This week you’ll learn how easy it is to expose who’s buying Twitter followers, see “how idiots measure success” when it comes to social media, learn how to cut through the noise to get your tweets heard, take a humorous look at how readers find your blog despite all your SEO efforts, and look at how fast technology is changing your life and why normal is begging to be messed with.

Making Footprints is a weekly mashup of people, tools, and resources that can help you enlarge your digital footprint through blogging, social media, branding strategies, and marketing online.  Here are the footprints we discovered last week.

Buying Twitter Followers? by Amber Mac

Size matters, right?  In the world of social media, one indicator of your popularity, reach, influence, audience, or whatever label you want to put on it, is the number of followers or likes you have.  If you’re tempted to secretly buy your way to the top, beware. Amber tells you why it’s easier than ever to spot fake followers.

Buying Twitter Followers and Facebook Likes by Sean Clark

Sean looks at why we are obsessed with looking at the wrong numbers with headings like How Idiots Measure Success and I’ve Got More Friends Than You.  He includes a great infographic that shows some surprising stats on who is buying followers. Hint: most are not people you’ve heard of before.

Improve the Signal to Noise Ratio on Twitter by Brian Solis

With 250 million tweets a day, how do your tweets cut through all of the noise to find your target audience?  Brian gives us nine common sense ways to help prevent our message from getting lost in the noise of Twitter or any other social media network. His last point is a great reminder – especially in an election year.

28 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Guest Posts by Allison Boyer

Any time you’re called brilliant it makes you want to brag a little, right?  Well, When that Guest Post Isn’t so Original was included by Allison in this excellent guest posting resource guide.  If you’re thinking about guest posting then check out this post.  Also, don’t forget about 21 Resources for Writing Guest Posts that Kick Some Serious Butt.

Happy Search Engine-ing! by Jenny Simmons

This post from the personal blog of one of my favorite singers shows that no matter how hard you try to optimize your blog for your keywords and phrases, Google often sends people your way from the most unlikeliest search terms.  Jenny takes a humorous look at some of the search terms that brought readers to her site.

Video of the Week

This week’s video features a commercial from Amazon.com.  It just reminded me how fast technology changes the way we, and our customers, live.  I love the ending, “And “normal” just begs to be messed with.”

Want to know what will be featured in next week’s issue of Making Footprints?  You can find our current nominees in the footprints we’re buzzing about, or you can follow those we’ve already highlighted in Making Footprints on Twitter.

What did you discover making digital footprints through blogging, social media, branding strategies, or marketing online last week?  Share it with us in the comments below, or as a comment to this post on our Facebook page.

Photo Credit: iStockphoto/craftvision

Do you feel like you’re rolling the dice when it comes to hiring new employees for your small business?  You try your best to judge an applicant’s qualifications, but in the end you just don’t have the resources to do much more than use your gut instinct to determine if they’ll be a good fit. Your blog can be a great tool to attract well-informed employees that already love what you’re doing.

Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking online marketing is only for generating sales leads.  It’s one of the reasons I reversed the term on this blog. Marketing online is much more than just sales – it’s attracting people towards us.

The most important people we can attract are those who become our employees.  If we don’t attract, and hire, great employees, the others don’t matter much as they won’t likely be sticking around for very long.

What Makes a Great Employee?

The obvious question is,  ”What makes a great employee?”  Each entrepreneur has a different take, but I like how Robyn Henderson answered this question on LinkedIn.

A great employee is someone who works with you to achieve your vision and company goals – while at the same time having the confidence to make suggestions on improvements and better ways to do things.  They are loyal, a good communicator, great with clients, good phone manner, flexible and committed to get the job done.  They understand that you are human and from time to time will lose it, make mistakes and have a bad day – but they know not to take it personally as you will back them to the hilt.  They don’t abuse your generosity and you know you can trust them.  They are honest, flexible and focused.  They may not work for you forever – but because of what they do do, the employment door will always be open to them.

I think most of us would be happy to have this type of employee working for us.  It’s not the typical textbook answer, but sounds like it comes from years of experience in managing employees in a realistic work environment.

Turn Your “For Employees” Page into a Full-Time Recruiter

Defining what makes a great employee is the easy part.  How do you attract them to your small business?  First, you need to go beyond what the typical company does.

It’s not uncommon for a company to have a “For Employees” page on their site.  You’ll find a listing of the basic benefits, a few generic paragraphs about why you should work there, and perhaps a link to an online application.

That’s fine for the average employee, but you’re not after average.  You want your “For Employees” page to work as a full-time recruiter seeking out those employees that will really fit into your company’s culture.  They’ll need much more information about you.

If you’re using your blog to train your employees and reinforce your brand, then potential employees will have a great idea of what to expect while performing their job duties.  That’s a great start, but what’s it really like to work for you?

Turn Your Great Working Environment into Sales Leads

It may not seem like it at first, but blogging about all of the great benefits you provide your employees can generate sales.  Think about it.  When you read about all of the perks that Google provides its employees do you think their employees are jazzed to work there?  You bet they are, and happy employees equal better customer service.

Sprinkle in posts about how you treat your employees on your blog.  Highlight those employees that are doing great things in the community, or have gone above and beyond providing service to your customer.

Do you receive compliments about your employees?  Collect them and write a post including all the great things your customers are saying about your employees.  Put a name and face on what it means to do business with you.

Your customers want to read about how great your employees are, and what you’re doing to make sure that these employees are sticking around to provide them great service.  Potential employees want to see that you’ll value their service, too.

Turn Your Blog into an Hiring Filter

One of the hardest tasks that many small business owners experience when trying to hire someone is filtering through all of the resumes.  This is especially true when the economy is in a downturn and people are desperate for a job.

Here’s where your blog can really help you out.  Create a post explaining your hiring process.  Include a list of those pillar posts about working for your company.  Make sure you link to this post on your “For Employees” page.

Whenever you schedule an interview, ask the applicant if they’ve read your “For Employees” page.  Give them the web address and let them know that you strongly encourage them to check it out.

Your first interview question should be, “Which of the posts listed under our hiring process did you find the most helpful, and why did it make you think working here would be a great fit for you?”

If they didn’t bother to check it out, end the interview.  Don’t roll the dice.  Chances are not high that the person sitting across from you is going to be a great employee.

Do you blog about what it’s like to work for your small business?  Is your “For Employees” page working as a full-time recruiter?  How are you using your blog to attract employees that fit your small business?

How many times have you read a company’s mission statement and wondered to yourself if they’d ever read it?  It looks great in its frame hanging on the wall or on their about page, but wouldn’t it look even better displayed in the attitudes and actions of the company’s employees? What about your small business? Is what you’re writing on your blog being reflected by your employees?

This disconnect between what a company wants its brand to be and how people actually see it often comes down to a lack of training and ongoing reinforcement after the ink of the flowery language has dried.

It’s not that business owners don’t intend to live up to these lofty principles, it’s just that the issues of the day-to-day management of the company take center stage.

Advantages of a Blog Over a Traditional Mission Statement

Unlike a mission statement, a blog is an ongoing conversation with the stakeholders of your company.  It’s not something you can simply frame, put on a wall, and walk away from.  Because of this, it has distinct advantages over traditional methods of defining your company’s culture and brand.

• A blog isn’t easily removed from center stage. When you have to keep coming up with new post ideas for your blog, it forces you to keep thinking about why and how your business operates as it does.  This naturally brings a comparison of how you’re operating your business to how you said you were going to operate it.
• A blog begs for interaction from stakeholders. The nature of social media is that it virtually demands for people to comment, discuss, and debate any idea you introduce on your blog.  If writing your blog isn’t causing you to compare what you’re doing against your stated mission, you can count on your stakeholders to do so.

Engaging with your stakeholders through a blog allows you to keep an accurate image of your brand, and helps you respond when you’ve veered away from what you want your brand to be.

Using Your Blog to Train Your Employees

In my last post, I wrote about what your customers really want to read on your blog. One suggestion was to answer your customer’s questions before they ask them.

You know the answers to these questions inside and out because you’ve heard them so many times before.  Make a list of these questions.  Each one should be the title to a post you’ve written on your blog that answers that question.

If you’re following this advice, you should be able to see what a great training tool your blog can be for your employees.  Not only will it train your employees how to answer the questions asked most by your customers, but it will do so in a way that your customers expect and conforms with the image you want your business to portray

Another suggestion I made was to give your customers a behind-the-scenes look at your small business.

Walk potential customers through the process starting from when they first walk through your door to when they’re making their next purchase with you.  Your blog should be like a practice run for them.

Obviously, if you’re describing to your potential customer what their experience will be like when doing business with you then you’ll want your employees to know what was promised and to conduct themselves accordingly.

Incorporating Your Blog into Your Training Program

You may be thinking that this sounds great in principle, but how do you get your employees to read your blog?  Fair enough.  Most employees aren’t going to be naturally inclined to read your blog on their own accord.

As a business owner, you’ll need to provide incentive for them to do so.  Here are just a few ways you can accomplish this.

• Mention your blog often. If something is important, people tend to talk about it. Mention your blog when interviewing new recruits, make sure employees are aware of it during the onboarding process, and discuss the latest posts with your employees.
• Include pillar posts as part of your training manual. If you’re like most small business owners, you don’t have a written training manual.  Your pillar posts can serve as modules within your training program that can be role-played, read, and tested for proficiency.
• Enlist your employees as editors. Before you publish a post, give it to some of your key employees for feedback.  Make it an informal setting over coffee once a week where feedback is encouraged without reprisal.  Make sure your company really does what you’re about to write.
• Recruit employees to contribute to your blog. What better way to get your employees to read your blog than having them help write it?  This also gives your readers another point of view about your business which will often be very illuminating to you.  Allow your employees to become owners in the vision for your company.

Are you using your blog to train your employees?  How are you doing it?  How are you ensuring that the company you write about on your blog is reflected in the attitudes and actions of your employees?

Photo Credit: iStockphoto/shironosov

Take a look at who’s commenting on your posts, subscribing to your blog, liking you on Facebook, and following you on Twitter.  Are they existing customers or prospects that you’ve told about your blog?  If so, congratulations.  You seem to know what your customers want from your blog.  If not, chances are that your customers looked at your blog and wondered why you asked them to read it.

You’re confusing your current, and potential, client base.  When they went to check out the blog you set up for your small business, they didn’t expect to see a post about how you trained your cat to use the toilet.  Or worse, a plumber’s blog filled with tips about social media and blogging.

They expected to find information that helped them decide whether they should trust your company, how your product/service would help them help solve an issue in their life, and why they should do business with you instead of your competitors.

Answer Your Customer’s Questions Before They Ask Them

If I were to come to your small business and follow you around for two days, I would leave with enough post ideas to keep your blog’s editorial calendar full for an entire year.  Even better, these posts would be exactly what your customers want to read.

Luckily, you don’t have to hire me to come up with these ideas for you.  You already know what they are.  They’re the hundreds of questions that customers ask you over and over again every single day.

You know the answers to these questions inside and out because you’ve heard them so many times before.  Make a list of these questions.  Each one should be the title to a post you’ve written on your blog that answers that question.

Filling your blog with this type of post will help you rank higher in search engine results, demonstrate your knowledge on the subject building up your authority, and drive well-informed prospects to your small business.

Share How Existing Customers are Using Your Product/Service

Once you’ve answered all of their questions about your product/service, the next thing that many potential customers will struggle with is how they’ll be able to use it to solve their issue or make their life better.

Traditional online marketing has focused on white papers and case studies to help spark the imagination, but blogs can transform these methods into something much more powerful.  Blogs allow you to take these generic, clinical tools and craft a narrative around them to tell a story that will resonate with your readers.

How many times have you listened to someone tell you how they’re using some product or service, and then thought what a great idea it was?  You probably said something like, “I’d never thought of using [blank] to do that.”

Write posts that show how your existing customers are using your product/service in a way that makes your readers say this.  Combine these with testimonials and watch your conversion rates sour.

Give Them a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Your Small Business

One of the reasons your small business needs a blog is that it gives it personality. There are many ways to accomplish this that have nothing to do with your love for cats.  One of the most effective is to let customers see what it’s like to do business with you before they actually do business with you.

Walk potential customers through the process starting from when they first walk through your door to when they’re making their next purchase with you.

• What do they need to bring with them?
• Who will they talk to purchase, pay for, or return your product/service?
• What happens if they’re not happy with their purchase?
• When is the best time for them to come?

Your blog should be like a practice run for them.  Highlight your employees on your blog (make sure to get their permission first) so they can put faces to the experience. Instead of the accounting department sending them invoices each month, they’ll meet Mary who will be sending out those invoices.

Don’t Worry About Your Competitors

You could write posts comparing your product/service to your competitors, but I wouldn’t advise spending too much time doing so.  If you’re doing the suggestions above then you’re already demonstrating how you’re different from your competitors.

If your competitors have websites, it’s not likely that they’re doing these suggestions. The truth is that very few small businesses are using their blogs effectively because they have no clue how to do so.  Think about it.  How many small business blogs have you seen that take these suggestions to heart?

Will you be one of the rare exceptions, or will you join the crowds of small business owners claiming blogs don’t work?

Are you using your blog to answer the most commonly asked questions by your customers?  To what types of posts are your customers the most responsive?  How are you attracting potential customers to your blog?

Photo Credit: iStockphoto/StockPhoto4U

This week you’ll learn how to install Google’s +1 button on your site, maximize your Facebook page results, determine the value of online relationships, build a powerful Twitter network that’s tailored to you, tell if those SEO tweaks are truly paying off, shoot online videos like a pro, and why you should quit being a cheerleader for your favorite guru.

Making Footprints is a weekly mashup of people, tools, and resources that can help you enlarge your digital footprint through blogging, social media, branding strategies, and marketing online.  Here are the footprints we discovered last week.

Your Guide to the Google +1 Button by Kristi Hines

You’ve likely seen the new Google +1 share button appearing on many of your favorite sites in the past week.  Kristi does a great job explaining how this new button works, the benefits it brings your site, how this button can create a filter bubble, and step-by-step instructions on how to put it on your site.

How to Get the Facebook Crowd to Like You More by Ana Hoffman

Ana, the Queen of Generating Web Traffic, shares how several companies are using their Facebook fan pages to dramatically increase the engagement level with their customers.  One company she highlights more than tripled their fan growth from one simple change with their like button that also doubled their web traffic.

Virtual and Online Friendships: An Epiphany by Marcus Sheridan

There are those who claim that the relationships we make online are somehow not real relationships.  Marcus shares an epiphany he made while meeting several of the people with whom he’s developed online relationships face-to-face.  What brought this Sales Lion to tears?  Why you should rethink how you view these relationships.

Bad SEO: Confusing Correlation with Causation by Randy Pickard

I met Randy this week when he dropped by the site to respectfully disagree with me on my assertion that bloggers should stop trying to write unique, original content.  When I was checking out his site, I came across this gem.  How do you know if your SEO efforts are really paying off?  Randy explains why it’s easy to mislead yourself.

Top Tips for Running a Good Facebook Page by Lauren Fisher

Lauren provides some solid tips on maximizing your Facebook fan page that aren’t in your typical post on this subject.  The tip I found quite helpful is to write for the newsfeed instead of writing for your fan page wall.  Why would you want to do this? Read her post to find out.  I see many making the mistake in her example.

Is Your Marketplace REALLY Listening to You? by Jim Connolly

Are you a cheerleader for some guru?  Do you retweet every single one of their posts? I love the phrase he uses for people who do this – outsourced retweeting machines. Jim makes a strong argument that this type of behavior is causing your readers to tune you out.  FYI: I’m no guru so feel free to retweet me all you want.

The Art and Technique of Online Video by Keith Davis

Keith asks Mr. Video, Tom Breeze, to answer 10 of the most asked questions about making online videos.  Make sure you grab something to take notes with because Tom spends 25 minutes giving tip after tip to help you make a better impression with your online videos.  You can also download this as an mp3 at TomBreeze.tv.

Building a Twitter Network that Fits You Perfectly by Liz Strauss

This is one of the best posts I’ve ever read on how you should approach building your network on Twitter.  Liz gives you powerful tips and tools to find the people who will truly value your tweets and want to share them with others.  She also reminds us to to really know what it is that we have to offer our followers, and focus on that.

Video of the Week

This week’s video features John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing.  John shows us a quick tip on how to use Facebook as our page to socialize with other fan pages.

Want to know what will be featured in next week’s issue of Making Footprints?  You can find our current nominees in the footprints we’re buzzing about, or you can follow those we’ve already highlighted in Making Footprints on Twitter.

What did you discover making digital footprints through blogging, social media, branding strategies, or marketing online last week?  Share it with us in the comments below, or as a comment to this post on our Facebook page.

You should know by now that you’re supposed to be writing unique, original content for your blog.  How do you know?  You’ve been told by every wannabe “expert” that it’s essential to your blog’s success.  It’s ironic that they’ve missed the fact that they’re standing in a crowd of people all screaming about how you should be different from everyone else.  Isn’t it time to stop the insanity?

Google’s latest algorithm update, nicknamed Panda, has spurred on a rash of new posts warning of the dire consequences of finding duplicate content on your site. If you’re stealing another blogger’s content by scraping their RSS feeds, or engaging in old-fashioned plagiarism, you’ve already shown you don’t get what blogging is about.

For the rest of us, this update was a reminder that we’re responsible for everything that appears on our sites – including those guest posts that aren’t so original.  Even so, there’s still a lot of confusion about what it means to be unique or to be original.

Is Your Content Original?

No, your content is not original.  How can I make such a categorical statement?  While it may be true that some nuance of your content is unique, it’s highly unlikely that the underlying thought, feeling, or insight is original.

Solomon lamented that there was nothing new under the sun.  Take Hollywood, for example.  What movie plot, when it’s boiled down, can’t be found in the plays of Shakespeare?  Or, a Shakespeare play in the works of the Greeks and Romans?

We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.  Our thoughts, actions, and feelings are all influenced by them.  We can only hope to borrow from them and improve upon it before we pass it on to someone else.

Stop putting pressure on yourself to be original.  Embrace the idea that you’re just improving upon a collective idea, and give credit to those who influenced you.

Is Your Content Unique?

Too many people interchange the words original and unique.  Unique simply means that there’s nothing exactly like it.  Whereas, with originality, it’s either original or it’s not.   Uniqueness is judged on a sliding scale.

This is where bloggers get into trouble.  It’s not that they steal the content of others. It’s that they lose what set them apart from other bloggers as they move along that sliding scale trying to sound like some expert.

You will make a lousy anybody else, but you are the best you in existence. You are the only one who can use your ability.  It is an awesome responsibility. – Zig Ziglar

Our uniqueness as a blogger, or as a small business, comes from our personality, knowledge, experience, abilities, and a myriad of other factors.  As Zig points out, mimicking anyone else is a lousy idea.

Stop Trying to Write Unique, Original Content

If you’re thinking too hard about being original or unique – stop it!  Just be yourself. Identify what sets you apart from other bloggers, and focus on bringing that perspective to what you write about.

Don’t worry about trying produce original ideas that no one has ever heard of before, just focus on producing original [I'm sure she means unique] content that no one has read before, using lessons you’ve learned firsthand, and your readers will love you for it. – Kiesha Easley

That’s the conclusion Kiesha came to when she struggled with the idea of producing original blog content vs. original ideas.  You’ll never be a trusted authority in your niche until you stop trying to write unique, original content and start actually being unique.

Have you struggled with the pressure of writing original, unique content? Have you tried to come up with ideas that nobody else has heard of before?  What does unique, original content mean to you?

Photo Credit: iStockphoto/Andresr

Will your blog be around a year from now?  Do you have what it takes to sustain your blog for the long haul? Every day there are tens of thousands of new blogs launched, but most of these won’t survive to see their first birthday. How will you ensure that your blog doesn’t share this same fate? What numbers are you focusing on when it comes to your blog’s sustainability?

Successful bloggers share three qualities in common with each other: patience, persistence, and consistency.  These are especially necessary early on in your blog’s life when people don’t respond to your posts; however, these qualities must be focused on four key numbers if your blog is to be successful long-term.

These numbers are the most powerful if implemented in order from least to greatest because they amplify each other exponentially.  You’ll find that they naturally progress in this order, as well.

Focus on the Number 1 – Be Unique, Be Yourself

You may be tempted to follow in the footsteps of popular bloggers using their experience as a road map for your own blog.  After all, if it’s working for theirs then it should work for yours, right?  In the long run this approach usually backfires on you.

You’ll never be better at being Darren Rowse than Darren Rowse is.  Who wants to read the 2nd best Problogger when they can read the original?  The good news is that nobody else can be a better you than you can.  You’re unique – one of a kind.

You can build a thriving blog by being yourself.  It’s your knowledge, experience, and personality that brings a different perspective to your topic.  It’s your authenticity that readers crave among the endless posts trying to mimic someone else.

Focus on the Number 10 – Create Pillar Posts

Just like building a house, your blog needs a firm foundation upon which to build.  This comes in the form of your very best blog posts that serve as pillars supporting all of your future posts.  Ideally, these are published together when you start your blog.

A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better. – Yaro Starak

Yaro suggests you start with 5 of these pillar articles; however, I’ve found that 10 works much better because it allows you to have multiple pillar posts in your 3 to 5 blog categories.  This makes your blog more sticky from the beginning and dramatically reduces your bounce rate.

Focus on the Number 100 – Become Viable for Syndication

Once your pillar posts are in place, the next major milestone is to reach 100 posts. What’s so special about this number?  Well, it has its roots in television history.  Once a show reached 100 episodes it was considered to be viable for syndication.

100 episodes are advantageous for stripped syndication because such shows can be sold for higher per-episode pricing;  it also allows for 20 weeks of five-day-a-week reruns without repeating an episode. – Wikipedia

Reaching 100 posts on your blog is a good indication that you have learned those same qualities shared by successful bloggers.  It also tends to be the point at which you can expect a constant, steady flow of search engine traffic to your blog.

The 90 posts you’ll need to add to your 10 pillar posts should consist of additional pillar content, good original content, authority building content, and Flagship content (basically pillar content on steroids).

Focus on the Number 1,000 – Cultivate Your True Fans

There are many reasons that your small business needs a blog, but you’ve stuck it out to reach 100 posts because you’re expecting a tangible return on your investment. How you accomplish this depends on your monetization strategy for your blog.

Regardless of the method you’ve chosen, Kevin Kelly suggests that you should derive your sales from the “long flat tail” by connecting with true fans directly.  This concept has become a tenet that Seth Godin used to write his best-selling book, Tribes.

Seth talks about Kelly’s idea of 1,000 true fans in one of his blog posts.

I think the ability to find and organize 1,000 people is a breakthrough opportunity. One thousand people coordinating their actions is enough to change your world (and make a living.) – Seth Godin

He goes on to point out …

Instead of speed dating your way to interruption, instead of yelling at strangers all day trying to make a living, coordinating a tribe of 1,000 requires patience, consistency and a focus on long-term relationships and life time value. You don’t find customers for your products. You find products for your customers. – Seth Godin

Ultimately, the power behind a blog is not in the posts themselves.  It’s in building relationships with the community that surrounds your blog, your true fans, your tribe. This requires you focusing on the four key numbers above.  When it’s all said and done, these are the people who really sustain your blog over the long-term.

What are the most important numbers you focus on to ensure your blog’s long-term viability?  How many posts did it take your blog to become viable? How does your blog foster the development of true fans?

Photo Credit: iStockphoto/JordiDelgado

Using quotes from someone who has authority on your topic is an effective way to support your point. Oftentimes, these quotes can be a microblog post in, and of, themselves. This makes them perfect for when you have a limited amount of characters, like on Twitter, to express your point. I’ve collected 100 such quotes that are ready for you to simply copy, paste, and share on Twitter.

These quotes were handpicked from my personal collection of quotes from ten of the best motivational speakers. Some of them will be familiar to you, but you may find a few you’ve never read. I’ve had great success with these quotes on my various Twitter accounts because all of these quotes are retweetable.

What Makes a Quote Retweetable?

Obviously, the quote has to be noteworthy for someone to want to tweet it.  What I see many people forget is that it also has to be formatted properly.  How many times have you went to retweet a quote, but it was over the 140 character limit?

You could use the official retweet function; however, you probably want the person to know you did it.  Chances are that they won’t know unless they make a habit of checking their official retweets (maybe Twitter will fix that one day).

To ensure that your quotes are retweetable, you must limit them to 120 characters or less.  Why?  The maximum length for a Twitter name is now 15 characters.  You’ll need to add room for the 5 characters they’ll need to add “RT @” and the space following your Twitter name.  That’s 140 – 15 – 5 leaving you with 120 characters.

Twitter Ready Quotes by Brian Tracy

Brian Tracy is one of America’s leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness. A dynamic and inspiring speaker, he addresses thousands of people each year on the subjects of personal and professional development.

Twitter Ready Quotes by Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer famed for developing courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills. How to Win Friends and Influence People, first published in 1936, was a massive bestseller that remains popular today.

Twitter Ready Quotes by Denis Waitley

Best-selling author and speaker, Denis Waitley has painted word pictures of optimism, core values, motivation and resiliency that have become indelible and legendary in their positive impact on society.  He has inspired, informed, challenged and entertained audiences for over 25 years.

Twitter Ready Quotes by Earl Nightingale

Earl Nightingale was an American motivational speaker and author, known as the “Dean of Personal Development.” He formed the Nightingale-Conant Corporation of Chicago with Lloyd Conant, and became a founding pioneer in the personal development industry.

Twitter Ready Quotes by Jim Rohn

For more than 40 years, Jim Rohn honed his craft like a skilled artist — helping people sculpt life strategies that expanded their imagination of what is possible. He’s widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of our time, and thought of by many as a national treasure.

Twitter Ready Quotes by Les Brown

Les Brown is a top motivational speaker, speech coach, and best-selling author, whose passion is empowering youth and helping them have a larger vision for their lives.  His straight-from-the-heart, high-energy, passionate message motivates and engages all audiences to step into their greatness.

Twitter Ready Quotes by Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill began his writing career at age 13 as a “mountain reporter” for small town newspapers and went on to become America’s most beloved motivational author.  His work stands as a monument to individual achievement and is the cornerstone of modern motivation.

Twitter Ready Quotes by Og Mandino

Og Mandino is the most widely read inspirational and self help author in the world. The former president of Success Unlimited magazine, he passed away in 1996 but remains one of the best-selling inspirational authors today.  His books continue to inspire countless thousands all over the world.

Twitter Ready Quotes by Tony Robbins

A millionaire by the age of twenty-four, Tony Robbins is an entrepreneur and the best-selling author of Unlimited Power. He’s considered, by many, to be the nation’s leader in human development training and is the founder of Robbins Research International, Inc.

Twitter Ready Quotes by Zig Ziglar

Recognized by his peers as the quintessential motivational genius of our times, Zig Ziglar‘s unique delivery style and powerful messages have earned him many honors, and today he is considered one of the most versatile authorities on the science of human potential.

Do you use quotes on Twitter?  What’s your favorite Twitter ready quote? Share it with us in the comment section below. If you found these quotes helpful, won’t you please send out a tweet?

Someone has just written a scathing post about how much your small business sucks.  How do you respond?  If you’re like me, your initial reaction might be to scramble the jets to get this post “neutralized” ASAP. This often has a tendency to backfire on you. It may be best to do nothing at all. How do small business owners assess the best response to those who attack them online?

Over the weekend, I was trying to come to a decision about whether to upgrade my HootSuite account or switch to MarketMeSuite.  Ana Hoffman started me thinking about the latter in a post she wrote on how to generate more backlinks using MarketMeSuite’s personal branding features.

I was surprised when a comment I left on the post was answered not by Ana, but by the owner of the company – Tammy Fennell.  She must be using a listening post to find out what people are saying about her company.  Very savvy.  Unfortunately, it seemed to pick up on a couple of posts that weren’t as flattering as Ana’s review.

Responding to Negative Criticism

Kimberly Castleberry decided she needed to retract her endorsement of MarketMeSuite for what she considered a product that undelivered on its promises by providing a beta version of its product as a live release (remind you of anyone?  Microsoft, perhaps?).

Tammy responded to the post with a comment that most small business owners would likely find acceptable, but Kim escalated the conversation with her response.  Tammy wisely chose not to publicly continue the conversation and pour fuel on the fire.

Kim’s response was much more damning and quite a bit longer than the original post. Was Tammy wrong to respond to the post?  Should she have just let it stand?

Reacting to Negative Criticism

Kim had linked to another post, by Brankica Underwood, which made her retraction seem like a glowing review.  Brankica called MarketMeSuite the worst product she’d ever tried.  As a small business owner, it would have taken everything I had not to respond to this post if it was about my company.

While Brankica would disagree with me, her post was a full on rant.  Rants are rarely neutralized by responding – especially when you take it personally.  Tammy reacted to this post, and then in another comment attacked Brankica.

It’d be understandable for Tammy to be frustrated, but it would have been best to walk away.  Because she didn’t, a commenter on Danny Brown’s blog describing a great response to a customer’s complaint brought it to his attention prompting him to weigh in on Tammy’s response.

Call In the Air Force When You’re Attacked

In the end, I decided to upgrade my Hootsuite account which I’d been using for quite some time, and now I’m even an affiliate for them.  Did Tammy’s responses above make the difference?  No, but they did give me pause.

I think many of us could easily have a bad day, and react to negative criticism like Tammy did.  The problem is that when you do it online – it’s forever.  You’re much better off following the protocol the Air Force uses for these situations.

Isn’t this great?  As I was searching against alternate titles for this post, I found this flowchart on Kelly Forbe’s blog where she writes that sometimes it pays to say nothing when it comes to social media.  Yes it does, Kelly.

Has your small business been attacked online?  Did you respond or react to it? Do you have a written plan for dealing with negative attacks?  Have you seen examples of a great response to a complaint?

You’re business needs a blog.  This advice is trumpeted online like it was the secret eleventh commandment that Moses forgot to tell us about. They list all of the benefits that come from attaching a blog to your small business website, but they rarely tell you that doing this has actually hurt many small business owners. What about your blog? Is it bringing or costing you business?

Don’t misunderstand. There are, indeed, many reasons why your small business needs a blog.  The issue isn’t with the blog itself.  It’s with the business owner behind the blog.  I’ve seen it time and time again.

Small business owners jump in with both feet without ever asking the basic questions they need to answer before taking the social media plunge.  Here are some of the mistakes small business owners make that are actually costing them business.

Mistake #1 – You Don’t Know the Rules

You’ve read those warning labels, right?  Don’t use hair dryer while in shower.  Don’t pick up lawn mower while it’s running.  Seems obvious, right?  Sadly, people were actually injured doing both of these requiring manufacturers to print these warnings.

We’ve all seen those blogs that would inspire such warning labels.  The obvious ones are those with no navigation, eye-jarring color schemes, multiple pop up adds, 100 widgets in the sidebar, or where finding the content is a lot like trying to find Waldo.

What about the less obvious ones?  You need to do your homework before launching your blog to avoid these.  I highly recommend you start with one of the best resources on blogging, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog by Darren Rowse.

Your blog is a reflection of your small business.  Without knowing the rules, you may give the impression that you aren’t professional, knowledgeable, or trustworthy.

Mistake #2 – You’re Not Committed to Your Blog

The average blogger quits blogging within their first six months.  Blogging takes a real time commitment.  It also takes patience to build your target audience to the point where you’ll see tangible results from your efforts.

You should expect to spend a minimum of 5 hours per week on your blog to write posts, maintain your site, and promote it through social media.  It’s fine to test it out to see if blogging is right for you and your small business, but be realistic about the commitment you need to make for those efforts to pay off.

If, after you’ve given it the old college try, you decide that blogging isn’t the right tool for you, that’s fine.  While blogging provides many benefits, it’s not wise to force the issue.  It will come through in your writing, and turn your readers off.

Don’t leave your blog online.  Take it down.  Blogs that have not been updated for some time can give the impression that your business doesn’t finish what it starts or, even worse, is no longer in business.

Mistake #3 – You Don’t Really Put the Customer First

Be honest with yourself.  Do you really care about your customer’s well-being before your own.  It’s fine if you don’t.  I’m not here to judge, but readers have an uncanny ability to discern this through your writing.

Your blog community will want you to interact with them through their comments and other social media platforms.  If you’re not willing to build these relationships online it will quickly become apparent.  It’s also online 24/7 for the world to see.

Remember, your blog is a great way to give your small business more personality.  Just make sure it’s one that will attract people to your business instead of repel them.

Mistake #4 – You Turn Your Business into a Hobby

You might be surprised to find that you really enjoy blogging and social media.  It can be very addictive.  It’s not uncommon for people to log on for 30 minutes and then stay online for hours.

Create a schedule for when you’ll be using social media, and then stick to it.  Even more importantly, stay focused on why you’re using these tools.  Ultimately, you want your efforts to translate to your bottom line.

Your efforts need to pay off for your small business in a tangible manner (i.e., sales) after a reasonable amount of time.  If they don’t, then it’s better to concentrate of other efforts that will.

Too many business owners turn their blog and social media efforts into a hobby instead of marketing.  If it’s not leading to sales, then it’s a hobby and it’s costing your business money.

Have you thrown in the towel on your blog?  What made you decide to give it up?  Are you experiencing tangible results with your blog?  How were you able to avoid these mistakes?  What other mistakes have you seen small business owners make with their blogs that’s costing them your business?

Photo Credit: iStockphoto/Yuri_Arcurs