Orange E-Business Advocate

Reaction to Yahoo

I was invited to Yahoo 360 today (in its beta phase, you need an invite from an existing member to join). After a quick tour of its features, I have to say I am impressed -- looks like they have done a good job with their user interface. It is certainly geared for their base of existing users, but at the same time incorporates the up and coming technologies and best practices on the web (blogging, social networking, rss feeds, and so on). I believe we are going to see a lot more "average" internet users adopt the notion of social networking thanks to this service. Let's see what happens next.

Stop Being So Obvious!

One of my main concerns when I started this blog was to avoid stating the obvious - I wanted to make sure OCEA was providing a valuable service, and building up a useful base of knowledge for its clients (and potential clients) to draw upon.

People aren't stupid; we can all quickly identify information that is junk. At the same time, consumers respond well to clever marketing, and the sharing of information that somehow meets their needs or sparks an interest in them.

As such, it bothers me that OCEA continues to receive junk marketing from American Express. I'm disappointed, because I had high hopes for their OPEN: Small Business Network, yet they continue to send me letters and emails with useless content:

Using your American Express® Business Card instead of checks can help give you more time to pay since your Card bill typically isn't due for several weeks after receipt. This month just give it a try, and see all the ways your Card can help make doing business a little easier.

Really now. Please stop insulting my intelligence with this obvious statement!

It reminds me of those TV shopping channels, where the salespeople have to kill time and come up with a thousands more reasons you should buy the product they are showcasing. "It has a 2.2 Ghz CPU, so you can download your email faster!" What?

So, now for my obvious conclusion: Keep your marketing communications concise, and don't waste your customers' time. When you have a great new product or service, or some truly clever tips or discounts to share, that's when you should send out emails and promotions. Otherwise, leave people alone - they'll be more inclined to listen to you later when you really do have something good to say.

(Came across this website content writing guide while researching this post. Hope you find it useful!)

Leadership and Courage

I read an inspirational post on FastCompany.com today about leadership and courage. A great quote:

You can't build anything great in life if you're worried about failure. When you worry about failure, you put your energy in the wrong place. You end up focusing on escape routes and contingency plans instead of success. And you kill the passion and drive you need to bring your creative ideas to life.

Fear of failure is probably the main reason why most people don't start their own business venture, or why a fledgling business never grows into a success. Focusing on the future and fueling your enthusiasm for dreams is the best way to make them a reality - have the courage to make great things happen!

Other blogs talking about leadership.

Building a Better Local Business Directory

ClearSpanMedia, a web development and marketing company serving the greater Houston, TX area, has put together a noteworthy portal site called CommShout (Community Shout).

CommShout is portrayed as a place for Houston consumers to find listings and information on local restaurants, theatres, hotels, and other services. It features a very clean user interface and the site is structured in way that is highly search engine friendly. However, the only businesses listed are those who are paying ClearSpanMedia for a one page ad. While it's likely that these businesses are seeing moderate results from a boost in search engine traffic due to CommShout, how beneficial of a resource is this for the Houston community as a whole?

OCEA is developing a portal site for Orange County, NY, where businesses can list themselves for FREE! This would be similar conceptually to the Google Local Business Center but exclusive to Orange County, so that it can be a true resource for the community, both businesses and consumers alike.

Why do we want to do this? Because we're Advocates for the local businesses of this area. We also want to make it easier for consumers in the region (especially those who recently moved here) to find quality, trusted, and respected businesses that are part of Orange County's history and continue to provide great products and services. At the same time, we want to empower local businesses to use the web to its fullest, and hopefully use OCEA to make their online presence a reality.

If you are interested in having your business listed in such a directory, please contact us at advocateoceagroup.com or call 845.742.8102.

Technorati Tags: directory, orange-county-ny

Yahoo Comes Full Circle

As if I didn't have enough things to keep track of... Yahoo announced its new social networking site, Yahoo 360, which I predict will give a lot of the other sites out there a run for their money.

What makes Yahoo different? Their 165 million registered users who have already enjoyed countless other features on this portal site. Plus, I think Yahoo's services will strike a cord with a broader base of users, whereas personal sites like Friendster and MySpace, or even business sites like LinkedIn and Ryze, are focused on the more hip and savvy users and tend to alienate the masses.

As a small business owner, also be aware of some of the features Yahoo plans to roll out, which could directly affect you:

• Recommendation Lists (books, movies, products, etc.)
• Link sharing
• Business ratings and reviews

Google: Calling all Business Owners

Today Google announced a new offering, called the Google Local Business Center, enabling business owners to add, update, or remove their business listings from Google's index. It is an absolute no-brainer to add your local business to Google's index - it is like getting listed in the Yellow Pages for free! I highly recommend visiting the link above and registering your business.

Voicemail Tips for Better Business

Monster.com has a halfway-decent blog that talks about the workplace, as well as providing advice for those seeking jobs. I read an anecdote that they posted recently about voicemail greetings, and I felt it applied not only to individuals but businesses as well.

Living in a world where live conversation is hard to come by, I’ve found you can learn a lot about a person from their voice mail message. It’s funny what a five-second greeting can reveal about your personality.

The post goes on to illustrate some powerful examples of how voicemail greetings reveal a lot.

Owners of small businesses hate to miss a call; every potential customer means so much. Whether it's super-friendly, or professional, or even humorous, make sure your voicemail leaves an impression on callers that makes them want to do business with you. Even better, leave the name of your website in your voicemail greeting, so would-be customers can browse your site while they wait to hear back from you!

Here is another good page about Outgoing Voicemail Messages that Get Results.

Jybe - Web Browsing Made Social

The Internet has been in fairly wide use for a decade now, yet we are only now starting to realize how much more social the experience can be. If you think about it, the time you spend on the internet is pretty lonely and isolated. Like reading a book, you are off into your own world, away from friends and family, reading words on the screen for entertainment or learning.

Some internet services like email, instant messaging, and the like, have enabled us to connect better with loved ones, and even strangers. But most of these activities (besides IM) are asynchronous - you send an email, and usually wait a few hours or days for the response.

Jybe is a new plug-in for your browser that makes browsing the web much more social:

Jybe lets you browse the web in real-time with friends, family and business partners. Show off your favorite websites or give your customer a live tour of your product catalog.

This is exciting not only for regular internet users, but for businesses as well. You can use Jybe to help customers navigate your online store. Go comparison shopping online for supplies and services with other decision-makers in your company. Or browse other sites with co-workers and customers to get a feel for what works best and what is awkward about the customer experience on sites like yours.

Tagging: A New Phenomenon

I've been following the commentary on lots of blogs discussing the new trend of "tagging," made popular by sites such as del.icio.us and Flickr, and I finally came across an article that does a good job of introducing the concept from a less nerdy perspective. The byline of the article does a great job of summing up tagging for those who haven't heard of it before:

Tagging is a new way surfers can organize and share sprawling Web content, providing a fast-growing grassroots alternative to traditional search.

Simply put, tagging is going to have a huge impact on our online social networks and how people find and prioritize content, ideas, businesses, and so on. Especially for niche businesses, getting bookmarked on del.icio.us will become as helpful as ranking high in Google.

BusinessWeek explains Tagging

Email Campaign Tips

I'm now subscribed to the Constant Contact mailing list, and this month's newsletter has a fairly decent checklist that anyone sending out broadcast messages should go over before hitting the "send" button.

Here is the Email Checklist PDF, courtesy of Constant Contact.

The Local Search Engines

Over the past few months I've come to the conclusion that Local Search is key to the success of online strategies for small businesses. Face it, if you own a small business in, let's say, Middletown NY... unless you have a really niche product or service, a large percentage of your customers are coming from a 30 mile radius.

And, as OCEA's clients have surely experienced, it's extremely hard to rank high in "national" searches; search for pizza and you're going to see Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Papa John's, not Franco Di Roma of Middletown NY. (To be fair, Franco's restaurant is not just about great pizza - their catering services are phenomenal and I love their veal cutlet dinner).

The point is, local businesses should start learning about local search. In the next few years, customers are going to be using these local search services a lot more, and like the phone book, you don't want to be left out.

So check out some of these services, see what you can find, and start figuring out how to get your business listed:

• A9 - service from Amazon - (also some information about their Yellow Pages Search)
• Google Local - with Google Maps integration - nice!
• Yahoo Local
• Ask Jeeves Local