The Quill of the Feather

marketing in tough times

2009-07-16T23:21:49Z

We hear it over and over again, and see expanding proof of its truth: times are tough, and it looks like they will be for a while. A few months ago, I was pooh-pooing this fact (and for a while we got reports that "everything's getting better right now!"), but the evidence is striking closer and closer to home, most recently in the form of massive layoffs in my home town (it was a few months ago, the effects are dramatic now in the form of house foreclosures, empty storefronts, and so on). What do you do when you're trying to stay afloat? How do you market your business and stand apart from your competition, who might be doing what you do, but at a discount?

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, how do you market your business and its products and services so that people come to you instead of the other guy? And what if it's a decision between your light bill and your marketing budget (it comes to that entirely too often these days!)?

Our services are, I'll admit it, not cheap. And not every business can afford what we do. What we do is save you the time it takes learning how to do it yourself, and then doing it. But you can do it yourself, if you are willing to learn and spend the time on your own marketing efforts.

There's so much action in social media these days (Twitter, Facebook, mySpace, LinkedIn and other social media platforms), and many businesses are using them to great effect. I'm going to share some of what we do so that you can start doing it yourself. Face it, I'd rather you stay in business than put yourself out of business hiring us!

So here's what you do:

Step 1: Get going on a web site. We offer a do-it-yourself option if you have the time and patience to do it this way--and truly, the options there permit you to buy your own domain name, get a web hosting account and set up a nice looking template-based web site on your own. You can actually do pretty well this way! Ready?

Go here: http://www.shetechhosting.com.

Step 2: Set up an account on Facebook if you don't already have one. Then set up a company page. Here's how ours look, so you can see what the end result can be:

SheTech's personal Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/shetech
SheTech and Company's company page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maryville-TN/SheTech-and-Company/12336687279

Step 3: sign up for Twitter (which I think you've also done). Here's what our account looks like:

http://www.twitter.com/shetech

Step 4: any other social media accounts (LinkedIn--especially for businesses!--Flickr, mySpace, etc)

Step 5: sign up for Ping (http://www.ping.fm) and connect all your accounts in there.

What that will do is permit you to update and connect all of your profiles, so that you can publish a single update and deploy it to all of your social media at once. You can also add a Facebook application which updates your profile with any blog updates you make to your web site. They all tie together, and that helps with exposure.

What good do all these connections make?

Well, once you have connected them all, you can start expanding your network by inviting friends and colleagues to join you, "friend" you, or whatever the term is on that particular platform.

Then you start sending updates about what you're doing!

A word of caution, though: it's not cool these days to put out a hard-sell pitch. Here are some effective way to market your wares:

Ask about pain points: Ask questions, such as "Do you always up with a sore neck/back? Come see us! We have ..." (etc.)

Get excited about an offering: This one can be tricky. It's not as easy as just saying "We're really excited about thus-and-such!"--but if you say something like, "We just got this really cool widget, and we like it so much we're playing with it in the store! Come play with us!" Get it? It's a matter of engaging your readers. I'd certainly want to come play with some widget if it sounded interesting enough, wouldn't you?

Make it relevant and timely: One of the smartest network marketers I know sells Mary Kay Cosmetics (you can find her at http://www.marykay.com/kmcgee2/), and one of the reasons she's so smart about marketing her products is that she makes her offerings relevant, like reminding customers about July 4th weekend, and don't forget your sunscreen!

There's so much more, but I don't want to give away all the tricks! This will get you started. If you have questions, you know where to find me!

We'll all get through this together.

Cheers,
Rebekkah
http://www.shetech.com

Facebook ads and self-testing

2009-07-03T21:03:39Z

Because business has slowed down a bit, I thought I would try something new: a Facebook ad. In minutes, I had already hit my clickthrough limit, but none of those clicks resulted in sales (at least not so far).

It's interesting, being my own guinea pig. As I test methods on my own site, I can share what I've learned with my clients. "If at first you don't succeed..." is a phrase by which all marketing lives, I think, but these days it's important to have fewer failures. We want to spend client marketing dollars as efficiently as possible.

Part of the problem is that everyone is so VERY cost-conscious these days that they're looking for free solutions for everything, including marketing. There's lots of free stuff out there, but it takes knowledge and experience -- not to mention a great deal of time -- to really make it work for you.

I'd love to hear from readers about their experiences testing their own methods on themselves.

the power of an emergency

2009-06-18T21:20:35Z

Haven House in Maryville Tennessee, which specializes in crisis intervention, prevention and education around domestic violence, has itself suffered a crisis in the last couple of weeks: a kitchen fire has rendered the emergency shelter nearly unusable, leaving many domestic violence victims with no place to go.

An ecumenical community program started in 1981 to address a critical need in the community, Haven House is one of the first programs of its kind in Tennessee. In order to continue offering emergency shelter to victims of domestic violence (men, women and children), Haven House has an immediate need for materials, labor and appliances.

Upon learning of this emergency–for which Haven House has no funding–the Blount County business community has already begun to come together to lend a hand. It’s amazing how communities come together in times of need. This is certainly one of those times.

If you’re in or near Blount, Knox and Monroe Counties, and can offer help in the form of money, labor, materials, appliances, please contact Haven House at (865) 983-6818 or email “info@havenhousetn.org“.

Save a friend's life

2009-05-19T23:26:27Z

Save a friend's life: http://ping.fm/ax2EO

the power of community service

2009-05-15T20:23:21Z

Yesterday was a significant day for me in in interesting way: I took part in a webinar for LEAPS.TV (http://leaps.tv) around the topic of domestic violence 911 call handling. We had a panel of experts from local E911, two different police forces and Haven House, a local domestic violence shelter and advocacy service.

This webinar was wildly successful from the standpoint of attendance alone, and certainly from the information being exchanged between panel members and the audience.

Being the moderator, I had my hands full juggling technical issues (inevitable in a program as complex as this one was), fielding questions and keeping the conversation fluid. Much more than this, the topic is of great personal interest to me, and it was extremely important to me that the information itself be passed around and shared so that every participant benefited, and came away with new ideas.

It worked.

The response so far has been tremendous; so much so that we're already planning follow-up sessions.

Domestic violence is an epidemic. Over half of the calls that come into an E911 service have to do with domestic violence, and thousands upon thousands of cases occur each year. It represents among the riskiest calls a responding officer can take (remember what happened in Pittsburgh), and getting the right information, at the right time, to the right people, can literally be a matter of life and death.

In the course of working with Haven House and the members of the LEAPS.TV panel, I have learned a great deal and shared a great deal.

I firmly believe everyone--everyone--should participate in community action of some kind. My cause need not be your cause, nor yours be mine. But service to our neighbors is a giant part of how this country came to be built. Reach out. Help. Be part of your community.

shetech @ 2003-12-30T23:00:00

2003-12-31T03:50:26Z

Prime numbers quite suddenly fascinate me.

I have known what prime numbers are for years, of course, but it wasn't until recently that I discovered that I have a "feel" for them. For example, I knew that 2003 was a prime without testing it. And then I looked for a list of small primes, and there it was. Today I have begun participating in a distributed computing project which hunts for the next Marsenne prime, which is of the form "2 raised to the P power, minus 1", where "P" is a prime. Fascinating stuff! But I couldn't possibly tell you why it fascinates me so.

The Start of Something New

2003-10-27T15:53:20Z

This trip to see my mother has been a pivotal one. While all of my trips here have been significant in one way or another, this one somehow seems the most complete. We have started and continued the routine of getting up Really Bloody Early to walk for three miles in the morning; during the day, I have been able to continue working, which helps a lot -- my brain needs exercise, too! I have gone sailing, and this time was plopped at the helm, which made the experience something far beyond previous sailing trips. When the boat heels over and puts a rail in the water, it is an experience that cannot be forgotten.

Some really great family issues are being worked out, and have taken on a fresh new turn (differing from "being stuck" in one place for at least the last ten years), and that could only have happened when Mom and I spend long days together; we somehow work things out as a team really well when we can sit and work things through.

And speaking of teamwork (and I think this excites me the most), she and I are beginning to collaborate on a new course for singers that utilizes both our areas of expertise, and I think this will be some groundbreaking territory. More to come as we develop the course. Since I am going back to not one but two teaching jobs, in a couple of area community music schools, we should be able to try the curriculum out on my students once we have the course developed.

When I heard Mom telling a friend of hers that we were collaborating on this project, my heart swelled. It somehow seemed more real to hear her say it, and less of a half-drunk fantasy. And besides, we already have the first two sessions of the course outlined!

And on top of everything else, I'll be going home with a new set of teeth, so to speak, which has already added a great boost to my flagging self-esteem.

So it has been a good trip.

shetech @ 2003-10-17T10:59:00

2003-10-17T14:50:53Z

It has been a long time since I made a contribution to my journal! I'm sitting on the front stoop of a friend of my mother's, borrowing their wireless high speed connection so that I can continue to work while hanging out in North Carolina, waiting for my teeth to be done. I've been telling people that I'm saving myself $3000 by having bought a $300 train ticket. How, you ask? Because in Connecticut/New York, having crowns done would have cost $1000 or more per tooth, whereas in North Carolina they're costing a little more than half that. Definitely worth the trip, and a nice excuse for an extended visit with Mom.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to work on a contract, designing graphics and eventually redesigning a client's web site (Yay!). Once this one is done, there will no doubt be more to come.

Perhaps enough to finance my music career?

It has been an interesting struggle: this summer's workshop was amazing in so many ways: I learned so much, both musically and professionally, and I'm SO ready to take the next steps -- if I could only get out of my own bleedin' way!

shetech @ 2002-11-30T22:35:00

2002-12-01T03:32:28Z

Whatever one might think of the circumstances of one's life, there is always something for which one can be thankful.

Going to the mat with God

2002-11-19T08:14:30Z

After just having spent the last who-knows-how-many-hours updating and deploying my resume, I may be entirely burned out to do this subject justice, but it has to do with the convergence of my jobless state, my lack of money to pay for voice lessons, my continuing interest in seminary, and a general confusion about the whole business.

I am sure that there is a way to reconcile all the different interests that I have wandering around out there, but so far I'm stumped as to how -- be a technical project manager for an opera company that specializes in theology??

I'll write some more about this when I'm lucid.

The day's occupation

2002-10-02T20:35:28Z

Bless my soul, I hate job-hunting.

Dreaming

2002-09-27T03:10:31Z

This is something I keep meaning to enter here...

Dreaming of houses or dwellings generally signifies a trip into the subconscious, and the state of said dream-dwelling is a pretty good indication of the condition of one's psyche at any given moment. Mine is apparently quite spacious and open, with lots of interesting little corners, but needs a lot of work...

I've been dreaming of houses, and moving, a lot lately -- particularly since midsummer, when I first got sick -- almost nightly, in fact. The houses I move into in my dreams are generally really large, with great big rooms (I seem to be partial to Edwardian proportions), and lots of really interesting things like huge closets and back stairways and huge kitchens (note the plural -- there is almost invariably more than one) and odd connecting rooms and so on...

While they almost always require a great deal of work, they always start with a great deal of potential, and the challenge of the work ahead is something to which I look forward with a great deal of pleasure -- it never feels like a chore.

So if it's a little shabby and needs fixing up, at least my psyche is roomy and interesting...

Phew!

2002-09-27T02:32:29Z

For the last week, working pretty much as many hours a day as I used to for CollabNet, I've been working on a new web site project. This particular project was done at a discount, because it's a friend of mine, but if I get this sort of work For Real, I'd be happy, because it would be pretty durned lucrative. Who know, though -- in this economy, nothing is certain.

Anyway, the new site can be seen at http://www.mumtazart.com -- and I'm actually pretty pleased with how this one turned out, in many ways.

New enterprise?

2002-09-24T19:01:47Z

Over the last few days, I have been working on the design of a new web site for a friend of mine. It started out as a favor, but now it may be turning into a real business, as he has been already talking about my work to other contacts of his. And since he is a graphic designer, we will make an excellent team!

This site is something I'm actually quite proud of; I think it's my best work to date.

A Preemptive War?

2002-09-21T17:18:09Z

The below statement was issued by a group of which a dear friend of mine is a member. Please feel free to propagate it to friends and those you think might have an effect on the outcome of this silly saber-rattling that's currently occupying Mister George-Dubya's attention...

A Preemptive War?
The Center for International Learning
New York City

September, 2002

Dialogue, like peace, is the opposite of war. War makes dialogue impossible, but dialogue makes peace a possibility. Because The Center of International Learning is dedicated to promoting dialogue we must say no to war, specially to an aggressive war of conquest, the sort of war traditionally condemned as unjust.

All war is evil, but some wars, defensive ones against aggressors, may be justified. Aggressive wars, however, are morally wrong. In this case a preemptive war is supposedly justified because of a potential threat posed as defense by an evil man. Isnt this only aggressive war by another name or is preemptive now the same as defense and therefore just?

The American threat to Iraq is very real while the Iraqi threat to the United States is merely a potentiality. Here a much stronger nation chooses to wage war on the basis of the potential threat posed by a weaker one. The Iraqi dictator might develop nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction and might use them recklessly, while the Americans already have many such weapons and have used them in the past. Moreover, the current American government has suggested that it will use them again, perhaps in its campaign against Iraq.

The promoters of this war justify preemption as defensive, but if war against a potential threat is defensive, then so was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That was "justifiable" by the same logic since the Japanese rulers perceived the United States as a potential threat. If "preemption" is defense, then all aggressive wars are "just" because any war of aggression might be plausibly rationalized as a "defense" against some perceived potential threat. Every country in the world poses a potential threat to every other, some, of course, more so others. But what is a potential threat? It must, like beauty, at least partly reside in the eyes of the aggressor. If "preemption" is actually defensive, then wasn't Hitler right to invade Poland on the basis of the perceived potential threat?

Any potential threat posed by a weaker nation against a stronger one must be at least partly illusionary, the stuff of propaganda, and merely a pretense, unless it becomes the irrational obsession of a mad ruler like Hitler. Otherwise no nation-state will wage war solely on the basis of a potential threat, but instead gain some specific tangible benefit, in this case oil. War for oil rather than the loudly proclaimed potential threat may be the real motive. Rather than invest in alternative technologies, the current American administration would seize by force the oil fields of Iraq, some ten percent of the worlds petroleum reserves.

There will be a considerable price to pay for this war, no matter what its outcome. Thousands will die in the conquest of Iraq, not just one evil man, the alleged target. Because preemptive war is only aggressive warfare by another name, it is a crime against the peace according to international law, but after this war there will no longer be any international laws, only the rule of the stronger, might makes right. The subsequent chaos, and violent breakdown in international affairs our leaders will claim, can only be "managed" by an empire of force, the rule of the strongest of the strong, the violent of the violent. Do We the People really want America to become a new Rome that imposes its rule by the use of overwhelming force wherever its interests are threatened, even by perceived potential threats from weaker nations? Do we really want an America that wages endless warfare in order to secure a worldwide empire?

Submitted by the Board of Directors of The Center of International Learning, Inc.

The Center of International Learning promotes dialogue among grassroots people internationally.

www.cil-usa.org
Email: cilusa@ix.netcom.org

So close...

2002-09-21T01:57:16Z

Had a great voice lesson this afternoon. Voice teacher is saying that I'm >< this close to being employable by opera companies. Better still, he's saying that my voice is so large that only A- and higher companies will be hiring me... no small regional houses would know what to do with a voice my size.

And here's a fun one: the fellow who got me involved in this summer's opera workshop program is a singer himself, specializing in Verdi repertoire (the role of "Macbeth" put him on the map and keeps him busy still). After the final performances of the workshop, he has started telling opera companies that he wants me to sing "Lady Macbeth" with him the next time they do the opera... Now, the really fun addition is this: my voice teacher is also a conductor, and happens to be a Verdi specialist as well, and has now suggested that we three do a MACBETH together.

Wow.

I mean, WOW.

Procrastination as a Way of Life

2002-09-19T22:21:27Z

Although I should have been spending the day applying for jobs, I found myself browsing the web by way of tangential relationships: that is, friends of friends at LiveJournal.

I was quite delighted to discover a number of sites related to body imagery, and Pride in oneself, despite one's size! Although this is not at all a new concept to me, I was cheered to read other people's experiences and insights on the human body and its sorry plight in the face of modern marketing campaigns.

Most notable: Vipe.org and lovely and talented Heather Corinna's site.

Happily, one thing that these sites did do for me was inspire me to consider a potential new source of income, that of plus-size modeling. Better yet, I started pursuing the things that I would need to carry out this idea, such as getting a new portfolio assembled (a friend of mine has a rather nice-if-small photography studio), and signing up for one particular model search.

Not an altogether unrewarding day!

Last night's dream

2002-09-18T23:37:51Z

Apparently "the noose" is a subject that is much on my mind today, likely because of a rather disturbing dream I had last night:

It was just a quick flash, that I recall, but I was in a forest with some people, and one of them was a sort of vigilante-looking fellow with a leather hat, duster and bullwhip. The fellow with the bullwhip pulled it out and used it to hang another man... hauled it around and cracked it such that the end wrapped around the guy's neck. Then he flung the other end over a high branch, and ... You can imagine the rest...

Longhand, or computer journaling?

2002-09-18T21:37:13Z

After spending most of the day looking for work, I find myself playing with LiveJournal, to see what it can accomplish. Thanks to bigbaldguy for pointing me in this direction, I have a place to make my journal entries.

My concern is this: I have preferred to make journal entries longhand in the past, and will probably continue to do so, but this may be a very good place to keep such things as technical notes on the deafness research I am undertaking. Perhaps two journals, one for personal stuff, one for technical stuff... Dunno. I am feeling somehow resistant to the idea of giving up that last vestige of my non-technical leanings, that of pen and paper. There is something rewarding and centering about sitting down with a notebook in a comfortable spot, instead of my desk, facing an impersonal CRT screen (okay, I also haven't gotten a flat screen!) -- candles and low light seem inappropriate here. Do I really want to let go of that, and acquiesce to the age of journaling?

Yikes!