Via BizJournals.com SBA turns to YouTube – Business First of Buffalo:

To reach a larger audience, the U.S. Small Business Administration is now posting informational videos on YouTube.

“With millions of visitors, most of them under 35, YouTube offers a prime opportunity to use current technology and the appeal of a popular online platform to further promote the agency’s programs and services,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. “By expanding its outreach, SBA will be providing more current and potential entrepreneurs with the necessary tools to start, grow and succeed in their businesses.”

In a statement released Aug. 26, SBA said it is intent on reaching this audience with its message of entrepreneurship, the importance of small business to the nation’s economy, and information on the agency’s programs and services.

Check out the SBA Channel on YouTube here.
Here is a sample video, with “Top 10 Tips”:

And what are these magical tips? Here is a list:

1. Get a mentor
2. Test your idea
3. Hire quality
4. Stay on your game
5. Focus on your mission
6. Develop partnerships, carefully
7. Plan for the future
8. Set goals
9. Stay focused
10. Protect your brand

What are your top tips?

After reading the book “Young Guns” for last week’s review, I decided to expand on some of the ideas put forth by the author, Robert Tuchman. You can read all of these posts at the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers Event site under the “7 Priorities” tag. The first two posts are up now, the remaining posts will appear on the next 5 Tuesdays.

Leave a comment there, I’d love to know what you think.

Inspired by a post by Rebecca Thorman at Modite: Gen Y Needs Boundaries

I like motivational talks. Like this one from Gary Vaynerchuk. I get all excited and pumped and ready to work.

Then I get stuck. Interminably stuck. Because I’m really excited and pumped to work, but for what? I’m a lucky person, but I wonder is this it? Really? Because I thought there might be more.

Marcus Buckingham of the Wall Street Journal gets it. “This is a deeply anxious and insecure generation,” he argues. “On the surface they look self-confident, [but] deep down they know that they don’t actually know what it takes to win.”

Apparently it’s going to take a decade of wandering for us to figure it out. New York Times columnist David Brooks describes this new Generation Y life stage as the Odyssey Years – a decade of exploration and experimentation (via Tammy Erickson).

This is part of my comment on that post:

Personal discipline, integrity, and accountability are issues that every generation has to deal with. I suspect that Gen Y will do a good job of it, especially as the current economic situation is creating an environment of limited choice for almost everyone.

Pressure makes diamonds, folks.

In that spirit, I give you a TED talk by Barry Schwartz:

Welcome to part one of the Periodic Review series of posts. Originally written in the Spring of 2007, my own practice has evolved and grown into a richer and more useful review appointment. Therefore I am up-dating this post and adding some additional details and practices that may make your own review practice easier and more productive. Today we will look at the building blocks of the review process, starting with the Daily review. From Getting Things Done, by David Allen:

“The real trick to ensuring the trustworthiness of the whole organization system lies in regularly refreshing your psyche and your system from a more elevated perspective.“

Your Daily Review

The daily review process involves two steps:

1. “Closing up shop” at the end of your day
2. Planning for your current day

You may be thinking that this is blindingly obvious, but let me tell you. Many of the people that e-mail me for help do not shut things down in an organized fashion when they leave their office. Oh sure, they may put things away, clear off their desk, turn off the PC and the lights. But they do not set themselves up for success on the following day. This is one of the most important lessons that I learned working in the hospitality business: If you do not re-set and re-stock your work areas at the end of your shift, the next shift coming in will face a disaster. When you do prep for the next shift, even if the next shift is just you, then that shift can come in and just start working. How very convenient.

Closing up shop

This is the easiest thing in the world to do, are you ready? Take 5-10 minutes at the end of your day and stop working. Start prepping:

• Clear out your in-box, if you haven’t already.
• Make a list of things that you have started but not finished.
• Jot down anything that is lurking in your mind related to your tasks for today and the future.
• Capture any thoughts or ideas about upcoming work, tasks, or meetings to be reviewed the next day.

Put all of this information into your system, be it paper or digital. Go home.

Plan for Today

Now you are ready to start your day, and you have a head-start because of the prep-work that you did last night. Even if you left work and went on a date, to see a movie or a game, or just plain stopped thinking about work for the whole weekend you are prepared to take up right were you left off – because you have that list. Now you can see, at a glance, what is going on. What tasks were left partially- or undone, and what your thoughts were about the upcoming events of the day.Now you can create and prioritize a task list for the day.

Every day next week I will be running a series of posts where we will discuss the Weekly, Monthly, and Quarterly Reviews, followed by a less-detailed version of the Periodic Review that is focused on accountability and goal-setting.

150 People Looking in the Same Direction

(post borrowed from Liz Strauss, because I am too buried in moving to write for myself right now)

TIME.

It’s the only resource we can’t get more of.

Suppose you could take a weekend retreat away from the noise…

• to focus entirely on your business
• to work with the support of a team
• to get quality time to interact with the best names in social media
• to get the best information AND time to dicuss how you’ll apply it
• to work with sponsors in the social media space
• in a room that only holds 150 people — all focused in the same direction
• without worry because the food and the wireless are outstanding.

A weekend of learning with Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, Brian Clark, Liz Strauss, Brian Solis, Kali Evans-Raoul, KD Paine, Geoff Nelson and Chris Aarons, Denise Wakeman, Wendy Piersall, and David Bullock, Stephen Smith and Michael Martine, Saul Colt and Terry Starbucker, Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson — and a 150-person dream team.

Would you invest in your business to experience that?

Register for SOBCon 2009 here.

From Website Magazine: Conversion Critic: Analyze Landing Page

Search marketing agency Engine Ready released ConversionCritic today, an online tool for search marketers designed to help them analyze and improve landing pages. The service is free of charge right now and is definitely worth a look if you’re aiming at generating a few more sales from landing pages.

ConversionCritic scores pages based on 37 criteria, for example, “Does the copy focus more on selling the benefits versus the features of the product or service?” The tool then provides feedback on the marketing effectiveness, offer clarity, readability and engagement or suggested modifications of the landing page. I tested Website Magazine’s new professional membership landing page and was pleased with the results, but did see some room for improvement.

“The dynamics that persuade a visitor to be your customer are numerous and complex, and depend on your product/service offering, competitive influences and the demographics of your target audience,” reports Engine Ready’s CEO Jamie Smith. “ConversionCritic is a great online tool for search marketers to see exactly which on-page factors are contributing to higher conversions and what improvements are needed to further increase the conversion rate.”

The service is free with registration, and it gives you an excellent list of questions to answer about your page, things that you may not have considered.

While the Lovely Bride and I have been traveling across the country we visited the Museum of Art in Milwaukee, WI. A very cool place, in a very cool building. In the gift shop I picked up a book by Matthew Frederick entitled, “101 Things I Learned in Architecture School”.

In this little tome are a slew of excellent quotations and snippets of wisdom pointed at architecture students but applicable to a much broader audience. In that spirit, I present the first in a series of inspirations from this little book:

How do I Write a Post for my Blog?

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1. Architects use different lines for different purposes, but the line type most specific to architecture is drawn with an emphasis at the beginning and at the end. This practice anchors a line to the page and gives a drawing conviction and punch.

Your blog posts will be written in different formats for different purposes, but the basic framework of your post should remain the same. The post should begin and end with an emphasis on the title topic. To begin your post with punch, most internet style guides tell you to begin with a photo, as it helps to catch the eye. You should also edit your <h> title tags in order to create paragraph headings. This makes your post easier to scan, both on the page and in a feed reader. Many people read lots and lots of blog posts every day, and they need to be able to spot your value at a glance.

Write posts that have timeless value

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2.Overlap lines slightly where they meet.

Create “flagship content”, a series of posts on the main topic of your blog. These posts should overlap somewhat, leading the reader from one to the next in an orderly progression. Chris Garrett has an excellent article on selling with flagship content, and an e-book on the subject of witing flagship content that you can download, just for subscribing to his blog (and if you aren’t a subscriber, you should be). From Chris’ blog:

How does Flagship Content sell?

1. Attraction – You know your content is Flagship when that is how visitors find you. If people talk about your content then it will draw new pre-sold visitors to your door.
2. Education – In your niche is there subjects where people get confused? Is there something that you are especially well equipped to help with? Demonstrate your expertise, prove you are the person to come to.
3. Trust – What do you get when you combine third-party endorsements with great educational content? The answer, of course, is a good foundation for trust.
4. Decision – Is your approach and alternative to another method? Are you aiming to differentiate yourself from competitors? Work it carefully and you can help the reader, or now surely potential customer, take the decision in your favor.
5. Action – Finally you give the reader tools so they can take action, at the very least ways in which they can get in touch with you. …it doesn’t need to be a hard sell as by this point they will already be convinced you know your stuff.

As you can see, Chris does know his stuff.

Get to the point

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3. When sketching, don’t “feather and fuzz” your way across the page– that is, don’t make a vague-looking line out of many short, overlapping segments.

When writing, get right to the point. Blog posts should (generally) be kept short and pithy. Just a couple of paragraphs with catchy headings can deliver all of the value that you need to your readers. If you have a longer post, manifesto, important lesson, or rant that you’d like to share – put it on its own page and point to it with a short post.

There you go, how to write a blog post in 3 easy steps. Now what are you waiting for?

Building a personal network of business associates and colleagues is an ongoing project, and all of the great networkers will tell you that you need to work at building your network before you need it. Before you need a reference for a new job, before you need help marketing a new product, before you need to hire new team members.

Mario Sanchez-Carrion from shoestringbranding.com says the same thing about blogging: Before You Start Blogging

Start blogging before you need it

Blogging is a long term proposition, not something you do on a rush because “sales are down this quarter” or because “regular advertising is not working”. Since the benefits from blogging won’t become evident immediately, it is better to start early, even before you need it.

For example, if you’re a corporate soldier who plans to branch out on your own in three years, start blogging now. Your blog will be a nice asset at your service once you’re ready to pull the plug.

Similarly if you are a college student and will be looking for your first job in a couple of years, you can also benefit from starting a blog now (your blog will certainly beat a one page standard résumé and will put you ahead of other job seekers).

Have you started a blog yet? If you need some help, let me know in the comments.

One of the great things about the internets is that you can easily link to really cool information from really smart people. Like this post from Chris Brogan, who knows something about Social Media Literacy:

Okay, so you’ve heard from someone that this social media and social networking stuff is great and you should get involved, and it’s really going to help you out. Maybe it will help you in the economic downturn. Maybe you have heard how you can use Twitter for business. But there’s a lot to it all.

Where would you start? What would come first? How might you think about getting out there and joining in on the experience?

If I Started Today

Here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll build three different scenarios out, and give you the starting points for what I’d do with social media if I were in these steps. Try to extrapolate them out to your profession or your need. If you really want to have fun with this post, take what I’ve started here, and write your own post for your vertical or condition, and then be sure to share the ideas with us here, so we can go to your site and check it out. (We’ll even be able to visit via trackbacks, if you link back to the original post).

Social Media Literacy starts with Listening

The number one thing that I tell all of my clients is that you start by listening. Again, no sense re-typing this:

Listening is my first move in starting to understand social media. That means this: go and read the blogs that are out there. Read from different genres. Go visit Twitter.com and more importantly search.twitter.com, and see what people are saying. Read comments on people’s blogs and see which ones seem to get any response. Search using Google and Technorati.com, and start listening to conversations that are out there.

Find the people and players in your market. Read what they have to say. Read what their customers are saying. Look for them in forums, blogs, and online magazines. Read as much as you can so that you understand where the conversation is going before you start talking back.

• Take copious notes, who started the conversation and who has the best insights.
• Bookmark the posts and comments for later reference.
• Find the authors on Twitter and LinkedIn, and follow them.

What to do when you feel ready

When you believe that you have enough background to get involved in the conversation:

1. Leave a comment on the blog. Make it insightful, make it useful, contribute to the conversation.
2. Invite further suggestions or comments.
3. Do not make it an ad or pitch for you or your company, let the value of your comment be the pitch.

Once you get involved, build some trust, and create some name recognition, then it is time to take the next step.

Read all of Chris’ post – “If I Started Today” – for much more insight.

I have compiled a list of recent articles on blogging that I am sure you will find useful in generating ideas and/or developing your skills as a blogger:

• Joanna Young – A 60-second guide to engaging your readers

  We live in a time poor, information overloaded world. That means your readers are information overloaded, time poor too. That makes time (and energy, and attention) a big potential barrier to engaging your readers. It also means you can use time to your advantage by showing your readers that you respect, and value, their time.
  Here’s a rapid fire, 60 second guide to how you can do just that:
  
  Write With Reading In Mind

• Darren Rowse – How to use free give-aways to entice subscribers
  If you’re like most people, you haven’t had time to write a great book to give away as a sign-up bonus. Well, today I’m going to show you two very easy ways to get such a book:

  1. Create your own with an e-book template
  2. Use someone else’s book that is in the public domain (you’d be amazed how many great books are out there for free!)
• Brian Solis – The state of Social Media
  The world of Socialized Media is maturing and along with it, our knowledge, expertise, reach, and personal and represented brands are only flourishing. It will continue as long as we realize that these new social tools and networks require an entirely new commitment and embodiment of what we personify and how we can be a genuine resource to the people who define the communities that are important to us.
• Chris Anderson – (a post from last year that you may have missed) PR and the long tail

  So fair warning: I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I’m interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that (I love those emails; indeed, that’s why my email address is public).

• Pete Savage – Copywriting tips for non-writers
  Features tell, benefits sell! Good copy clearly communicates the benefit that your product or service delivers to the customer. Poor copy, on the other hand, merely lists features and leaves them dangling, with no explanation as to how they will benefit the customer.

  Here’s how you avoid that trap… as you write about the attributes of your product, ask yourself, “So what?” Your answer will lead you to the benefit.

  For example, “This car comes with automatic four-wheel drive.” {“So what?”} “…so you’ll enjoy safe, worry-free driving, in all weather conditions.”

• Michael Martine – A different kind of e-mail list

  My primary goal here is to open a new channel through which to provide as much value to you as I possibly can. Occasionally, between all the free stuff, the sneak peaks, the discount codes, and the secret password-protected content, I will present offers that I hope are a dead-on match for your interests. In other words, they will simply be another form of value if I do it right (and I’m not here to do it wrong, folks). I am being honest with you about this because if there is ever to be any trust at all between us, I must be.

As usual, I’d love to hear what you think of these articles, and what more you’d like to learn. Leave a comment!