Google Places allows business owners to claim their business and customize their listing on Google Maps. Updated business details will appear on Google Maps, Google.com search and mobile results. It is free and easy to do.
You must remember that Google is the first choice for most web searchers. This is a must do for small businesses.
John Bradley Jackson
Top Dog
The BirdDog Group
© Copyright 2010
All rights reserved.
It is legend that he or she who speaks first in a negotiation loses. Sometimes that is true but not always. This first offer is called the “anchor.”
The first offer is often price, but can be terms, quality, etc. A common response might be to offer a price that is 10% above your desired target price; this price puts you in the ballpark and gives you room to negotiate later. The difference between what you offer and what the other party wants is called the “gap. ”
When the gap is large, you should wait as long as you can before you anchor. The gap is often a matter of understanding the proposed value from one party versus the perceived value from the other party. When pushed to anchor in this situation, I recommend that you respond with questions about the other party’s perception of value to help you understand the size of the gap.
For example, a customer with $20,000 to spend on a car walks on a Chevrolet car lot with the intent to buy a car. When the customer asks how much the brand new Corvette costs (my guess is$50,000) , the car salesperson responds by asking how much the customer wants to spend per month. This helps the salesperson understand how big the financial gap is between the car dealership and the customer. It also allows the salesperson to direct the customer to the cars in the right price range. By delaying the anchor, the salesperson can match the customer with the best car for the money (more or less).
If you can delay anchoring or get the other party to anchor, do so. If not, know that by speaking first you can get things started and still get what you want.
John Bradley Jackson
Top Dog
The BirdDog Group
© Copyright 2010
All rights reserved.
I have been using Firefox as my web browser for years now. It is fast, has a lot of extensions and it just seems to fit my needs. Basically, I was not in the market for a new web browser when I came across Flock.
Flock is billed as the web browser for the social media power user. While it is that, Flock’s other side is that it is a pretty powerful media aggregator as well.
It allows you to keep track of your presence and your friends’ presences on all the different social media sites that you are on in a convenient sidebar. But I must say Flock is a better fit for Facebook users. There is a little blue thought bubble in the lower right hand corner of the Flock browser that lets you share whatever page you are on with your Facebook friends.
Additionally, when you are posting a comment on another social site in that convenient social media sidebar you have the option of simultaneously posting to Facebook and Facebook alone. So, as long as you do most of your social media activities on Facebook then this browser will work out fine for you. If you are more of a Twitter person then it will take a little extra effort.
But not that much extra effort. Like I was saying before, Flock lets you manage all of your social media presences in a single sidebar. You can make the sidebar stream so that you will see all of your friends’ activity across all of the social media platforms you are on or make it so that just your friends on Facebook are in the stream. If you are a little more daring, you can even put your friends on any of the platforms into their own group.
Say you have business friends on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter and you want to make it so that you see what they are doing. With Flock you can put all of these friends together in their own group, so it no longer matters that Friend A is on Facebook and Friend B is on Twitter, you can track them both at the same time.
And respond to them. And upload pictures. And post to your blog. Really, you can do almost anything you can think of through the Flock browser. It is pretty cool but, if you are like me, you already have created workarounds on another browser, like Firefox, or with other services, like Tweet Deck.
Aggregating feeds can quickly become a pain for a number of reasons. Take me as an example. When I first started out using Google Reader I did what many of you probably did; add on as many feeds as I could. Suffice it to say, I ditched those feeds after a couple of weeks.
Then I started using other services like Digg and YouTube to find new stuff along with some sites like The Drudge Report for news. Fortunately, Flock makes aggregation fun again.
For example, right now I have a sidebar filled with all the different feeds I have, there is a bar along the top of the browser where I can keep track of media from Digg, YouTube and a number of other social media sites and I have The Drudge Report’s most recent headlines in the main area of the browser. Flock gives you the ability to save, blog, email and Digg items in your various feeds. Basically, Flock is a pretty good media aggregator.
My big problem with Flock and with a lot of the different social media efficiency tools is that they are almost too good at what they do. You end up seeing a lot of interesting stuff about topics you are curious about and, before you know it, it’s 3 a.m. and you didn’t get done what you were suppose to.
If you use social media applications to promote yourself or to just stay in contact with your friends then Flock might be a good idea for you; especially if your main social media site is Facebook. But be forewarned, there are more feature-rich options out there for individual social sites like Tweet Deck for Twitter. If you are one of those people who check your friends’ statuses occasionally then there are simpler options for you, so stay away from Flock.
Media consumers might get some value out of Flock because it is a pretty robust feed aggregator and discovery engine. But, again, unless you are a power user who is looking for an all-in-one social media browser there are better and simpler options out there.
Personally, I won’t be replacing Firefox anytime soon. Maybe I’ll break out Flock every once in a while and see if it can change my mind about it. If that happens, I’ll let you know. But you shouldn’t hold your breath waiting for me to announce my conversion to Flock.
Travis Lindsay
Social Media Guru
The BirdDog Group
“The faintest writing is stronger than the strongest memory.” – Chinese proverb
Why do I Blog? I get asked this question a lot. Yes, it takes a lot of time and brain cells, both of which I have a very limited supply. To blog regularly requires tons of research, fact checking, writing, and editing. It is hard work.
I don’t blog for the money since my blog is free. I don’t measure my success by the number of visitors to my site, yet I have many. The answer is that I blog to help people. And I suppose that sounds a little high-minded. But, of all the things that I do, including teaching at a university, running my own company, consulting with entrepreneurs, writing books, and speaking at conferences, blogging has the biggest impact of all.
Blogging is my way to share with others who know me and with others who I will never speak with or meet. Some like to call this “thought leadership”, which is a very uppity term. For me, it is the best way to communicate clearly with my target audience with my audience being people who want to learn more about marketing, sales, and negotiation.
Because I blog, I have been invited to speak at conferences, quoted in the national press, and have been interviewed on MSNBC. My motivation is not fame, rather it is the desire to teach and help others. Certainly a by-product of my success as a blogger includes book sales, paid speaking engagements, and consulting. This helps me pay the bills, which is important with two kids in college.
Seemingly every day my phone rings, or I get e-mails from people who I have never met before. They read my blog and want to share an idea or ask a question. That interchange is a thrill to me and is its own reward. This is why I blog.
John Bradley Jackson
Top Dog
The BirdDog Group
© Copyright 2010
All rights reserved.
Recently I was interviewed by Ashley Wirthlin from the Public Relations Blogger. We talked about marketing and PR in the new normal of 2010 and how things have changed.
Here is a snippet and a link to the blog.
“Niche marketing is about choosing a market that is overlooked or under-served… A marketplace that is served by the big companies, by mass marketers, typically will look over opportunities simply because they’re too small.”
John Bradley Jackson Interview – May 2010
John Bradley Jackson
Top Dog
The BirdDog Group
© Copyright 2010
All rights reserved.
While social media remains an evolving story, the players are taking shape when you observe what they do on the web. As my psychotherapist friend (yes, we are just friends) says, “behavior predicts behavior.”
In fact, there are six categories of social media users and these types are usually grouped according to their activities. Check this out:
John Bradley Jackson
Top Dog
The BirdDog Group
© Copyright 2010
All rights reserved.
James Thurber, author and cartoonist, said that many years ago and it is true today.
Selling is not about what you say to the customer, but rather it is about the questions you ask. Many salespeople are in love with their own words and ideas. They are often described as having the “gift of gab” which means that they really just talk too much. Instead of asking open-ended questions and listening, talkative salespeople talk too much.
They ramble on and on about product features to fill the dead air (which is extremely uncomfortable for a talkative person). Worse yet, they invariably talk about themselves, which is the last thing that the buyer wants to hear.
Meanwhile, the buyer ultimately buys from the seller who best understands their problems or needs. Of course, you don’t get to understand the buyer’s needs by talking. Great salespeople ask questions to learn about the buyer’s motivations, concerns, and desires. It is really that simple.
Ask questions to discover what matters most to the customer. If you must speak, then talk about what matters most to the customer.
John Bradley Jackson
Top Dog
The BirdDog Group
© Copyright 2010
All rights reserved.
The students who graduate from college today emerge from a self indulgent cocoon — college was all about them, their interests, and their dreams. Post college is a period of discovery about the stark reality of real life, commerce, and responsibility. I suppose, in many respects, this is the way it was for us old dudes 30 years ago.
The difference today is the broken promise of the Bachelors Degree — it entitles few to a career, or even a job. There are increasingly fewer jobs for young and old. Instead, workers must approach the workplace as an auction or barter for their services. They must be constantly on the hunt for new relationships, new skills, and new opportunities.
For the older worker, this has been an acknowledged trend for a number of decades which has spurred entrepreneurship. Mid career execs leave the corporate world by choice or by termination and then must reinvent themselves. I was one of those corporate refugees nearly ten years ago. I had soured of the politics and BS. I chose to focus my efforts on things that truly mattered and on activities that were satisfying.
College grads have been told a story about how a college degree will empower them to get a job. All the classroom cases and examples are about Procter and Gamble, Coca-Cola, and IBM (By the way, a quick internet search will show that these firms are downsized and have recently cut compensation of existing workers by up to 20%). By and large, the University is clueless about the new normal workplace.
While I totally buy into the value proposition of education, college does little to prepare the student for this new workplace. Students have yet to learn the value of networking, referrals, public speaking, and basic business etiquette. Many also struggle with basic skills such writing, reading, etc. That is yet another problem but still relevant.
Young workers are confused due to the inaccurate messages that they recieved from parents and educators. While the declining value of a college degree is an observed long term trend, it has been largely ignored. Couple that decline with our recent historic recession (soon to be written as so) and you have a bunch of young workers who must quickly adapt.
The bright side of the story is that the young may be more adaptable than us old dudes. They may have fewer biases and have not lived as long with the out-of-date “scripts” about life and careers and jobs. This new story needs to be told, the work scripts need to be rewritten, education must be reinvented, and the game needs to be re-branded.
John Bradley Jackson
Top Dog
The BirdDog Group
How valuable is social media to Entrepreneurs? There is considerable debate about the answer to this question.
A recent Wall Street Journal article provides a critical view about social media as a sales tool —- and this is exactly the problem. Describing social media as a sales tool is like saying that advertising sells products.
Advertising builds awareness for an offering. Advertising does not sell the products. In a similar way, social media does not sell products. Social media nurtures relationships.
Let’s reset the expectations for social media.
John Bradley Jackson
Top Dog
The BirdDog Group
© Copyright 2010
All rights reserved.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703909804575123691040422082.html
The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was killed in 709 AUC or 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus and 60 other co-conspirators. (Wikipedia).
For us in the 21st century, the Ides of March is a rally cry to get on with it, despite the dreary economy that continues to linger. From my point of view, our economic recovery is hinged on making things happen now, rather than waiting for an email with a notice about how things rebounded last quarter.
Entrepreneurship is all about making things better, whether you work in a start up or a large organization. If you reduce entrepreneurship to one attribute or trait it, is creativity. Consider creativity as applied imaginatinon —- a bright idea that was acted upon.
So, let’s get on with it.
John Bradley Jackson
Top Dog
The BirdDog Group
© Copyright 2010
All rights reserved.