The topic was branding:  Is your brand helping or hurting your small business?  Let’s take a look at some of the responses and comments on this topic.  The Twitter handle of the person who said them, follows:

1.       What exactly is a “brand”? Is it a name, a logo – or more?  – @FedExOffice

A brand is the overall perception the publicgets when they think of your business.  - @Smallbiztrends

A brand has many parts: name, logo, tagline,reputation, experience customers have had … and more. @Smallbiztrends

Even your business cards, packaging and signagehelp the public recognize your brand. @Smallbiztrends

It’s a combination of all. It’s the whole picture that pops in to a client’s mind when they hear a company name  -@a_biro

To me, a “brand” is symbol of your business story. Logo, name, everything should refer & infer the story  -@3keyscoach

When branding works well it immediately tells your story   - @CASUDI

A Brand is the thoughts, feelings, and psychological relationship between a business and a customer  -@paintermommy

Sum of who you are, what you do & stand for visually and viscerally. -@DeborahShane

A brand is what people say about you when you’re not around  - @philsimon

2. Can your brand hold your business back? If so, how?  – @FedExOffice

Yes, brand can evoke perceptions of poorquality or unprofessionalism. – @Smallbiztrends

For example, an inappropriate look (e.g., acartoonish font for a serious business) may undermine confidence. – @Smallbiztrends

Inconsistent design details are also aproblem (e.g., multiple styles in marketing materials). – @Smallbiztrends

I’ve seen logos & websites of such poor quality I couldn’t trust them. Hence, no sale. – @robert_brady

Some businesses outgrow their branding or shift biz focus – old branding might be blocking new customers  - @CathyWebSavvyPR

Small biz can learn a lot from big biz – both face similar challenges in establishing a brand – dif steps but useful lesson   - @ZimanaAnalytics

Wrong image can alienate potential buyers – I feel this way abt “edgy” clothing lines – some local – @janejoeyxo

3: How do you assess if your brand is helping or hurting?  – @FedExOffice

Start with your biz name and logo. What do others think of when they seethem? Is name easy to spell, say?- @Smallbiztrends

Do people say they don’t know what you do? If so, consider re-naming,re-designing your logo, or adding a tagline. – @Smallbiztrends

Website analytics, how ppl look @ my biz card, types of questions/comments they make tells me if my biz is connecting   - @3keyscoach

When U hear ~ I didn’t know you do that!   - @CASUDI

A professional logo is simplistically memorable, practically appropriate, and conveys an intended meaning.  - @TommyGuns

4. What if your name and logo do not need overhauled? What other brand elementsshould you look at? – @FedExOffice

Look at how you present your business. Areyou putting best foot forward in brochures, website, business cards, signs? – @Smallbiztrends

You have 5 to 10 seconds to make a goodimpression – as a person or as a biz. – @Smallbiztrends

Too often I see small businesses sabotagetheir own brands, and that’s a shame. – @Smallbiztrends

What about a “headline statement” such as what http://t.co/tPWyzIxR has  -@DIYMarketers

Simple one… Font type!  -  @lvansteen

Maybe if your logo and name don’t need to change your marketing plan does…  – @Apex_Biz

Customer service, without positive customer interactions your logo is nothing but a reminder of a bad experience. – @TommyGuns

5:  What are some ways small businesses sabotage their own brands? – @FedExOffice

Faded signs and tattered trade show bannerswill undermine your brand, suggesting lack of pride. – @Smallbiztrends

Poor quality printed items (fuzzy graphics,cheap paper, bleeding ink) make even the best brands look bad.- @Smallbiztrends

By not marketing properly  -@carnivalfanatic

Setting up auto-responders on social networks that don’t engage customers can be a bad thing – really bad….  - @BasicBlogTips

I’ll never forget early on I handed a potential client my biz card made w/ generic logo, her card had same logo  - @CathyWebSavvyPR

They forget why they started their business in the first place.  - @KStaib

Bad customer support smashes your brand. To have successful brand, control every aspect of doing business  -  @lvansteen

The right #smallbiz signage equation: simple + clean = best. Read more to see if your signs stack up: http://t.co/fjVyl66G  – @FedExOffice

6:  Is consistency an important element of brand? Why or why not? – @FedExOffice

Consistency is crucial. People notice if abusiness card has a new logo and the brochure has the old. – @Smallbiztrends

Also, it is easier to build brand recognitionwhen you use similar graphics throughout multiple channels. – @Smallbiztrends

Yes very important, it creates comfort for customers and trust   - @marilola33

Promotes consumer confidence in your business  -@GeekDad248

7:  Complete this sentence: “A professional looking logo …” – @FedExOffice

A professional looking logo helps you cut through the marketing clutter and create a memorable association for your customers  -@GeekDad248

8:  Can you present a quality brand on a small business budget?  - @FedExOffice

Yes! For marketing materials, weigh “value.” Cheap cost = good. Cheap look = bad. – @Smallbiztrends

You can get a pro look using a DIY tool, provided it’s a good tool. Find a good “partner” to execute, too. – @Smallbiztrends

Example: a brochure based on a Word templatecan look professional if printed in color on quality stock. -  @Smallbiztrends

A personal touch and attention to your customer’s needs can go a long way and might not cost much  - @Ileane

Choose wisely where you spend your branding dollars. Keep your customer’s response in mind @ all times  - @CathyWebSavvyPR

A smile is the best thing a business can offer me, costs nothing but makes my day   - @TommyGuns

9:  What is the biggest mistake to avoid when presenting your brand?  – @FedExOffice

Mistake: presenting your brand in anyway that you would feel compelled to apologize about. – @Smallbiztrends

You can hardly focus on sales if the next breath has you apologizing for yourwebsite or outdated business cards! – @Smallbiztrends

Too cluttered. Too many words  - @janejoeyxo

Overspending on marketing, making outlandish claims, using negative pressure tactics to gain business – @itmaiden

10:  What are your two best tips for presenting a small business brand professionally?  – @FedExOffice

Tip 1: spring for a professionally designedlogo. You will have it for years. Get the best you can afford. – @Smallbiztrends

Tip 2: quality materials count! People are tactile. We feel a business card’sweight, or a mailer’s gloss. – @Smallbiztrends

Acknowledge the value of the relationship with your customer, say thank you and don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials   - @Ileane

Make sure your branding showcases what you/yr product can do best for yr customers, and is memorable   - @CathyWebSavvyPR

Attending marketing events helped me a lot – ones sponsored by prof org  -@janejoeyxo

2 tips to present a smallbiz brand professionally: (1) set clear expectations; (2) Underpromise, but overdeliver.   - @crowdSPRING

This Twitter chat was part of the FedEx Office® Our Office Is Your Office Tweet Chat Series

Note:  to make the recap easier to read, tweets above have been edited to remove redundant information, such as hashtags and answer numbers, and fix obvious misspellings.  Tweets may be slightly out of order, for better readability. The above represents only a small portion of the tweets — it is intended to cover key highlights for reader convenience.  Go here for a transcript of the chat.  

Disclosure: FedEx Office compensated me to participate as a small business expert during the FedEx Office Our Office Is Your Office Tweet Chat program. The ideas in this blog post are mine and not ideas or advice from FedEx Office.

From Small Business Trends

Is Your Brand Helping Or Hurting Your Small Business? Chat Recap

Do you know how to cope and master the problems you face in business? If not, here are five small business challenges we’ve all faced, and five smart ways to deal with them.

1.     Capital Drain

Read more ...

©2012 YFS Magazine - Startup, Small Business News and Entrepreneurial Culture. All Rights Reserved.

Tweet

• Advertising: any paid form of communication through  mass communication
• Sales promotion: any short term incentive to encourage trial purchase
• Events and Experiences: sponsored events or activities
• Public Relations and Publicity: non paid ways to promote image and reputation
• Direct Marketing:  one-to-one  communication such as mail, telephone, e-mail and Internet selling
• Personal Selling: face-to-face interaction with one or more prospective customers

Answer these three simple, but important, questions first:

1) What do you do?

2) Who is your core customer?

3) How do you reach them where they hang out and engage?

Applying those answers to these areas will help you know what you need to belong to, subscribe to and engage in.

Belong To The Right Organizations

What’s your networking in person plan? Pick a chamber, be a member of a professional organization, a union, networking or hobby group, or meet ups. Be willing to go to them and get to know others who can become valued peers, colleagues and friends. Be out consistently, show your face and bring your personality.

Subscribe To The Most Important Content

Who are the leading voices and experts in your field and related fields? Subscribe to their blogs, newsletters, white papers, news feeds, and tips. This will keep you on the forefront of relevant and current trends and information.

Engage Where Your Customers Or Followers Are

Wherever your customers, fans, friends, peers and colleagues are is where you should be. Get more active on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube, selective chat rooms, online groups, Tweet/Facebook chats. Choose the activities that are best for you and build in time to be on them.

Who are your best playmates, playgrounds and games? The business world is just a big park, playground and party.  Get into the conversations and be apart of the discussion.  When you put yourself out, in a targeted, focused way with a brand and branding plan that makes sense to reach the best people for you, you create a natural self marketing plan that will reward and return.

Mix and match, use and try media, marketing and promotion until you find the best ROI and RON (return on networking).  Stay curious and be proactive in trying new things that are on top of consumer trends that impact you.  Here are 10 ways to stretch your marketing budget from author Mark W Bly from his book The Marketing Plan Handbook.  If you’re using social media for marketing your business, you should be measuring it, according to Union Metrics founder Jenn Deering Davis.

Be brave, bold, adventurous and follow a game plan, when it comes to marketing yourself! Be willing to adjust, tweak and adapt.

What’s your personal marketing plan?

Marketing Plan Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

The “Belong Subscribe And Engage” Marketing Plan

At a recent workshop I facilitated, a participant shared that she didn’t understand the big ‘hype’ about having a website.  Though she had one; she hadn’t attained any customers from it.  I explained that having a website is a good first step, but not enough to gain clients. If you are not engaging your visitors, chances are they will never return.  Do you have a website but not sure how to guide traffic to it? Here are 5 ways to steer traffic to your website:

Register with Major Search Engines

An important step to steer traffic to your website is to make sure is it is listed on all the major search engines such as Bing, Google and Yahoo.  This is one of the most efficient ways of directing free, targeted traffic to your website.  It’s easy and takes just a few minutes of your time.

• Bing
• Google
• Yahoo

Respond to Questions and Comments

People leave comments for a reason; they are interested in your response.  By responding, you’re letting them know that you’re actively involved in reading the comments and encouraging them to visit again. In addition, this is an effective way to become known in your industry as an expert.

Develop Article Marketing Strategy

Blogging is an easy way to drive traffic to your website and establish yourself as an expert in your industry. If executed effectively, this can be a smart online marketing strategy and an affordable way to grow your business.  Blogging is ‘big business’ among entrepreneurs, writers and those who just want to express themselves thru electronic communication.  More and more businesses are blogging as they realize the benefits.  There are several online sites where you can submit your articles for publication and back link to your website:

• E-zine Articles or www.ezinearticles.com
• Associated content or www.associatedcontent.com
• Articles base or  www.articlesbase.com

In addition, posting your articles on various social media sites is a great marketing strategy to generate traffic back to your website. Post your article using the following FREE social networks:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Use Social Bookmarking Services

Social bookmarking sites allow you to search, organize, share and store the bookmarks of different web pages. You are also able to promote articles and stay ahead of your competitors.  Here are 3 popular social book marketing services:

• Digg– The ultimate social media site; it’s become notorious for producing traffic waves so massive that they can have a DOS-style impact on smaller hosts.
• Stumble Upon – Helps members discover and share great websites. As you click Stumble, the site   delivers high-quality pages matched to your personal preferences. These pages have been explicitly recommended by your friends or one of 8 million+ other web surfers with interests similar to you.
• del.icio.us – A social bookmarking website; users can mark their favorites with del.icio.us and share them with each other; making it onto the front page of the “recently popular” section on del.icio.us will send a decent amount of traffic so long as the category you’re tagged into is popular.

Create Videos

Video marketing is all the RAVE!  Whether creating how to, testimonial, product review or interview videos for your website, it increases brand awareness and creates viewer action leading to more inquiries and sales.  In fact, according to Online Video Marketing Statistics, adding video to small business profiles:

• Increases number of business profile views more than 100%
• Increases number of profile clicks more than 30%
• Increases number of calls generated by more than 18%

In conclusion, by using these FREE methods to create visibility to your website, you will be able to generate more traffic over time, thus, have a steady flow of potential leads.

5 FREE & Extremely EASY Ways to Steer Traffic to your Website is a post from: She Takes on the World

Next week is National Small Business Week in the United States and to help celebrate all things small business I’m holding a live webcast where, among other things, I’m going to give a number of lucky participants some awesome business tools like:

• A copy of Premise Landing Page Software from Copyblogger
• A copy of the Ultimate Marketing System from Duct Tape Marketing
• A year access to Live Plan from Palo Alto Software
• A year of Spring Metrics Analytics
• A year of Nimble CRM
• A Pro Membership to Marketing Profs
• Tickets to Social Media Explore Events
• A bundle of books, iStockphoto credits and more

But, in order to have a chance to win one of these great prizes, you have to attend our small business educational webcast event being held Wednesday, May 23rd at 11am CT (http://worldtimebuddy.com to check time zones)

I’m going into a television studio and broadcasting a live streaming video presentation on the very important topic – 5 Ways to Use Online Tools to Drive Offline Sales.

We all know that prospects today do their research online, even if they fully intend to buy a product or service offline. In this session I’ll share some great ways to use the new breed of online tools to drive your prospects into your offline stores, meetings and presentations including:

• Online calls to action
• O2O Advertising
• Networked networking
• Local social groups
• Online and on the go

Join me for what will prove to be a fun and informative celebration of small business – heck, I might even get my guitar out and sing a bit. (No promises on that one.)

To sign up and reserve your seat for the show – Register Here (While you can’t win any of the prizes unless you attend, we will record the event and provide an archive for all that register.)

I addition, some of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultants are holding local networking and watch events and providing additional education – find a local event near you.

Do you know other small business owners that might need this important information? Why not share this post with all your small business friends?

And a special thanks to our sponsors for support of this event!

Who Doesn’t Need Great Free Stuff? is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

However, this post is not going to navigate the nuances of the Facebook timeline format or teach you how to compose the perfect tweet to attract millions of followers. That stuff actually doesn’t matter one bit. Success comes from having a sound marketing process, being able to manage the information well and using appropriate technology.  I cover this in great detail in the presentation I did for the e-Business Now conference, Using Technology to Jumpstart your Business.

A sound marketing process is simple:

You need to determine who is interested in your product (culling), tease them to get them interested (piquing), analyze that interest and be consistent in delivering the content the person seeks (engagement).  ENGAGED people BUY. This is called CONVERSION – whereby a prospect becomes a customer. Conversion is how you measure the return on a marketing investment – both time and money.

The reason social media is a magical way to market is that it generates SO MUCH data. However, most businesses don’t use the data because they don’t know how to manage the information well. It’s like having the recipe for the secret sauce but leaving out the special ingredients.

This is where technology can help you!

Here are three tools that assist with collecting, managing and understanding marketing information.

HootSuite – This tool is such an excellent solution to listening, posting and analyzing your message across all the social media channels, it’s almost a household name. Plus, the fully featured version is a cool $6 a month. Even nicer, the free version is remarkably useful. If you are new to social media, use it to listen first. If you’re a veteran, love their fully customizable analytics and RSS/ATOM auto post capabilities. The interface is simple, friendly and highly functional.

Website Grader – One of the best tips for web writing is to follow the “smarter than a fifth grader rule” – and that is, most readers aren’t. Check how appropriate your website is using HubSpot’s free website grader. This tool gives you an excellent assessment of how well you’ve done on your website by one of the best web marketing companies around. Once you’re suitably impressed with that, try their complete suite of software free for 30 days.

Constant Contact Email Marketing Analytics – Many business owners  do some email marketing and most are disappointed by the results. This is because so few people use the integrated analytics tools to segment out the people who showed interest and market to them some more. I like Constant Contact for email marketing and for their related analytics tools. When I ran a product business, I would upload or capture my email list with phone numbers, send out my email marketing campaign and then download the list of people who clicked (phone numbers would come too). I would call those “clickers” and offer them a special sale similar to what they clicked on. I enjoyed a 96% close rate from these calls. As shown in the left graphic, the “buy” doesn’t happen when you send the message, it happens after you segment out the people who are interested and close them.

For the advanced user or twitter lover, my two favorite twitter tools are tweepi.com for generating data about your followers and who you follow and socialbro.com for all things twitter data.

Now when you are inspired with your next great marketing idea, you can take it to your audience with the confidence that you can then check to see how it was received generally and who specifically found it of interest. By USING this information to generate a more effective next marketing campaign and to follow up with those who are interested, you will see your revenues grow.

Scroll to the bottom to figure out how to get your FREE copy of “The Work Revolution” by Dr. Julie Clow

For those of you that are new around here, you may not know that before I left my job in October 2009 there was a period of about 18 months where I didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t have the money saved to just straight up leave;  I didn’t have the balls to take the leap without having some kind of plan in place; and most importantly, I didn’t have a solid plan for what I wanted to do after I left.

For 18 months I was in a phase where I knew I wasn’t totally happy with what I was doing, but I also knew that quitting right then and there wasn’t a feasible (or responsible) option.

I’m willing to bet you might be in a similar situation (or know someone who is).  I write a lot here about my global exploits, and tips for building a blog or location independent business, but the fact of the matter is, that isn’t a ton of help for most of the people around here.

No, most people here are working typical day jobs, each with varying degrees of success and happiness.  Regardless of what category you fall into, there’s always room for improvement.  Whether you’re an employee or already an entrepreneur, there’s a lot you can do that will greatly increase your personal happiness and help you build valuable skills in the process.

How to Make the Best of a Less than Perfect Situation

As mentioned, almost a year and a half passed between the time I realized I wasn’t stoked on life, and I actually left.  Something I haven’t talked much about though is all of the steps in between.

Regardless of what you’re doing and the type of organization you’re in, if you’re willing to be a little proactive you have a lot more control than you might think as it relates to your daily activities and projects.

I really didn’t know much about this whole internet thing back in 2008.

I didn’t know what a blog was, and WordPress was a completely foreign term.  What I did know however, is that our company needed a website.  We were leaving a lot on the table by not having one, and I wanted to be the person to get us there.

A short document outling the components (as I assumed we’d need) later, and all of a sudden I was project manager on the new site.

All too often we fall into a head down work mode, and forget to tell our coworkers what we’d really like to be doing, and more importantly how we think our skills and interests can benefit the company. We forget that our bosses can’t read our minds.  If we don’t tell them what we’d like to work on, they’ll never know – and we just grow more bitter in the process.

What did I know about building a website? Nothing.  Ok maybe not nothing, but pretty close.  Simply based on the generation I grew up in I did have a base level of computer skills and I knew it would be useful if I could find ways to hone those.  So I found the congruency of the company’s needs and my own.

Find the congruency between your interests and your company’s needs. Click to tweet.

Preparing for the Future Now

No matter what you’re doing now, you’ve put some kind of thought into where you’d like to be in a year, five, or even 10 down the road.  What does that look like?  What would you know how to do that you don’t currently know anything about?

To be honest, when I was at this point in my life, I couldn’t tell you what I wanted outside of generalities.  I wanted to own my own business and to travel the world.

However, again I did recognize that there was value in the web and that having a stronger background in it would be a huge asset in the future.

I quickly became the go to guy for anything computer related and I tried to capitalize on that as best I could.  What did this mean?

• I spent time working with Google Analytics for the new site, and learning about all of the cool things it could do for your business.
• I became really good at creating our quarterly reports using Adobe Acrobat – a program I still use on a regular basis.
• I researched everything from social media strategies to CMS platforms

See where this is going? I figured out which skills and tools I knew would be good to know on a broad level, and I found a way to learn and apply them in a way that benefitted both the company and myself.

When you’re starting to think in this way, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• What are my boss’ biggest pain points right now?  What interests or skills do I have that work towards alleviating their problem?
• What is your organization not doing currently, that you know they should? How can you present this to your boss?
• If I could learn any skill I wanted what would it be? How can I get creative and apply that to my job?
• Is it feasible to go to someone other than my direct superior to help put these things into motion?

As soon as you stop thinking about your job as simply a paycheck and time suck, you can start thinking of it as a training ground of sorts for whatever is next in your life.

Think of your current job as training grounds for whatever your next step is in life. Click to Tweet.

Inject Enjoyment Back into Your Job

So I totally get that simply learning new skills and applying them to your current job isn’t necessarily going to make your job any more bearable.

Sooooo, on top of this how do you go about making your job more enjoyable?.  For me personally, I’m a big game person.  I’m competitive, and anything I can turn into a game I will. This is especially true when it comes to work.

For instance, when I would be compiling quarterly reports I’d see how fast I could get it done and try and beat my time from the previous quarter.  I’d lose 30 seconds every time I made a mistake.

I worked in a very small office of only 5 people, so most of the games I played were against myself, but if you work for a larger company, how can you involve some of your coworkers?

Maybe it really is physically playing games.  A good friend of mine is a high school teacher, and injects all sorts of different games into his lessons, not only because it keeps the kids more engaged, but it keeps him engaged too.

Games not your thing? Take regular visualization breaks.

Ok, that sounds way too new age.  But I’m serious.

I’d often take 10 minutes and go out to our rooftop deck in the summer, close my eyes, and visualize being in another place.  Maybe it was out on a golf course, or walking down a Tahitian beach.  I’m a firm believer in visualization.  Do it enough times, and eventually you manifest the results in real life.  Remember this post on daydreaming? Maybe there was something to it after all.

The Work Revolution

A lot of these things seem fairly obvious to me, but the fact remains most people don’t talk about it.  You’d think larger corporations would be the first people to try and promote this healthy balance of skill building and interests, yet there are very few companies who are getting it right.

Luckily, my friend Julie Clow wrote a book on the whole thing called “The Work Revolution“.  In the book Julie goes into great detail about why current practices in business aren’t working for employees, and how employees can take charge and make their job work for them.

If you’ve ever wanted to make a change in the way your organization does business, but weren’t exactly sure how to go about it, you have got to read this book.

I’ll admit I’m still working my way through it, but I’m finding my head nodding in agreement on almost every page, as she pulls examples from some of my favorite books like “The Power of Full Engagement” and “Delivering Happiness.”

If you’re trying to figure out how to get more value and enjoyment out of your job, as an addendum to this post, I’d read Julie’s book.  No book I’ve read looks at corporate culture in this way and it should be ready not only by employees, but managers and entrepreneurs as well.

So, now that you’re hooked and want to read the book, I’d like to give a copy to you.

What do you need to do? Simple, all you need to do is leave a comment answering this question:

“What’s one thing you can do this week to improve your work life and get more value/enjoyment out of it?”

I’ll be giving away TWO copies of the book and will send them out to the people I think will get the most value out of it.

Photo Credit: Evan Hamilton