TV Segment on Web Resources for Startups

With the downturn in the economy many people are thinking of starting their own business but not sure where to start. This was the idea behind a recent segment I recorded for 207, Maine's evening news program.

In preparation for the 207 segment I generated a wide variety of Maine-centric startup business resources that you can see here. A few people suggested their own resources in the comments.

The segment aired earlier this week, and although I'm out of town, due to the magic of the Internet, I was able to catch the segment online.

You can watch the segment at WCSH's Web site, or below on the flyte blog.

Putting Almost No-Cost Web-based Tools to Work for Small Business

Last week I put on a presentation for the Small Business Development Center counselors located here in New England. The event was hosted at the beautiful Mt. Washington Resort in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

(I'm not saying that the place is haunted, but I'm pretty sure I saw a kid going around in circles on his Big Wheel saying "redrum".)

The presentation was entitled Putting Almost No-cost Web-based Tools to Work for Small Business. I talked about one-to-one communication tools like VoIP and Skype, one-to-many communication tools like social media, software to put on teleclasses and Webinars, as well as free alternatives to Microsoft Office and more. I also showed off Basecamp (for project management) and Highrise (for customer relationship management), two apps from 37 Signals that I couldn't live without.

I uploaded the slides to Slideshare (think YouTube for PowerPoint--or in this case Apple's Keynote) and then embedded them here at the flyte blog. Enjoy!

Putting Almost No-cost Web-based Tools to Work for Small Business

Rich Brooks
Slide Share and Share Alike

How to Send Branded Domain Emails from Gmail

There's a number of reasons small business owners and entrepreneurs should consider Gmail as their primary email tool:

1. Great spam filters (the best I've used)
2. Your email is synced whether you're using the office computer, your home computer, a computer at the Internet café in Brussels, or from your iPhone
3. Insanely fast search
4. It's free
5. The threading of messages is fantastic (90% of the time)

However, the default setting of Gmail is to send your emails from you@gmail.com. That's not so good for a small business (or any business) that's trying to brand itself. You want all of your emails to come from you@yourcompany.com.

(For those of you who still have your AOL email address on your business card it's time to step up. Your email scribbled on a cocktail napkin has a more professional feel.)

And no, Gmail's not perfect and it does take some getting used to; perhaps the topic of another blog post & video.

In the short video below I'll walk you through how to add your domain-branded email to Gmail, and how to make it the default email on your account. Or, you can watch How to Send from Another Email Address Using Gmail at flyte's YouTube channel.

Rich Brooks
Web Design for Small Business

Web Sites for Healthy Eating (& Living)

Last week I donned my "As Seen on TV" shirt and recorded a segment for the local evening news program, 207. The subject was on Web sites that provide health information on the food we eat, the cosmetics we wear (some of us at least), and the sunblock we lather on.

You can see the full-size video on the 207 Web site or a slightly smaller size down below. (Sorry about the obligatory commercial lead in.)

The Trouble with Crowdsourcing

Recently we decided to have some flyte bumper stickers made up. Ryan Goan, our creative director, created a bunch of variations (click on the image to the right for a detailed look) for me to review.

I decided to get some additional feedback, so I crowdsourced the review process. According to wikipedia (aka the Word of God according to many geeks):

Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call. For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task (also known as community-based design^[1] and distributed participatory design), refine or carry out the steps of an algorithm (see Human-based computation), or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data (see also citizen science).

The term has become popular with business authors and journalists as shorthand for the trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals. However, both the term and its underlying business models have attracted controversy and criticism.

So I threw it open to my followers on Twitter and my friends on Facebook. When people gave two answers I split the vote. Here are the results:

• 1: 14.5
• 2: 6.0
• 3: 5.0
• 4: 6.0
• 5: 1.5
• 6: 10 

Well, 1, then 6 seems to be the big winners, but there's certainly some variables in there. Personally, I'm not a fan of 6 because the traditional oval bumper stickers have a border. There was also a lot of discussion around whether we could "pull off" a bumper sticker that didn't include our name and had our URL so tiny.

However, I don't think a lot of people make a buying decision based on bumper stickers.

"You know, I was going to vote for Obama, but that 'McCain/Palin 2008' bumper sticker makes a lot of sense. I think I'm voting for them."

I've always felt the plane was a pretty cool icon, and people who see it might be intrested to learn more about the story behind it, a.k.a. flyte.biz.

So, at the end of the day I'm no closer to a decision. I do like #1, although I'm thinking of dropping the www off the URL for additional white space, or even perhaps just leaving ".biz" in small letters below. I also like #3, perhaps with the www-less URL.

Anyway, if you'd like to confuse me further, please feel free to add your own thoughts below. It still hasn't gone to the printer.

Rich Brooks
Consensusless

Twitter Webinar: How to Use Twitter for Business

There's no doubt that Twitter is a phenomenon: almost every news and sports program seems to have a Twitter account, and celebrities as diverse as Oprah, Shaquille O'Neal and that guy married to Demi Moore all have accounts.

But how do you use Twitter for business? How do you get started? How do you build an audience? How can create a network that will help you grow your business?

Whether you're new to Twitter or have been using it for a while, this Webinar led by Twitter expert addict Rich Brooks will provide you step-by-step instructions on:

• How to setup your Twitter account for maximum impact
• How to find and follow interesting people
• How to build an audience
• How to engage people for networking and marketing opportunities
• How to use 3rd party applications to connect with local people on Twitter, learn what people are talking about in real time, and become a Twitter power user
• How to integrate Twitter into your overall marketing plan

Plus, the last 30 minutes or so will be question and answer.

Date: 6/18/09
Time: 3pm - 4:30 ET
Place: Your desktop! (Do you need directions?)
Cost: Special Low Price! $15 (That's only 16 cents a minute!)

"Space" is limited, so register now!

Rich Brooks
Now I Gotta Go Tweet This

How to Rank Higher in Local Search

Local search is already important to most every business, especially those who are geographically challenged (read: your customers share an area code with you) or who have set up shop in a tourist destination.

Local search results often appear above organic results, giving you another chance to increase your online visibility.

Further, as more of us carry smart phones and other mobile devices, performing searches as we're on-the-go, local search will only gain in importance.

Don't be caught playing catch up: learn the techniques to improve your rankings in local search. Or, as we say in this month's flyte log, Local Search: Get Listed, Get Business.

Rich Brooks
Local is the New Organic

Social Media FTW: Call for Speakers & Presenters

Save the Date! On Wednesday, 9/23/2009, we'll be hosting an all-day, roll-up-your-sleeves social media conference at the University of Southern Maine. (For more on who "we" are, see below.)

If you've been looking to move past the hype and learn how to integrate social media activities into your sales and marketing and to put social media to work for your business, then this is the event for you.

• There will be strategic workshops led by some of the most experienced, well-known social media marketers around, targeting both beginners and advanced users.
• There will be panels that focus on small business, large corporations, non-profits and traditional media.
  
• There will be "social media kiosks" open throughout the conference with volunteers who will help you setup or improve accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and others.
• There will be plenty of networking opportunities, both at the event and afterwards.

In the next two weeks we'll be launching the Web site and announcing more details and pricing as well as opportunities for exhibiting and sponsors.

However, right now we're announcing a call for presenters. If you have experience in social media to market your business we're interested in hearing from you.

While we're looking for ideas on what you'd like to speak on, here are some suggested topics to get you started:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• MySpace
• YouTube/video sharing
• Flickr/photo sharing
• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Social Media for small business/large companies/non-profits/traditional media
• Social media and time management
• Social media and ROI (return on investment)

Remember: the purpose of this event is for attendees to go home with specific actions they can take to grow their business, engage their membership, network more effectively, and integrate social media into their sales and marketing activities.

No hype, no pitches, no B.S. If it's not going to help attendees we're not interested. If you would like to exhibit at or sponsor the conference to be able to reach an audience of experienced marketers and business people, please send inquiries to socialmediaftw@gmail.com.

Speakers will receive full access to the conference, promotion at the Web site and access to an affiliate program.

We're accepting submissions through June 19th, 2009.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Who "We" Are:

Social Media FTW is the brain child of Jaica Kinsman (http://twitter.com/jakks), Chrystie Corns (http://twitter.com/ccmaine) and Rich Brooks (http://twitter.com/therichbrooks). Our goal is to get businesses, non-profits and traditional media professionals in Maine and beyond to understand and leverage the power of social media.

Technology Innovator...Wha?

Yesterday I found out that I had been nominated for Technology Innovator of the Year here in Maine. According to the language,

Rich is a champion of social networking, and personifies the daring, relentless energy and generosity required to bring disparate people together and show them that they are already united in a common cause.

I think this is a fancy way of saying I know how to throw a mean tweetup, but even that credit has to be shared with Chrystie Corns.

While this is very flattering (I'm having t-shirts made up) I just want to make sure the judging committee realizes that I did not actually come up with the idea for Twitter. Or Facebook. Or LinkedIn for that matter. I did, however, come up with the idea for putting customized images on mousepads back in 1996, but two days later I saw them in the store, so I missed that opportunity.

The other two nominees actually sound like they've actually innovated something:

Tony Paine (Kepware Technologies, Inc.)
Tony Paine, Executive VP/CTO and co-owner of Kepware Technologies, has guided the company to a position of industry leadership through diligent and creative engineering, rational and strong management leadership, and hard work.

Carl Spang (Falcon Performance Footwear)
Carl believes that technology can revive traditional business sectors, and create new sectors and new manufacturing jobs. He has turned this belief into action at Falcon, merging new technologies with traditional products.

To see the full list of nominees for the different awards you can check out the Technology Awards Gala Finalists page, or come to the 2009 Technology Awards Gala on June 2, put on by TechMaine.

Rich Brooks
In Good Company

Happy Birthday to flyte! (12 years and counting...)

It's bad enough when you forget your wife's birthday or your anniversary; a few nights on the couch will remedy that. But we here at flyte forgot our own 12th birthday.

I guess that when the president (that's me) assigns an arbitrary date as your birthday (May 1st) it's not quite the same. Still, it was just about twelve years ago when I quit my job selling Med B supplies to nursing homes (I still know how to treat a stage IV decubitus ulcer) and decided to go full time into Web design.

I never thought it would last; I figured that in a couple of years either designers would learn to code, or that programmers would learn to design, and then I'd go back to working for the man. But, as it turned out--after a few fits and starts--I got busy and stayed busy. Soon I had to hire people to keep up with the work, then we had to move operations out of the house, and we kept on expanding our offerings.

So, from the humble beginnings of a solopreneur working out of my apartment in Jamaica Plain, MA, flyte is now eight employees strong, including project managers, creative directors, developers, programmers and search engine marketers. (And me, the guy who makes the coffee.)

We continue to work with small businesses (just like us) to help them succeed and grow their business. We've expanded from just Web design to now offer e-commerce, Flash, content management systems, search engine optimization, email marketing, blogging, social media strategies and more.

None of this would be possible without the ongoing contributions of the flyte crew (both past and present) and the entrepreneurial spirit of our clients. Thanks to everyone who's been involved.

As it says on every proposal that goes out of our office, At flyte we don't build Web sites, we build businesses.

If you're looking to build your own business why not give flyte a call today?

Rich Brooks
What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

Photo from Malomemory