Letting your fans serve as your evangelists always carries more weight than bragging on yourself. So how do you find those people? At SOBCon09, Geoff Livingston was asked this question. “How do you identify the people who are going to be your fans and evangelists?” His answer: They self-identify. They’ll tell you. I want to…
People from all over the world, from a huge variety of industries, came together in New York with only a common language and common tool: Twitter. That’s bizarre. But that’s the 140 Characters Conference, created by Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver). Aliza Sherman did a terrific job of capturing a flavor of the conference in her summary…
Each Friday, I open the Brag Basket for the weekend. Today, finally home from New York City, we jump right into the Brag Basket. This is designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone…
You might be selling tickets to a community event or to you own business event. Either way, selling event tickets in a small town can feel like a real fight. Here’s a trick I picked up from Cody Heitschmidt, of Hutchinson Kansas: Limit the number of tickets and publicize that limit. This simple act turns…
“I love to sit in these chairs.”My friend and I were at church for a meeting. The two of us were meeting before the meeting. We were walking toward some chairs and couches in one of the large “milling around” spaces. The chairs my friend was talking about are nice chairs. They are nice for…
Our friend Ben Yoskovitz has written a terrific guide to getting started with blogging. It’s targeted to corporate human resources departments, but you can use it, too. The ideas for how to get started, work with contributors, stay motivated, and build an audience are all equally applicable to small businesses. Ben invited me to contribute,…
Each Friday, I open the Brag Basket for the weekend. This weekend, I’m opening it early, because Deb has some exciting news to share! This is designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone…
The IRS may have some useful tax credits for you if you hire members of certain targeted groups. The work opportunity credit has been extended to cover members of targeted groups who begin work for you before September 1, 2011. For tax years beginning after December 31, 2006, there is no longer an alternative minimum…
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