Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Get $100 off any ISO 9001 training course of your choice:

Why is ISO 9001 Quality Management Training Relevant?

ISO 9001 training is suitable for any organization looking to improve the way it is operated and managed, regardless of size or sector.

BSI are the founders of the first Quality Management System standard BS 5750, the forerunner to the ISO 9000 series, and a continued key member of the ISO 9000 technical committees, their knowledge and experience of the standards is unsurpassed.

BSI pays special attention to location, facilities and service standards. Training courses take place in an open setting and are available to employees from any organization. Public training represents a convenient and low cost learning opportunity for smaller numbers of employees.

The courses are usually led by one or two expert instructors, over one or more days. They mix theoretical information with other learning techniques.

BSI leads Canada with Quality Training for your small Business.

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Ultimate Guide to Stumble Upon

We have used many Social Media Tools, but Stumble Upon is one of the largest bookmarking sites. It is also very highly effective at driving visits for small business. The details are in the link below.

http://www.tutorialshock.com/tutorials/the-ultimate-stumbleupon-guide-all-secrets-revealed/

Saturday, September 18, 2010

What is the best way to maintain and reward top employees and contractors.

As the owner of a small business you have put your life savings in keeping effective employees without 'giving away the farm' is key to manage your greatest value Human Capital. Here are some keys I have found helpful over the past 20 years.

1) Does an across the board bonus plan work?
Developing a bonus plan is an across the whole company may not work. You may think this is the easiest and fairest way to share the profits. The fact is, there is nothing fair about the equal treatment of unequal performance. This type of plan sends the wrong message to both under performers and your top performers. Your bonus plan should send a message about what your organization values. You get what you reward.

2) Tie contributions and goals to corporate objectives
Distribute gains through bonuses that reward actual goal attainment. When the team and individual goals are directly linked to corporate objectives and values, everyone wins.

3) Bonus base on cultural goals and profit goals
Culture and company core values shape the brand of the company. These attributes can be rewarded. In addition tie in reward to profit. Be as transparent as you can to ensure employees and contractors understand general profit goals and whether you have achieved them.

4) Communicate the expectations
Next step, is communicating these goals to your employees and explain that their bonus levels are directly tied to the attainment of these goals. To encourage a team environment, a portion of the bonus should be awarded based on team accomplishments. Share both good and poor experiences. It goes a long way to build trust.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Are Twitter Followers Better Than Facebook Fans?

According to the final edition of ExactTarget’s “Subscribers, Fans and Followers” report, the differences between email, Facebook and Twitter also include their influence on customer loyalty.

Daily Twitter users who followed a brand were more than twice as likely as daily Facebook users who “liked” a brand to say they were more likely to purchase from the brand after becoming a social media follower. What’s more, Facebook fans were the most likely group to actively disagree with the question. Subscribers to opt-in marketing emails fell in the middle.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Foursquare for Retail. Great idea to spur traffic to your local retail outlet. Its free and provides metrics.

As a business owner, you can use foursquare to engage your increasingly mobile customers with foursquare "Specials," which are discounts and prizes you can offer your loyal customers when they check in on foursquare at your venue.

Use our tools to create a variety of foursquare Specials, customized just for your venue and for your customers:

Mayor Specials: unlocked only by the Mayor of your venue. Who's the Mayor? It's your single most loyal customer! (the user who has checked in the most in the last 60 days), ("Foursquare has deemed you the Mayor? Enjoy a free order of french fries!")

Check-in Specials: unlocked when a user checks in to your venue a certain number of times. ("Foursquare says you've been here 10 times? That's a free drink for you!")

Frequency-based Specials: are unlocked every X check-ins. ("Foursquare users get 20% off any entree every 5th check-in!")

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Tips for Writing Effective Content on Social Media Sites

1) Know Who You are Writing For – If you want to bring your traffic in from search engines, what keywords do you want to use? Do you know what kind of person will be searching for those keywords? What is their knowledge of the topic?


2) Write useful content - relevant to the audience. Make certain that you get to place a link back to your site in the body of the post and look for blogs that are well read. You might also look for other local blogs using a tool like http://www.placeblogger.com


3) Linking – Don’t be afraid to link away from your site. If you can link your readers to new useful information each time they read your content, they will return to find out where the best information is.


4) Don’t Be Afraid to Engage Your Readers – At the end of each post ask for your readers to comment with their thoughts on your post, direct them to your RSS or Twitter feed. Just do something that will make them feel involved with your writing.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Facebook overtakes Google with Minutes used on Social Media.

Facebook dislodged Google as the top online destination, with Americans spending more time virtually visiting friends and playing games than they did on all Google's sites combined.
Americans spent 685,000 hours or 41.1 million minutes on Facebook in August, compared with 39.8 million hours spent on Google, According to comScore. Yahoo took the third spot, with 37.7 million minutes, comScore determined. Google said its number of global users crossed 1 billion for the first time last month, said Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney in a research note on these latest monthly traffic figures.