I have done a fair bit of traveling lately and I have at least a half dozen more trips to come before the year is out. So being the informative and ‘sharing’ kind of guy that I am, I thought I would take a few moments to share with you the bone-headed things that I experience as a regular air traveler. If you travel yourself, then you will probably be able to relate to all of these, and perhaps share some experiences of your own. I call this my ’7 Deadly Sins of Air Travel’. Don’t do any of these. Like ever.

Sin #1: Taking a ‘carry-on’ onto a plane that has no business being a carry-on.

I get it. Most airlines charge for bags, so you carry your bag on to avoid the fee, right? The trouble is that your carry-on isn’t a carry-on. It’s a small suitcase. And it won’t fit inside that overhead no matter how much you cram it. So we all get to stand there and watch you hold up the line while trying to cram it up in there, and you clearly haven’t accepted that it won’t go. Or better yet, you did it on purpose so you could check it at the gate and avoid the fee. Look, just pay the fee knuckle-head, like the rest of us. Or better yet, fly Southwest cause they don’t charge for bags. Oh wait, there are knuckleheads who fly Southwest too. Sigh.

Sin #2: Putting your carry-on in the overhead bin in the front of the plane, then walking to the back to find a seat.

Seems to make good sense, except that now the person who has to sit in the seat under your bag doesn’t have a place to put their bag because you were a jerk and put your bag someplace other than above your seat. That’s lame. But hey, at least you have it easy now when we de-plane, right?

Sin #3: Passing gas on planes.

I shouldn’t have to say any more. We can’t get away from it. Don’t do this. If you do, you are evil.

Sin #4: Bringing food on the plane.

Ok, I love burritos. I do. But I don’t want to watch you eat one next to me, trying to keep all the beef, cheese, and rice inside that styrofoam container. And I certainly don’t want to smell it, which we will all be doing over the next hour because…. surprise…. planes are tiny cramped spaces which is no place for smelly burritos. Do like everyone else and enjoy the crackers and peanuts. What, are you special or something?

Sin #5: Talking incessantly to those around you.

Not all, but most people don’t like to jib-jab for the entire flight. I don’t mind pleasantries. That’s nice. We have to sit beside each other for the next 4 hours, so let’s be nice to each other. But for heaven’s sake, you don’t have to gab for hours. Especially when you gab, and laugh, and snort, and go on and on and on so loud that people in the rows in front of and behind you can’t even get a moment’s rest. There is a reason I bring my noise-cancelling headphones on flights. It is part of keeping my sanity.

Sin #6: Meandering and strolling in the terminal.

Most people who are in the airport are going someplace. They don’t have time to lollygag (that means goofing off and wasting time for those not from the south), so it is extremely annoying when you are pulling your gigantic carry-on behind you while you meander from side to side, unsure if you want the fruit smoothie or the chicken taco. So you pretend as if you are the only person in the entire terminal and there is noone behind you who might be… oh, I don’t know… rushing to get to a plane. C’mon people, pay attention to those around you and for heaven’s sake walk on the correct side of the terminal.

Sin #7: Not being prepared in the security checkpoint.

I mean, seriously. How many times did the security person tell you to remove your belt and empty your pockets? Like 12 times? So why didn’t you do that already? I now have to wait while you hold the line up and try to catch that plastic bin before it goes through the scanner. And don’t even get me started about shoes. Why did you wear those lace-up boots when you KNEW you were going to have to take them off? You’re the guy who is gonna bring that food on the plane, aren’t you?

Honorable Mention: Popping your gum.

I must admit, this is one of my personal peeves, so I have to give it an honorable mention… people who make that little popping noise when they chew gum. When you pop your gum loudly like that, you are audibly annoying those around you. Much like a smoker who blows smoke at those around them without regard to whether they like the smell of smoke or not. Do it on a plane, and it’s like you are pushing little needles in my eyeballs. Don’t do that. If you can’t stop, spit the gum out.

There… I feel better. Now, where’s my burrito?

If you have used Facebook to engage with your customers for any length of time, then you have probably hit a wall at some point.  I hear this all the time from my customers: “I have been doing what I have always done, but it just seems like I have hit a wall with the number of ‘likes’/comments/shares I am getting.  What am I doing wrong?”

I have written numerous posts about what you can do to increase engagement in Facebook, like this one and this one. I also wrote an eBook about Facebook to help those folks who prefer a ‘guide’ to help them through it, and you can find that in the store. But you might want to consider Facebook advertising to take you to the next level, depending on your needs.  I have purchased Facebook advertising for some of my customers and guided some through the process, and I have even purchased some advertising for myself, so I have some insight I would like to share with you in case you are thinking about giving it a go.

This may seem like a given, but I have to mention it right up front: before you purchase any advertising you need to have a clear idea about what you want to accomplish. Do you want to promote an upcoming event?  Do you want to increase exposure for your business in general? Do you want to sell more of a certain product? Do you want to increase your likes?  Do you want to drive traffic to your website?  Those are all very different goals and they each require different steps to achieve. So having a clear goal up front is critical if you don’t want to waste time and money.

Let me also tell you a few things that you may not know about Facebook and its advertising products.  First of all, Facebook is in business to make money.  Shocking, I know.  Also, when you post something on your FB page, 100% of your fans don’t see it. Facebook decides who sees it and how many see it. The better engagement you have, the higher the % will be, but for most businesses in most cases you’re lucky if you get 20-25% of your fans seeing your post. So if you want to reach that magic 100%, you most likely will have to pay for it.  Sad, but true.  Finally, if you decide to purchase any form of FB advertising, you can target your ads based on demographics… age, gender, location, interests, etc, therefore giving you alot of control over who sees your paid ads.

Ok, you are ready to pay some money to increase your likes/traffic/comments/shares/sales/etc… so what are the best options?  I have 2 options for you that work:  Facebook Ads and Facebook Promoted Posts. I could write very long posts on each one explaining the ins and outs, but let me just cut to the chase and tell you the bottom line.  Here is an easy way to figure out which one you need to use:

Facebook Ads: These are the ads you see that show up on the right side of your Facebook homepage. You have seen them and you may have even clicked on a few. I realize you may personally not like them, but they work in certain situations.  For example, Facebook Ads are great if you want to increase the number of ‘likes’ you have.  They also work great if you want to drive traffic to your website for a special product promotion you are having.  Or if you simply want to raise awareness for your company name, Facebook Ads get your company name/logo/image in front of eyeballs. It is important to note that this type of ad can be shown to potentially millions of people, depending on the demographics that you choose when setting it up.

Facebook Promoted Posts:  One of the newest types of FB advertising, this ad product allows you to take a post you have already made and turn it into an ad that does not show up on the right side column, but instead shows up in the news feeds of your existing fans and their friends (and it should be noted that those are the only people who will potentially see it). This is great if you are trying to promote an event you have coming up, a Facebook Offer, or to increase the level of engagement you are getting from your existing fans . It is probably the most affordable ad product FB has.

So there you go. The choice you make should depend on what you are trying to accomplish, but both of those products work and you only spend what you can afford to spend.

For the past 5 years we have recycled at my house.  I bought some of those big plastic tubs at Walmart and we began to collect the standard stuff… cardboard, glass, cans, plastic, and paper.  Honestly, I didn’t do this out of an overwhelming concern for the environment.  I mean, I don’t like wasting anything and throwing something away that could be reused just seems dumb.  The added benefit is that my local community recycling center provides much needed income for my local city, which helps to keep taxes lower.  So it’s a win-win for everyone.  We also discovered that the amount of our household trash heading to our local landfill was reduced by 75% every week.  That’s cool.

That’s called creating a ‘small footprint’.

We also try to turn off lights that we aren’t using, and use a little less water when we can.  Trying to reduce your ‘footprint’ on your surroundings is just smart all the way around.  But now let’s switch the conversation to what your business can do to reduce its ‘footprint’, and not just in terms of the environment.  I think that your business should indeed try to reduce its environmental footprint by recycling and doing what you can do to reduce your consumption of resources.  That’s just smart.  But you also need to work hard to have a ‘small footprint’ on other things, like negative feedback and customer complaints.  And on the flip side, you need a ‘large footprint’ on things like engagement, excellent customer service, and giving back to your communities.

You need to approach interactions with customers and constituents with the mindset of ‘what can I do to reduce those things that need to be reduced, and increase those things that need to be increased?’.  Having a ‘small footprint’ in certain things can be a benefit, no doubt.  But having a ‘big footprint’ in engagement, customer service, investments in your local community, and more, can be huge.  So what are your ‘big footprints’?

Today I spoke to a group of dynamic leaders who are learning how to be even better leaders.  I shared with them some leadership traits that make a good leader, and some technology tools that can help them enhance that trait.  Every leader has their own personal style, so hopefully one of these tools will enhance your style and help you be better at whatever it is that you do.  Let’s see what goodies I can pull out of the hat…

Character - Do what you say you are going to do.  Don’t be flaky. And be respectful of other people’s time. Those things are part of having good character I think.

• Technology tool:  Email – We all use email, so this isn’t a new revelation.  But I want to encourage you to return your emails. You don’t like it when you email someone because you need an answer or help with a project, and they ignore your email. Don’t be that guy. 
• Technology tool: Voicemail – I hate voicemail. Because the only voicemails I get are “hey, call me.”. So I use Google Voice to handle my voicemail. It transcribes my voicemails and delivers them to my Google Voice app on my phone. Sweet.

Teachability – If you want to be successful at what you do, then you need to learn something new every day. You need to be on top of your profession and be aware of the latest trends. I learn every day because I read everything I can get my hands on. You need to do that.

• Technology tool: Feedly.com – I use Feedly.com to keep track of all my RSS feeds to I can quickly scan headlines from news sites and sources that I trust. I don’t waste time anymore hopping around from site to site to find my news.
• Technology tool: Google Alerts – I use Google Alerts to keep track of stuff that is said and written about me on the Internet. You need to use it to keep track of not just your name, but your business, your products, and other stuff that is important to you. It’s free, and it’s oh so cool.

Generosity – A good leader is generous with everything, not just money. They are generous with praise, guidance, and encouragement. So use technology to ‘build up’ those who follow you.

• Technology tool: Email – This is a no-brainer. Use email to praise your folks who do something good. Better yet, email the whole company to publicly brag on them. Everyone loves to be encouraged. 
• Technology tool: Eyejot.com – Better yet, send them a video email. Much more personal.  Just make sure you comb your hair.

Competency - We have all worked for someone who was incompetent.  Don’t be that guy. Be organized and don’t waste effort or time.

• Technology tool: Evernote.com – never forget anything every again. If you haven’t tried it, try it. 
• Technology tool: Rescuetime.com – Find out where you spend your time during the day. It emails a report to you about how much time you spent on email, Facebook, web surfing, Word, etc.  Be prepared to be surprised.
• Technology tool: IfTTT.com – Automate things in your life to save time. For example, IfTTT can text you the weather every morning. It can email you pictures from Facebook that you are tagged in.  It can… oh for goodness sake, just go try it.

Communication – Good leaders communicate with those who follow them. They don’t leave people in the dark, and they share. Be a good communicator and foster good communication in your organization.

• Technology tool: Google+ Hangouts – My favorite video chatting tool. Up to 10 people, video and text chat, file sharing, collaboration. Amazing, and free.
• Technology tool: Groupme.com – Group messaging tool via a smartphone app that allows you to instantly communicate with groups to organize meetings, share announcements, and ask questions.  This tool is really cool.

Technology doesn’t hold all the answers to our problems, but certain tools can help you become better at what you do.

When my wife and I bought our first minivan about 5 years ago we discovered an interesting feature. I won’t talk about how hurt our feelings were that we had to buy a minivan in the first place… that’s another post for another day. But I will tell you that it was a welcome feature to find this little flip-down mirror above the rear-view mirror. You see, the rear view mirror isn’t big enough to see what the kids are doing in the back of the van. And with 4 kids, you know what happens. They pick on each other, beat on each other, and generally get on each other’s nerves. So the parents have to keep a close eye on what’s going on in the back, right?

The reason for this flip-down mirror is because the rear view mirror is simply too small. You can’t see much of anything except directly out the back of the vehicle. And of course, I thought of a very important analogy with this in regard to your business. Whatever business you are in.

I think that’s a metaphor for businesses who spend way too much time looking backwards and not enough time looking forward. The windshield is so much bigger and wider and provides a great view of where you are going and the future. The rear-view is so small and doesn’t provide much except to show you from where you came.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to remember where you came from. But the rear-view is smaller for a reason. You need to concentrate on looking forward where you can make a difference, because you can’t do anything about the past. A wise man once said ‘the greatest barrier to success is past success.’ So don’t spend all your time looking back on all your past failures or successes. Look forward before you miss what’s coming.

I have been humbled.  There have been numerous times in the past several weeks that I have been taken down a notch when presented with the good works that others are doing.  My father calls it ‘gettin too big for your britches’.  I call it laziness and arrogance.  Just when I think I am doing such an awesome job of doing all these wonderful things and helping all these people, I am reminded of just how much more there is to do and how little I really am doing.  I suppose this is God’s way of shaking me.

For example, I recently watched the keynote address of Scott Harrison, Founder of the “Charity: Water” organization, at the LeWeb 2012 Conference.  You can watch it here: http://youtu.be/XLdDMDkwK1s but I must warn you. You’ll come away from that with an overwhelming sense that you aren’t doing enough.   I also recently heard the story of how Danny Thomas founded the St. Jude Children’s hospital in Memphis, TN, and if his story of struggle, dedication and inspiration doesn’t move you, well, I don’t know what would.

I am often asked by businesses to help them use technology and social media to grow their business and achieve success.  And there are many things that I can do to help them do that. But at some point I believe that all those who achieve success need to turn their thoughts to how they can then help others.

So maybe now it’s time.  It’s time for you and your business to look beyond the current whirlwind of deadlines, problems, and challenges that are ever-present, and spend just a moment thinking about what you can do for someone else.  There are over 1.5 million charities in the U.S. alone, so there is probably one right around the corner from you.  But I would like to suggest my favorite 3 charitable organizations if you need help picking one…

Rotary International – as a Rotarian, I am proud to be part of an organization who took as its challenge almost 25 years ago to rid the planet of polio. Now, a billion dollars later, that challenge is almost complete. In just a few more years, polio will be thrown upon the trash heap of history. So find  a local club near you and get involved.

Charity: Water – Not many charities display as much openness, transparency, and integrity as Charity: Water. 100% of what you give goes toward their mission of providing clean water to the over 800 million people on the planet who don’t have clean water. Watch the keynote by Scott Harrison that I linked above to see what I am talking about.  Your money is in good hands with them.

St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital – Their mission is simple: no family with a sick child will ever pay one dime for any treatment. And that’s what they do. In fact, they don’t have a billing department because they have never sent a bill to one single family. Ever. If ever there is a place on this earth where God lives, it’s here. Give to them.

There you have it. If you don’t like any of those charitable organizations, pick another one. But whatever you do, give something. It’s time.

Looking back over the jobs that I have had ever since I started working, I can see some valuable lessons learned. I learned some things from some very wise people, and I learned alot of things the hard way, because I was hard-headed. So I was asked the other day by some college students what my advice to them would be as they are getting ready to embark out into the job market to land that first big job. After getting over the shock of young people actually wanting to know what I think, I shared the following list of things with them. Here is how not to screw up at work, and this applies to all of us, not just young people:

1. Show up early – When you are late to work, people notice. People look at you differently, and eventually folks will get ticked at you because they can show up on time and you can’t. So don’t be late. In fact, be early. The added benefit is that you’ll be amazed how much work you get done before the work day officially begins.

2.  Stay late – One of the early mistakes I made in my career was that when 5pm hit, I was halfway out the door. My first boss set me straight. Let other folks be the ones with one foot out the door. Hang around and stay a little bit later than everyone else, and your boss will notice. And you’ll also be surprised again at your productivity.

3.  Help others – Find others who are struggling with something, or need help with something, and help them.  When you do that, people will respect you and look at your differently.

4.  Return email – This is one of my biggest pet peeves.  I believe it is just plain rude to ignore an email that a work colleague has sent you regarding something that they need an answer to.  If you can’t respond to the person immediately then respond to them and tell them you will get back to them with an answer within # days.  Then do it.  I don’t care if you hate email. Email, like it or not, is how business currently communicates. So respond to your emails.

5.  Be proactive – If you see something that needs to be done, just do it. Don’t wait till something gets in a bad situation before taking care of it. Be proactive. Here’s a crazy idea… don’t wait till the deadline to get something done. Get it done before the deadline. Be proactive.

6.  Finish – If you tell someone you are going to do something, for God’s sake, do it. I have lost count of the number of people who told me they would do something for me who just never did it. Nobody likes that guy.  So don’t be that guy.

So there you have it.  I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the best parking space at work, or that corner office. But I guarantee that you’ll set yourself apart from others.

Selling is not easy. Every successful salesman has their own formula, their own secret. And certain things work for some, and not for others. I have a good friend named Michael Angelo Caruso who is an established expert on selling, and he has trained thousands of people over the years on the art of selling.  He knows what he is talking about.  And one of the things that Michael would tell you is that one of the most effective ways to sell is the ‘conversation’.  Having a conversation where you show genuine interest in the other person and just talk is a great way to increase your sales. Basically, NOT selling is a good way to sell.  Makes perfect sense, eh?

I have found that advice to be true in my own work over the years.  In fact, some of the biggest successes that I have had came not because of a sales pitch per se, but because of the ‘small talk’ that I had with customers over dinner or a drink.  And that’s why I call ‘small talk’ the new sales pitch.

When it comes to social media, that is the same type of advice that I give my customers who want to do business on social networks.  If you want to get more business, and consequently more income, then don’t try to sell anything on social networks.  Try to make personal connections with people and when they want to do business and buy the thing that you sell, they will think of you.  That’s how ‘small talk’ can take your business to the next level.

Let me give you an example.  When I speak at conferences and events, I don’t just show up right before my speech and then leave right after.  I show up at the conference the day before so I can go to the evening reception.  And I go to the sessions of other speakers.  I go to the conference meals and sit at the table with the attendees, and I hang around after I am done so that I can talk to those who inevitably have questions for me.  I do this for one simple reason… the small talk.

It’s the small talk that gets me more business.  I show interest in what others want to talk about, and it happens almost every time.  Someone will inquire as to what other services I provide.  Someone will ask me to call them or come see them so they can get my help with this or that.  I will get asked to join folks going out to dinner or heading to the bar for drinks, and I know that I will have many opportunities to talk about what I do and what I can do for them.  I show them that I am engaged with what is going on with them, and they want to do more business with me.

It’s the small talk that gets me more business than any sales pitch that I could give.  And the small talk will work for you too.  I guarantee it.

So you jumped into social media with various networks, and you are overwhelmed.  Am I right?  You were pretty excited in the beginning but now that the firehose that is social media is hitting you in the face, you need some way to save you from drowning. Here are 5 ways that you can get this under control.

Hootsuite.com – I use Hootsuite daily.  I have written about it numerous times, and it has been one of the tools that has served me the longest.  The reason I love it is not just that I can manage multiple networks and post updates to them from the same interface, but it organizes itself into columns which are visually simple to consume. And you can create columns that show you when people are talking about you or mentioning you, so you can respond to them and stay engaged.  Finally, the Hootsuite app pulls in all your desktop settings for quick setup and a consistent experience on your phone.

Mailchimp.com – I use Mailchimp as my email marketing tool.  Email?  Seriously Steve, since when did email become social media? I am so glad you asked. What I love about Mailchimp, aside from the amazing metrics it gives you on clicks and opens and forwards, is that it has some amazing social media integration. Not only can you provide all the social media sharing tools in your email campaigns, such as the Google+1 button, Facebook like, Twitter tweet buttons, etc, you can also connect your campaigns to your Facebook and Twitter accounts so that your campaigns are automatically posted to those networks.  Email now becomes social.

Google Alerts – Oh how I do love free.  Free is hard to pass up, especially if it’s good. I use Google Alerts to notify me every time my name or business is mentioned on the Internet.  And I do mean EVERY time. I have found some really obscure places that have mentioned me or something that I wrote about or said. It’s pretty scary how good Google is at this. Create alerts for stuff like your name, your products, your employees names, your business name, etc. Anything you want to keep track of on the Internet, use Alerts.

Postling.com – If you want to combine the benefits of Hootsuite and Google Alerts, and pump them up with a little steroids, that’s Postling. A 30-day trial costs you $1, and $10 a month for 5 accounts if you like it. There are some pretty expensive tools out there, trust me, so Postling is a deal-and-a-half comparatively. With it not only can you post to your networks and schedule those posts, you can keep track of activity surrounding your competitors, get instant email notifications of things, and have multiple people help you manage the whole thing. You get alot of value for what you pay.

Jugnoo.com – This one is brand new, but what I have reviewed is pretty darn cool.  This tool is in beta which means that if they get a bunch of folks signing up, it won’t be free for long. You get a staggering 20 accounts for free, with up to 3 team members participating.  You have listening tools, posting tools, analytics tools, and promotion tools.  And the dashboard screen looks just like Hootsuite, so I feel at home. You need to check this one out folks because it looks fantastic.

So there you go. Don’t work yourself to death, let these tools work for you. You’ll save time, which we all need more of, eh?

You may have noticed over the past couple of months that in addition to the number of likes on your page growing at a slower pace than before, the number of people commenting, liking, and sharing your Facebook page content has gone down.  It’s happened to me.  It’s happened to everyone.  These are strategic decisions by Facebook because they want pages to act more like people, and surprise, Facebook is in the business of making money just like you. So if your Facebook engagement has gone down, well, there are options available for you to pay for that engagement using things such as ads, sponsored stories, and promoted posts. But this post isn’t about those things.  I want to tell you why people aren’t liking your page in the first place, because that is probably one of the most-asked questions I get. Here are things that I know for sure cause people to skip the like button and move on to other things.

1.  You post infrequently – I believe that the sweet spot of the number of times to post to my Facebook pages is 3-4 times per day.  The average life span of a post is between 4-8 hours, so I spread my posts out during the day. Some of you never post. Like ever. If someone visits your Facebook page and the last post you made was a month ago, then that’s a big disincentive to bother with you.

2.  Your posts are boring – Now, this one I am sure some folks will argue with, but I believe it’s true. Don’t use your Facebook’s business page for doing business. Makes perfect sense, right? Well, I don’t really mean that  you should NEVER talk about business because whatever business that you are in, people expect to see stuff about that. But you don’t have to pretend you are at an insurance seminar. (my apologies to insurance salesman) If people see posts that are interesting, humorous, informing, light-hearted, and ‘engaging’, they are more likely to click like.

3.  You don’t care about them – Here we go with the touchy-feely stuff, right? But it’s true. If all you want is the like, just so you can build up your numbers, people will recognize that. If you show genuine interest in what your fans think, what they like, what they want to talk about… you’ll get more likes. People are generally vain and want to talk about themselves.  Think of this as relationship building. Relationships take time to build, and it requires a whole bunch of stuff like being interested, mutual respect, and trust. So do it.

4.  You sell, sell, sell – You wouldn’t think I would have to explain this, but I do. All the time.  Do you like it when ‘that guy’ comes on TV and screams at you to buy that blender or that sham-wow?  You don’t like it when the sales clerk bothers you when you are shopping, do you?  So don’t do that. If all your post are things like…”today only, 15% off” or “buy 1 get 1 free this week” you’ll turn them off.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with telling your fans about those things, but if you haven’t ‘earned’ their friendship first, then it turns people off.  Don’t try to sell anything and you’ll sell more.  I guess the best analogy I can give you is Starbucks. Nobody ever asks you to buy anything they have sitting around the store, aside from which size latte you want. They set the atmosphere, they make you comfortable, and they leave you alone. And they sell a boatload of coffee.  So sell like Starbucks.

5.  You don’t ask for it – It’s amazing to me how many people have a Facebook page but they never tell anyone.  I guess they just think that the masses will magically find them on Facebook.  Does your website have a Facebook like button on it? Does your email signature have the link? When you buy ads, do you put your Facebook page link somewhere on it?  Do your receipts have the link on it? What about your business cards? In sales it’s often said that you won’t get the sale unless you ask for it.  So ask them for the like, then make sure that  you don’t fall victim to #1 through #4 above.

For better or worse, my smartphone is an extension of just about every aspect of my life, including my business. It’s my camera, my communications lifeline, my calendar, and my organizational tool. And I am sure many of you would say the same thing. So I wanted to share with you how I use my phone for my business, and at the same time hopefully give you some ideas on how you can do the same. After all, it’s in your pocket all day long so why not make it work for you, right?

1. Email - Many of us hate it, but it’s still the #1 way that business communicates. I have 5 email accounts set up on my phone, which allows me to respond when I need to.

2. Calendar – How many times have you been out somewhere and tried to plan an event, only to say something like “I’ll look at my calendar when I get home and email you.”? I don’t do that anymore. Just like email, I have multiple calendars set up on my phone so I can keep track of where I am supposed to be. I can’t tell you how many times my calendar has saved me.

3.  Cloud Storage – I always have access to all my important documents because I use cloud storage services like Dropbox, Skydrive, Google Drive, and Box.  All of those cloud storage services have free apps so you can download and open documents right there on your smartphone. And you can also upload stuff to those services as well.  Honestly, I am not sure how I lived without them.

4.  TripIt – If you travel, then you need Tripit.  I take all those email confirmations from airlines, hotels, and car rentals and forward them to TripIt. It then organizes all of it for me and I use the free TripIt app to keep track of where I am going, complete with all the confirmation numbers, contact info, etc. Plus, you can put all your employees on there and manage the whole company’s travel details.

5.  Square – If you have a need to accept payments for your products and services from anywhere that you are, then Square is your solution. For example, when I am at a booth at conferences where I sell my products and services, with my smartphone I use Square to accept credit card payments in about 30 seconds. It’s amazing. Truly.  You can even use it to document cash transactions.

6.  Social Media – If you engage in social media with your customers on any level, then you have discovered that those interactions don’t just happen when you are in front of your computer. I have all my social media services at my fingertips on my smartphone and I interact with my customers daily.  I also never miss any interactions on social media channels because I get notifications on my smartphone anytime anything happens.

7.  Maps & Navigation – I have an Android phone and one of the main benefits of a Google device is the seamless integration of their Maps and Navigation apps. I can always find where I need to go with these, so I don’t miss appointments with clients or my next speaking engagement.  If it’s possible to love an app, I do love Maps. I confess.

8.  Entertainment – I have written numerous times about how important it is that as a business owner you take time to relax and let go (like this one, about a Nutty bar). Even if it’s for a short time while you are waiting between appointments, but especially when you have those few precious moments of peace. So I use my smartphone to listen to my music (with Google Music) and play lots of meaningless, useless games. It’s ok to play Angry Birds folks. Seriously, just do it.

So there you go. What do you use your smartphone for in your business?

One of my favorite snacks as a kid was Cracker Jacks. The reason was simple…. there was a prize inside. Same deal with cereal boxes. My brother and I would pick the ones that had a prize inside because, well, we just couldn’t get enough of secret decoder rings and fake tattoo stickers. Toys in cereal boxes are a thing of the past (and do they even still make Cracker Jacks??) but one thing is still huge with everybody… getting something extra.

I recently wrote a post about Five Guys Burgers and their genius marketing plan, and one of the things that I mentioned in that post is that I love that Five Guys dumps extra fries in the bag. I rarely have a big enough appetite to even eat them, but getting the extra fries makes me feel better about my purchase.

Last year I had an issue with my bluetooth headset. I love my bluetooth headset, so I was not happy. It wasn’t a big issue and the headset still worked, it was just a small feature that wasn’t working. I called the company (a human answered, much to my surprise) and told them about it. I was expecting a hassle, a required faxed copy of my receipt, my first-born child’s social security number, and so on. What I got was no questions asked and a request for my address so they could mail me another one. I didn’t even have to return the old headset.

A couple months ago I had my car serviced at a car repair place and when I came to pick up the car and pay for my repairs, I noticed when I got back in my car that they had washed the car and vacuumed out the inside. Seriously? You mean nobody smoked in it or turned the radio up real loud?? Who does this??

If you have had things like this happen to you, then you remember it, am I right? You can probably tell me all the details right now because it made such a positive impression on you. So my question to you is this… when was the last time you gave your customers a secret decoder ring? I know you don’t sell decoder rings, but you know what I’m saying. When was the last time you surprised them? When did you give them something extra that they didn’t pay for? When was the last time that your customers said of you…. wow, that was nice.

So you’re getting ready to make some new year’s resolutions, right? Or maybe you already have and you are waiting to finish off that pumpkin pie before starting your gym membership up again next week. Well, I want to encourage you, if you haven’t already, to start planning your social media and Internet marketing outreach for 2013. You have at least thought about it, right?

Let me give you 4 steps that you need to do to get started right now. We’ll talk in more depth in the coming weeks about some of these, but here is what you need to do now:

1. Set aside time – If you have done anything with social media and/or Internet marketing then you know that it takes time. Even though much of it is free, it’s not really free because it takes your time, and lots of it. And we both know that your time isn’t free. But I am telling you now that if you don’t set aside time every day to do this, you won’t get very far. I set aside my time first thing in the morning with my cup of coffee. Sometimes I get up early as well because that’s what it takes. Find your time now and don’t let anything take the place of that time.

2. Set a budget – Let’s be honest here. Free is good, but not always best. Sometimes you have to pay for stuff. For example, a relative of mine was struggling with his Facebook page and seeing no growth for months and months. He ran into the restrictions that Facebook puts on pages and what you can and can’t do, and who sees your posts, etc. He was stuck at a couple hundreds fans and nothing he posted was getting any traction. Then he jumped in paying for promoted posts, ads, etc. Within 1 month he jumped up to almost 1,000 fans. It works people. But it takes money. Set some aside in your budget. You can always use that budgeted money for other things if it doesn’t work out.

3. Write some goals – This is gonna be difficult for some, especially if you don’t have any idea what you want to accomplish. But writing down your goals and having that in front of you is critical. How many fans do you want each quarter? How many contests or specials will you run this year? Goals are important because we can’t remember anything anymore and we need to be able to look back and see what we wanted to achieve and compare it to where we ended up.

4. Get help – There’s nothing wrong with admitting you don’t know it all. I of course do know it all and I can tell you that it’s a big burden to bear. But seriously, aren’t there things in your business that you hire others to do? I don’t do taxes, so I hire someone to do them for me. Maybe you pay a company to manage your benefits packages. Maybe you hire a cleaning service because you don’t have time to clean your offices. Well, maybe you need to set aside some of that budget to hire a social media or Internet marketing consultant. They can help you steer the ship in the right direction with advice at the very least.

So there you go. 4 ‘easy’ steps, right? Well, maybe they aren’t as easy as eating that last bite of pie. But they are easier than working off that pie at the gym. Trust me. See you in 2013!

I was fortunate to be asked to to appear on the Dialogue show on Jackson Energy Authority’s Internet television station called EPlusTV6.  We had 30 min. to talk about the right and wrong way to engage in social media. Here are all 3 segments of the show. I would love to hear what you think about the right and wrong way to do social media, so hit the comments below!

A few months ago I was helping one of my clients with their marketing outreach.  We talked a great deal about their social media outreach and where it fit in their overall marketing plan.  We had spent a great deal of time over the past year revamping and updating their look on all their social media and marketing channels and working on the engagement strategies to deepen the relationships with their customers.

But in some areas they were seeing little to no results. They talked alot about some of their competition and what they were doing.  So we looked at what the competition was doing and the perceived success that it appeared they were having.  I could tell that there was some envy in my client’s comments, so we dug deeper into the competition’s activities and a deeper evaluation of what my client was actually doing.  What I showed them surprised them.

For example, their fan growth on their Facebook page was growing at a snail’s pace. I pointed out that the recent ad buy they had done never mentioned their Facebook page.  And the new order of bags that customers are given before leaving the store didn’t have their Facebook page on it either.  And they still had not put their Facebook URL on their receipts like I suggested to them.  And their email signatures still didn’t include their Facebook URL, like I suggested. I asked them how they expected to get any fans if they didn’t tell anyone that they had a Facebook page?

I got blank stares back at me.

And after a long pause it hit them. It was one of those ‘oh crap’ moments. We looked at their competition and saw that they promoted their Facebook page on everything, even the sign out by the street. I told my client, “The grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence. It’s greener where you water it.”

If you want the grass to grow, well, you have to water it.  But water isn’t free, and in some cases it’s down right expensive. So you have to spend it wisely.  But make no mistake, if you want it to pay off, then you have to sink time, or money, or both, into it. So don’t envy what others are doing. Get busy identifying your best patch of grass and water it people!

There is an ongoing debate between me and some of my family and friends.  I am convinced that Five Guys makes the best burger, like ever.  Others are convinced that you can get a better burger at In-N-Out, or at a restaurant.  Sorry guys, but I have had those other burgers, and you just can’t beat Five Guys.  I drank the cool-aid, and am happy to do it.

But I am a common sense, fair guy, so I searched deep into my soul to discover exactly why Five Guys is the best burger ever created.  I consulted burger experts (my kids) and numerous other opinions that I trust to see if perhaps I was missing something.  Maybe I was being blinded by my lust for those juicy pieces of art, so I dug deep and I believe I found the answers. Let’s discuss….

1. The food is just good – If the food is bad, you won’t go back. Am I right? Just like me, you have experienced bad food and it makes you not want to come back. So their food is good, no doubt. I have never had a bad burger there.

2. They are fast – I have eaten at In-n-Out and it takes too long to get your food. Five Guys is just faster. When you hit the door and you smell that burger, you just want it in your hands fast.  I can’t complain about their service.

3. The peanuts – They give free peanuts while you wait, just like Longhorn. Nice touch. It curbs my craving for a few minutes while I wait on my food.

4. The simple menu – You don’t have alot of choices on their menu. That speeds up the ordering process and it allows them to concentrate on making a good burger.

5. The extra fries – They always dump an extra scoop of fries in your bag. So right off the bat you feel like you are getting more for your money. It’s that little extra thing that makes you feel good about having to pay a premium price for their burger.

But despite those things, that isn’t why Five Guys is the best.  The real reason: the marketing.

The next time you go to Five Guys, look at the walls. On every wall, even in the bathrooms, you are reminded over and over again how awesome the burgers are. You see all the awards that they have won, year after year, for being the best burger in this city, and that city. You are visually reminded at every turn that you made an awesome choice by coming to Five Guys. Before you even eat anything, you feel good about your choice. Surely, all those people couldn’t be wrong, right?

So my question to you is this: do you engage in Five Guys Marketing? Do your customers/constituents feel good about the choice they made to do business with you?  Do you ‘tell your story’ enough?  No doubt, you have to get the basics right first… a good quality product, good customer service, etc.  But maybe you need to do better job of making your customers feel validated in their choice to do business with you.

Go get a Five Guys burger, then come back here and tell me what you think.  Oh, and save me some fries!!  I love those fries.

I recently attended a choir concert of one of my kids. It was a pretty big affair, with a choir of about 200, and the choir conductor was an African American gentleman in black tie and tails who appeared to be soft-spoken and genteel. Until the music started.

The first song out of the gate was some sort of African spiritual in a different language. As the music swelled and the choir and soloist began to echo each other in rhythm and rhyme, they began to move. The kids in the choir all began to sway back and forth together. And the soft-spoken and genteel conductor began to dance. He hopped and skipped. The tails of his jacket swung from side to side. He waved his arms in the air as the choir followed the swing of his arms. He cut them off, he lifted their voices, and directed the sound like a traffic cop in the middle of a busy New York City intersection.

And then I began to move.

It was infectious honestly. At first my foot began to tap. Then my head began to move. Then I found myself swaying ever so slightly with the choir. I had no idea what they were saying because the words were foreign to me, but I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t take my eyes off that conductor, waiting to see what he would do next. He held both the choir and the audience in the palm of his hand and moved us at will. At the final crescendo of the song, and as the final note was still bouncing off the walls, the crowd rose to its feet and rewarded them for what they had done. My first thought was, ‘I want more’.

No matter what you do, when you display that kind of passion for what you do, people respond. People are drawn to that. They seek it out and they end up wanting more. I love watching people do what they do when they have passion. I love watching success. I love to see someone at the ‘top of their game’, and witness the very best. Because you know that it took a tremendous effort to get to where they are. You know that in some cases it takes years to get to that point, and you respect that. That’s probably why I love the Olympics so much.

So my question to you is this: do you have passion for what you do? Do you settle for being just ‘ok’, or do you strive to be the very best at what you do? I get asked alot by my clients about how they can market themselves and spread the word about what they sell and what they do. One of the first things you need to do is love what you do. Your passion will be contagious. And people won’t be able to take their eyes off you. That’s when things will change. Trust me.

The upcoming movie about Abraham Lincoln has caused me to think about the things he said and did that made him one of the greatest, if not the greatest, presidents in history.

At Lincoln’s Inaugural Address in 1861, with the drums of war beating stronger by the day, he closed his address pleading for everyone to listen to the ‘better angels of our nature’ to maintain our fragile union.  Lincoln’s story shows a depth of character and leadership not seen by many since. And considering his flaws and weaknesses is even more remarkable.

As the holidays approach, which are my favorite times of the year, I wonder what you’ll be doing.  I know what my family will be doing.  We spend a great deal of time together.  We eat, we laugh, we sit and talk. We spend way too much time eating actually.  But we also spend time doing things for others.  We donate time volunteering at our local food bank and clothing store.  We pray for others during candlelight services at our church.  We donate money at the local soup bowl fundraiser for the needy and drop a little bit more in the plate when it’s passed. And we try hard (but aren’t always successful) at cutting back on the amount of gifts we give each other.  After all, we certainly don’t need much.

I think those are the angels that Lincoln was talking about.  He was talking about stepping outside our own needs and doing things for others… for the greater good.  So I ask the question again, what will you be doing?  More importantly, what will your business be doing?

I hope you will do what you can. I hope you encourage your employees to donate their time and efforts for someone else, and I hope you let them do it during work hours.  I hope you donate money to those in need.  I hope you let your employees have just a little bit more time off to spend with their families.  If you haven’t done those sorts of things before, let this holiday season be the time you start.

‘Business’ gets a bad rap all too often and can be seen as cold, uncaring, and only focused on making money. There’s nothing wrong with making money, but don’t let your business be seen like that.  Listen to the better angles of our nature and let this holiday season be the time you did things differently.

It is still surprising to me how many folks don’t know that Facebook does not show your page posts to 100% of your fans. I can see mouths dropping all over the place. Yes, it’s true. On average, Facebook only shows your posts to about 16-20% of your fans. How does it determine who sees the post? Well, that’s a closely guarded secret, but they do some fancy-schmanchy figuring for sure. But you do have options.

Pay for it – You do have the option of paying to show your posts to all your fans. There are promoted posts, and sponsored stories, and good old fashioned ads. Each of those can be used effectively in certain situations. But what if you are poor (like most of us) and can’t afford to pay for it? Well, you have another option that is full-proof, but it requires that you show your fans how to do it. And it’s important to note that you can’t force this on your fans, they have to take action on their part. Here is how they do it…

(NOTE: the next steps can only be performed if you are using Facebook as your personal profile. Thanks MAC for noticing that!)

Interest Lists – Creating Interest Lists is a great way to group together your favorite pages and people so that you don’t miss any of their posts. And you can add those Interest Lists to your “favorites” section in the upper left corner of your Facebook home page so you can click on them and see just their stuff. And the added benefit of creating these Interest Lists is that every post from all those pages and people on your Interest Lists also show up in your news feed. So here are the steps to create one:

1. Go to one of your favorite Facebook pages (like mine for example: www.facebook.com/steveholtconsulting) and hover over the “Liked” button. You’ll see a option to “add to Interest lists”. Here is a screenshot:

2. Go to your Facebook homepage and look in the lower left corner for your “Interest Lists” section. Hover over the list you are working with and click the pencil icon on the left side, revealing a drop down list where you can click on “add to favorites”. Like this:

3. Now look in your “Favorites” section in the upper left corner of your Facebook home page and click the name of your list. When the list main screen loads, look in the upper right corner for the “manage list” button. Click that button to reveal the “notification settings” and “choose updated types” items. Set your preferences there. Here is the screenshot:

Bam! You’re done. Anybody who does that won’t miss any of your posts. And don’t forget, they won’t bother with this if you don’t already have great content and updates to begin with, so you have to have that in place before this is gonna work! And I already provided you the steps above, so share this page with your fans and they can follow the 3 easy steps above. Good luck!

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I am involved in my community. What that means is that I participate in and associate myself with numerous organizations in my community that do different things. I am a member of business organizations, a civic club, and a church. I have coached ball teams. I have taught at the local college. I support the booster club in my local schools where my kids go to school. I donate my time, money, and stuff to local charitable organizations. And I buy tickets to ham breakfasts, pancake fund raisers, and meat sales.

I am connected in many different ways to all those organizations, and my friends and family do the same thing, so I see many of the same people when I go to those places. We are all ‘connected’ in that way. I call this the ‘community net’, and the bigger the net, the better off we all are. The community net is made up of churches, social services, ball teams, civic clubs, schools, businesses, chambers, governments, and more. And just about everyone in the entire community connects to at least one of those.

I do all these things as an individual, and many of you know what I am talking about. When the girl scouts knock on your door you buy the cookies even though you probably don’t want to, because that’s who you are. But I want to encourage you to do the same thing as a business. You see, businesses are an important part of the community net and if you pull them out of that net it becomes a little weaker, because we are all tied together.

So what am I suggesting that you do? Here are some examples:

• Host a Chamber ‘business after-hours’ at your business.
• Sponsor a little league ball team.
• Encourage your employees to donate to charity.
• Give your employees 4 hours a month, on the clock, to go volunteer at a local community organization. (And encourage them to wear their company polo shirt!)
• Sponsor a charitable fund-raiser and encourage all your employees to wear their company shirts and volunteer during the event.
• Donate iPads to a local school.
• Donate your time to the local schools, for example, one of my local schools solicits volunteers to go into classrooms and read books to the children in younger grades.

Not only is participating in this way a great way to promote your business to others (and a heck of alot cheaper than advertising), it’s simply the right thing to do. If you opt-out of participating in your community net, then you, your employees, and your community are worse for it. We are all tied together, so find out where your business ‘fits’ in that net and get busy.