Long Island Small Business Onwer Magazine

As business owners, word of mouth is one of the most important and best types of marketing. It is free and more importantly targeted. A lot of businesses thrive on word of mouth advertising, but in most cases, it simply is not enough. Business owners need testimonials which is a great way for potential customers to spread the word and let the entire world see it.
A big problem with testimonials on a web site is that most web site owners make them up. Anybody can say that Bruce C wrote up a testimonial for your business. Who is Bruce C? It may be me and may be someone else or just a faciticious person altogether.
The question is: What is the most strategic way of getting strong and real testimonials on social media and networks? Let’s go through them.
First and foremost: Linked In gives you an opportunity to get testimonials from real people, from their full name. The tool is called recommendations. Linked In allows your connections to recommend you by leaving comments on your Linked In profile. You, as the Linked In member, can approve or reject the recommendation. I actually believe that Linked In should call this tool “Testimonials”, because that is what potential clients are used to hearing today. Linked In is truly a great way to receive authentic testimonials.
On Linked In, you can simply recommend people and 95% of the time, they will reciprocate with a recommendation about you. Simply asking for recommendations puts unnecessary pressure on that other person. However, initiating an unsolicited recommendation will allow them to reciprocate without the pressure. Flattery will truly get you everywhere.
On Twitter, the best way of getting testimonials is by replying to people using the @ sign in front of their name. All of their followers will see your reply and again, 95% of the people you recommend on Twitter will reciprocate in appreciation. The added benefit here on Twitter is that people who also like you and your company will probably retweet (forwarding someone else’s tweets to your following) and retweeting is one of Twitter’s best viral marketing and branding tools.

Facebook has a much quicker way of getting testimonials. You can simply go on someone’s wall of their profile or Facebook fan page and write up your testimonials. Your testimonial will show up on the Facebook newsfeed allowing people to “Like” it and comment. People have recommended me on my wall with testimonials and others who are happy with my services will add their own testimonials in the comments section of that Facebook wall post.
YouTube has an interested and effective method too. As a video web site, ask your clients to come to your office, grab your flip, and video tape their testimonials.
Folks, we have to understand that the key word here is “social” and social means people. People are the ones who make or break your business. Find a way for people to utilize the social media to provide your business testimonials and the viral marketing will explode!

If you like being stressed out and disorganized, don't read any further. If your still reading this article, than I think it's safe to assume that you are at least a little bit curious as to what I propose to do to help you manage your time better. No more running around trying to finish everything at once. Sounds appealing? Read on.

If you don't have a schedule, no problem, you can make a weekly calendar and print it out. There are plenty of websites that offer free printable calendars-yearly, monthly and weekly. Print a weekly calendar that has plenty of room for you to write. Start by blocking out the time slots with all the things that are going on that week which are already scheduled or that recur every week. To give you an example, doctor's appointments, meetings, dropping off or picking children up at school, you get the idea. It gives you a real picture of what times you have to work your business.

To get the most out of your business times, write down on a piece of paper, preferably the night before, all the things you want to accomplish that day. You'll want to avoid a 20 item list. List 4-6 tasks that will benefit your business. What you will want to do next is to write them down starting with the most important. The key to this is to finish one task before moving on to the next. What you were unable to finish or start today, gets moved to the top of your list the next day and so on. Don't go to the next task before completing the current one. This is amazingly effective! You will need to schedule time to take care of things like returning phone calls and answering emails. It's not uncommon to let your emails and phone calls control your day. When you schedule time to return calls and read emails you will be back in control of your time and that is a reward in and of itself.

There is quite a lot of power in focusing on one thing. By focusing on one task at a time you can accomplish so much. Go ahead and give these suggestions a try. You may find that scheduling your day will make you less stressed and more productive. I know that with you will find what works best for you personally and professionally.

To your success, Denise Bement