Imagine a party, where people get together to gather with friends and to network. At a big enough event, you’ll always find stereotypical people. There’s the guy that’s a shameless self-promoter, talking about all the money he’s making, how much he can bench, and the horsepower of his new truck. There’s also going to be another kind of person—a clever, interesting yet engaging person (if there isn’t, just leave the party) that listens to people but lends enough of his own personality to the conversation to allow him to steer the topic in whatever direction he wants. This is the person that people speak well of, and is the most effective communicator.
Until recently, when small businesses wanted to make themselves known, they had to be like the self-promoting jerk at the aforementioned party, rattling off their accomplishments and features (But wait! There’s more!) Now, with the increased use of social media, it’s possible for small businesses to be engaged in a conversation with clients, regular and potential. They can build a reputation for themselves in their community, and let their customers do some of the work for them. Mashable writer Samuel Axon’s post, “How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media For Real Results”, highlights different ways to use social media to the advantage of any given small business.
It’s Here To Stay
Social media isn’t going away, and it’s not an optional force, either. Angie’s list, Yelp and Twitter are all platforms that allow users to complain or praise any given good or service, whether or not the business likes it or not. Axon writes in his post that small businesses have to be acutely aware of what people are saying about them through social media in order to intercept (and hopefully explain) negative reviews, and to interact with and encourage positive reviewers.
It’s Cheaper
Axon mentions an example of Broadway shows with limited marketing budgets that encouraged twitter users to share their opinion about the show to their followers. Their exposure increased exponentially when people with large followings (especially celebrities) talked positively about the show. Recommendations from third parties are the cheapest (usually free) and most effective ways to market something. As an added bonus, they have the potential to reach people that would have never been reached with traditional media.
It Takes Getting Used To
As beneficial as social media may be, it’s not an easy sell to people who are used to controlling their business image. Micromanagers of the world tremble at the sound of “yelp”. Regardless, there will be people that have mean things to say about you. It’s the reason the Mr. I-can-bench-three-hundred-pounds won’t let anyone else get a word in: They might take the spotlight off of him, or worse, expose him to be a charlatan. However, if your business model involves more than keeping up appearances, engaging customers is extremely beneficial.
It’s Profitable
In this new world of social media, loyalty is the new currency. Difficult as it may be to measure, ensuring that you have an active, dedicated base of customers will pay dividends in the long run. Joe Johnston, owner of Liberty Market writes:
“People ask me if we have ‘made money’ with Twitter. Absolutely yes. But not how most business think. We have solidified loyalty and have our name out there, front of mind. Because of that, many social media meetups use our place. Patience! One has to believe that increased loyalty and awareness are a key to business growth.”
Small businesses, get to know your customers. People appreciate that. If you’ve got a good product or service, people will hear about you. Be that cool guy at the party– the effective communicator is the one that lets others carry his message for him.
Prov 27: 2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips.
Ever since my first post, where I outlined my attempt to make some side money blogging (ha!), I’ve talked a lot about the internet, and how a paradigm shift is required when interacting on it (especially through blogging).
Firstly, I wanted to learn what the most successful bloggers were writing about. I learned that they were acting as filters to springs, and not as wells. The big A-HA moment when I checked out the Alexa top 100 ranking websites for the US (this was way back when MySpace was near the top of the list… wow. DATED). In the bit world (data), it’s all about networks, and facilitating connections between things in the atomic (physical) world.
Later on, after more investigation, I realized that I shouldn’t be too attached to my blog (judging by my post frequency that’s not an issue), since it’s USUALLY simply a means to an end. People read my blog to get to the specific information they’re looking for. I finally got a confirmation when Yahoo posted a news story about them becoming a “starting point”.
Based on what I learned, I started writing posts without the expectation that people haven’t read previous posts (Seth Godin I ain’t). I figured that if I became a data collector, I’d have more success, so I wrote bios on specific companies, by poring over forums and sharing details about the company.
So far, I’m confirming everything I’ve written so far. Another look at Alexa’s top 20 websites for the U.S. has the first 18 places taken by the dot-connectors of the web (search engines, social media sites, and marketplace sites). CNN takes 18th place, and ESPN at 20th.
There’s still a WHOLE lot to learn about the virtual universe, and how to be an effective presence in it. As I learn, I hope to share it here.
I’ll keep you posted.
As I’ve stated before, I’m a bum. However, I’m also a capitalist, and that side of me is really mad over the whole health care debate. At the risk of sounding “so 2009”, here to post a rant on the topic is my alter ego.
I’m absolutely LIVID over the people that expect the government to take care of all their needs, and not charge a dime for it. Can you even spell TNSTAAFL (There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)? These expenses come back in the form of higher taxes or inflation.
The good old days, when people knew what things cost.
What’s the government for, anyway? Is it to govern, or to be a nanny for the American people? Unfortunately, the pacifier is in, and there ain’t no way to spit it out.
Also, health care… It’s a RIGHT? REALLY? Then, if I were a Doctor, my job should count as a CIVIC DUTY, like serving on a jury. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are rights… A right isn’t something that I’m obligated to take under penalty of fines, or even jail time (For NOT having something? Is that even constitutional?)
Yes, we need reform. But the reform has to get rid of this UNHOLY MARRIAGE between the government and the health care industry. States impose ridiculous mandates on health care insurance. Look at this insanity – In certain states, insurance providers HAVE to offer things like hair prosthesis, breast reduction surgery and even circumcision?! WHY?
AND ONE MORE THING, what’s so bad about pre-existing conditions? If you’re unhealthy, you pay a higher premium, period. It’s the same reason why red sports cars cost more to insure – they’re a risk. Enacting smart legislation, like removing tax incentives for getting insurance through your employer (can you imagine homeowners insurance through your employer?), and allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines will help bring costs down. Getting the federal government to run health care is a joke.
Educate yourself. Watch this awesome special by John Stossel, read up on the Cato Institute’s literature.
The March cover story of Wired Magazine highlighted the changing nature of money, and how certain companies are adapting. The article followed the progress of PayPal, and the development of their latest project, X.com. PayPal released their API (application programming interface), for programmers to use PayPal in new, creative ways.
It’s going to be awesome, and the implications are huge.
Wired writes:
Peter Thiel, PayPal’s cofounder and a die-hard libertarian, launched the company as a means of creating a stateless monetary system, making it possible for anyone to switch, instantly and easily, between global currencies. “PayPal will give citizens worldwide more direct control over their currencies than they’ve ever had before,” he told new employees in 1999, according to the book The PayPal Wars. “It will be nearly impossible for corrupt governments to steal wealth from their people.”
The dollar is inflating, gold is on the rise, and soon investors will be looking for more secure places to park their money. Second Life, Facebook and World of Warcraft all have their own currencies (some pegged to the dollar, others aren’t), and every year they see more use. With the simplification of money transfers through companies like PayPal, I think we may one step closer to a dollar-less society. However, that doesn’t necessarily imply a one-world currency—it implies a wide variety of currencies that can be converted easily from one to the other. This will remove the stranglehold federal governments have on commerce (it’s currently illegal to make business transactions with any currency in this country other than Federal Reserve notes ), and make international trade flow more easily.
These new forms of transactions may in the future create a war between the established credit card companies and the myriad of start-ups (banks and card companies handle $3.2 trillion every year). The floodgates have already opened, and innovative entrepreneurs will learn to stay one step ahead of the old, lumbering financial institutions.
Looking (and speculating) even further, I’m completely for a digital currency revolution. Forget wallets, let’s pay with our bills with cell phones and ipods. After all, money is really just a placeholder for ACTUAL wealth. Who cares what form it’s in?! Let companies create their own currencies that are pegged to gold, platinum, or the price of wheat. I’m sick of credit card companies changing percentage rates, tacking on ridiculous fees, and being regulated by a congress that needs to be regulated itself.
From shells to coins to paper, money has certainly come a long way. We shouldn’t stop its advance.
I’ve updated to Wordpress recently, and it’s been the most destructive thing I’ve done to this site so far.
Well, kind of.
The thing is, with blogger, the site was organized in a specific way. Google had my old links up, and i’d get a 404 error message someone would click the link (searches for “Finanzas Forex” would drive a lot of traffic to my site). Hopefully that will be resolved soon, and Google will put my updated links up.
Even more hopefully, I’ll post something new. There have been some interesting developments in different forex companies (notably FFx and TIRN), but the legwork required to do a quality post has had me avoiding it.
However simplistic that example may have been, that’s what’s going on to our dollar right now.
With trillion-dollar bailouts and expensive wars going on, the dollar is being cheapened every day by the printing presses at the Federal Reserve.
How is it that we don’t feel it, you ask? Here’s the short answer: We’re in a depression. People have begun saving again and paying off bills, banks are loaning less and NOT circulating the dollars. So while many, many dollars are being pumped into the system, not a lot of them are being spent.
Just like a bunch of Mickey Mantle cards in storage, no one feels the effects of uncirculated dollars.
This is why an economic recovery is going to be the worst thing imaginable for dollar holders
As the markets thaw out, and consumers start spending again, people are going to realize that there’s a whole lot more paper dollars floating around than before. About a week ago, as rumors started floating around that we were on our way out of this slump, the dollar fell. Coincidence? No way.
This is how Obama is going to cut the federal deficit in half
Loans don’t adjust for inflation (yet). Pres. Obama is going to pay off debts with cheap dollars. The dollar is already at risk of losing its AAA rating, and China, our biggest debt holder, is taking notice.
The important thing is to have something that has value in and of itself. The dollar is worth something because the US Government says it does. That’s no good — this is where gold comes in. It’s real, it doesn’t inflate, it can be stored, sold, bought, melted down and can be transported easily.
Well, the transportability issue isn’t really all that accurate, since we don’t even deal with cash much anymore– we’re used to the digital buying and selling of dollar-backed credits. Fortunately, I found an awesome site called GoldMoney.com. they have their own currency, called GoldGrams, which are 100 percent backed by gold. They function like a bank, allowing you to make payments on things online and transfer from GoldGrams to dollars quickly (for a small fee). The best thing is that the money is independent of the dollar, so the more the dollar tanks, the more buying power you have. Just these last few weeks, one GoldGram went up in value by 3 dollars. The more dollars begin to circulate, the lower they’ll go in value, while gold goes up. Gold is about to hit 1,000 dollars an ounce. The time to get into gold is now.
If you like sensible economics, and good monetary advice, check out Richard Maybury’s free bulletins. Honestly, his books changed how I see the world.
Think fast:
Someone tells you that they’re making a fortune doing something that another guy with a fortune told you to do, because God told him to do it.
Welcome to the strange world of Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing, and the strange re-interpretation of a website called SuFortunaDVD.com.
First off, I think it’s impossible to have a company name with more industry buzz-words.
Fortune High Tech Marketing. It’s like calling a cereal Yummy Crunchy Tasty-Puffs.
I don’t doubt that the founder, Paul Orberson, has found incredible success as a salesman (here’s an article to prove it), but in his business plan, success is only to be found at the very top.
Regardless of that, it seems like things get a little convoluted when translated to Spanish.
Enter SuFortunaDVD.com, a website that is tailor-made for Prosperity-Gospel Christian latin Americans. In the middle of the video, the short man tells of Paul Orberson’s claims that God told him to create a company that would allow him to share his fabulous wealth with everyone (last I checked, that was called a charity). At the home page is a thirty-minute long video where a short man with white hair explains the way the company works. Here’s what I gathered:
You have to sign up three people as salesmen, then sign on customers that subscribe to 10 of these products. The money is made by subscribing these customers to “customer loyalty” programs. The problem is that if you only have 17 programs to pick from! Try convincing someone in this capitalist market that they’ll be locked into a loyalty program.
With such a poor business strategy, where does this company make their money?
This is where the 300 dollar entrance fee comes in. For licensing and other “startup costs”, Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing will charge 300 dollars from the starting block. SuFortunaDVD gets by this prickly subject quickly by saying that by signing up just a few people, you’ll be able to recoup that cash, and more.
SuFortunaDVD.com doesn’t seem to convince, either. The website is slapped together, made with Joomla, an automatic drag-and-drop website maker.
The Problem: To be sucessful in this business, you have to make sure that everyone in your “downline” is actively working. You have to babysit everyone below you.
At the end of the video, the short man talking re-introduces himself as Pastor Juan Ayala, the Executive Manager of all of Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing. Why he would want to present himself as a religious leader instead of a business professional shows that he has a very focused audience. When clicking on the “radio” button, a playlist comes up of christian songs proclaiming wealth and success, interspersed with testimonies.
It seems like this business is more about faith than work.
The last time I realized I was making money with Google ads, I made the ad space bigger.
This appears to have worked. I’ve made more in the last two months than I’ve made in the whole year-and-a-half existence of this blog. And I haven’t posted anything for two and a half months!
That being said, I’ve been able to pay for hosting for this year, and hopefully I’ll receive my check in the mail.
I have to keep writing.
I got a strange letter in the mail last week. It had my name and address printed out and glued to the envelope, and the return address said “finanzas forex”, and MY address. The letter was bulky, and scotch-taped on one side. I honestly expected there to be a cloud of white powder when I opened it. Going against my better judgment, I opened it. The letter was a bunch of printed-out internet articles from a website that purportedly exposes MLM schemes. It was page after page of Finanzas Forex flames and the dangers of it. The letter really concerned me, not because it was talking badly about FFx, but because someone actually took the time to do a WHOIS search of my website, copy my address, and send me something to my house. I think a simple comment would have sufficed, my snail-mail-stalker-buddy. Needless to say, I’ve made the WHOIS information private.
Holy crap!
I’ve risen the Google ranks to become the fourth site listed for “finanzas forex”! If anyone looks over my first posts, they’ll see that this boost in internet stardom is a far cry from my humble beginnings. There are even people quoting me! Like PhD students and Polish guys and even robots! I must say that I’ve become somewhat of a celebrity on the pseudo-investment-pundit-blogosphere.
Being true to my roots, I’m going to increase the space alloted for google ads. Maybe I’ll finally turn a profit.
Note: My apologies to Christine Folch, the PhD student, whose blog I linked to for the sole purpose of progressing my own selfish agenda. Because the forum I linked to above may have not been written in Polish, I also extend my aplologies to my Polish (or Slovenian or Czech or whatever) friends.