With smartphones growing in popularity, it’s not hard to imagine that newer marketing tactics will involve tapping into the mobile market.  It’s amazing to me just how many people cannot disconnect themselves from their mobile phones.  In a recent podcast interview, Paul Rosenfeld discusses how text message marketing is quickly becoming the next must have marketing tool.

Let’s face it, we’re all connected to gadgets and information 24/7 these days. So, it only makes sense that tapping into these channels is going to be the next wave of the future.

Paul Rosenfeld, CEO of Fanminder, joins Anita Campbell for a discussion to explain, in detail, why text message marketing, in particular, is poised to be your next must-have tool to grow your business in 2010. Paul explains exactly how you can take easy steps to drive immediate revenues for your business.

Stay on top of upcoming marketing trends, visit Small Business Trends Radio to hear the entire interview with Paul Rosenfeld…

Yesterday I discovered that we were mentioned in a list of CEO blogs on Accounting Degree.com.  In 25 CEO Blogs Every Biz Student Should Read, you’ll find a nice variety of informational blogs.

Whether you’re working on your MBA or just starting out as an undergraduate business student, you can augment your education with a little help from the web. These blogs will give you a window into the world of a CEO so you can see what they do, how they do it and just what goes on inside upper management in a company so you can learn more without spending a dime.

On this list you will find the CEO blogs categorized into 3 sections; CEO Blogs, Tech CEOs, and For CEOs.  I think you can find just about everything you may need to know about CEOs within this list of blogs.  Visit Accounting Degree.com to start exploring these great blogs.

I have to say that I’m a little surprise that I am sharing the link I’m about to mention.  Why, you ask?  Because the blog author is only 12 years old!  But from the content I’ve read on Gloson Blog, the author seems wise well beyond his years.  You can find evidence of this in the recent interview of Gloson by Sarah Cook on Saturday Morning Mastermind.

Gloson’s blog is very impressive.  If his articles were posted anywhere else, I don’t think anyone would even realize the author was so young.  That’s why I was prompted to share his site with you.  I think it’s important to encourage young minds.

With my personal blog, I’m a recent Wordpress convert.  It took me months of trial and error to get things settled.  Gloson’s article, 17 Important Things To Do After Starting Your Wordpress Blog, would have come in really handy back then.

This step by step guide will come in handy for anyone just starting out with their own blog.  And even though it’s written as advice for Wordpress users, most of the tips also apply to bloggers using other platforms.

Go through Gloson’s checklist and see if you’ve overlooked any of these Wordpress blog startup tips…

Brickfish and Cisco have come together to bring small businesses the Heroes Of The Human Network contest.  This contest gives business owners the chance to win a complete network makeover worth $10,000!

If your small business would benefit from working faster and being better connected to your customers, staff and suppliers, Cisco is prepared to help. Simply tell Cisco about your small business and either (1) how technology has helped you to advance or (2) how the right technology could help your small business advance, and you could win a Cisco® network makeover valued at $10,000. Plus, you’ll be exalted to “hero” status in an upcoming “Heroes of the Human Network” advertisement.

In addition to the grand prize, there are other prizes that will be given away also.  You can see the entire list of prizes along with the contest rules and regulations here.  Get your entries in soon, you have up until March 3, 2010 at 11:30 PM (PT) to enter.

By now, the predictions for 2010 have faded into the background and, for many, so have those business and personal New Years resolutions and top 10 lists.

So now that February is upon us and new products and technologies are on the horizon, here is a brief synopsis of things to do and avoid that will leverage your PR efforts.  These tips were created with the goal of a high ROI program that will support the sales process and the effectiveness of your company’s overall marketing efforts.

To do:

• Subscribe, read newsletters and contribute to the top outlets that impact your business.  Even if they are niche.  Have a voice with a clear, concise point of view. More specifically, demonstrate how you are the expert with the relevant, real-life technology, business and customer experiences.
• Recognize that PR is a verb not a noun. The days of the lawyer-scrubbed and -approved press release as a primary communication mechanism is obsolete. Beyond that, it is a true dialog.  Be conversational in tone and content.
• Follow your customers and your customers’ customers, including events they attend, speeches they give, earnings calls, etc.  Keep at the pulse of what your customers are doing and how they will evolve to remain competitive. Leverage this knowledge in all of your outbound communications.
• SEO: Link all of your communications - Web, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.  If you are a panel participant, provide the link, audio file and slides via your Web site and Twitter.  Push content out, change your auto-reply signature to include links, refresh your Web site bios to include links to what you and your company say.  This is a topic a lot of people talk about but few actually do.  Want proof?  Go to your company’s own Web site and under the executive bios tab, see how many of those pages include live links to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like.
• Community: You employ talented people in a strategic location.  Give back, no matter the scope or scale.  Get creative.  If you are a small company, invite other companies your size or within a few miles to join forces with you.  Don’t get caught up in getting “credit” - Do the right thing; the benefits to your community and employees will resonate.

To avoid:

• Avoid participating in venues that are too big for the size of your company and/or resources that enable you to be successful.  The phrase go big or go home applies. Go big could be a major speaking event (even if you don’t have a booth).  No matter where you go, have a presence that is memorable to a majority of the attendees.
• Avoid becoming more concerned with responding to competitive claims than keeping ahead of the competitor in the first place.  In most cases responding is vital, but be cautious about being more consumed by your competitors than you are with the success of your own business and valued customers.
• Stay away from trying to do too much with too little.  Historic thinking indicates that with fewer publications, the PR universe is getting smaller.  This is not true.  There are more influencers than ever and they may or may not be with “traditional” publishers or analyst firms.  Find out who they are and if/where they are syndicated. In most cases, there are about 10 key media outlets or individuals that truly understand and influence your market and are on the top of your customers’ must-read list. Focus, focus, focus.
• Avoid being in the weeds when the real issue is much bigger.  For example, are you focused more on a specific competitor when in fact you should be having a high-level voice in patent reform?  How secure is your supply chain and what are you doing (and saying) to be sure you can deliver to your customers?  Avoiding the minutia will greatly help you up-level your message.
• And of course, while it may sound pedestrian, at all costs avoid anything cut and pasted.  Everything MUST be customized, specific, targeted and relevant to the audience.  Generic pitches remain one of the biggest complaints by editors across the entire spectrum of outlets, including major daily newspapers.

Comments?  Questions? I’d love to hear from you.

About The Guest Author: Marla Kertzman, vice president of The Hoffman Agency, has more than 20 years’ communications experience in corporate and agency environments, including startup, pre-IPO and Fortune 500 companies. She provides practical and aggressive hands-on expertise in day-to-day strategic and tactical PR program execution. Marla’s focus is on great client service, bringing a unique perspective, coupled with drive, passion and an understanding of the technology ecosystem.  You can also follow Marla on Twitter @marlak.

One of the biggest challenges facing small business owners is “How do I distinguish myself from my competitors?”

The answer is simple, and so, there is no shortage of people toiling to make it complicated.

To stand out, dedicate yourself to your customers. Care more about helping them than you do about making money. The company that cares more will understand more. And the company that understands the customer’s world will think up ideas that will impact their world. In other words, they will stand out.

If you really care, you will even ask questions that risk making you look bad, because it serves the greater purpose of helping your customers.

A CPA once asked my advice on attracting more large company clients to his firm.

“Simple,” I said. “Go to the larger clients you already work with and ask questions like: “Why did you start working with my firm?” “Why have you continued working with my firm?” “What should we understand about you and your company so we can be even more valuable to you?”

He hesitated. “But won’t I be opening the door for complaints?”

“Well, that may happen with some,” I said. “But if negative feelings are there, isn’t it better that you know about it so you can correct it? Otherwise they’ll pick up and go without ever giving you a second chance.”

He couldn’t bring himself to ask his clients these kinds of questions and so he will forever be guessing as to what is most important to them.

To stand out usually doesn’t need great genius so much as great discipline and courage. If you’ve been shirking from difficult conversations it is hurting your business.

Innovation, once you get past the buzzwords and the hype, is simple if you really care and aren’t afraid of difficult conversations.

About The Guest Author: Dov Gordon helps small company CEOs build such loyal employees and life-long customers, that even their competitors enviously spread their renown. You will also enjoy downloading his free, practical and applicable .mp3 on “The Critical 10% of Management Skills that Make You Look Brilliant 90% of the Time.” Get it now at http://www.DovGordon.biz/the-10-percent.htm.

So you benchmark your company against others in your industry. Maybe you look at maximizing revenue per full-time employee, increasing first call resolution in your contact center or IT expense as a percent of revenue. How do you compare to your competitors? Is that the right comparison?

Your customers, whether they are consumers or businesses, rarely measure you against others in your industry. Think about it. When you pay your doctor bill, do you compare that process against other doctors, or do you think about being able to pay your credit card bill online? Health care organizations get compared by consumers to their auto insurance company, their bank and their cell phone companies. A customer’s last memory of service is rarely another organization of your type.

For business to business companies, the comparisons may be different but they still happen.

* Can your client look at its transactions online? Their bank lets them view transactions, transfer funds and make payments.

* Can they easily get a human on the phone if they need one? Their accounting firm probably makes it easy, and can take a message or route the call to the desired accountant’s back up.

* Can they schedule an appointment online? My reservations for my last business lunch were done via opentable.com which promptly sent a notification to the person joining me for lunch. Easy.

Think about giving your client the ability to interact with you the way they are most comfortable, whether it is by live person, by phone or on the web. Make it easy for your customers, according their definition of easy. They will order more, and will continue to do business with you as they learn to rely on you as a data source.

Understanding and, if appropriate, matching your competitors’ offerings is important as well. However, it’s most important in vendor selection. Once selected, it is human nature to no longer compare to vendors one hasn’t spoken with in awhile, but instead compare to those currently in use. If your customer is comparing you to other vendors of your type, they may be unhappy with your service and are starting to shop.

If you manage an internal support organization like Information Technology, Human Resources or Finance, re-visit your internal benchmarks. What could you strive for even if it’s not industry-standard? Allow employees to update their information online. Make budgeting easier. Show open IT tickets and their statuses online. Then think big. Leverage technology to automate processes so you can radically improve your revenue/FTE ratio.

Compare yourself to your competitors, but ask your customers who, of any vendor they have, has the best service and why. You may be surprised.

About The Guest Author:  Laura Pettit Rusick assists CEOs at small and mid-sized organizations with strategic technology planning and management. Her company OPT Solutions helps them grow, reduce costs and increase productivity by optimizing business processes and technology. For those interested in benefiting from business process efficiency projects, sign up to receive the PDF “Ten Critical Success Factors for Optimizing Business Processes“. Laura’s website is http://www.optsolutionsinc.com.

Verizon and Cisco have teamed up to bring business owners The Better Way Challenge.  Each month until May 31st, 15 lucky people will be chosen to win a free Flip MinoHD when they sign up for a free 30 day trial of Verizon’s Collaboration Center.

Verizon Collaboration Center is a better way for businesses to meet online, present projects, and share calendars and ideas. Anytime. From anywhere. Now you can get the resources of the enterprise, no matter the size of your business.

If you already have a video recorder, you can participate in the second portion of the giveaway.  The grand prize…an exclusive 2 hour business consultation with business expert and author, Guy Kawasaki.  Plus a $2,000 bonus reward.

Second and third place winners will also receive business consultations with Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group.  Everyone who enters the second portion of the contest will receive a free 6 month membership to the Verizon Collaboration Center.

Please read the entire official contest rules before participating.  The contest ends May 31, 2010 so don’t delay!  Good luck to anyone who enters.

Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching, and whether you personally view it as the most romantic day of the year, filled with love and hope, or an annual ordeal splashed with tacky red and pink décor, there’s no question it can have a positive effect on many small businesses.

One of the best ways to take advantage of this potential bump in profitability is through email marketing. Email is a very effective way to bring highly-tailored messages to specific audiences. And since many people are prone to read into the gifts they receive from a significant or semi-significant other, it gives you an opportunity to use Cupid’s arrows to target your customers and prospects in order to move them to action.

Following are 12 things you should do, beginning today, to make sure your Valentine’s Day doesn’t pass with a lot of empty promises and wilted dreams.

1. Start now! It’s about a month out from the big day so best to start compiling your copy, imagery, offers, etc. now. You don’t want to inundate your recipients by email, but a rough schedule could entail:

a. Email 1: Initial offer

b. Email 2: Wednesday, Feb 3rd: Offer Reminder

c. Email 3: Thursday, February 11th: Reminder 2 - “Three days left `till Valentine’s Day!”

d. Email 4: Wednesday, Feb 17th: Thank you follow-up email to all customers who took advantage of the offer. Say thank you and extend another offer to these loyal customers.

2. Use a Valentine’s Day template with a nice balance of valentine-specific copy and imagery to get people in the mood and thinking about the event.

3. Segment your list. Split out your list by gender. Send female oriented offers to the guys and male oriented offers to the ladies. But think about your audience before doing this sort of segmentation! Your offer may not be appropriate for all audiences.

4. Make sure your offer is compelling. Most people are still paying off their bills from the Christmas holiday season, so make sure the offer is affordable and is compelling enough to encourage them to act.

5. Partner with companies who offer complementary services or products for an offer that can’t be ignored. Example: Spa services and floral shop (walk away from your spa treatment with a dozen red roses), Restaurant and flower shop (have a bouquet of flowers ready at the table when you arrive), Jewelry shop and Spa service (buy a special piece of valentine jewelry and get a free massage, buy a spa service and get a pair of earrings), boutique hotel and highly recommended restaurant (get discounts at both places when you book a night and make reservations for dinner), etc. Get creative as the possibilities are endless!

6. Target a special email to people who bought from you last year around Valentine’s Day with an even better offer for this loyal audience. If the offer is right, they will most likely buy from you again.

7. Make it super easy for people to take advantage of your offer. If fulfillment is to come to the store, give clear directions or a store finder link, if by phone, make phone numbers prominent, or if online, make the button or text link stand out in the email. Best to place it as close to the upper-left corner of the email as possible. Printable coupons or promo codes always work well.

8. Use testimonials and reviews. Most people will buy if they know if another person has had a positive buying experience with your product or service. Highlight great reviews and testimonials in your emails to bolster the offer.

9. Give people Valentine’s ideas in your next newsletter. How many times have you wondered what you’re going to do for your sweetie for Valentine’s Day? Guys in particular often have a hard time coming up with ideas for Valentine’s Day. Do the work for them and provide a list of the top 10 best Valentine’s Day dates or gifts, for example.

10. Help spread your message to more people by using forward-to-a-friend functionality. Encourage people to forward your offer on by including forward to a friend links.

11. Use email to promote a special Valentine’s Day draw to win a prize - to collect emails and grow your email subscriber list.

12. Send a Happy Valentine’s Day email postcard to show customer appreciation - thank loyal customers by providing complimentary redeemable points (if you have a points program) or a free gift for Valentine’s Day. This supports customer retention.

The Valentine’s Day colors may officially be red and pink. But follow the tips above and you’re sure to be seeing green by the end of the day.

About The Guest Author: Wendy Lowe is director of product marketing for Campaigner.  Campaigner is provided by Protus, provider of the highest quality Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) communication tools for small-to-medium businesses (SMB) and enterprise organizations. Wendy can be reached at wlowe@protus.com.

Maybe you’re working the tradeshow at the industry’s big annual convention for the next four days. Perhaps it’s a long-planned romantic vacation to an exotic resort in the Caribbean. Or maybe you’re just calling it a night and are heading home for the evening. No matter what your situation, there’s likely to be a time when you aren’t at the office, but you need to access something that’s on your office computer.

Thankfully, there are plenty of options for working and being productive even when you aren’t in the office-and none of them involves packing up your office computer and lugging it with you everywhere you go!  Depending on whether you’re going on an extended trip or just wanting to work on a few files after the kids have gone to bed, you have a variety of ways to get to the information and applications you need:

USB Drives and Email Attachments

If you only have a file or two you need to work on, the average USB hard drive (also known as a ‘thumb drive’) can likely hold the files that you need-and it fits conveniently in your purse or pocket. If you don’t have a USB drive handy, you can also consider sending a copy of the files to a personal email address as a viable option.

A word of warning on these methods, however, is that it pays to check that everything transferred like you anticipated. There’s nothing worse than getting home, finishing dinner and sitting down to work for the night, only to find that your email attachments haven’t arrived, or your USB drive has only one of the files you need. Double-check that you really have what you need before you leave the office and you can save yourself a drive back that night-or a mad dash early in the morning.

File Syncing Software

For people who work remotely on a regular basis, like an executive with a busy travel schedule, syncing files may be the best option. File syncing software basically creates a mirror image of the files, folders and directories on your office machine directly onto your laptop. File syncing software, however, only syncs files-it does not copy programs from one computer to another. Therefore, ensure that your laptop computer has all of the software you need, or otherwise you may find yourself with the file you need to work on, but no method of working on it.

Virtual Private Networks

Virtual private networks, or VPNs, allow for a secure connection directly between your laptop at home (or in the cabana on the beach in Cancun!) and the network in your office. A virtual private network offers small- to medium-sized businesses a way to provide remote workers with secure access to their important work-related files, contacts and applications, day or night.

Virtual private networks allow workers not only to access files, but to actually work on the files on their desktop computer. This is a benefit for a user who may have a program installed on his work computer but not on his home computer-for example, if you need to add a page to a PDF file but only have the free version of Acrobat installed on your laptop computer, you can access your full version of Acrobat on your work computer and add the page. Be advised, however, that working via a VPN is never as fast as working on the actual computer. Memory intensive tasks like graphics or video applications are likely to be especially slow.

GotoMyPC, Access Remote PC and other remote access software programs

Need to ensure that five copies of the Smith proposal are ready as soon as you arrive in the office tomorrow morning?  No problem. Like VPNs, GoToMyPC and other remote access software programs allow users to access files, applications and even printers. You can make changes to the proposal and print the five copies you need for tomorrow, all while sitting on your couch in your living room.

There are a number of software packages designed specifically to make connecting to your work PC or Mac as simple as clicking a button. Because the software connects to the specific machine rather than the office network, users who are planning on accessing their computers remotely must ensure that their work computer is left on-otherwise, a connection won’t be able to be made.

About The Guest Author:  Scott Gordon is the Chief Operating Officer at Dataprise, where he oversees strategy and operations for the company’s technical services. Dataprise is a full-service technical support and IT services company, providing managed services and IT consulting to growing businesses in Maryland, DC and Virginia.