The concept of the book really resonated with me, as recently I’ve been surprised by how hard it is to find anything that I would call remarkable, whether it’s service professionals, books, products, customer service, or even food at restaurants. Everything seems to be declining in quality, and a lot of people seem to be indifferent when it comes to the quality they bring to their work.

It’s unfortunate how rare it’s becoming to hear things like:

• “She’s awesome with [fill in the task/skill].”
• “He’s a rock star [fill in the task/skill/title].”
• “She’s a [fill in the task/skill/title] genius!”
• “He’s expensive, but you won’t find anyone who’s better at [fill in the task/skill].”
• “Oh, you should contact them. They’re wonderful at [fill in the task/skill/service].”
• “They have a waiting list, but it’s so worth it!”

How many people can you think of who are truly remarkable at what they do — not OK, not good, but remarkable?

Although this can be disappointing when searching for a particular product or service, it presents a wonderful opportunity for anyone willing to go the extra mile and stand out, for anyone willing to do more than just show up and watch the clock. As Godin says in his book:

When customers have the choice between faceless options, they pick the cheapest, fastest, more direct option. If you want customers to flock to you, it’s tempting to race to the bottom of the price chart. In a world that relentlessly races to the bottom, you lose if you also race to the bottom. The only way you win is to race to the top. When your organization becomes more human, more remarkable, faster on its feet, and more likely to connect directly with customers, it becomes indispensable. An organization of indispensable people doing important work is remarkable, profitable, and indispensable in and of itself.

If you can be a rock star, truly remarkable at adding value to the lives and businesses that you serve, you win. You’re the one they’re going to rave about, you’re the one they’re going to call on every single time they need help, and you’re the one they’re going to pay top dollar to for the skills and talents you bring to the table.

Exceed expectations. Over-deliver. Out-perform everyone around you. Focus on exceptional quality. If you do those things, your customers and clients will be running to the mountain tops for you.

Think about it. How often are you truly impressed by someone? When you are, isn’t it hard to wait to tell someone about the experience? Now imagine if your customers and clients felt that way about you.

When’s the last time you felt that you received a truly remarkable product or service? How quickly did you share the news with someone around you?

Photo by Flickr user nikilok, licensed under CC 2.0

There comes a time in your business where you experience growth or change. You think you have everything running along smoothly, and then the real work begins when everything is turned upside down. You want to take advantage of new opportunities, but in order to do that, you have to adjust your systems, support and tools to accommodate that growth and expansion.

Old Pain: Incomplete and Outdated Systems

You know you need to do it. You hear it all the time, “You have to put systems in place to support your business and streamline your work so that you’re more productive, and so that you can outsource and delegate lower level tasks.” It makes sense in your mind, but it just doesn’t seem to be a top priority in the early stages of your business. Instead, you concentrate your efforts on figuring out how to navigate the often confusing path of the small business owner, while spending the rest of your time trying to find new customers and clients.

Before you know it, though, your business starts to take off, and then the pressure really starts setting in. You’re still figuring your way around, you’re trying to maintain your current lead generation efforts, but now you have the added workload to boot. There’s just no time left to worry about creating systems now, except that the further things go, the more desperate you become, and you start feeling like you’re digging your way out of quicksand.

Old Pain: Little or No Support

Most small businesses have to keep things very lean during the beginning, but it doesn’t take long to get used to managing things solo, leaving you strapped for time and thinking you’re the only one who can get the job done.

Then, of course, because you never had time to create systems around your business, everything is a jumbled mess. How will you ever figure out what best to delegate? Even if you wanted to outsource some of your work, where would you start? Without clearly delineated roles, hiring help would seem like a waste of time and money. You’d only end up doing the work yourself or not having anything for the new assistant to do.

The only problem is, there’s only so much you can do on your own, and at some point, you’ll come to the end of the line of your availability, which will mean the end of the line for your company’s growth as well.

Old Pain: Few Tools in Place

There are so many tools available to make the life of a business owner easier, but in the beginning, several things can get in the way of you taking advantage of them. Money is tight, and with such a small workload, it just seems to make more sense to do it yourself, rather than paying for something that you’ll barely use.

As your business grows, you start thinking you might want to get a few tools in place to cut down on your administrative time, but by then, you think that you’ll get things done faster if you just just keep doing them as you’ve always done. By the time you realize you really need them, you’re worried that implementing new tools could cause you to lose valuable information or time, should there be glitches in setting them up.

They don’t call them growing pains for nothing, but as hard as it is to interfere with the delicate arrangement of your business in order to put new systems, support, and tools in place, it’s important to have the faith and, as organizational and productivity guru Julie Morgenstern would say: let go so that you can grab hold. By letting go of things temporarily, you’ll be able to get a better handle on them for the future so that your business can handle the growth that’s coming your way.

What “old pains” are holding back your growth potential, and how are you overcoming them?

Photo by Flickr user doug88888, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

I wouldn’t want to learn from a teacher who never experiences and only theorizes, nor would I want to learn from one who never reflects on his experiences and, therefore, never gains wisdom.

When you’re trying to run your own business, I think you need time to experiment and try new methods and approaches to your systems and your work. But you also need time to reflect on what’s working and what’s not so that you can modify your direction as you go.

I’ve talked with several business owners in the past few months who have recently become known as experts in their respective niches, and they all have said that even though they know that they’ve been at it for, in some cases, 10 years or more, it’s still hard to feel like an “expert” at what they do (or maybe it’s just strange hearing themselves called that). The truth is, though, they have been doing their work, learning their trade, figuring out how to be successful for years and have earned that title, even if it is strange to hear it themselves.

No, they still don’t get it right all of the time. They still flounder and figure things out as they go, just like the rest of us, but I still personally value their insight very much. By learning from their wisdom, even as they continue to practice, I save myself some steps here and there, and sometimes I even save myself a lot of headache and heartache from side-stepping mistakes they’ve made and that they’ve been so kind as to help me avoid.

Certainly, you want to figure out how to get it right so that (sooner rather than later) you can do the things that will help you succeed in your business, but you also have to save room for experimentation and for failure. It’s how we learn, it’s how we grow, and ultimately, it’s how we succeed.

What have been the greatest experiments of your business, whether they ultimately failed or succeeded?

Photo by Flickr user mikebaird, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

However, a car runs better and more efficiently when you maintain it regularly. It’s the same with your business –business needs similar care and attention to keep running as smoothly as possible.

Scheduled Maintenance

Like changing the oil in your car, a business needs regular maintenance. That comes in the form of administrative tasks, which include paying quarterly taxes, creating monthly invoices and reviewing bank accounts. Some people have time tracking processes in place to see where they spend their time and use that data to improve their work.

How does this apply to a web worker, especially a solo one? For example, I’m a freelancer who works with a diversity of clients. My core process is producing content. I still have to do maintenance otherwise I don’t get paid and the Internal Revenue Service will come after me for not paying taxes. Failing to handle this will crash my business. I also need to market my business so my gas tank remains full, which I do primarily with social media.

Unscheduled Maintenance

We never know when a flat tire might happen; I had one a few weeks ago. Tires also need topping up with air, but you never know when. A headlight could go out leading to a costly fine unless you fix it before the cops catch it.

No matter how proactive you may be with your business, unexpected things happen forcing you to react. Unscheduled maintenance for a business could be an an illness, computer problems, a changed deadline, a client complaint, a late delivery or missing parts. Some things you can prepare for and some you can’t. Car accidents and other unexpected things happen and you can’t have a solution for them of them in advance. Not that you’ll wreck your car, but you can prepare by buying a car with safety features, wearing a seatbelt, carrying your insurance card and having a cell phone handy. For your business, this means creating processes to minimize damage while keeping everything else running smoothly.

Staying Clean and Shiny

Everyone has different rules for how often their cars receive a cleaning and polishing. Keeping your car clean doesn’t just temporarily improve its appearance, it also protects the paintwork.

For your business, you can help to keep it similarly clean and shiny by reviewing goals on an annual basis, and always doing continuous process improvement. In other words, step back to look at your current processes and projects to see if they’re on track, or if they could use some improvement and streamlining. Dawn recently shared her task management secrets and how she made changes to her processes to better manage her work.

Things change, so continually reviewing your processes is a must. For instance, we recently redesigned this site to improve the integration of social media and showcase our content. The new design didn’t just come about because the old one was tired. When the original design went up, social media wasn’t yet as integrated in web sites as it is today. Goals change. Technology changes. New tools come out. If we didn’t update our technologies and tools, we wouldn’t have the new safety features in cars, and we’d be stuck in Windows 3.1 without the many elements that make our computing easier.

How are you taking care of your business to keep it running smoothly?

For a blue-eyed girl in my homeroom class

Trying to find the courage to ask her out

Was like trying to get oil from a waterspout

What she would’ve said I can’t say

I never did ask and she moved away

But I learned something from my blue-eyed girl

Sink or swim you gotta give it a whirl.

- John Michael Montgomery, “Life’s a Dance”

I’m surprised sometimes by business owners who turn down opportunities for promotion. We can all feel intimidated by the thought of putting ourselves or our ideas out there, but whenever that happens to me, I stop and ask myself, “Are you serious about this?”

If there’s one thing I’m figuring out, especially lately, it’s that you have to be willing to make the approach. You have to be willing to ask for what you want. Ask the person to be a guest for your blog or podcast. Ask to be covered on another person’s site or radio show. Ask someone to join you for lunch or coffee. Just ask.

Maybe they’ll say yes. Maybe they’ll say no, but who cares? There are a million other people to ask.

It’s nerve-racking, spine-numbing and absolutely intimidating to get out there and tell the world about yourself and your business, but at some point, you have to ask yourself just how serious you are and how willing you are to let go of your fears and inhibitions and just do it.

The point is, you’re not going to get anywhere by staying holed up behind your computer screen tweaking, thinking, lurking or waiting. You have to take the initiative. Marketing, promotion and publicity – it’s all intimidating, and very few people are comfortable with it. That’s OK, though. If you admit that you’re nervous, people will be quick to support you and will actually see you as a real person who messes up and has feelings and is just like them, and that’s what you want — to make a connection with others.

What’s the best thing you ever accomplished by putting yourself out there?

Image from Flickr by geeknerd99

Q: Is an accountability partner the same as a business coach?

A: I don’t think so. While they have similarities, I look at the relationships in a different way.

• I plan to always have an accountability partner. A coach would be a shorter-term solution to help me fine-tune certain areas of my business or work through a specific problem. I personally would be very selective, hire a highly-qualified and highly-recommended coach who is trained in the area I need help with, and pay probably very good money for that person’s help. For me, the difference is like a personal trainer versus a physician in a particular specialty.
• It’s much easier to develop a dependency on a coach, especially if you work with someone who doesn’t have a set way of weening you away from him or her. An accountability partnership is more give and take. My partner and I are very much independent of each other, and that’s very important for our individual success.
• We’re not expecting anything from the other person. When my accountability partner and I began our relationship, we were navigating the waters of business together. If this makes sense, we didn’t know what we didn’t know, and that was an important part of learning how to succeed. We’re unique, and we have different businesses and different goals for our lives. There’s no cookie-cutter answer to most of our problems. Along the way, we’ve experimented with marketing, productivity, and a whole variety of other issues in our businesses, and we needed that experimentation so that we could figure out our own unique way of doing things. The lessons come from experiencing it all and figuring out what works for each of us. We don’t have to be well-trained in any particular area, and I personally think it has been helpful to us both that we’re not.

Q: Can my accountability partner be a friend or family member?

A: I personally wouldn’t recommend it. Here’s why.

• They have a vested interest in your success. If they’re immediate family, they not only want you to succeed, they need you to succeed. An accountability partner can be objective and see the forest in spite of the trees, which might be hard for your family and friends to do at times.
• They’re not going to be able to handle you failing. If they see you struggling, they’re going to tell you to get a “real job” and let go of the “pipe dream.” It’s only natural. They want to see you happy and doing well. An accountability partner who has experience in business will know that failing comes with the territory, and if you are missing your mark, the plan just needs to be rejigged a bit, or you just need to stick with it a bit longer.
• They have preconceived ideas about who you are, what you’re capable of, and what you want. Like my accountability partner mentioned in the comments of a previous post, your family and friends see you a certain way, and a lot of that is influenced by history. Maybe you’re different, or maybe you want to be different. Your accountability partner can see through that to what you are now.
• It adds too much stress to the relationship. There are going to be many times when you’re struggling and frustrated, and your family might become frustrated with you if that’s all you talk about.
• It causes the relationship to become one-dimensional. It’s so easy to become obsessed over a business, and if you think about it and talk about it 24/7, other interests might take a back seat. You need a variety of relationships and interests to feel balanced and to get away from business sometimes.
• If they’re not interested in business, it can be frustrating for both of you. If the person has zero interest in business, they’re not going to want to hear about your business woes incessantly. That will drive them nuts, and if they appear to be disinterested or bored or aggravated by your never-ending business conversation, you’re going to feel like they don’t care about something that’s very important to you.
• They can have their own agenda. If the business causes your life to change in a way that doesn’t support the plans of the other person, he or she might not be as objective with advice.

Q: Should the person have experience in business?

A: Yes, even if only a few years. Although the person doesn’t need to be a trained coach or specifically qualified in any particular area of business, he or she needs to have an understanding of how to run one, even if it’s not perfectly done. Someone with absolutely zero experience won’t even know where to start, so unless you’re both at that stage of the game, an unhealthy dependency can be created on the other person’s part, and you won’t find much value in the relationship.

Q: How do I start my accountability partnership?

A: Find other business owners around you who inspire you and who you have a comfortable connection with. See if they would be interested in creating a partnership for a trial period of three to six months.

Q: How should we approach the accountability calls?

A: Keep it simple. Start by having weekly or twice-monthly calls. For each call, let your partner know:

• What you’ve accomplished since your last call (big rocks moved),
• What you intend to accomplish by the next call (big rocks to be moved), and
• What you need to discuss with him or her (areas of struggle/setback).

I know there are probably many other questions, so consider this an open thread and ask away. I’ll respond as quickly as possible around the holidays.

Image from Flickr by malias

1. Be careful who you pick. Have you ever tried to be walking or exercise partners with someone, only to have him or her rarely show up, be perpetually late, and have a never ending line of excuses? To create a valuable partnership, you have to find someone who is as committed to his or her own success as you are to yours.
2. Pick a time that works. Figure out a good time that works for both of you and stick with it. My accountability partner and I began by having weekly calls, which turned out to be a little much for us, so we’ve since backed it up to every other week. We meet at exactly the same time with every call so that we’re less likely to forget or miss the appointment.
3. Set a good length for the calls. In the beginning, we worried about our calls being too long, so we tried shortening them, but ended up feeling like we weren’t getting the same value from them as a result, so we’ve finally settled on calls that run between an hour and a half to two hours, which gives us plenty of time to talk about two weeks of accomplishments and challenges for both of us. By knowing how long to expect, we’re careful not to book things too close to our call time.
4. Be consistent. My accountability partner and I are very careful to honor our appointment with each other. We know how much it helps us, so we rarely reschedule or cancel our calls.
5. Plan your agenda. We’ve gone back and forth on this one, but my accountability partner and I agree that when we plan our calls, we’re much more productive and get way more out of the conversation. Usually no later than the Friday before our calls (we meet every other Monday), we email each other our respective lists, which include updates (what we’ve done the past two weeks), big rocks to move (what we intend to do in the coming two weeks), and things to discuss (if we’re having any particular challenges that we need help with).
6. Rely on the agenda. It’s easy to go off on tangents, but try to stay close to your agenda so that you get the most out of the call. Generally, my accountability partner and I run through the lists, making suggestions and providing feedback to each other.
7. Split the call. We generally try to split the call so that we cover what’s been going on and what’s to come for both of us. We don’t stick to set time frames, but you might find it to be helpful to dedicate the first half the call to one person and the second to the other.
8. Be ready to learn. There’s rarely a call when we don’t have “homework:” a solution or idea to look into on the recommendation of the other person. Have pen and paper ready to take notes so that you don’t forget things by the end of the call.
9. Be ready to help. It’s likely that your partner will want you to review something here and there, so be available to him or her and try to follow up quickly. Remember that the purpose of this relationship is to help each other move your visions forward, and by being willing and ready to step up for your accountability partner, you’ll both reach your goals more quickly.
10. Don’t wimp out. Be frank and direct with your partner. Don’t sugar-coat your opinions and say what you think the other person wants to hear. The only way you will get real value out of this relationship is if you can count on each other to be upfront and honest. If you think the person is doing the wrong thing, making a bad choice, or even lagging behind, say so.

The New Year is right around the corner. Take the initiative, find an accountability partner and set your first meeting for the beginning of January. Make a list of what you hope to accomplish in the coming year and let that be the topic of your first call. With the right person and a little bit of planning, you can have the perfect ally to help you have an amazing year!

If you have an accountability partner, how do you make sure that you both get the most from the relationship?

Image from Flickr by prakhar

1. I’m more focused. I’ve become a lot more targeted with my efforts. I concentrate more and more on moving the big rocks, rather than counting the hours I’ve clocked or getting bogged down in busywork. For each call, I want to have something to report. I don’t want to have to say, “I didn’t really get that much done over the past two weeks,” which really helps keep my feet to the fire.
2. I stay the course. I used to be much more likely to change course. I had a serious case of entrepreneurial attention deficit disorder (EADD), and I jumped around way too much to see any kind of success. While I still start new things on a regular basis, I’ve become much more dedicated to seeing current projects to completion (or at least to a steady pace toward success) before venturing into new territory.
3. I’m more honest and real. My accountability partner has come to know quite a bit about my life and vision for it, which helps to keep me grounded in reality. I can talk myself in or out of anything, so if I’m trying to make decisions, there are times when it’s easy for me to talk myself into doing something that might not the best choice. My accountability partner calls me on it and forces me to be real with myself about my intentions.
4. I make greater progress in less time. Since we have regular meetings, it’s easy to keep things moving forward. There’s natural momentum built in, so we actually get things done.
5. I concentrate more on results. I no longer work for work’s sake. We’ve come to realize that the meat is in the results. We’ve both slowly moved away from set hours and arbitrary notions of how our days should look and have instead learned to focus on making progress. We set our intentions, and once we finish what’s on the list, we’re done.
6. I’m less likely to get stuck in ruts. As an entrepreneur or business owner, it’s easy to get stuck in my own thinking or get stopped by difficult times, but by having someone there whose job it is to keep me moving forward and striving to reach my vision, I’m so much less likely to stay stuck. My accountability partner and I have both had times where we’ve found ourselves stuck as a result of mental blocks or obstacles within our lives or businesses, but by working together, we’re able to get through them much faster.
7. I’m more balanced. Because we stay in tune with the overall vision we both want for our lives, we don’t allow each other to get very far out of balance. We know when we each have big projects going on, and when those wrap, we make sure to tell the other person to take care of the other areas of our lives. If we’re struggling, we consider that it might be something outside the business, say our health, that might be holding us back.

There are many untold benefits of having an accountability partner. If you value the relationship and honor your commitment to it, it can be the single greatest asset for your business.

Do you have an accountability partner? How has it helped you?

Image from Flickr by suvodeb

1. It means that if we’re going to be the ones to do something, we have to be available to do it. If a given hour is taken up by something else, then a new or better opportunity can’t be pursued.
2. It means we limit our growth and income potential. If we think in terms of the billable hour, eventually we hit a wall. By ourselves, we can only work x number of hours per week. Assuming all we did outside of work was sleep and assuming we ate every meal at our desks, the most we could work is somewhere around sixteen hours per day. That’s it. We’re not going to get any more hours from a day.  The only option is to increase our rates. Let’s face it — we might think we deserve $2,500 per hour, but realistically speaking, very few people are going to be willing to pay us that, so we’re going to eventually hit a wall with our hourly rates as well.
3. It means that our businesses imprison us. We’re tying ourselves to our businesses around the clock. There can be no vacations, no sick days, and no emergencies, if we’re expected to be the ones to do the job 100 percent of the time. All of a sudden, something that was supposed to create flexibility in our lives has become a ball and chain. If we do take time off, it means lost revenue and lost opportunities.
4. It means we can’t let go. We have to be able to step outside of our businesses. There will probably come a day when we want to sell out and move on to other things, but if our businesses can’t run without us, why would someone else want to buy them?

In order to overcome this, we have to start thinking about automation and delegation.

• Think automation. If it can be automated (set up once and then we don’t need to be available to oversee or do it going forward), then that’s usually the first choice.  Find ways to automate the things you currently do. For example, if you currently host monthly tele-seminars, could you simply record yourself giving the presentation and then charge a fee for the audio download? By removing ourselves from the equation, we create an income source that can be generated while we sleep.
• Think delegation. Some things require a person to physically handle them. That might include customer service inquiries, technical support, or a whole array of tasks within a given business. The question is, do you have to be the person to do them? If not, you can hire someone (for considerably less than your hourly rate) to handle them for you, thereby freeing yourself to focus on more important roles within your company.

When we first start building our companies, our primary concern is finding new clients and starting to earn a paycheck again, but as we grow, it can be easy to get so intertwined with the daily work that we forget about the bigger picture. It’s important to step back often to make sure we’re building something that doesn’t require our physical presence 100 percent of the time.

How do you ensure that you’re creating a scalable company and not a ball and chain? What checks and balances do you use to make sure that your business can run without you?

Image from Flickr by zoutedrop

My main beef wasn’t that there was a new entity being founded that was attempting to bring some clarity and credibility to the social media consulting field. But I questioned who might be behind these associations, and who was vetting the information that was being put out there as official training required to receive “certification” in social media.

I think that anyone who has been involved in the Internet industry for any length of time would look at these organizations and certification programs with a degree of skepticism — and that’s good. I also think that it is healthy to question and discuss the origins of these groups and to analyze the information that is being offered — for thousands of dollars, by the way — as training.

Before anyone hires someone who waves a social media certificate around, here’s some of my advice to you:

1. Question the source. While the Internet and new media industries have been around now for over a decade, social media as its own industry is young. If someone is touting social media certification, question where they received it and what they had to do to earn it.
2. Google them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been approached by potential clients who have been ripped off by people claiming to be social media consultants. A quick Google search of those consultants and companies reveal little in the way of evidence that the consultant/company in question is engaged in social media. A good social media consultant will be active in social media including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook but also other more niche networks.
3. Read them. At this early stage of social media consulting, those who are doing it are also writing about it because there is so little credible documentation of what we are all doing and learning. Read their blog, white papers or articles, and check out the recent books by some of the top social media thought leaders of today for greater perspective.
4. Check their references. Why someone would hire a social media consultant without checking their online portfolio and references is a mystery to me. A few phone calls and emails, and you’ll have a much better sense about the reputation, professionalism and skills of anyone claiming to be a social media consultant.

You should beware of anyone brandishing a social media certificate. Use common business sense when hiring someone to guide you and your company when implementing new technologies and processes into your marketing and communications mix.

What is your opinion on the current rash of social media certification programs?

In order to showcase their apps and services, many of these web conferencing companies offer free or affordable webinars on a variety of business topics to lure in new customers. Additionally, some companies hold free webinars to showcase their expertise. Either way, there are more and more free webinars offered every day. You can use them to gain knowledge from credible consultants, authors and other experts.

A caveat: When companies have something to sell, their webinars may tend to be skewed toward their products. Go for the webinars that include diverse topics and especially those where the experts are not from within the host company.

Here are some webinars on topics that can help you with your work.

1. Webinars on WebEx — free sessions hosted by experts using WebEx software. Upcoming webinars include a WebEx Q&A where you can ask a WebEx expert about holding large virtual events on December 8, 2009 and on December 15, “Reward & Recognition on a Limited Budget” led by Senior Consulting Partner Mark Paskowitz of The Ken Blanchard Companies.
2. New Marketing Labs — Coming up December 3 is “Measuring Success in Social Media” from the team at this reputable social media consulting firm led by Chris Brogan.
3. Radian6’s Twebinars — Sample topics include case studies of “engaged brands” like communications company Mullen and beverage company Molson Coors.
4. Sustainable Industries — This magazine holds free webinars about the issues of sustainability for anybody wanting to reduce their carbon footprint both (in both their personal and professional lives) as well as to learn about the latest trends in sustainability.
5. The IRS — Yes, even the IRS has gotten on the webinar bandwagon! Topics include tips on e-filing, tax updates (often based on specific states), and IRS Disaster Assistance.
6. Hubspot — While I do not endorse the Hubspot product, it does offer useful archived webinars like “5 Tips for Advanced B2B Business Blogging” and “How to Use Social Media to Manage Your Company Brand Online” There are also live webinars.
7. Awareness Networks — Watch archived videos of webinars with such industry leaders as Paul Gillin and Brian Solis.
8. Marketing Profs — For an annual membership fee, you can access archived webinars on topics ranging from “Monetizing the Long Tail of Search: Rethink Your Keyword Strategy” and “Love or Marketing? How Word-of-Mouth Will Save Your Brand.” Marketing Profs also holds live webinars including webinars on how to succeed with webinars.
9. Constant Contact — This email marketing company offers live webinars on email marketing, event marketing and online surveys. (Disclosure: I am a paying customer of Constant Contact).
10. Small Business Administration — The SBA has a series of small business training webinars covering finance and accounting, business planning and business startup, among other topics. You can also find webinars offered for free by local SBAs by state.

Virtual events company On24 takes webinars a huge leap further by sponsoring — and providing the platform for — virtual summits such as last month’s Social CRM Virtual Summit, essentially an all-day series of webinars and webcasting.

Webinars are a convenient way to learn best practices, hear case studies and hear from some of the world’s top experts in their field, all from the comfort of your office, your home or anywhere.

What webinars have you attended that you recommend?

While speaking with the CEO of SugarSync, I quickly realized that my post about running a virtual team was missing a critical component: backup. As I listened to the company’s presentation of its product, my mind began working overtime. SugarSync isn’t just about backing up files securely in the cloud. It can also be used for secure file sharing, collaboration and file syncing with cross-platform and mobile device access and compatibility.

How could SugarSync fit into my ever-expanding vision of efficient management of a virtual team? Looking at the diagram below, SugarSync could augment some functionality and replace others as follows:

1. Add secure backups for critical files. While our team does save important files to our 5pm project management tool, finding them can be a bit challenging. Using a project management tool for backup is also a bit shortsighted.
2. Replace Google Docs as a document collaboration tool. A major drawback of Google Docs is its hiccups when trying to open new Microsoft Word or Excel files, and other limitations that make true document collaboration impossible. Google Docs lets you collaborate on content, but SugarSync lets you collaborate on the actual documents without having to email them back and forth.
3. Replace Dropbox as a large file-sharing archive. You can share password protected folders via SugarSync, without having to use a special app on your desktop.

I’m a little wary of the price of SugarSync for my company. Even though it is geared toward small business, and you can start at about $30 per month for three users and 100 Gigs of space, each additional user is $10 per month extra, which adds up quickly. Since we’d be replacing two free solutions (Google Docs and Dropbox) with a paid solution, this really cuts into our apps budget. Still, my company’s team is going to try SugarSync over the next month using the free 30-day trial. I’ll report back on how it is working for us.

How are you collaborating, sharing and backing up your critical files? Are you using multiple applications or an all-in-one solution?

According to the new GigaOM Pro report “Virtual Worlds for the Enterprise Market” by Kris Tuttle and Steve Waite of Research 2.0 (subscription required), business use of virtual worlds is a growing market — one that we shouldn’t ignore. Some of the main takeaways from the report that matter to those of us working on the web include:

• Develop a plan. Companies should develop a plan for use of enterprise, private 3-D virtual world environments for both internal and external use.
• Technology continues to evolve. The “in world” experiences of these new virtual environments will be leaps and bounds ahead of that currently offered by Second Life.
• Don’t underestimate the market. The market for enterprise 3-D worlds may seem small today, but according to the report, it’s doubling year over year, with estimated annual revenues of $8-10 billion in 2015.

So how can you make sure that you’re prepared for the virtual worlds of the future? Here are nine skills we can all learn from regular engagement in Second Life that can be applied to any business use of 3-D virtual world environments.

1. Maneuvering. On your first day in a virtual world, you may feel like a stranger in a strange land. Unless you are well-versed with video games, chances are moving your avatar around will be frustrating and inefficient. Using Second Life on a regular basis for an extended period of time can help you get your “virtual world legs.”
2. Interacting. When you encounter others in a virtual world, even knowing when and how to approach them and address them can be awkward and downright intimidating. Participating in Second Life social events can help you learn the how to interact with both strangers and colleagues using your virtual self.
3. Communicating. Because Second Life supports both text and voice communications, you have more than one way to communicate with others. Knowing how to communicate clearly and thoroughly in both ways gives you an advantage. Plus knowing how to use gestures to your advantage can make a big difference in how others respond to you.
4. Presenting. By making presentations in Second Life, you learn how to add a new dimension to your presentations. You may currently know how to give a virtual presentation with a software such as GoToMeeting or DimDim, however, what do you do if you also have an avatar — a 3-D virtual representation of yourself — in the mix? And what about the ability to create “larger than life” presentation environments where your audience can walk through to get a richer experience? Presenting in Second Life helps you master these additional features to help make a more interactive and immersive presentation. From basic team or board meetings to more involved presentations, 3-D environments gives a whole new meaning to “being there.”
5. Teaching. Universities around the world make extensive use of Second Life, offering classes and even campus social events and interactions, taking full advantage of the 3-D environment to augment their “real world” offerings. Businesses and professionals can take advantage of this environment to offer seminars, workshops, panel discussions and full conferences — either standalone, or as an extension of a “real world” event.
6. Collaborating. Any enterprise or virtual team can benefit from the collaborative environments one can create in 3-D worlds. In Second Life, companies don’t only have meetings but also participate in team-building exercises, go on virtual retreats and hold social events to create stronger bonds between team members.
7. Branding. Companies can build their brands in 3-D environments such as Second Life — knowing how to do it well is a useful skill. Individuals can also build their brands via their 3-D avatars. Even in Second Life, you can purchase your own name (as long as it isn’t already taken) and use the environment as another social network in your social media toolkit. See my post “Second Life is Social Media.”
8. Promoting. Learning to market in a 3-D space is a challenge but enhances your marketing skills in exciting new ways.Finding ways to actually reach people in meaningful and engaging ways in a virtual world can help foster fresh ideas.
9. Building. Because every resident has the ability to build, even a non-artist or non-architect can gain skills to make objects, create art and construct buildings, spaces and environments that push the envelope of what is possible in the “real world.” This kind of creativity — especially in the hands of more linear thinkers — is a great source of inspiration and innovation. And another aspect of “building” in Second Life and other 3-D environments that should not be overlooked is the art of building community and organizing people.

How are you using 3-D virtual world environments for business?

Here is how I try to explain to people who may not be convinced that they — or their company — should be using social media for business. Hopefully, this proves helpful to those of you in the position of reaching the decision makers who are ignoring social media outright and consider it a fad.

While this decision tree may seem a bit simplistic, it’s meant to illustrate that when using social media tactics and tools, you must:

1. Start with a deep understanding of your business goals; and
2. Make them part of an overall marketing strategy.

A good phrase to use with clients is: “Social media is not a silver bullet.”  Make sure they aren’t looking to social media — or any set of tools or tactics, for that matter — as the one thing that will catapult them toward business success. That’s reckless. But also let them know that putting their heads in the sand hoping this social media thing will just go away will put them at a disadvantage, especially if they don’t at least try to understand what it is and what it could potentially do for their business.

Those of us who engage in social media understand that it is first and foremost about conversations and connections, so if one isn’t prepared to engage closely, frequently and almost intimately with one’s customers or potential customers, then jumping feet first into social media may not be a wise business move. We need to communicate this to our clients without scaring the heck out of them. Anything different can be scary, and social media is vastly different from what most traditional marketers are used to, so it’s up to us to shine a little light down that dark tunnel of the unknown.

Not everyone who is dragging their heels about social media is being unreasonable. Try to pinpoint why they’re avoiding it. Is it a knee-jerk reaction or a reasonable decision based on the limited information they have at hand?

If you’ve ever been at the forefront of any adoption of new technologies, you’ll know that there’s an advantage to waiting out something newfangled: You can learn from other people’s mistakes. The flip side to putting something like social media on the backburner, as you know, is that your clients will probably miss out on first-mover advantages, and they may lose market share to companies that understand that today’s consumer is empowered through social media.

If a client is unwilling — or unable — to interact with their customers in new ways, those customers may turn to companies that have a presence where they like to communicate (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter). They may favor companies that listen, respond, engage, interact and respect this new breed of customers.

You know all this. It’s just up to you to responsibly communicate this to your clients. This isn’t about hype and hyperbole. This is about making sound, rational, strategic business decisions to identify market and communications shifts and to adapt sensibly to them in order to stay in touch with one’s customers.

Social media is a tool, just like email is a tool, and just like a web site is a tool. Guide your clients to at least consider the new tools that are out there and that are probably having a major impact on their companies today, not to mention the effects they’re going to have tomorrow. I pity the fool who doesn’t at least pull their head out of the sand and ask the right questions in an attempt to make sound business decisions. If you understand this and have clients who don’t, it’s up to you to do some gentle pulling so they can see the new landscape around them.

Why do you engage in social media? What do you tell people who don’t or won’t?

Photo credit: stock.xchng user kavitha

Sprouter, like many web apps these days, takes some significant cues from Twitter. In fact, at first glance, it appears to be pretty much Twitter designed for a specific target audience: entrepreneurs.

Unlike Twitter, at Sprouter you have a dedicated profile page. It still keeps things short and sweet, rather than presenting a wealth of info like you might find on Facebook or LinkedIn, but you have enough space to let other entrepreneurs know a bit about you. You also get access to a follower/following count, just like you have with Twitter.

Also borrowed from Twitter is the 140-character limit for your posts, for which Sprouter provides the slightly more business-oriented prompt “What are you working on?” You can use hashmarks to flag posts with specific tags, and this is where Sprouter really starts blooming. Hashtagged terms automatically appear as tags at the bottom of your post composer, and they form the basis for two things: topics and events.

Clicking on any hashtag will automatically return a page for that term, which will tell you what it signifies, who its owner or creator is, and whether it’s an event or just a general topic. You’ll also see a list of posts containing that hashtag, and have the option to follow the tag itself, right from within the app, which is something you definitely can’t do from the basic Twitter app.

If you’re a fan of tweet-ups, industry-specific chats and online conferences, Sprouter is for you. It also has great promise for people looking for real-time collaboration and feedback from other entrepreneurs and web workers, without the static, background noise and spam that comes along with Twitter.

While Sprouter is in private beta for the time being, its creators are aiming for a launch in the fall, and the service seems to be pretty solid in its current state, so I wouldn’t anticipate a long wait before it goes public. The people behind Sprouter are also planning on integrating the service with desktop applications and outside services, so it stands to become even more useful down the road.

Have you tried Sprouter? Let us know how you think it compares to Twitter in the comments.

PartnerUp

PartnerUp is like match.com, but for businesses. You list your skills and available projects (called opportunities) and can check out the assets of others to see if there’s a fit. There’s a directory in which you can list your business, and add promising-looking contacts to your address book. You can create or join groups that focus on particular topics of interests and different levels of expertise. There are also helpful forums where you can ask or answer questions about business, or anything else for that matter. The service has a free basic account, along with a premium plan. 

KiWork

KiWork works like PartnerUp and offers similar functionality. Similarly to PartnerUp you can also join or create groups (called teams in this app). The look and feel isn’t as slick as PartnerUp, but it does provide many more useful features for free. As a matter of fact, the only fee is for unlimited team members (the first three are free).

Refural

Refural is a tool that encourages people to make referrals by compensating them for their efforts. It’s a very simple app. There aren’t even user accounts; all you need to get going is your email address. For more detail, check out Thursday’s recent post about the app.

ReferralKey

ReferralKey is a growing network of professionals that focuses on the fine art of the referral, much like Refural. However, ReferralKey has been around a lot longer. There are different types of plans all based on the amount of features you’re after. For example, the basic plan allows you to send unlimited referrals and you’re allowed to receive up to three referrals yourself. After your third referral, you can choose the $10/month (Silver Key) or $20/month (Gold Key) plans, which offer escalating perks and benefits. I like this unusual method of giving new users a way to test drive the service. You don’t have to pay until you’ve actually received referrals and started making money from it.

Elance

Elance has been around for a long time — since 1999. We’ve covered it often here on WWD. It’s still basically like match.com meets monster.com for freelancers. You can bid on new projects or find talented freelancers to work with. If you’re looking for a way to breathe new life into a project or if you want to find some extra work, Elance can be very useful.

iFreelance

iFreelance follows the lead carved out by the veteran Elance, but has a look and feel more reminiscent of craigslist. While it definitely doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that Elance does, it does have the basics and might make a good place to post projects and search for business opportunities.

What are some other ways that you use the web to find great resources for projects?