Archive for March, 2010

Social Media as a Viable Tool

Monday, March 29th, 2010

When most people ask me what my experience is in media or marketing, I tell them that I’ve been a blogger since 2004.  Then they typically cock their heads, or snort condescendingly, or immediately blow me off.  That’s fine.

I’ve kept a well-read blog going for years now.  I’ve seen my audience grow from friends and family to people around the nation.  When Twitter started, I jumped on-board and made new contacts.  I’ve been asked to do freelance pieces for other sites, became a freelance writer.  I’ve done pieces for the local paper.  I’ve never been up for a Webby, but hey, I’m still pretty proud of my piece of internet real estate.

But then someone will inevitably ask me about my experience is, and then blow me off completely.

I had one gentlemen tell me that one day, when he wasn’t so busy, he wanted to spend a couple of hours with me so I could show him how I do my Twitter thing.

::sigh::

Image Credit: HubSpot Marketing Cartoons

There’s no doubt that a generational gap is there; the one generation believes in shaking hands and knocking on doors and marketing the old-fashioned way, and the other generation believes that communication is all done online now.  Social media is the integration of the two generations, and I think it’s STILL struggling to become an accepted arena worthy of a specific focus.

This weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend the fledgling Dev(Chatt), a developer’s camp in Chattanooga, TN.  Free to attend and free to present, the two-day workshop had three locations running simultaneously to allow local and regional developers and businesses come together and market new ideas.  Although presentations were scheduled, most were loosely based, allowing for full participation from anyone attending.  During the final session, the keynote speech, everyone nodded and talked about how useful they found the weekend to be.  A great turn-out, a great experience, great exposure .. and the ENTIRE camp was advertised only through Twitter.

I met a lot of attendees and most were excited to see SimpleHelix there, and once I admitted that I was the voice of the SimpleHelix blog/Twitter/Facebook, it was all smiles.  People need to know that there is a real person behind that machine.  Social Media is making that possible, and usually with little investment outside of time and upkeep.

If you’re still debating whether or not social media is “catching on” out there, check out this amazing list of “80 Essential Blogs for Students“.  Most of them feature blogs centering on social media integration into marketing, PR, HR, and any other aspect of your company.  Throw a few of them in your RSS feed and just peek at them every day or so.  Realize that if this many people are writing about how to do it well.. there must be some people out there that are doing it well.

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Posted in Tips | No Comments »

Playing Nicely in the Global Village

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Sure, we all agree that business = time + money.  But can another part of the equation be relative to your community, and your participation in the global village?

A recent study of Indian corporations seems to make that connection, and perhaps it’s worth thinking twice about.

The story “Doing Well Because They Do Good” outlines several leading Indian corporations who routinely hand over up to 65% of their yearly revenue to charitable organizations.

Think about that: 65%.  Over half.  Over half of what you take in, you immediately give back.  In an American culture, that kind of thinking is simply unfathomable.

But is it so far-fetched?

The CEOs and leading executives of the businesses interviewed for the piece EACH described their business model in terms of a social mission.  Money?  Of course they wanted to make money.  Business is business, whether in America or around the world.  But what they planned to do with their investments, and how they intend to give back was what separated them from our local train of thought.  They believed, firmly and unwaiveringly, in taking care of their own backyards.

So this raises the ultimate question: can your business do this?  And how do you start?

Most communities offer tons of ways to give back.  Monetarily, most cities have a Goodwill or a Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization that is always in need.  For volunteer efforts, your local Red Cross or United Way can find a way for your employees to donate their time for a great cause.  And in a world where education is always starving, schools are more than thrilled to receive electronics, supplies, books, and even furniture.  The fabulous site Donors Choose lets your business find a cause that’s personal to your employees and help out; it does not get more amazing than seeing the faces of those that you help.

But does this effect your bottom-line?  Yes, and in more than just one way.  Getting your name out there in a charitable light is a great thing, yes, but just imagine: you’re helping people get to a better place in their lives.  People who, once they are in a better situation, will become consumers.  Those consumers will remember your business, no questions asked.  It also aids in employee retention, with employees seeing their work benefit the greater good and empowering them in their own community.

The ultimate question then becomes not “can your business do this?”, but instead, “when will your business start doing this?”.

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Posted in Mission Statement | 1 Comment »

Finding Your Voice

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

So we’ve talked before about the stigma that The Borg has created and how people are either hesitant to believe human contact now or they’re absolutely starving for it and can’t get enough of it.

But what does that mean to you, the business owner? The shop keeper?

Well, that depends.

We’ve come to realize, as we get a bit more seasoned in this industry, the positive aspects of a direct line of communication far outweigh the negatives. And, frankly, even the negative aspects provide us valuable learning tools and way to improve ourselves.

I ran across a great step-by-step today from ChaseSagum.com that helps you set-up a blog inside your Magento store. Now a blog and a store may be two different things in the mind of the average shop owner, but in reality? If you can stand the upkeep, it’s a GREAT enhancement.

I’ll show you what I’m talking about: go take a look at Superhero designs. Simple, clean, and direct, their site gives you two options: you can quickly access the Store and view the merchandise, or you can take a look at the behind-the-scenes goings-on in the Blog. And the best part of it .. your customers, who are NATURALLY thrilled with your product, can add your blog to their feed reader. And most feed readers today? Allow you to share links with your friends.

Let’s say that Superhero Designs decides that they’re prototyping a new piece of jewelry. They can put up some photos of designs in the blog, talk about how they came up with the new concept, and maybe even sponsor a giveaway. Customers who have subscribed to their RSS feed find out that day about the new piece. They share it with other friends, through Twitter or Google Reader or Facebook, and BAM! .. within a week of the blog post, Superhero Designs could conceivably have a new design on backorder before they’ve even got a prototype out.

I did mention the upkeep earlier, and that’s the ONLY consideration that may make you take pause before jumping in. It’s incredibly easy to let a blog sit stale because you don’t have an essay-long post drafted out yet. But that doesn’t have to .. and really, shouldn’t be .. the case. Your readers aren’t necessarily expecting a book every time you post; just a little reminder that you’re still there and you care that they’re reading will suffice.

And before you jump to any conclusions, Superhero Designs has no affiliation with us. I know about them because their blog was shared through a link in a feed reader, and I clicked through and fell in love with their jewelry. I’m living proof that a blog can lead to a sale.

So don’t be scared to have a voice. In most cases, it’s much quieter than you imagine out there, and it doesn’t take a yell to get noticed.

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Posted in Magento, Tips | No Comments »

Open Communications for Ideal Services

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

No one likes the Borg.

I feel pretty confident typing that.

If you think about it, movies that portray our future often feature The Villain as some soul-less, monotone voice of an Artificial Intelligence-driven machine that we created and then couldn’t reason with.  I think those are always the bad guys because of that.  Because we can’t reason.  We can’t negotiate.  There is no line of communication there.

If I were to list the most frustrating dealings I’ve had with Customer Service, I’d be inclined to detail countless hours on push-button phone menus, desperately screaming into a handset, “I JUST WANT TO TALK TO A PERSON! WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE?!”  Sure, we all thought we had the magic code when we could just push Zero to get to an operator, but the machines got smart too, and now you can Google hundreds of  elaborate websites dedicated to finding our way back to a real person.

Why?  Why have we done this to ourselves?

Technology is a tool.  It’s a tool for people to use.  It’s a tool for people to use to enhance our communications.  Not to stop our communications, or delay them through countless clicks and buttons, but to enhance them.  To encourage them.  To foster a relationship.  For PEOPLE.

Here at SimpleHelix, we really pride ourselves on communications.  Sure, our products are technology-driven, but we pride ourselves on being accessible people.  Between our support staff, our media department, and even our company president, we like knowing our customers and knowing how we can better enhance their experience.  That’s why we offer several feedback venues: you can always Twitter us, rate your experience at RatePoint, or even giving us an old-fashioned phone call — we list our contact information on our Company page.

And? The best part? If you communicate with us, we’re actually HAPPY!  We LISTEN! We base our business model around what works best for YOU, so your feedback is actually an essential part of how we work.  We’re proud of our successes and learn from our mistakes, so hearing YOUR side of the story is pretty crucial to us.

We know that’s different.  We’d like to believe it’s what makes us a cut above the rest.

And we’re kinda hoping it’s what keeps those Borg machines from destroying us all.

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Posted in Mission Statement | 2 Comments »

eCommerce Innovation: Magento Expands Partnership with PayPal

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Good news for our eCommerce friends who utilize PayPal in their Magento store!

Magento announced yesterday that they are integrating more features with PayPal, and store owners will be seeing new features roll out over the next few months.  Perhaps most welcome is going to be a much more detailed and user-friendly On-Boarding process to help new store owners become familiar with the partnership of Magento and PayPal.

You can find the full press release from Magento here.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Laying Out the Welcome Mat

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Hi there!

My name is Sarah, and I’m new to the SimpleHelix team.  I’ll be your new, real-life, honest-to-goodness blogger!

Little bit about me: I’ve been blogging since 2004, when we still used the term “webblog”.  Remember those days?  Prior to then, I was writing on things they called “geospaces” on something called “America Online”.  And before that?  I was totally posting on “bulletin boards” on a little platform called “Prodigy”.

I know there’s an excessive amount of quotation marks there.  I use them because, well, look at how crazy far we’ve come in the online arena.  Now, we’ve got an amazing, sprawling land of Internet with limitless possibilities.

That vast internet landscape is what makes SimpleHelix just absolutely giddy.

Here at SimpleHelix, we realize that we serve as a platform for YOUR creative juices, integrating cutting edge systems with proven technology to promise new possibility.  We merely provide the springboard into the Olympic-sized pool of the internet; the difficulty, originality, and execution of the dive is ENTIRELY up to you.  Whether you’re going for a simple dip or a full-fledged cannonball, we’re here to support you and help you make a splash.

Be sure and check back regularly to see what specials we have running and what the latest news is out there to help you grow your business.  And we want your feedback!  Half of the fun of blogging is the communication, so say hi!

I’ll keep this one short and sweet, and we’ll get into some of the fun stuff soon.  Till then!

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Posted in News | No Comments »

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