How To

5 Common Social Media Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

02.22.12 From Open Forum

Most small-business owners feel strongly about social media. They either love it, hate it or both. If they love it, it’s because its tools can create tremendous brand awareness. If they hate it, it’s because it’s a massive time suck. Regardless of where you stand and how proficient you are at each tool, there is always something new to learn. Here are a few common social media mistakes and tips on how to fix them.

Expecting ROI right away

Ashley Ranger sees this often. As founder of /excelamktg, a social media marketing company based in Los Angeles, potential clients frequently voice frustrations when not attracting a target number of followers or sales captures. Ranger’s advice is always the same: It takes time. Read more from Open Forum

Startups

PAUL SINGH ON VENTURE CAPITALISTS AND RAISING MONEY

02.21.12 From Tech Cocktail

Last week I got a chance to listen to Paul Singh from 500 Startups talk about raising money at The Fort. First of all, I have to say that almost every sentence Paul uttered could have been used as a quote on its own. Below are the best ones, which I broke down into 3 basic steps for raising capital for your startup.

Step 1 – When you are ready to start approaching investors, do not run around knocking on every door. Have a targeted approach.

“Think of investing as phases. Create a hit list of investors and sort them by ranking. Take the people on the bottom and test your pitch on them first. Pay attention to the questions they ask you, because there is a 90% chance you will get those questions again.” Read more from Tech Cocktail

Startups

Women 2.0 PITCH Conference & Competition

02.07.12 By Lori Anne Wardi

Women 2.0 PITCH Conference & Competition (February 14, 2012 in Mountain View, CA) is a full day event to learn from the product innovation leaders who built Flickr, Facebook, Zipcar, TaskRabbit, LARK and more. Both men and women working in technology (from early-stage startup to corporate) are invited to hear speakers share best practices, growth strategies and stories of disruptive product development at their ventures. Learn about launching products from concept to cash and customers! Watch the Women 2.0 Startup Competition finalists pitch live to a panel of investors for feedback and prizes. Network with 800+ members of the Women 2.0 community at our biggest event of the year!

To register, visit http://women2.org/conference2012 and save 10% with discount code “CO-COMMUNITY”.

I joined the .CO team way back in 2008, when we were putting together the bid to win the right to launch the .CO domain globally.   Our little startup won the right to administer .CO in 2009, beating out industry giants like Verisign, which runs the .com and .net domain extensions. What a great coup!  I was passionate about our mission from the very start – and continue to be so to this day. Read more from Lori Anne Wardi

Startups

Show some love for female startup founders

01.23.12 By Betsy Aoki

Betsy Aoki is Senior Program Manager at Bing

I first met Lori Anne Wardi, a vice president at .CO, during a Geeks on a Plane tour of Asia last fall. While on the shuttle to and from various startup accelerators and meeting spots, we chatted about the wacky dot-com 90s and how things have changed (and stayed the same) in startupland since those days. More consumers know what a domain name is now but people are still faced with the dilemma of how to fund and shape their new companies. And, just like the 90s, there is still a marked shortage of women tech entrepreneurs. Read more from Betsy Aoki

Startups

How to Start Up in the New Year

01.19.12 Posted from Fox Small Business Center

Is your New Year’s resolution to start a business? If so, don’t wave goodbye to the security of a steady paycheck so fast.

In workshops with prospective entrepreneurs, I preach the “slow go” approach to start up a business organization. My preference for first-time entrepreneurs is to wait to quit a salaried job as long as possible to preserve personal savings.

Too often eager entrepreneurs leave salaried positions with only a vague notion of their business goals. They quit to start a business but haven’t really thought through what might work with customers in the marketplace. With each passing month, their savings and confidence drop. This is why so many startup businesses fold early – they start from a point of weakness rather than strength. Read more from Fox Small Business Center

Get Inspired

The entrepreneurial lure — should you bite?

01.12.12 Posted from CBS MoneyWatch

Entrepreneurship is all the rage these days. What with the breakout success of social media, the coming of age of Gen Y, and corporate America not hiring, it’s not surprising that the question of whether to start your own company or join someone else’s startup is a hot topic.

What is surprising are all the popular myths, obvious platitudes, and downright bad advice from people who have no idea what they’re talking about because they’ve never walked the talk in the real world. So let me shed a little light on the subject. Read more from CBS MoneyWatch

Startups

A 10-Step Recipe for Marketing Success

01.10.12 By Owen Frager

Owen Frager is Chief Innovation Officer of the Frager Creative Group, and principal blogger at Frager Factor. One of the nation’s first virtual marketing communications agencies serving Fortune 500 brands, Frager Creative and Owen Frager prove every day that big agency creativity doesn’t have to come with big agency drawbacks — or costs.

There’s a lot more to interactive digital marketing than eye-catching banner ads, discount packages and clever domain names.

Marketing, has finally come into the industry. Marketing gives personality and differentiates for advantage. Marketing creates relationships with customers that go deeper than anything you sell or make. And of course, social marketing, yet to be mastered by most, facilitates those relationships and drives word of mouth. Read more from Owen Frager