Here are five easy steps to get you started.

1. Review this article from American Express Open Forum for ideas and themes
2. Read this short article giving tips on how a small business can benefit from a blog to see if a blog would work for you.
3. Decide if you want your blog to be part of your website, if you have one or if you want to get a new domain name. (If you want to have your blog under a new domain name you will need to buy the domain name and set up hosting for the blog. Look at the options at GoDaddy.) Install your WordPress blog - many of the hosting companies will assist you with this step.
4. Select a WordPress theme (a theme is like a template.) You can use a theme as is or you can choose to customize the theme to match your branding.  There are many online resources that explain how to customize themes.
5. Now you are ready to start writing and posting. The recent posts on the BlogWorld Blog provide tips on how to start.

Breaking down ideas and tasks in to a small manageable list makes it easy to execute. That is the theory behind Take Ten - take just 10 things - to learn, to try, to experiment or execute.   Take Ten a week and work through the ones that fit your needs.

The Take Ten plans are filled with marketing tips, business building ideas, steps on how to try new marketing tools, ideas and inspirations.

I look forward to sharing these with you.  Maggie

They are having a server showdown.

“Our servers at Brockton Villa are in a showdown to see who can get the most mentions on our Facebook page. Their competition means you win too!

Mention your server by name on our Facebook page, and you’ll get to pick something out of our Brockton Villa Grab Bag. Plus, you’ll be entered into a random drawing for 2 front row tickets to Brockton Villa’s July 4th dinner service! (Only 1 mention per customer, and customer must be a fan of Brockton Villa on Facebook.”) For more details visit their Facebook page

What a great way to engage your employees and your customers and have fun doing it.

1.  Google Local Business Center - (google.com/local/add)

2.  Yahoo Local (http://local.yahoo.com)

3.  Microsoft Bing (http://www.bing.com/maps/)

Important tips for the best results:

When you submit your business listing make sure you include the full URL for your website, your correct address and a local phone number.  Make sure the location of your business on the map is correct.

Studies are showing increased success with using an integrated model. A recent study released by Nielsen shows the increased return when combining a Facebook Ad with “earned media”

“ Facebook’s Ads Work Pretty Well…”

One major takeaway from the research is that paid and earned media work together in ways that could have implications well beyond Facebook, said Jon Gibbs, VP-media analytics at Nielsen. “The market has been talking very much about how to buy paid media and earn earned media, but there’s been very little attention to the types of hybrid impressions and hybrid experience that blends these two,” Mr. Gibbs said.  Read full article here: http://adage.com/article.php?article_id=14338…

The take-away from this study shows the importance of having your web site up-to-date with all the information needed to purchase your product. This includes good product images or photos, clear descriptions of your products and services.  Shoppers rely on what other people say so including testimonials from prior customers helps to start building trust with your potential customer.

A quick check for how your web site stands up to meeting potential shopper’s needs is to ask 10 people to go on your web site and answer these questions. 

• What do you do?
• What is your main service or product?
• What is your phone number and address?
• Look for details on your product or service?
• Start one action - if an e-commerce site have them try to purchase an item (up to the shopping cart check out step)

After they complete the five steps ask for their input.  Was it easy and quick to get their answers?  What were their frustrations?

Women

As you build your 2010 Marketing Plan remember to include networking. Networking is still a key strategy to start conversations with other professionals, industry experts and potential customers. 

1. Research local networking events based on 3 focus areas: professionals in your business, industry experts and potential customers
2. Set up a networking calendar for the next 3 months
3. Create a networking follow-up plan

1.  After you have identified your 3 focus areas research sources for current events and association event listings. Your local Chamber of Commerce is a good place to start.  Also look online for industry groups and forums.

2.  When you start to set up your networking calendar decide on a goal for each networking event. Do you want to: meet potential customers, talk with other industry professionals to learn new industry updates or do you want to be seen as an industry leader.  Going to a networking event with a predefined goal will help you make the most of your time spent.  It will also help you prepare for the event. If you want to be seen as an industry leader you could research a new article on your industry to share at the event when you are talking with others.  As you exchange business cards write down the event name, date and a quick note about the person who gave you their card.  This will help you with following up in a more personalized manner.

3.  Creating a follow-up plan will help you maximize your efforts.  Before you attend the event if you already have a follow-up letter outlined you can easily send a thank-you, or enjoyed meeting you follow-up note, card or e-mail the next morning.

The selected project is The HomeBase Kids film project, a documentary film HomeBase is producing to document the stories from their journey to Ghana Africa.  The unique learning experience, the cultural exchanges and the friendships they made are a powerful story they want to share.

Follow along as our Twitter community helps find solutions to their challenges so they can keep this project moving along and the film produced.  You will be able to follow along using the Twitter #homebasekids or you can visit the CTC website

Focus:  Target market – Gen Xers, Gen Y & and Tech-savvy baby boomers

Listen:  The identified preferred method of communication is Blogs, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook

Share:  Huddled created a presence on the social network sites and started building relationships through conversations, videos and contests. Examples – I Love Huddle House Video contest

Grow:  The results are coming in… They have 1,762 fans on Facebook and 2,259 followers on Twitter.

Their timely response has definetly created a strong relationship between Boingo and this customer.  Personal focus and quick action is valued by today’s consumer.  When you value your customer this much it shows - quickly addressing their concerns will produce a story that will be stronger than any “canned” marketing message.  For the full story

An important step to duplicate this type of customer service is to keep a close ear to the conversations taking place on social networks regarding your company. There are many tools available to follow conversations - You can set up Google Alerts for your company, you can search your company name or products on search.twitter.com, you can do a search on blogs using Google’s blog search.