To show our appreciation of small business owners and solopreneurs, Dialing 8 is giving away three annual (full access) memberships to The Dialing 8 Project.
You can nominate yourself, your local small business or independent, or even a friend or family member just starting out. Just have them (or you) fill out the form below.
Winners will be notified by email on Friday, February 17th.
About this time a few years ago, on a drive to a client appointment in Centerville, IA (about 2 hours south of Des Moines) I was driving through the tiny town of Albia, IA. I noticed that most of the stores had already closed, and the drug store and furniture store were going out of business. It’s the holiday season, and they are closing up shop?
Since then, I’ve worked around the Midwest with Shingle Pages, building affordable web pages for the rural business, many of whom have zero to less web presences. Hard to believe, but 35% of small or independent business still don’t have a website. A website!
That’s one of the reasons for The Dialing 8 Project: helping small businesses grow with social media that counts.
And to celebrate those behind the counter and on the phone, beating the streets and working to make things meet, we’re offering to small, rural, or independent business owners. A 30-day free trial to Dialing 8. Offer is good through Small Business Saturday.
Google Hangouts are a fantastic tool for business, especially those in distanced collaborative situations or consulting. So much so, I’m going to make them part of a regular part of business.
With Dialing 8 Project launching this weekend, we’ll be using Hangouts for regularly scheduled workshops (members only). For ConverStations, we’ll be offering open co-working hangouts during the daytime (much like I used to do at Panera U)
Here’s the schedule (subject to change with notice):
Dialing 8 Project:
A few days ago, I tweeted this thought:
It resonated with a few, including myself. Soon after, I included part of it in a Google+ posting. To help overcome the self-generated echo, I use a programming worksheet I call Social Postings.
Here’s a peek:
The worksheet allows me to track when I’ve cross-posted and where. On occasion, I will retweet or send an item through LinkedIn again, so I will put the most recent time in that cell.
The first two columns are important, showing the truncated URL and annotation showing the title of the piece. The colors match the Dialing 8 model. Whenever cross-posting is done, I try to modify the message introducing the item just a bit.
The template for this spreadsheet will be made available to Dialing8 Project members this weekend (we launch this Sunday!).
You have your Google+ Page for your business. Awesome. Good job on the Launch & Pause. Now what?
There are some logistics and verification we’ll attend to, but we’ll get to that in another post. Let’s think about how we’ll use this new bit of real estate on the web.
For years, smart businesses have seen Google as a tool that lets everyone become better:
And money is part of the heart of things for each of the three. But the better each party gets at those goals, the happier we all are.
Consider this as a framework for thinking out your plan for Google+:
Google+ Pages will become a place where customers can initiate engagement with companies and organizations they want to connect with. Since “Plus Pages” do not allow for the initiation (either by circle or comment), it’ll be more important than ever to offer compelling content or resources to engage the people that find your page.
So, a few thoughts on how you might use Google+ for Business:
What other ways are you thinking of using your Google+ Page? And how will you keep engagement flowing into your blog or site to the point of transaction?
Long term vision? Social, Local, Mobile (Commerce) or SoLoMo(co). But that’s another discussion.
Conversations like these will go deeper and more specific at The Dialing 8 Project. Grab a cup of coffee and join us.
The Dialing 8 Project site is coming together and we’re racing closer to a November 13 launch. Here are eight reasons I believe Dialing 8 is going to rock!
Consider going the (long) distance today.
Many small business owners and independents are frustrated these days. Frustrated at two things:
To help battle the confusion and the dizzying, frenzying pace of change, I’ve been developing what I call the Dialing 8 Project.
The Dialing 8 Projectis shaping up to be both a curriculum and a community designed with specific types of business persons in mind:
While anyone will benefit from the content found within Dialing 8, the intended participant is that do-it-yourselfer, the one that loves to learn and views making mistakes as tuition.
The person that drives through conundrums with curiosity and a collaborative spirit. For its that type of person who will stay strong and last long in these times of quick attention and “now is gone”.
Join me . . . join us as an active participant in The Dialing 8 Project. I believe you’ll find some great ways to create or improve business – and some fantastic relationships. All for much less than a cup of coffee a day.
Quick review from the introduction to the 8 Spokes on a Social Media Dial:
Clicking on the Dialing 8 image will take you to a fuller explanation of each spoke.
Our hope, our goal is to simplify things as new tools come our way. Overwhelm comes quick these days – and just wait until day after soon, because the pace will continue to rise. Some tools become yesterday’s news lickety-split.
By having a sphere at the end of each spoke, we can quickly ascertain which spheres we’ll invest most of our time. When a new tool comes out, we decide which sphere it would fit in if we use it – and go from there. No overwhelm.
Eight Spokes on a Social Media Dial.
So the dial was the bird’s eye view. The map, but not the terrain. Here’s the side view:
To review the 8 spokes:
Every profession is different. Most companies within a profession are different. Goals are different. So let’s acknowledge this is a framework, not a blueprint. A real estate agency or restaurant is probably going to invest more time into the video/audio or images spheres, whereas the accountant or business coach is going to be more text heavy. Just as you are unique, so is your Dial of 8.
The Dialing 8 framework also relies on solid time-management within each sphere. You might invest three 12-minute chunks daily into your Streams and a just a weekly single 12-minute session into your Social/Local/Mobile (SoLoMo). Got 12 minutes?
Your blog is the centerpiece, the foundation, the core of your social media presence. It’s the one space you own. Everything else is borrowed real estate on the web. All this other stuff we do – while very important – should act as a feeder into your blogsite.
These spokes and spheres are places to engage and amplify relationships, build credibility and findability, and feed leads into your blog to generate new and better customers. This model also acts as a funnel, each sphere feeding into your blog. On the blog is where you have your products and services and events.
The reality is, change – improvements – are happening fast and the rate-of-improvement is changing. It’s getting faster. It’s not just new tools and stations, but changes to the tools and stations as well. The spheres help you keep things calm and in order.
As an example. I just heard about Flipzu, a mobile, real-time record-and-publish you voice app. As Robert Scoble said recently on Google+: “I love that I have a radio station in my pocket.” (context).
I can hardly wait to try Flipzu. Another tool? Well, I can throw it on a list with dozens (hundreds?) of other cool tools, or . . . or, I can simply place it into the Video/Audio sphere and give it a go during my time working on that sphere.
With this framework, you can bend and benefit from these rapid-fire improvements rather than break. No overwhelm. Anticipated additions.
If you’re among the camp that’s thinking there’s just too much social media – you may be in the majority. If one more tool or update comes out next week . . .
Before you pull out all your hair or start deleting your accounts, let’s look at things a bit differently. (And I agree, there’s a whole lotta tools out there and it can get confusing, but we’re gonna calm this storm, okay?)
I’m of the belief that your blog is the hub and foundation of your social media toolset. Ideally, it’s on a domain and space on the web that you own. And if you’re smart, that content you’re producing elsewhere is either also being published in your blog posts or being backed up. So, the blog is your centerpiece.
Everything else is part of the dial. And to keep things simple, eight spokes on the dial:
First, a bird’s eye view:
Those are the eight spokes. Of course the Streams are going to get most of your attention, and then time investment drops as you go clockwise around the dial. If one were to invest disciplined chunks of time in each of these spokes, success is much closer and we get to keep our hair.
This is a map of your social media play – but it’s not the terrain. This is the side view of the dial.
We’ll look at the terrain of these spokes and how they stack up in the next post.
Dialing 8 – Staying Strong and Lasting Long in Social Media
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