Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Super Bowl Ads – 6 Steps for Small Businesses and Startups to Get In the Game?

The Super Bowl was Sunday night and thank goodness the Steelers lost.  Didn’t you just get the feeling when they had the ball at the end of the game that they would yet again pull out another victory.  Good job Packers to play strong defense at the right time to cut that off.  I hope someone from my beloved Browns takes a few lessons from them for next season and maybe we can win a few more games!

Well this post is not about the game, but those commercials.  You have heard about the hype.  There is the yearly run up to each Super Bowl where huge brands (and late stage startups with lots of VC money to blow like Groupon) go “all in” usually to the tune of $3 million bucks for a 30 second ad.  Is it worth it?  Really?  Thinking back over the last decade I was trying to remember what were the best and most memorable commercials that still leave a mark on me.  I could only remember two.  Somewhat surprisingly each commercial was from the career placement and job advertising industry.   They were from CareerBuilder and Monster.com and I included them at the top of the post and below.

So what do these two ads have in common.  Dead simple delivery and execution and story that everyone can relate to.  It helps that they use two main ingredients that are so often successful to any campaign: little children and animals (especially cute ones!).

The point of this story is really not so much about these commercials, but that these days any of us can now try to compete at the level of these large brands in order to spread the word about your product and business.  Here are some steps that can help:

Story Counts Advertising is viral now so take the time necessary to create a good story that is engaging and means something not just to you, but to your audience that you are going after.  Make sure that story is simple in your ad and that people can relate to that story in a real world practical way. Tara Jacobsen from the Marketing Artfully blog has some good tips about making your story funny for your video ad.

Your Own Video Camera Now take that story and it is as simple as getting a decent video camera from Best Buy to film your own commercial. Even better is that most computers now come with video editing software that is easy to use or if yours does not there are a number of vendors online that provide editing software for low prices.

Crowdsource Actors/Actresses Try to look somewhat professional when you are filming. But that does not mean you have to pay big bucks for known actors and actresses. This only means put some real thought into props, actors, actresses that can include employees, friends or even your own pets.  Your costumes for the commercial are as close as your own closet or even the nearby Salvation Army store.

YouTube Once you complete your video ad, upload it to YouTube.  That is your first step and then make sure you title the clip in a way that grabs your audience’s attention.  Also remember to use keyword tags that are relative to the content, your product and company so that the video ad will appear in relevant search results.  This is a key component that will help drive traffic and page views so take the time to think about how people will search to get to see your video ad.  Here is an excellent article from Mashable on Top 10 YouTube Tips for Small Business.

Distribute Your Video Ad After the video is uploaded, create a blog post around the video and give that clip a story and some context in your blog post.  Also post the video on your blog, your website and even try to submit it to other video distribution sites through Tube Mogul.  This helps get your video in as many places as possible. Remember the more places the higher the chance more people will see your video ad.

Social Media Channels Do not stop at your website, make sure you use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other bookmarking sites to get the ad out. That way your followers, customers and friends can help you distribute that ad!  If you video is funny or has a viral element to it, that will give the community even more reason to pass it along to others.

So using the above 6 steps is your first step to advertising with the big brands.  All you need is a video camera, a little creativity and some of your own co-workers, friends, family and pets.  Any startup, small business or even non-profit can use these tips to get the word out about your product, company or cause.  Now I am not promising you huge overnight success with these steps, but what you will get is the beginning of the process for pushing your brand out there.  And isnt Super Bowl advertising all about just that.  So on a slightly smaller level you can do what the big brands do all by yourself.  Who knows, if you are creative enough you may just land yourself a hit on YouTube!

Let us know which Super Bowl ads were your favorite and what video ad you would put together.

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Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Try Shopkick on Your Smartphone, Almost 1 Million Others Have!

I have been using the Shopkick application on my smartphone for the past few months and then I saw this article in the Wall Street Journal the other day and realized that 750,000 people have also downloaded and used the application since it was released in August.

Basically, the idea behind the Shopkick application is that users can login and see which local retailers are closest to their current location.  Users then also have the option on clicking on each of the retailers near them to see what specials the merchant is currently offering to Shopkick customers.  It seems like some of the larger retailers that have close relationships with Shopkick include Best Buy, Macy’s, and Sports Authority.

The other idea behind the Shopkick application that is used to encourage users to access the application daily is driven by rewarding users with Shopkick points just for viewing the retailer’s specials by using the Shopkick application on their smartphone.  Users can obtain additional points by physically visiting the retailers and checking in and also by scanning the barcodes of various products in the stores that the retailers are advertising.  Shopkick users can then redeem these Shopkick points for products and gifts cards from the various retailers.

I found the Shopkick application to be interesting and useful but after attempting unsuccessfully to scan the bar codes of a few advertised products at a local Best Buy I was a little frustrated by the application as well.  I can definitely see a lot of good uses for the Shopkick application and I hope that they expand the functionality included in it to possibly included automatic price comparisons and possibly an easier way to scan the barcodes of advertised products.

Have you ever used the Shopkick application in a store or any other smartphone application while shopping?

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Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Hackers: They’re back and are coming to get you! Steps to Fight Back

What’s back? Hacker’s toolkits! There are new hacker’s toolkits out there that are user friendly. So, your computer could be in danger from any number of foes. It could be the kid next door, the person sitting across the table in Starbucks, some computer geek in an internet cafe in India. How do we know this? Symantec released a new report about this. These toolkits are priced anywhere from $40 to $40,000.

So, what exactly do these toolkits do?  They let people who have a little knowledge of coding to design malware to hack your computer. The big difference between these toolkits and the original ones is that these new toolkits use many different attack vectors. With the old toolkits, once you knew the software patch, the malware couldn’t get in. The toolkits exploit the vulnerabilities in a computer. Usually the malware gets in through the web browser and its plug-ins.

Then, the software usually installs a keylogger which steals things like online passwords and turn computers into zombies who infect other computers. Why through the web browser? Since most of the major software holes have been patched up, it has become harder to get malware onto a computer.Signs show that these toolkits are pretty effective. According to PC World, $70 million was stolen from bank accounts using the hacking toolkit Zeus. Plus these kits are often like regular software. They get constant updates, so they have the newest and most potent version of malware.  These toolkits are also attacking multiple software at once, so chances are that one application may be unprotected and the attack is more likely to succeed.

So, what can be done to protect your computer from these threats? Just the usual of keeping all of your system software, virus definitions, etc.. You also shouldn’t use Internet Explorer, but Firefox and Chrome are targets too. [The article didn’t mention anything about Opera though.] You can switch to Linux, but it takes a while to get used to. [I haven’t used Linux, so I don’t have an idea of how different it is. All I know is that it’s different.] You can also install a browser extension, such as FlashBlock(For both Firefox and Chrome), that’ll block any flash code on a website unless you opt to let it run.(YouTube is whitelisted.) Also make sure you’re using a reputable brand of antivirus softarware.

So what do you do to protect your computer from these threats and what do you think about these toolkits?

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Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

5 Ways to Develop a Killer Brand for Your Small Business and Startup

As a small business or startup there is a constant challenge of developing a brand for your business.  Unlike large companies like Coke and Apple, small businesses and startups do not have the resources to invest the time, money and effort to build a brand through advertising.  So these businesses are left to rely on my scrappy tactics to develop and grow their brand.  Of course with all of the large, medium and small competitors, it can be difficult to elevate your small business above the noise that is out there.   Here are a few tips that can help your small business build your brand and show that you can be trusted to deliver for your customers:

1. Give Each Customers an Experience: Think about the great brand experiences that are out there today.  There are product experiences like Apple and Zappos.  Then there are city experiences like Las Vegas.  All evoke a certain type of experience when you interact with those brands (yes, I am calling Las Vegas a brand!). So when your business interacts with your customers, treat them to an experience.  What type of experience you may ask?  How about “white glove” treatment from beginning until end where you make every effort to anticipate your customer’s wants, needs and desires.  This is not an easy thing to accomplish, but just making this type of effort will ensure you try to create a good customer experience for your customers.

2. Every Interaction Should Make an Impression:  So this is taking point #1 above and breaking it down.  Think about your customer’s touch points for your business.  Now think about how you interact with your customers at every touch point.  Is it the first time they reach your website? The first time they call your office?  An email inquiry about your product or a meeting at a trade show?  A conversation over Twitter? Now try to aim to make every experience with your customers one that they will remember.  I am not advocating something over the top. I am merely advocating taking special care of the customers at every interaction with your business.  For example, talk to your customer, listen to them, and take the time to say that you value them as a customer. Always remember find a way to go the extra mile to help your customers life a little easier or happier.  That is why every email should be thought out, every entry point to your website considered so you can get into the mind of a customer and make a good impression at every point with them.

3. Help Your Customers & They Will Talk About Your Business: Building on points #1 and #2, if you make an impression and give customers a great experience, you will give your customers reasons to talk about your business, service or product.  What better way to build your brand by having your customers be your brand messengers to potential customers and leads that are out in the community.  That is why the more you go out of your way to build up credibility and trust with your customers by repeatedly beating their expectations, the easier it is for those customers to tell the world about buying from your small business.

4. Promote Your Customer’s Successes:   We have found at Kikscore one of the best ways to help ourselves and our brand is by promoting our own customers.  We have done that by finding every opportunity to promote our customers through various avenues like our blog, on Twitter and by supporting them at every opportunity.  One of ways we have done that is by giving our customers a forum on our own blog to tell their own small business success stories.  What can you do?  Take your customers’ successes and help them tell the world.  If your product, service or company was involved with that success, that is even better for you.

Bottom line: Sell yourself by promoting your own customers!

5. Always Aim for a Consistent Message & Customer Experience: One of the biggest enemies of a strong band is an inconsistent message and uneven customer experience.  Do you treat customers differently?  Is your product simple to use, but your marketing copy and help materials complex and too wordy?  How about your customer service – is it very responsive over the phone, but slow or non-existent on Twitter and Facebook?  The key is to make sure that the way that your customers interact with your business and startup is in a consistent manner across all channels.  This consistency is critical to ensure a brand that does not create mixed messages with customers.  A cohesive and consistent brand is hard to create, but it is imperative to achieve to build a great brand.

While small businesses may not have the same resources as large companies, they do still have the ability to build a strong band without paying a huge sum of money.  But the monetary investment is replaced with a huge human investment in time, effort, messaging and customer service.  That human investment if deployed carefully and deliberately across all parts of a small business or startup can pay major dividends. The trick is studying your business, your customers and the touch points and then developing a branding plan and executing on it.

These are just some of the ways to develop a great brand for your small business or startup.  Let us know if you have any tips in the comment below.

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Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Jersey Shore of Business: Is Your Brand Overexposed

Yes, another blog post about business and t.v.  I’m not an academic, poet or deep thinker.  I work on the biz and I watch my stories.  Over the last year, one of my favorites has been Jersey Shore.  I know I’m not alone.  I think the magic behind the JS is that all the participants in the show are relatable.  In the first Season, they drove crappy cars to a C-class vacation resort.  And they worked in a t-shirt shop to cover their living expenses.  Never would this be confused as a high-class lifestyle.  But growing up in Middle America, driving a Pontiac Grand Prix (or as my wife called it, the “Big Prix”) to the family lake cabin, I related.  I was Jersey Shore. 

Now, Season 3 is here and the Situation is driving a Bentley and not really taking the job at the t-shirt shop seriously.  Snooki is playing up her characterizati0n — acting more and more outrageous and calling attention of the cameras.  Worst of all, Vinny is getting girls.  This is not the same group of people that I related to last year. 

It got me thinking about companies.  Every hugely successful company has a known brand.  And in getting that brand exposed, they eventually overexpose it.  Overexposure, in my opinion, is not easily calculable.  Everyone loves the Fonz, until he water skis over a shark, and then they don’t.  So when do you realize that your brand (or take on your brand is overexposed)?  Here are my thoughts:

1.  People hate your commercials:  A great example is the GEICO ads with the “weeee” pig screaming in the back of a car.  I honestly will never consider GEICO as an insurance provider as long as this commercial is in rotation.

2.  You are known more for your Brand than your product:  Microsoft would be a good example.  You know the logo, the founder, and the word processor, but what about their mobile phones, Xbox product line, Halo or database technology?

3.  People that don’t use your service have an opinion about it:  Howard Stern, if his radio show could be considered a product or service, would be a good example of this.  I’m a huge fan of his.  Listen to him in the car and at work.  Most of the time, it’s about in-fighting with his staff or a great celebrity interview.  But everyone that doesn’t listen to him thinks its about scantily clad women discussing personal matters.

Any other thoughts on whether your brand is overexposed?

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Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Your Wifi Network Isn’t Secure Anymore

Years ago the industry standard of WEP encryption on Wifi networks was forced to evolve when programs that could easily be found with a google search allowed any mischievous individual to compromise a wireless network and steal the credit card information of everyone on it. Everything sent over a WEP network is encrypted with the same password. This single layer of security leaves networks vulnerable to hackers, as the password can be obtained in a matter of minutes through any number of algorithms that guess every possibility for the password. This method of hacking, dubbed the “dictionary attack”, is thwarted on websites that block users after too many wrong password attempts and utilize Captchas.

None of us like squinting at the warped letters and having to repeat forms because we mistook a twisted “t” for an “f”, but it protects our personal and financial information. Since WEP could be hacked so easily, businesses quickly switched to WPA encryption, which uses a constantly changing key for every transmission. The new encryption method almost universally adapted by business owners and lauded by security professionals as being unhackable.  Many old devices only support WEP encryption, leaving their users left behind in the dust. Thomas Roth, a security consultant in Germany, made waves last week when he claimed to hack a WPA network in minutes for less than six dollars, using rented supercomputer power from Amazon’s new cloud computing service.

“People tell me there is no possible way to break WPA,” said Security Consultant Thomas Roth in an interview with Reuters, “Or, if it were possible, it would cost you a ton of money to do so,” he said. “But it is easy to brute force them.”

Amazon Cloud provides supercomputer power not only to small businesses aiming for efficiency, but also to hackers who don’t need expensive equipment or computer expertise to compromise your privacy. After obtaining your password, the hacker may use a Firefox extension called Firesheep to intercept your company’s financial records and intellectual property. Customers logging in at your storefront location are also left vulnerable to having their credit card information stolen while logging in at your brick-and-mortar location. Pages secured with an https:// prefix are protected from the latter.

Roth plans to release his algorithm to the public later this month at the Black Hat hacking conference in DC. In the meantime, security professionals are scrambling to release a new, impenetrable encryption protocol for wireless networks. By releasing the malicious code, Roth could make innocent people vulnerable, but the goal of computer security professionals like himself is usually to find the vulnerabilities before the bad guys do. The Black Hat conference is full of insiders like Roth (last year one wirelessly hacked an ATM to spew cash). The media attention provoked by Roth will hasten the industry to use something more secure than WPA and hopefully minimize the damage to victims.

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Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

So Maybe I was Wrong…Over 7 Million iPads Sold in the 4th Quarter of 2010

Just over 9 months ago on this very blog, I proclaimed that the “iPad is iCrap” and wondered aloud why anyone would be so dumb as to purchase one of these new fangled tablet computers.  Well, while I still think that, for me, the iPad is a non-essential gadget…I guess 7,330,000 other people in the 4th quarter of 2010 disagreed with me because all of them bought one! 

Yes, the iPad IS officially another success story for Apple, and yes it DID probably revolutionize the PC market once again for Apple, and oh yea it IS probably the hottest new gadget in the tech industry since the iPhone and iPad.  All of these things may be true but I am happy to say that not a day goes by that I wish I had one!

Another interesting tidbit that I wanted to pass along today that made me realize how massive the Interweb (my fancy name for the Internet) really is: Did you know that 70% of Facebook’s user base reside outside of the United States!?!?  Maybe this is just me being naive or maybe it is because I am one of the last Americans to NOT have a Facebook account, but this really shocked me…I mean to the point where I actually read this sentence again to make sure I didn’t read it wrong.  For some reason I always assumed that Facebook was a mostly America-centric social application but obviously I was wrong again there too!

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Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Thanks New York Times for Covering the KikScore Blog!

I can not tell you how valuable Google Alerts are for your business or startup.  I was getting ready to go back to work after New Years and I received my regular email for my Google Alerts for “KikScore.” Now I get a lot of emails for the various mentions of “KikScore” across the internet, but I had to do a double take when I saw that we were referenced wholly unsolicited in the New York Times’ You’re the Boss, The Art of Running a Small Business blog.  If you have not read this small business focused blog, its a must read.  The blog offers a very unique insiders view of being a small business owner and includes excellent guidance. One of its contributors is Gene Marks who writes Dashboard and is a nationally recognized small business expert, speaker and small business owner (check out his Quicker, Better, Wiser service).  We owe Gene a special thanks for covering us in his This Week in Business post.  Now if only my hometown once a week delivered newspaper, the Stow Sentry would just cover KikScore!

The lesson learned for us from this coverage are at least three-fold:

1) Focus on Good Content – Keep trying to push out good, valuable content on a topic (for us its small business, startups, entrepreneurship all mixed with pop culture and humor) through various channels including your blog, Twitter, Facebook and sites like BizSugar and you will get noticed by being helpful to the community;

2) Value of Google Alerts – If you have not already done so, every small business and startup should set up Google Alerts for at least your company name, your management team members, your product names and industry relevant terms.  You may even want to set up alerts for your competitors too just so you can keep a watch on them.

3) Say Thanks – It is a small gesture, but once you get covered take a moment to say thank you and acknowledge the writer that covered your business.  This is our thank you to the New York Times and Gene Marks!

Let us know your thoughts on what you have done, when your business was covered by a major media outlet.

Photo Attribution: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid at laughingsquid.com.

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Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Advertising Evolves to Become More Effective and Relevant Amidst Privacy Concerns

If you own a house in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area or any state where door-to-door soliciting is legal, there’s a good chance you’ve had your fair share of canvassers come knock on your door. If the canvasser introduced himself as Mike and tried to say something about a free estimate for windows before you told him to get lost, we’ve probably already met. Like myself years ago, most canvassers are teenagers in high-school, attracted by the commission-based pay and opportunity to work outside. A backlash against door-to-door marketing has grown as disenchanted workers and homeowners accused companies of exploiting unskilled youth labor and invading personal privacy. Minors are barred from canvassing and telemarketing in many states, according to the US Department of Labor

Since beginning college at American University, I’ve left the unfortunate trade of canvassing in favor of unpaid internships that do not induce ego rot caused by constant rejection by cold-call leads. The state of advertising has evolved since, becoming more personalized by utilizing the personal information that most Americans make available online. Cold call marketing, such as through telemarketing and canvassing, is being replaced by personalized ads on the internet. Business owners are no longer left to shoot in the dark. Facebook has pioneered this front by allowing businesses to create ads (using this simple form) that appear to users based on personal information posted in their profiles. Although I’ve discovered a few good bands through these ads, aimed specifically toward me because I like 50+ artists, most are no more relevant than anything I’d expect to hear from a telemarketer. Despite Facebook’s efforts to deliver relevant ads, promotions for Methadone treatment and Doom Metal bands still make their way to bewildered consumers.

Those who have seen Steven Speilberg’s film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report remember a scene where Tom Cruise is immediately identified by ubiquitous retina scanners when walking into a mall, and bombarded with personal advertisements. “Hey, Tom, you really look like you could use a Guinness.”

embedded by Embedded Video

YouTube Video

With the consistently growing presence of advertisements in our culture, this dystopia may be an accurate prediction of the future for consumers. Is Facebook already crossing the line by utilizing users’ personal information to direct advertisements? Or is this a better alternative to being harassed by telemarketers and canvassers?

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Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: The Reason I'm not Working on My Small Business Tonight

As a nights and weekend entrepreneur, every night I have a list of things I need to do to work on KikScore.  Usually I find the time.  But not on Thursdays.  Thursdays belong to Camille, Kyl, Lisa and Taylor — the ladies of RHOBH.  And I can’t be the only guy who thinks the same way.  In fact, there has been more than one drive home where I’ve talked about the show with Raj. 

Now besides being a fascinating study of human (mis)behavior, there are some decent business lessons to be found (at least that’s what I tell my partners so they don’t get made at me).  Here’s a start at what they are:

1.  Own Up to Your Mistakes:  We all know that Taylor talked trash about Kyl to Camille early on in the series.  Ever since, Taylor has been denying it and losing face every day.  Your customers know when you screw up, so instead of making excuses, just own up to it (you’ll be better off in the long run).

2.  Publicity May Not Always Be the Best Thing:  So you’re married to Kelsey Grammer and you want to establish you’re own identity.  Signing up for the RHOBH make sense.  But then it blows up.  Soon the whole world finds out that you’re a dim, manipulative harpy, whose only friends are on her payroll.  Maybe you don’t seek out publicity for your business, and only hope for attention for positive reasons (not because you’re desperate for it).

3.  Don’t listen to Mediums (or Larges).  During a memorable dinner party, Camille brought along her novelty friend, who was the inspiration for the show “Medium” (now cancelled).  In not a surprise twist, Camille’s friend started predicting all sorts of bad things for Camille’s frenemies.  She clearly saw that Kyl’s husband was going to cheat on her.  What the medium missed was the fact that Kelsey was, at that exact time, in NYC cheating on Camille.  Kind of a big miss.  So don’t believe mediums or proformas.

That’s the best I can do…i’ve no got to watch the show.

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