Is Your Business Being Hurt By You?

Running your own business has been a lifelong dream, and you've made it a reality.  You're giving it your all, being the chief cook and bottle washer, not to mention the incredibly long hours.  But for some reason, you are not building the kind of loyal customer base that's critical for long term success.

Well, maybe you're overlooking something that customers actually notice right away. Are you running a sloppy business?  I'm not talking about things like dirty windows, or tall grass, but the finer details which help to create the all so important image of your business in a customer's mind.  Here are three areas that you can not afford to neglect:

Best Practices for Success in Social Media

It's been nearly 14 years since the first social media site appeared.  According to information experts Danah M. Boyd of UC-Berkeley and Nicole B. Ellison of Michigan State University, SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles and list their friends.  Today, while the list of social media networking sites continues to expand, there remains little in the way of formal social media etiquette.  That is, until now. Digital marketer Sean Rusinko has written The Social Media Constitution, which he offers as social media governance for digital marketers. Here's the preamble:

“We the People of Web 2.0, in order to form a more perfect online community, establish relevance, ensure user-friendliness, provide for fresh user-generated content, promote related web content of our peers, and secure the Blessings of inbound links to ourselves, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Social Media of the Internet.”

Rusinko's social media constitution also includes seven Articles that encompass key behavioral ethics that can be quite useful for anyone wishing to make a positive impact in new media.  Read more.