On today's episode of Business Rockstar Podcast:

• The 4 laws of marketing
• How to setup your business legal structure
• ​Call for guests/ guest wanted
• ​How To Get Started on LinkedIn​

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 Digital Marketing is one of the lowest cost ways to get your company ROI. What happens if you don't do it right? Not much. The following companies are case studies on how not to market your business online or manage or even grow your digital assets.



Hogan
https://www.facebook.com/Hogan-Truck-Leasing-Rental-133597896705868/
Thier facebook page is a ghost town not because of the content but because the page is not being promoted appropriately.
www.hogan1.com is the website for a major national brand yet this small independent blog has a better global rank and a similar national one?
 Negative comments on social media without any positive testimonials to diffuse them or an apologetic reply from the social media team are other negatives toward their brand.


Agilis Systems
They are very similar to my former client GoByTruck.
However, one has a Linkedin Influencer for their CEO guess who that is?
Hint not Agilis.
Again my blog is ranked higher.





AFB International
My blog is ranked higher in Alexa once again.
https://www.facebook.com/AFB-International-153507311358034/?fref=ts
Facebook page is a empty shell.


This is only scratching the surface but where can improvements be made?

All three companies need an integrated content sharing, content management and audience engagement strategy. Paid Facebook promotion of the website and Facebook page should be instituted and a brand management strategy should be instituted on all social channels.  Regular sitemap updates are needed and a blog with regularly updated content for each website.

How will this benefit them? Increased brand engagement, brand equity and website traffic will lead to a noticeable increase in revenue, sales and strategic opportunities.

For their senior leadership and Linkedin page a content and marketing strategy are also needed.
With these and a few more changes you can make digital marketing a vital part of your marketing mix again.

  For any kind of business to be successful, it requires good planning, effort, time and passion. Starting a business can be tricky. However, if you have the right attitude and plan of attack, everything else will work out well. The question is: how do you know where to start? Here are some small business startup tips that can help you become a successful business person in a short period of time.
 
Gather Up Customers
 
When starting a business, one of the biggest challenges you will face is finding customers. A business cannot survive without them. Do not wait for the customer to find you, make contacts and start giving away your products. Often, new business owners seem almost shy about talking about their new business. Don't feel like you have to do the “hard sell”. Just care about people and show them that you care. Really go out of your way to show people your integrity and desire to make sure that your product or service solves their problem.
 
Write a Business Plan and Stick To It
 
A business cannot be successful unless you have a plan in place on how you are going to start and run it. Create a solid business plan including financial information and establishment of a market strategy. A business plan is important because it allows you to experiment with the strategy for your business on a paper. It also keeps you more accountable and will allow you to look back in a few weeks or months to see if you are on track.
 
Do Proper Research
 
It is important for you to know what you are getting into. You can't be successful by jumping into a business without having  any idea on how it is done. It is a good idea to become an expert first on your industry, products and services before starting a small business. Also, research your competition to see how to best position your business to compete with them. Find holes in your niche and fill them.
 
Do What You Love
 
It is Important to do what you love and enjoy because starting a business needs a lot of time and dedication. Being involved in something you love on daily basis you will be able to overcome the many challenges that arise in businesses. Trying to do a business you despise will only make you miserable in the long run.
 
Start Slowly and Work Methodically
 
A small business owner should move slowly. Through this, you are able to control growth and focus on what is important. Don't rush decisions as they form the foundation for your whole business.
 
These small business startup tips are just the beginning. You must review them and follow up on these ideas on a regular basis.

What is so special about Jira , Agile and Salesforce?

"Steps onto soapbox" Warning if you love spending money needlessly, being inefficient and you have questionable competence please do not continue reading.

I have used many forms of productivity and project management software and I still am unsure why employers require certain software to be something you have used before.  What makes certain enterprise software so special? Feature , benefits, perception? In my humble opinion Trello does most of what you need for free that these other softwares do. Don't mention Trello in an interview however the weird looks will ensue like you use software that is not enterprise? The outrage! Where is my pitchfork?

Why do so many treat these software solutions like they have magic powers? Now Salesforce it's the same basic thing as Hubspot, Microsoft Dynamic, Sugar CRM and a list of others yet on a job description or even talking with a client it is the only CRM considered. Go do a side by side comparison I dare you. Dynamic and Sugar are the same thing and they are less expensive. What am I missing? Someone please fill me in. I feel like the blind where given the keys to the gun cabinet as they told me trust us we know how this works. I see so many major corporations throwing money at the wall and their strategy makes me want to pull my hair out. Give me a 1/10th of their budget and I would get the same results if not better.

"Steps off of Soapbox"

What are your thoughts? What am I missing here?

Rip Google+? The rumor through the grapevine via Tech Crunch is the tech giant is considering major changes to Google +. The question is how drastic will these be and is Google+ marching toward an early grave? With the departure of Vic Gundotra as well as the demise of Orkut and Wave. The question remains is Google plotting the demise of another social venture?

By now you have heard of the news story about the dentist from River Bluff Dental killing Cecil the lion. What you may not realize is this blatant lack of ethics and regard for an animals life has cast a negative shadow on their brand and business. Once you damage your brand equity it is a long hard road to repair it. Cecil the lion has been both an important part of scientific research and a beloved member of the social media community. Would you boycott or visit a business when the person running it has questionable ethics? Let me know in the comments below.

This Week I have something a bit new for my readers. These are two videos on Linkedin Marketing Strategy from the vault.

Ten ways you can build content to market your website or business

One of the huge goals of a entrepreneur is to generate traffic and provide value to potential customers and clients. By providing great content you are offering a free means of showing your expertise and value.

1.       Build a blog. According to Hubspot, websites that have blogs get twice as many inbound links, 400 percent more indexed pages, and a more than 50 percent increase in traffic, compared to websites without blogs. Search engines and people love blogs these days.

2.       Join the conversation with Community Forums. A forum is a discussion site on a relevant subject, hosted and moderated by you, which adds authority, content, and traffic to your website. The registration process to join can give you a very targeted email list.

3.       Curation, the most efficient content. Curation is humanly aggregating, filtering, and re-posting the best-of-the-best content on the web, relative to your product or service area. This shows your knowledge and positions your company as a thought leader.

4.       Win with engaging contests. Not a new idea, but when used creatively, can entice new prospect traffic and backlinks to your site. People these days love to submit stories, vote on other entries, and receive the recognition of even small prizes or product rewards.

5.       Traditional publishing out, self-publishing in with eBooks. You don’t need a real book as a base for electronic books, as people now prefer something akin to a “white paper” on steroids. It’s just another way to demonstrate credibility and attract traffic.

6.       Keep them engaged with eNewsletters. These are regular updates, usually monthly, via website and email that help with customer retention, and again remind your customers that you are the expert in your industry. Supplement text here with video and audio.

7.       Widgets and badges. A widget is a mini-app that displays or updates data either locally or on the web – to share something of value and interest. A badge is a simple graphic designed for fun, to show support, or promote certain standards online. All highlight you.

8.      Look like an expert with Interviews. Here we are talking about interviewing industry experts. By having frequent conversations with experts in your industry, you rank yourself among the top, and show you are connected. You are the company you keep.

9.       Videos, stories in motion. Simple videos, less than five minutes in length, you can do yourself and upload to YouTube for display on your website, can turn a blasé idea into a winner. Keep the atmosphere relaxed and fun, to increase traffic, and maybe even go viral.

10.   Provide convenience through podcasts. A podcast is basically a non-streaming webcast, usually audio only, for those who want the convenience of downloading and listening via iPod or mobile phone while commuting or working out at the gym. It’s cool.

There are a lot more items of content that could be on this list. But don’t let the number overwhelm you. You don’t need to tackle them all – just pick a few that you think you can do well, and consistently. The key is new content on a regular basis to attract the attention of search engines and new customers.