow him on twitter.

Here is a helpful video -

Richard Harmer

Over the past 7-8 years I’ve worked in marketing and brand development for myself and currently I’m a partner and Brand Strategist for Brady Media Group. http://www.bradymediagroup.com – It all “started” when I was 20 years old. A close friend of mine and business owner in Atlanta, GA wanted to speak with me about how to get him more business with those in my demographic. He’s been in business over 35 years and is over 60 years old. Much of his business comes from the younger generation…me. So, basically he needed some expert advice from a 20 year old! He asked me a ton of questions and just listened to me blab on about my life. I look back now and realize exactly what he was doing. He wanted to pick my brain. I’m not an idiot, so I sort of picked up on what he was doing during our conversations. What seemed the obvious to me was not at all the obvious to him. Even at times during some of our conversations, I thought why wouldn’t you do that? Neither he, nor his staff could see what I could. I had to explain why we younger people do some of the things we do. I realized during this time that he may not be the only business owner that needed such incredible knowledge (ha). I was sure that others needed the assistance, from a 20 year old, with little business experience. I was right! Others did! Real business owners were calling me, asking me questions! They were asking me all kinds of stuff! Now, I’m pretty savvy, but more than savvy I have some common sense. I see things as they are, without all the “fluff” and BS. Needless to say I didn’t charge them a penny, I didn’t know I could. Seems obvious I would charge, right? That’s the whole point of this article! What may be apparent to some, may not be apparent to others, even the guys who seem to have ALL the answers.

Many times business owners get so caught up “running” the business they neglect to evolve, stay up to date with current trends and strategically positioning their company for future success. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Starting the company from the very beginning to handle growth and opportunities will keep the business from imploding or exploding later. It’s common sense. It is a bit of a balancing act however, but using some common sense will go along way.

Whatever demographic your business relies on, “become” it! If your demographic is kids, follow your own kids around, listen to them, or listen to other family members kids. Compile the information you’ve come up with by “becoming” your key demographic or key buyer. Be one of them… it’s common sense. Understand your buyer! Take the time to listen; don’t try to sell them on your stuff or your company, just listen. They will tell you exactly what to do next.

For example: Blockbuster is in a huge transition period with their business. They’re between the digital world and the “going to the store to rent a movie world”. This is a hard time for them. This could have been their chance to pull way ahead and positions themselves better for the future. All they had to do was UNDERSTAND who the buyers, or renters in this case were, what they were doing for fun and how they were watching movies!! They had ALL the resources, the name, the demographics and the reach. Blockbuster had one hell of an opportunity, but failed to use common sense and acknowledge what was happening. Common sense seems nonexistent when these types of companies become nothing but a complex bureaucracy. This is or was a multibillion dollar company that thinks they have all the answers. Well, they don’t! The industry they’re in, as of today, is an industry they could’ve led, they chose not to. They settled into a complex, no use of common sense, soon to be bankrupt company with little chance to succeed. It didn’t have to be that way.

So all business owners and executives, ATTENTION! Crawl out from your mahogany desk, get in the trenches and LISTEN to the people that want to buy your product. Look around on the internet and find out what’s going on. Join the conversation…it’s already going on without you. Chances are, there are blogs on the internet that say why your company sucks. Use common sense and it won’t be like trying to look into a crystal ball to see where to go or what to do next. Common sense tells me the internet and your “following” will tell you a lot about what you could do next. They, the consumers, are in control now…not you. Sometimes you have a rare opportunity to lead your entire industry into the direction you want it to go. Sometimes using a little bit of common sense instead of business sense will be the very thing that opens opportunities that could lead your business in the direction the industry is going! Think about it.

Kevin Ishiguro

The What and Why of Formulists

When you get started with Twitter and as you become more active, the people you choose to follow, and the people who choose to follow you, provide Twitter’s value but also its toughest challenges. These challenges involve finding the right people to follow and sorting through them all once you do. On the flip-side, there is the difficulty of attracting the right followers and knowing when and why you lose them.

Formulists is a new web app that provides an effortless solution to these challenges by using Twitter lists in new ways. Formulists instantly generates personalized lists that can group the people you follow by criteria you specify, find new people in ways you choose, and show you changes in your followers directly from your Twitter home page or client.

Most Formulists-generated lists can be created with one click of the mouse, after signing into the website using your Twitter account. After creating the lists you can view them from your Twitter home page or client where they will be continuously updated without the need to return to the Formulist website. You can, however, return to the website if you would like to edit or view the history of one of your lists.

For those already experienced with Twitter lists, Formulists has some fun and unique ways to play with existing lists. Users have the option to create “custom lists” by combining, intersecting or subtracting existing Twitter lists from each other. Another option for users is to clone or filter existing lists by Twitter bio keywords, location or follower composition.

Curated by Deepak Gupta.

Allan Maurer

So what is Tech Journal South?  Tell us about their history and whom you are trying to reach.

Tech Journal South evolved from Triangle Tech Journal.  The company hosts the Southeast Venture Conference.  We then expanded the publication to the entire Southeastern United States.  We typically focus on high-end stories involving CEOs, top level and industry trends, like a cross between TechCrunch and Mashable.  We break funding stories as well.  I am an experienced reporter and have written for magazines from Playboy to Modern Maturity as well as daily newspapers.  I look for stories, interviews and trends.  My audience is C-level execs, entrepreneurs, VCs and start-ups and I write about that culture.  Major speakers appear at our SEVC and Internet Summit events, such as Craig Newmark of Craig’s List, comScore’s Gion Fulgoni, and Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia.

As an experienced national level reporter, how do you a recognize a Charlatan?

Sometimes you don’t until after the fact.  It’s like playing Poker – you need to make sure your interviewee can back up claims.  Basically, you check up on them quietly in the background.  Call their Clients or people they do business with.  It’s been quite minimal on the phony stuff – people are too well networked and you will know who they are.  The Research Triangle is a hub of start-up culture and technology of the Southeast.

How do you market Tech Journal South?

• Print publication (not anymore)
• Online publication
• Regional and high profile conferences and events attracting national level speakers such as Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia or Vint Cerf of Google (Father of the internet).

What tools you do use as a Reporter?

• A Sony Digital Camera
• Networking events
• Ergonomic equipment
• Writing 6-8 stories a day
• Weekly tech view Atlanta
• SEO
• Art Images and use the of alt tags
• Google Analytics
• Dreamweaver

Any tips for startups or entrepreneurs?

Decide what your story is and get your story straight – ahead of time.  Just like an elevator speech, you need a PR statement.  When you become large enough, hire someone for PR – either externally or internally.

To find out more on Allan Maurer, be sure to visit – http://www.techjournalsouth.com/