Author: Nancy McCord

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Twitter Has a New Logo

Twitter released this past week its new preferred logo. You’ll see it to the right. There are several variations – bird on blue, bird on black, bird on clear, but the bird is the same; poised to fly up to the right with beak open. Oh notice the bird has no hair? Make sure you get the right icon as I have seen some out on the Web where the Twitter bird has a shock of hair. The logo on this page is Twitter’s own iconic image.

Seems kind of late in the game for Twitter, after several years, to strive to wipe out the use of the blue lowercase t which has become synonymous with Twitter, but it’s never too late to try to take back your brand. Especially if maybe you want to start thinking about a future IPO and are trying to sell ads on your platform.

I will be working to update my own website with the new icons in the weeks coming up, but have to say I do like a more cube shaped icon as it will look better in a line with Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. I may try to put my own Twitter Bird in a square and then polish it and add a drop shadow. The essence is the bird not necessarily that the bird sits in a square or on a white ground. When I finish my icon, I’ll post it on my blog and website for you to check out.

 

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Independent Contractors Are Not Employees – Make Sure You Differentiate Them

My firm has one employee and eight independent contractors. It is important for your business just like mine, that you clearly differentiate how you work with, manage, and treat each separate group of team members.

The IRS has very specific guidelines on when an Independent Contractor is really an employee. If you are hoping that a contract stating that they are an Independent Contractor is all you need, guess again. I work with all types of Independent Contractors, those that are super organized and are working with several clients and I just happen to be one of their customers, and others that seem so needy and inexperienced that I have to be really careful to not cross the line and provide support services that may be misconstrued as potentially treating them really as an employee.

The bottom-line is that an Independent Contractor is a business entity that you have hired for a project. They need to be totally self sufficient and running their own processes and services where you are just one customer in their queue.

I have to say from my experience that there are plenty of Independent Contractors out there in my industry who don’t get that, they really want to be treated like employees. As a business owner you have to “man up” and make Independent Contractors be what they are supposed to be – independent – by not slipping into providing support or training which may get YOU into trouble just by being nice.

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Dealing with Negative Reviews in a Good Way

Anyone who has been in business for a while has certainly had a bad review at some point or another. The review may have been warranted or may have been unfair. What really doesn’t matter is if the review is true, but how you handle it.

Here are two excellent articles to check out for two different ways to handle negative reviews:

The Startling Secret to Getting Positive Reviews for Your Business

Three Tips to Handle Online Negative Publicity

Both articles are easy and fast reading. Here are my tips to add to the topic:

  1. Don’t respond immediately to a review when you are upset or angry. This will do more harm than good.
  2. Think about if the review has some truth. Do you need to change what you are doing to be better?
  3. Decide if you have to respond at all. This is a hard one, sometimes to rise graciously above a bad review is the best path and in other cases to address it head-on is better. Chat with some other business owners you trust to help you decide based on your situation and the review.

Actively start working on a regular basis to get good reviews and post them on your website. You want to make sure that there is a balance of reviews about your business online. Posting good reviews on your website is a great way to start.

I never recommend creating fake reviews. This can get you in more trouble than you need. If you are having trouble getting reviews, try a third party service who will contact your customers for you and even help them write the review about your firm.

If you do get a negative review, address, deal with it, and put it behind you. It is important to realize that you will not be able to please or service every person to their own satisfaction over the years you are in business. Do the best you can, and keep a mind-set of excellence in all you do.

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Google AdWords Advertising Services – Local Start

Sometimes it is not practical for a business to hire a Google AdWords™ account manager. Let’s be real about it, sometimes the fees for account management are too high for a business who wants to just test Google AdWords™ or has a small initial budget.

For this very special type of customer my firm has developed a very special program called Local Start™.

These are the types of clients that would want to consider our Local Start™ Program:

  • Have a 30 day click budget from $100 to $300
  • Want to show their ads in a 15 mile radius from their business location
  • Do not have the skills to self manage and AdWords account
  • Are not interested in having regular account management
  • Are really looking for a turn-key automated option for Google AdWords
  • Wants to have their ads show in Google Maps searches

Our Local Start™ program is perfect for these scenarios. Building an AdWords Express™ account treed off of your Google Places™ account, we help you get the local exposure you need plus harness the massive power of Google to help get the word out about your local business.

Although Local Start™ is not a good match for all businesses, it may be the perfect solution for some that are just now considering Google AdWords™ as an option.

For businesses that really want to test Google AdWords™ at a higher monthly ad spend, need professional help and guidance, we recommend our Quick Start™, Fast Start™ or Power Start™ programs. To find out more about all these programs, please visit our Google AdWords™ advertising services page.