Take your social media offline.

I have a dirty little secret.

Ok, so it's not so dirty, but it's kinda sad: my best friend is my computer. 

My computer is

1) With me all the time.

2) Provides all the advice I need.

3) My entertainment.

The worse part? I miss it when I leave the house. I feel "empty." (Don't take me seriously, folks.)

If you've found that your computer is your best friend lately, I'm here to tell you that you're not alone: with the explosion of social media sites and pressure small business owners feel to keep up with the craze, it's no surprise that computers are "man's" new best friend. We're spending more hours than ever networking, socializing, and doing business online.

I don't know about you, but I think it's time we take a break from our computers. Let's take our businesses offline (sort of) by combining the best social media has to offer with real-world experiences.

Here are three ways merge social networking with offline marketing:

1. Promote your business around town with posters or fliers. Offer a prize to the first person who poses with your promotional piece and posts to Twitter.

2. Create a video contest for the best home-made commercial for your business on YouTube.

3. Join Biznik: the site offers online networking with real-world events. (Yes, real human to human interaction.)

Of course, this is just a short-list of ideas and the possibilities are endless. I hope, though, these are enough to get your wheels turning and get you away from the computer for at least a little while.

I'm interested to hear about any of your efforts to blend new technology with offline marketing efforts--how'd they work?

Toxic people to avoid.

It's no secret that negative people can get you down. As a solo-entrepreneur, though, these people can be bad for business (you have so much on your plate, you don't need people squashing your dreams, too). 

I read an article by Brett Blumenthal about the 8 Toxic Personalities to Avoid on Yahoo today, and I think it's worth a look. In this post, I've included the personalities I think are the most detrimental to your business. They're below with Brett's description: 

1. Judgmental Jims: 

When you see things as cute and quirky, they see things as strange and unattractive. If you find people's unique perspectives refreshing, they find them 'wrong'. If you like someone's eclectic taste, they find it 'disturbing' or 'bad'.

Why they are toxic: 

Judgmental people are much like Debbie Downers. In a world where freedom rings, judgment is sooo over. If the world was a homogeneous place, life would be pretty boring. Spending a lot of time with these types can inadvertently convert you into a judgmental person as well.

2. Dream Killing Keiths: 

Every time you have an idea, these people tell you why you can't do it. As you achieve, they try to pull you down. As you dream, they are the first to tell you it is impossible.

Why they are toxic: 

These people are stuck in what is instead of what could be. Further, these individuals eat away at your self-esteem and your belief in yourself. Progress and change can only occur from doing new things and innovating, dreaming the impossible and reaching for the stars.

3. Insincere Illissas: 

You never quite feel that these people are being sincere. You tell a funny story, they give you a polite laugh. You feel depressed and sad and they give you a 'there, there' type response. You tell them you are excited about something and you get a very ho-hum response.

Why they are toxic: 

People who aren't sincere or genuine build relationships on superficial criteria. This breeds shallow, meaningless relationships. When you are really in need of a friend, they won't be there. When you really need constructive criticism, they would rather tell you that you are great the way you are. When you need support, they would rather see you fail or make a fool of yourself.

4. Never Enough Nellies: 

You can never give enough to these people to make them happy. They take you for granted and have unrealistic expectations of you. They find ways to continually fault you and never take responsibility for anything themselves.

Why they are toxic: 

You will spend so much time trying to please them, that you will end up losing yourself in the process. They will require all of your time and energy, leaving you worn out and your own needs sacrificed.

What type of people do you feel are most detrimental to your business? How do you deal with them? What if they're your clients?

Quote binge. (No more for a while, I promise.)

Two quotes in a row is a bit much for me, but this is a good reminder to listen to people, clients, and loved ones (I couldn't help but share):

"The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause."

--Mark Twain

Quote for today

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.

--Elbert Hubbard

Yay Entrepreneurs!

I found this video on the Biznik Blog. For the post, click here. 

Just a great reminder of why I'm working on my own business, and an inspiration to keep moving forward. Enjoy!

When bad copywriting happens to good companies.

You don't always notice good writing. In fact, if you've written something well, you shouldn't really notice the words. 

Here's the thing: if you write something and it's awful, everyone notices. Take note: even copy perfectionists like me get it wrong sometimes, so it's always good to have someone look over your work and save yourself the embarrassment! 

Just for fun, I've here's some examples of bad copywriting. I hope they remind you to take a second look at your marketing pieces.

1. Target: "Black Kid's Computer Desk." Here's an example of bad adjective placement, lol. 

2. USPS: convenient, really?

3. Jewelry store. Let's keep it simple: don't make promises in your marketing copy that you can't keep.

Cheers to editing and proof-reading!

Good, fast, or cheap: choose two of three.

A while back, I wrote an article on Freelance Switch about overcoming price objections (how to do it tactfully and confidently). If you're interested, you can read that article here.

As business owners, we often struggle with pricing: we don't want to underprice ourselves, but we don't want to scare clients away, either. In one of the comments to the article, freelance graphic designer Colin Wright brought up a great way to think about pricing: the project triangle. 

What's a project triangle, you ask? Let me explain, via Colin's comment:

"A good way to deal with questions about your hourly rate or project quote is to refer them to the Project Triangle.

The Project Triangle has three sides: Good, Fast and Cheap. The idea is that any freelancer can be two of the sides, but not all three. I focus (with rare exceptions) on being Good and Fast, and my clients appreciate that, which is a fact I will tell any client who I haven’t worked with before that doesn’t know that about me.

Provided this is true about how you work (it would be very embarrassing to not work Cheap, but also not work Fast or do Good work), it will likely help explain why you are competitive in the market without leaving you with no other response than to put down the competition."

I don't know about you, but I try to work good and fast. I'm interested to hear how others handle pricing issues?

Broken products and services.

These days, more and more customers are getting annoyed with companies and small businesses that provide broken products and services. 

Your business longevity and brand depend on your providing services and products with value. Your livelihood hinges on your customers NOT being annoyed with you. 

If you're not sure what a broken product or service looks like, check out this video by Seth Godin. He explains "broken" in his lively, entertaining style. This video is about 20 minutes, but well worth it!

PWN Tradeshow Booth

Last week was pretty hectic, not only did I have my normal, day-to-day business activities, but I was preparing for a trade show. (Yes, I'm making excuses for being VERY absent from my blog, Twitter, and social media pages in general.)

Overall, the event went well. I like chatting with people and it's fun to check out other booths, too. 

As you know, I was having trouble thinking of ways to display my writing work. And, some of you were kind enough to send me some ideas (thanks Deb!). 

Fortunately, I was sharing a booth with Angela from 13thirtyone Design and we were able to create some booth decorations that simultaneously served to draw people in AND showcase our writing and design abilities. Here are some examples:

Poster

This poster explained how creative professionals help entrepreneurs grow their business. The copy forces people to keep reading (because each point leads into the next) so it kept people at our booth a little longer--yay!

Email sign-up for marketing tip card.

Angela and I gave away a business-card sized brochure that offered six shoestring marketing tips. (You can see it by the sign-up sheet there if you look closely.)  Again, this offered examples of our work and was a piece that visitors could bring home, keep, and use time and time again. The goal was to be helpful while getting residual exposure from the tip card. Plus, we built our client list by having people sign up to get the piece.

Other than the examples above, I did have a HUGE binder full of writing examples. Yes, I know I said this was boring and uninspired. Oh well, it seemed to work well enough.

Like I said, I enjoyed meeting and talking with people at the trade show, and will definitely consider doing a booth again soon! Just out of curiosity, have any of you done a trade show? What have you found works or doesn't work?

Understand Twitter.

Alright, I finally caved. I got a Twitter account. If you're interested, you can follow me here:

@lindsayberger

Here's the thing. I have no idea what I'm doing. Most likely, you've been hearing a lot about Twitter lately and been tempted to join, but have no idea what it's all about either.

I have an article for you!

A fellow Bizniker, Naomi Pollack wrote this information packed tutorial: Understanding Twitter: Why Twitter is Less Like Facebook and More Like Email.

Once you read it, you'll feel a little more comfortable using this new social networking medium.