The pitch is a crucial time for small businesses. It's stressful, sometimes adrenaline fueled, sometimes smooth. Make sure YOURS is with these great tips from Entrepreneur.com
Why do great startups fail to get funding? Often, it’s not because of a
business shortcoming or how the entrepreneur presents the company. A
wrinkled shirt or a poorly received joke make subliminal impressions.
Sometimes, a minor flaw can derail the most well-rehearsed pitch.
To avoid killing your pitch and your growing enterprise, make sure you’re not committing these seven fatal errors:
Not Making Eye Contact. Most entrepreneurs spend a lot
of time rehearsing what they’re going to say but don’t actually look at
investors when they say it. Make direct eye contact to project
confidence, openness, and credibility. When do you stop looking? When
the investor acknowledges your gaze.
Fostering the entrepreneurial spirit!
Showing posts with label public relations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public relations. Show all posts
Monday, December 23, 2013
Friday, December 20, 2013
How to Balance Your Personal and Professional Presence Online
The following article is from Entrepreneur.com. So many small business owners struggle over this. We wanted to pass along some great insight!
As Twitter has grown in influence as both a social platform and a communication channel for companies, I have recalibrated the way I interact with people there--and, by extension, any social network where I represent my brand. It has been a subtle shift, but an important one.
This was on my mind when a question came up at a marketing event where I spoke recently: How do you balance the personal and professional on social networks?
I advocated for a blending of the two. At its heart, that's the real opportunity of social media, isn't it? People do business with people--not faceless, soulless edifices. Don't you want your prospects and customers online to have an opportunity to get to know you, just as your contacts in real life do?
However, since that event, I've given the subtleties of the matter more thought. It's a delicate issue that needs to be handled deftly. So, what is the best way to balance these two sides of your online identity?
As Twitter has grown in influence as both a social platform and a communication channel for companies, I have recalibrated the way I interact with people there--and, by extension, any social network where I represent my brand. It has been a subtle shift, but an important one.
This was on my mind when a question came up at a marketing event where I spoke recently: How do you balance the personal and professional on social networks?
I advocated for a blending of the two. At its heart, that's the real opportunity of social media, isn't it? People do business with people--not faceless, soulless edifices. Don't you want your prospects and customers online to have an opportunity to get to know you, just as your contacts in real life do?
However, since that event, I've given the subtleties of the matter more thought. It's a delicate issue that needs to be handled deftly. So, what is the best way to balance these two sides of your online identity?
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Online Reputation Management
So many businesses successfully leverage the buzz that can be efficiently built online. Press links, frequent updates and insightful posts can position yor business as a leader.
The down side to the speed of info publishing is that it's not often vetted. In a lot of cases, it's outright false. And time and again, courts have sided with the internet service provider so posts are not removed.
There are many different paths that cyber-slammers take, from identity theft using false accounts which appear to be you, to SEO-based techniques that propogate their negative feedback through social networks, to the toughest to refute, so-called rip off and fraud sites. Turn down a person in a job interview for solid grounds and you may face their wrath via online and anonymous rants. It can be scary, and costly to counter.
BusinessWeek.com ran a piece last month with tactics you can use when an irrational (ex)customer or disgruntled employee hits the online world.
Three which we highly recommend:
Build positive presence online. This way, when people search you and your domain, they will come upon the things about your business you want them to know.
Stop clicking back to the bad news every two minutes. Not only are you driving yourself nuts, but you're increasing hit rates which makes the post more appealing to search engines
Watch your own name AND alternate spellings and domain extensions. There are services and utlities you can use for this as well listed in the complete post linked below.
Once on the web, always on the web is the harsh reality of bad PR. The good news though is that works for positive messages and client feedback. Focus your energy on a strategy that increases visibility of the positive, rather than one suppresses the negative. It will put you in a better frame of mind and be a lot more productive in the end.
The full article can be found on BusinessWeek.com. Additional PR strategies can be found in the OED Online Community.
The down side to the speed of info publishing is that it's not often vetted. In a lot of cases, it's outright false. And time and again, courts have sided with the internet service provider so posts are not removed.
There are many different paths that cyber-slammers take, from identity theft using false accounts which appear to be you, to SEO-based techniques that propogate their negative feedback through social networks, to the toughest to refute, so-called rip off and fraud sites. Turn down a person in a job interview for solid grounds and you may face their wrath via online and anonymous rants. It can be scary, and costly to counter.
BusinessWeek.com ran a piece last month with tactics you can use when an irrational (ex)customer or disgruntled employee hits the online world.
Three which we highly recommend:
Build positive presence online. This way, when people search you and your domain, they will come upon the things about your business you want them to know.
Stop clicking back to the bad news every two minutes. Not only are you driving yourself nuts, but you're increasing hit rates which makes the post more appealing to search engines
Watch your own name AND alternate spellings and domain extensions. There are services and utlities you can use for this as well listed in the complete post linked below.
Once on the web, always on the web is the harsh reality of bad PR. The good news though is that works for positive messages and client feedback. Focus your energy on a strategy that increases visibility of the positive, rather than one suppresses the negative. It will put you in a better frame of mind and be a lot more productive in the end.
The full article can be found on BusinessWeek.com. Additional PR strategies can be found in the OED Online Community.
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