An Ignoble Experiment: Helping Small Business help themselves - SolutionsArePower™

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We have received emails from people asking to be put on a mailing list for events. That’s because Shashi & Network Solutions are putting on some great events!

Many people enjoyed the event on Trademarks 101 this week.

We do have a mailing list if you’d like to sign up to be notified in advance. Sign up here

Steve blogs about them after the fact, too in case you can’t attend.

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Network Solutions Website wins Outstanding Website Award

In mid August Steve blogged about the redesigned Network Solutions Website. Having a presence online is one thing, but Network Solutions not only relies on it’s website, but also provides it’s customers with the resources to create their own. So it’s only natural that our website should set a high standard & serve as an exceptional example.

The Web Marketing Association has done just that by announcing that they have given Network Solutions the 2008 Outstanding Website Award for it’s innovative and elegant storefront design! There were 2,400 entries from 45 countries around the world competing.

The process for selection was that the site was presented to a panel of three judges who were assuming the role as a customer. After the presentation the site was evaluated based on seven different criteria.

Sophie Shiatis Delpierre, Vice President of Web Sales & Online Marketing for Network Solutions said "Our scores were very high in the areas of content, technology, interactivity and copywriting, which demonstrates that our site achieves its main purpose by providing an excellent experience for our customers."

This is the twelfth year of the WebAwards & it’s the premier competition that gauges the excellence of sites on the web.

More information can be found in the press release.

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Relationship Marketing for Everyone - Part 2 – An Interview with Mari Smith

Mari has been called the "Pied Piper of Facebook" but that really just scratches the surface of her talent and knowledge of social media and its application. Her specialty is called "Relationship Marketing". She is also an Internet Marketing Consultant and Facebook® Business Coach. Everything she does, according to her "revolves around people and relationships - fostering new ones, building and maintaining existing ones, helping others with their relationships." Her business and her mission is to help entrepreneurs or small business owners figure out how to monetize all these new social media tools and platforms.

We recently had an opportunity to chat as she was traveling across the country with her husband (I’ll get to that later) and discuss relationship marketing and social media. Here is part two of our two-part interview:

Steve: Switching gears a bit, you and your husband are seeing the US and Canada by traveling in an RV. You mentioned that you sold your house and are seeing North America in a way that most people would dream of. What was your motivation to do this?
Mari: As DINKs (double income, no kids), my husband and I are fortunate to have much freedom and flexibility. We've been debt-free for years, and so when we finally sold his family's beach home in San Diego after many years of talking about it, we decided to look at an old shared dream of traveling in a motorhome with fresh eyes. The timing seemed perfect. We'd also just read Tim Ferriss' book, The Four Hour Workweek and really resonated with the concept of "doing your dream now," not waiting 'til retirement. (Though, as I'm sure many entrepreneurs will attest, we have no real plans to actually retire!).

We sold all our furniture too and put the remains of our personal belongings in storage, in an attic of one of our investment properties. Choosing which RV to live in fulltime was one of our tough decisions. My husband lobbied hard for a twenty-two footer; I knew that wouldn't be big enough for two larger-than-life people to live in as a home/office. So we got a thirty-four foot motorhome and tow a car behind. It's been an incredible adventure so far – we got to spend the entire summer up in Alaska and are now enjoying visiting many of our country's beautiful National Parks. I write a blog about our journey, with photos and videos, at http://befreegomobile.com.

Steve: This makes you a virtual worker in the truest sense. What are the pros and cons of being on the road while managing a thriving consulting practice?
Mari: By far, finding consistent reliable internet access is the toughest challenge. We have a Verizon aircard for extreme mobility – provided we can pick up a strong enough signal – and we often stay at RV parks that offer free or low-cost wifi. For phones, we have three different cell phones with different companies for back up options, as often one will get a signal while another has no signal at all. For mail, we're almost totally paperless. We do have a mailbox in San Diego and have snail mail forwarded once or twice a month to whichever RV park we're at for a week or more.

The second biggest challenge is living harmoniously with your spouse 24/7 in a small space. We joke about our lifestyle being our "mobile marriage bootcamp!"

Joking aside, having the ability to travel the country with each other while still running our businesses is one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives so far.

I believe we may see more and more people joining us in the mobile lifestyle, whether living in an RV from time to time, or living in multiple residences, even multiple countries.

Steve: When I close an interview I always like to get a "looking forward" perspective from a person in their respective field. What do you see the next 12-18 months for Social Media? Do you see it becoming an integrated part of everyone's marketing strategy?
Mari: Absolutely. I believe if you're in business, if you don't get involved in Social Media you'll get left behind. It's as simple as that. Those companies who are effectively embracing and integrating Social Media into their existing marketing strategies are leading the way.

The key is you really need to take time to fully understand the various options out there before taking the plunge. Plus, you'll need to decide how you and your staff's involvement with certain sites impacts your business and your reputation, who's going to be the voice of your company, and what clear and consistent message you want to broadcast.

Plus, equally if not more importantly, you have to be able to listen to, monitor, and engage in conversations.

The days of Web 1.0 flat/one-way communication are gone. Web 2.0 and social media is two-way, in fact, multi-way. I have huge respect for companies who involve their marketplace with contests and invitations to submit ideas which the company actually acts upon, e.g. Nike, Threadless.com tee-shirts, OneCondom.com, and MyStarbucksIdea.com.

For giant sites like Facebook, over the next 12-18 months, I believe we'll see more and more creative advertising and business solutions offered by Facebook themselves.

I think we'll also see a huge rise in both broad and narrow niche social networking sites.

However, at the end of the day, as a business owner, it's important not to get spread too thin. My advice is to create a profile and token presence on as many social sites as are relevant to your business. But then only focus and be active regularly on the two to three giant sites where the critical mass of your target market participates.

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