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New Years Resolutions 2021

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OK. So the 2020 one didn't go so great and I will take the easy way out and blame Covid for it, even though I am not Covid and I am responsible for my own failings. It became difficult to maintain any form of motivation so I am pretending 2020 did not exist and I am taking a do over on the things that are important to me.

Get healthier. First is the whole "get in shape" one. This is important. Since I started this job, I have gained just over one hundred pounds and had no idea. That cannot be healthy. I will write another piece titled Lifestyle Plan soon to give what my full battle plan is for getting in better shape.

 

Publish Book. This is sort of a feel-good throwaway I threw in here. I all it a throwaway because it’s been a long-time aspiration of mine to write a book but I always got derailed. It’s no secret now that I have written a book and the final touches are being added to it. It is currently scheduled to be published on my birthday, April 7th. There is still a lot to do before that date, but it is far enough out that everything should be in place by that point. The book is about my travels and has some interesting events thrown in throughout. It became a personal passion project for me and kind of gave me a writing bug. I am proud of my work on it and grateful to those who have both helped me and agreed to help me with other aspects coming up for the book prior to its release.

 

The preceding was mine from last year. Truthfully, the whole Covid thing threw me off and I was so close to finishing but didn't. The main part of the book is actually done, but I just need to get some ancillary stuff done and editing. I also have all year to do it. I even did a countdown to the book release and nothing. So I have a full year now.

Fully Form Spark Plug Strategies. Though it exists, I want to focus on the website and features of a consulting and design firm, Spark Plug Strategies, which I have decided to start. The primary focus is digital (websites, apps, social media marketing), but I also need to get systems in place that allow people to get full service consulting and design out of us. For instance, I want to help someone brand their business, create logos, and get physical business cards in the hands of the principals that fit the branding. It’s not just about doing a website here and there, but full synergy.

New Years Resolutions 2022. I want to keep this going and make it an annual tradition. This was from last year and I have achieved this one so good on me!

 

Take a Vacation. Most people know that with my job, I travel a lot and I see some really cool things. Sometimes I get a day-cation somewhere, but usually out of necessity. When I see cool things, it usually has to do with me making some time and maybe spending a couple hours somewhere, but I think I need a few days somewhere. It can be by myself or with friends, but I haven’t really been anywhere for leisure in four or five years and even that time felt forced in a way. I just need a couple two or three days of relaxation and limited schedules to just have fun and see what happens and do it somewhere more than a hundred miles from home.

 

Take a Selfie Every Day. I have listed this one before, but I need to focus on it. It seems rather egotistical, but it’s actually not. I refuse to be in a picture if I am not shaved (head and face) within the last 48-hours. This is about me keeping up with my appearance and making how I look a priority and being presentable.

 

Start a Podcast. I have been wanting to and kicking it around for a while and I just need to get off my ass and do it.

 

I’m not about that “new year, new me” bullshit. Everyone knows that’s not my style, but I have isolated some goals to personally focus on for the next year. This resolution is sort of a “tell it to the world” idea to help hold me accountable and focus on accomplishing what’s on the list.

New Years Resolutions 2020

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I have decided to do a New Years Resolution list this year and I think I might make this an annual personal piece. Following, I outline several things I want to accomplish for the year that are important to me personally.


Publish Book.

This is sort of a feel-good throwaway I threw in here. I all it a throwaway because it’s been a long-time aspiration of mine to write a book but I always got derailed. It’s no secret now that I have written a book and the final touches are being added to it. It is currently scheduled to be published on my birthday, April 7th. There is still a lot to do before that date, but it is far enough out that everything should be in place by that point. The book is about my travels and has some interesting events thrown in throughout. It became a personal passion project for me and kind of gave me a writing bug. I am proud of my work on it and grateful to those who have both helped me and agreed to help me with other aspects coming up for the book prior to its release.

 

Get Healthier.

I have ballooned up to an unhealthy weight and I don’t like that feeling. I need to lose weight and gain muscle. With this, I know me and I need to set a consequence for failure. I am not jumping on a scale or anything like that, mainly because I am afraid that if I knew what I weighed in at right now, I may shut down emotionally and just not care, so I am using the much more accurate litmus test of shopping. If I have to shop for smaller clothes, it’s working.

 

The consequence I sat is a fate worse than death and I actually achieved if for six months once before, though for different reasons. If I have not lost a noticeable and significant amount of mass between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020, I will go vegetarian for 2021. I REALLY don’t want to do that, but I know I can of I have to.

 

Look into Starting a Podcast.

This seems like a weak heading and passive, but I am not 100% sure yet if I want to, should do it, or can gain traction. This will requiring getting over some limiting beliefs and self-doubts, but also need more discipline to be able to put out one a week that is of interest.

 

Take a Selfie Every Day.

I have listed this one before, but I need to focus on it. It seems rather egotistical, but it’s actually not. I refuse to be in a picture if I am not shaved (head and face) within the last 48-hours. This is about me keeping up with my appearance and making how I look a priority and being presentable.

 

Fully Form Spark Plug Strategies.

Though it exists, I want to focus on the website and features of a consulting and design firm, Spark Plug Strategies, which I have decided to start. The primary focus is digital (websites, apps, social media marketing), but I also need to get systems in place that allow people to get full service consulting and design out of us. For instance, I want to help someone brand their business, create logos, and get physical business cards in the hands of the principals that fit the branding. It’s not just about doing a website here and there, but full synergy.

 

 

New Years Resolutions 2021.

I want to keep this going and make it an annual tradition.

 

Full Deployment of Brand Bee Media.

“What is Brand Bee Media,” you ask? Some people may know that I operate under Son of Bee’s Holdings LLC. Brand Bee Media is just a title and an extension of that, which I may create an LLC for in the future to have as an owned property, but that is not an issue right now. BBM is mostly websites that I have and want to have fully functional. I will list them with a brief overview:


Digitally Unplugged Magazine.


Digitally Unplugged Magazine is an online repository of cool stuff. We will work with venues and musicians to post about shows and artist interviews, but we will also work with some business aspects that are cool and interesting. It is designed to be more lively and fun. We also want to work with interns to write certain amounts of reviews on bands across all genres of big name artists to local bands that write their own lyrics (sorry, bar cover bands). The site is augmented by news releases from various industries.

 

Full Tilt Business.


Full Tilt Business is also augmented by various feeds from large corporations, but we will be giving interns and businesses direct  methods to showcase their writing on different topics related to business.

 

Local Paranormal.


Local Paranormal has a special place in my heart. It was my first website and was operated as a blog site. Now it has been redesigned as an auction site for paranormal objects. From my searches around the internet, it looks to be the only dedicated paranormal action site in existence and if not, the others hide themselves really well. There are a pair of sections for directories also, one is of paranormal museums around the world (of which, there are surprisingly few) and the other will be a directory for paranormal investigators. This directory will be a paid service, but inexpensive. We will charge $20 per year to be listed and that money is simply to make sure the organizations are still in business and keeping their information updated. I am also considering a companion directory for covens, but that’s just a consideration. A solo-practioner Wiccan friend of mine is trying to find a local coven to join and having great difficulty, so I am considering testing to see if there is an interest in such a thing.

 


Tattoo Artist Profiles.


Tattoo Artist Profiles is just that, profiles for your favorite tattoo artist or piercer. This is a directory site, as are the next five. We have free plans up to paid annual plans and I think it’s an awesome system. I have been testing it and need to do my final beta testing before I start opening it up to general usage. Obviously, the free version is limited on features, but still helps the artist with search rankings.


Strip Clubs Near Me.


Strip Clubs Near Me is a directory site that helps strip clubs get to be known by using a common search term…that Google hates. Google isn’t great with strip clubs, so we can help increase a club’s search engine optimization (SEO) by creating an information page for clubs and allowing them to post (non nude) photos and help build brand awareness. This is especially valuable for people traveling

 

Brew Houses Near Me.


Brew Houses Near Me is a directory site for brew houses and micro breweries that serve food and have other accommodations to help grow awareness by people that search for them.

 

Marijuana Near Me.


Marijuana Near Me is a directory site for dispensaries. Face it, however you feel about the subject, legalization is coming and people will want to know where to find their closest recreational or medicinal location.

 

Distilleries Near Me.


Distilleries Near Me is a directory site and may be a tad personal and built out of my love of bourbon and wanting to find the hidden gems, but all distilled spirits are equal and welcome in the eyes of Distilleries Near Me

 

Vineyards Near Me.


Vineyards Near Me is a directory site that will focus on wine tourism. People take vacations based on going to wineries and I simply want to help them be found.

 

I am considering doing a focus on one site per month to launch a fully capable site, even though the last six sites listed are similar designs and the last four listed were actually all built at the same times.

 

Take a Vacation.

Most people know that with my job, I travel a lot and I see some really cool things. Sometimes I get a day-cation somewhere, but usually out of necessity. When I see cool things, it usually has to do with me making some time and maybe spending a couple hours somewhere, but I think I need a few days somewhere. It can be by myself or with friends, but I haven’t really been anywhere for leisure in four or five years and even that time felt forced in a way. I just need a couple two or three days of relaxation and limited schedules to just have fun and see what happens and do it somewhere more than a hundred miles from home.

 

I’m not about that “new year, new me” bullshit. Everyone knows that’s not my style, but I have isolated some goals to personally focus on for the next year. This resolution is sort of a “tell it to the world” idea to help hold me accountable and focus on accomplishing what’s on the list.

New Years Resolutions 2020

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I have decided to do a New Years Resolution list this year and I think I might make this an annual personal piece. Following, I outline several things I want to accomplish for the year that are important to me personally.


Publish Book.

This is sort of a feel-good throwaway I threw in here. I all it a throwaway because it’s been a long-time aspiration of mine to write a book but I always got derailed. It’s no secret now that I have written a book and the final touches are being added to it. It is currently scheduled to be published on my birthday, April 7th. There is still a lot to do before that date, but it is far enough out that everything should be in place by that point. The book is about my travels and has some interesting events thrown in throughout. It became a personal passion project for me and kind of gave me a writing bug. I am proud of my work on it and grateful to those who have both helped me and agreed to help me with other aspects coming up for the book prior to its release.

 

Get Healthier.

I have ballooned up to an unhealthy weight and I don’t like that feeling. I need to lose weight and gain muscle. With this, I know me and I need to set a consequence for failure. I am not jumping on a scale or anything like that, mainly because I am afraid that if I knew what I weighed in at right now, I may shut down emotionally and just not care, so I am using the much more accurate litmus test of shopping. If I have to shop for smaller clothes, it’s working.

 

The consequence I sat is a fate worse than death and I actually achieved if for six months once before, though for different reasons. If I have not lost a noticeable and significant amount of mass between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020, I will go vegetarian for 2021. I REALLY don’t want to do that, but I know I can of I have to.

 

Look into Starting a Podcast.

This seems like a weak heading and passive, but I am not 100% sure yet if I want to, should do it, or can gain traction. This will requiring getting over some limiting beliefs and self-doubts, but also need more discipline to be able to put out one a week that is of interest.

 

Take a Selfie Every Day.

I have listed this one before, but I need to focus on it. It seems rather egotistical, but it’s actually not. I refuse to be in a picture if I am not shaved (head and face) within the last 48-hours. This is about me keeping up with my appearance and making how I look a priority and being presentable.

 

Fully Form Spark Plug Strategies.

Though it exists, I want to focus on the website and features of a consulting and design firm, Spark Plug Strategies, which I have decided to start. The primary focus is digital (websites, apps, social media marketing), but I also need to get systems in place that allow people to get full service consulting and design out of us. For instance, I want to help someone brand their business, create logos, and get physical business cards in the hands of the principals that fit the branding. It’s not just about doing a website here and there, but full synergy.

 

 

New Years Resolutions 2021.

I want to keep this going and make it an annual tradition.

 

Full Deployment of Brand Bee Media.

“What is Brand Bee Media,” you ask? Some people may know that I operate under Son of Bee’s Holdings LLC. Brand Bee Media is just a title and an extension of that, which I may create an LLC for in the future to have as an owned property, but that is not an issue right now. BBM is mostly websites that I have and want to have fully functional. I will list them with a brief overview:


Digitally Unplugged Magazine.

Digitally Unplugged Magazine is an online repository of cool stuff. We will work with venues and musicians to post about shows and artist interviews, but we will also work with some business aspects that are cool and interesting. It is designed to be more lively and fun. We also want to work with interns to write certain amounts of reviews on bands across all genres of big name artists to local bands that write their own lyrics (sorry, bar cover bands). The site is augmented by news releases from various industries.

 

 

 

Full Tilt Business.

Full Tilt Business is also augmented by various feeds from large corporations, but we will be giving interns and businesses direct  methods to showcase their writing on different topics related to business.

 

 

 


Local Paranormal.

Local Paranormal has a special place in my heart. It was my first website and was operated as a blog site. Now it has been redesigned as an auction site for paranormal objects. From my searches around the internet, it looks to be the only dedicated paranormal action site in existence and if not, the others hide themselves really well. There are a pair of sections for directories also, one is of paranormal museums around the world (of which, there are surprisingly few) and the other will be a directory for paranormal investigators. This directory will be a paid service, but inexpensive. We will charge $20 per year to be listed and that money is simply to make sure the organizations are still in business and keeping their information updated. I am also considering a companion directory for covens, but that’s just a consideration. A solo-practioner Wiccan friend of mine is trying to find a local coven to join and having great difficulty, so I am considering testing to see if there is an interest in such a thing.

 


Tattoo Artist Profiles.

Tattoo Artist Profiles is just that, profiles for your favorite tattoo artist or piercer. This is a directory site, as are the next five. We have free plans up to paid annual plans and I think it’s an awesome system. I have been testing it and need to do my final beta testing before I start opening it up to general usage. Obviously, the free version is limited on features, but still helps the artist with search rankings.

 

 

 

 


Strip Clubs Near Me.

Strip Clubs Near Me is a directory site that helps strip clubs get to be known by using a common search term…that Google hates. Google isn’t great with strip clubs, so we can help increase a club’s search engine optimization (SEO) by creating an information page for clubs and allowing them to post (non nude) photos and help build brand awareness. This is especially valuable for people traveling

 

 

 

 

 


Brew Houses Near Me.

Brew Houses Near Me is a directory site for brew houses and micro breweries that serve food and have other accommodations to help grow awareness by people that search for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marijuana Near Me.

Marijuana Near Me is a directory site for dispensaries. Face it, however you feel about the subject, legalization is coming and people will want to know where to find their closest recreational or medicinal location.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distilleries Near Me.

Distilleries Near Me is a directory site and may be a tad personal and built out of my love of bourbon and wanting to find the hidden gems, but all distilled spirits are equal and welcome in the eyes of Distilleries Near Me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vineyards Near Me.

Vineyards Near Me is a directory site that will focus on wine tourism. People take vacations based on going to wineries and I simply want to help them be found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am considering doing a focus on one site per month to launch a fully capable site, even though the last six sites listed are similar designs and the last four listed were actually all built at the same times.

 

Take a Vacation.

Most people know that with my job, I travel a lot and I see some really cool things. Sometimes I get a day-cation somewhere, but usually out of necessity. When I see cool things, it usually has to do with me making some time and maybe spending a couple hours somewhere, but I think I need a few days somewhere. It can be by myself or with friends, but I haven’t really been anywhere for leisure in four or five years and even that time felt forced in a way. I just need a couple two or three days of relaxation and limited schedules to just have fun and see what happens and do it somewhere more than a hundred miles from home.

 

I’m not about that “new year, new me” bullshit. Everyone knows that’s not my style, but I have isolated some goals to personally focus on for the next year. This resolution is sort of a “tell it to the world” idea to help hold me accountable and focus on accomplishing what’s on the list.

LinkedIn 201: LinkedIn Part 2

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On April 20, 2015 I posted a piece titled: LinkedIn 101. It gave some awesome starter information for LinkedIn and I told you how to set up a basic LinkedIn page. Now it’s time to start getting more advanced and actually use LinkedIn to your full advantage. This is the first of a three-part follow-up series based on growing your LinkedIn presence with ascending numbers 201, 301, and 401 (just like your classes in college (get it?)).

 

Connections

Add people on LinkedIn! It’s a really simple concept that escapes many people. What is your dream job? Does one of your current connections already do it? Maybe not, but what if they start doing that job next week or have the ability to hire you into your dream job in the next week. I have many people in my LinkedIn that I have no idea who they are beyond a job title, but they are all valuable. As my readers probably all know by now, I volunteer with the local county Republican Party. With that, you better believe I invite my LinkedIn contacts to local GOP events, especially when they are fellow Republicans. I have added State Senators from the southern part of the state and secretaries to assistants of the State Auditor. Why? When I run for office again, it may be of use to have these people as LinkedIn connections and it may benefit them to have me as one as well. I miss working in radio. I loved that job. If I had the opportunity for a part-time job at a radio station, I’d jump at it. So I’ve added a few program directors and people who work in various parts of that field as well. It may be self-serving, but that’s what LinkedIn is.

 

Thank People

In the book titled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the author discusses sending “thank you” letters. LinkedIn is no different. If someone endorses one of your skills or simply adds you as one of their connections, thank them. It goes a long way to showing how cordial and humble you are, even on a website that is filled with me, me, me style self-promotion. It will be appreciated and it is very helpful. I use IFTTT for when new connections add me and it automatically sends them a personalized message internally expressing my gratitude. Yes, leave it to me to create a canned response in place of genuine thanx, but the recipient will, none-the-less, appreciate hearing from me.

 

Add

One piece of advice I got was to add a person a day. It’s a good goal to set. You will be constantly inundated with connection suggestions on LinkedIn, so why not use those to your advantage and add people? LinkedIn is a networking tool and it’s honestly one-stop-shopping. Yes, you can go to networking events in your community and meet people, but you can easily meet more potential connections on LinkedIn then you can at some business luncheon and after you’ve been at enough Chamber of Commerce meetings, you will start to know everyone in the room. This expands you outside of your small sphere of influence.

 

These are just some of the easier piece of advice to use after you first set up your LinkedIn page. None of this is very advanced and it can all be easily done from your smartphone while sitting at a long traffic light (disclaimer: don’t go on your smartphone while your car is on).

 

Connect with me on LinkedIn by clicking HERE.

 

For more pieces like this, please go to website for Michael Beebe, Spark Plug Strategies, or Full Tilt Business.

Promoting with Facebook Photos

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Yes. I am actually dedicating an entire piece to Facebook photos and how freaking awesome they are for networking. There’s a shit-ton of different ways to use them to increase personal, product, or brand awareness. I had the idea for this piece after I helped out with a county cleanup day, so I will probably just go through the whole process and probably use some of the stuff I did and name a name or two.

 

First I need to talk about the basics. In your personal account, go to the area you would update a status. You have three choices; “update status,” “add photos/videos,” or “create photo album.” You want to click “add photos/videos.” It then lets you select which photos to upload. Click your photo and wait a moment so it’s uploaded. Above the photo you can add a caption. Do so. Below the photo you will see your own name tagged. If there are more people in the photo that you are Facebook friends with, add them. Facebook has done a great job with facial recognition and it knows the difference between faces and other round objects. Select the faces and scroll through or type in the names of your friends. You also have a button with a smiley face in it. That’s to add an emotion. That’s not necessary, but some people like to see those. Then there is a final button that has a pin for pinning a location. Pin the business the photo was taken in. Once you post it, you can go to the “edit” button and now you’re able to set a date and time to your picture.

 

So those are the six basic elements and how to initially post a picture. Now I will break down the six elements and give a piece by piece account of what you are really doing and how to use them.

 

Picture

Make sure this is a picture you want the public to see. A picture is worth a thousand words and it may be shared often by others. The picture needs to tell a story itself. Some people may only see the picture and move on. This is the point where you need to sell what happened by the picture you are showing.

 

Caption

When I did the county cleanup day, I was participating with the LaPorte County Solid Waste District who organized the event and I was working with the Michigan City Republican Club. By mentioning the LaPorte County Solid Waste District in my post, they received notification that I did this, as did the Michigan City Republican Club. They were able to directly comment on my picture as a Page and their fans (people who “like” their page) are able to see that they commented on my photo, and my friends see the comment they made. You can also add friend’s names to the caption as a tag so they know they were “mentioned” in it and it will be seen on their personal Facebook wall.

 

Tag

Tag everyone you’re Facebook friends with that are in the photo. They posed for the picture, so they won’t (usually) care. The picture is now set as one of their pictures too. This allows friends of your’s that don’t know each other to potentially network, but furthermore, it puts your name out there for all of their friends to see. If your friend has one hundred friends that you don’t know, all one hundred of them now see the photo with you in it. That is just good marketing and since people tend to be similar to their friends, you have just networked without leaving the comfort of your computer chair. In my case, there were six other people so I networked with over 1,000 people that I don’t already know just by tagging my friends. Now I wasn’t trying to sell a thing by what I did. I am just using this as an example. If it had been an election year, in my personal caption, I would have added my election page as well to get that caption to be read by those friends of the friends.

 

Emotion

Some people love them and others hate them. I ascribe to the latter, but I understand where they are coming from. I choose not to use them. So how was I feeling that day? Was I “determined,” “tired,” “sad,” or “angry?” I wasn’t really any of them. I was in a decent enough mood for being up at 9AM, but it adds a certain amount of humanity to the posting.

 

Geotag (Pin)

Pin the location. We ended our day at Walgreens. They allowed us to stage there and use it for parking and have the LaPorte County Solid Waste District pick up the bags of garbage we collected. That’s where we posed for the picture in front of the bags of garbage and they have a lot of people. Now people check in everywhere and sometimes they tell a little too much about themselves. I wouldn’t be shocked if I saw, “Picking up my Valtrex” then geotag Walgreens. That stays on the Walgreens Facebook Page as a check-in and people see it. By pinning my picture there, it shows all seven in my group at Walgreens that day, adds a picture (which is likely to be viewed), and can increase interest in you (you, your product, service, or whatever).

 

Date

Date the photo. It’s easy enough and it helps establish a timeline. I know it sounds a little too intrusive, but if your purpose is to increase the awareness of something, it works!

 

If you operate a Facebook Business Page, everything works basically the same way here and it increases your brand awareness of the “product” you are trying to sell to people.

 

Facebook is a social network, which means it’s a network, first and foremost. Use the networking power of Facebook to create new potential contacts and you will be happy you did. While running for office, I’ve heard “social media doesn’t win elections.” Ask President Obama about the validity of that statement and if he agrees with it, but it’s sort of true. Signs don’t win either and neither do postcards. What does win an election? Votes! Votes win elections and the way you get votes is by those various types of contacts, including social media. Though you cannot rely on Facebook as your sole means of advertising, it needs to be added to your marketing mix as a way to promote yourself and your products. It takes 3.5 contacts with a buyer to sell them a product if they are thinking about it. Facebook is just one sales method and with that picture I posted, I just put my name in front of 1,000 people or so.

 

I would like to point out that I am not running for anything and this is my third year helping with this annual project. At no point have I done this to try winning an election, but if I were running at the time of a cleanup day, I would wear my campaign shirt. I actually enjoy the service I do and it is not a personal means of self promotion to me and I hate when people do causes like that for personal gain and self-promotion. With that, I understand that you can do so and I was using it as an example since it was a recent event and started this piece within ten minutes of posting the picture.

 

For more pieces like this, please go to website for Michael Beebe, Spark Plug Strategies, or Full Tilt Business.

Dyngus Day

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Happy Dyngus Day!!! (“Szczęśliwa Dyngus Dni” in Polish) is an awesome Polish holiday. In the US we celebrate it a little bit differently than in Poland. In Poland, it is more of an impromptu wet tee shirt contest and in the US, we may see nudity, but it’s just because people forgot where they put their clothes while drinking. So what is this holiday with a funny name? It’s a Polish holiday. I equate it to being Polish Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is the day before Lent starts where you go out and do all of the bad stuff that you can’t do for the next fourty days till after Easter. Dyngus Day is the day after Easter so it, like Mardi Gras, is not a set date, but based on the date of the Easter holiday. For a quick read on Dyngus Day, CLICK HERE and get some history on the day. So it’s a bit different in the US and where I live, La Porte, Indiana, it’s REALLY different. It’s just a drinking holiday. We turn our city transportation bus into a drunk-wagon and we have a city-sponsored pub crawl around La Porte.

 

So why does anyone care? Just read on. You’ll get it. If you are from San Francisco, you probably have never heard of Dyngus Day, but I guarantee the beer rep to your local bar knows very well what Dyngus Day is. So how do we celebrate it? Locally it is celebrated on other communities as well, but none like La Porte. In South Bend, it’s a big deal as well, but they have polka bands and Polish food. You eat, drink, and you are merry. In La Porte, it is a city-sponsored pub crawl and it is fun! Bars in Indiana can open at 7AM. By 8AM, some bars already have over-served people, but there is an “unofficial” suspension of public intoxication laws (along with public indecency and indecent exposure). The police just don’t have the time to deal with this. Our city buses take drunks around from bar to bar on the route, with one bus being reserved for the mayor and her closest friends. New Years Eve is just a practice run for Dyngus Day in La Porte. Expect shitty service and long wait-times. That’s the norm today. The bars simply don’t have the manpower to serve well and why should they? They are making money hand over fist today. Every beer rep knows about Dyngus Day because of the amounts of money that is brought in today. It is amazing. By some estimates, bars bring in an entire third of the money for the whole year just today.

 

The local Tavern Owner’s Association pretty much runs today. There are ten bars on the bus route. They fill out an application form and are paid members of the association. The ten bars are chosen based on their history of being on the route in previous years and if someone dropped out of the route, you can maybe get one of the coveted spots. Even bars not on the route make a killing today. The money flows in like tequila goes down for every local bar. It is perfectly acceptable for people to call off work today to “to dyngusing” and many offices will just be closed today since no one will show up to work. Tomorrow is the day for Dyngus Day hangover call offs. Either way, the money coming in is fantastic.

 

So what does any of this have to do with Full Tilt Business? I talk about marketing a lot in my pieces and this is nothing but a marketing holiday and it relies heavily on social marketing and standard marketing. Every bar you go to in town has the Miller signs that are locally advertising Dyngus Day and that individual bar and the Bud Light Girls are usually in town for the day. The Tavern Owner’s Association is constantly updating the Facebook page and working with each and every bar on the route. Each of these bars works in unison because the social advertising, beyond just a single social media outlet, is required for today to be a success. You will see Twitter, texting apps, Facebook, Google+, and just about every other social media outlet out there and brand everything they possibly can. Market branding is essential for a day like today to take shape. Instead of competing, each business on the route works together and everyone is successful. The Tavern Owner’s Association has moved beyond competition and into the realm of cooperation of its members.

 

The question I am posing now (yes, the thesis is in the fifth paragraph) why do businesses feel the need to compete when locally, cooperation seems to be working better? Can tattoo shops, shoe stores, restaurants, hotels, nail salons cooperate with each other and work to make everyone’s business stronger among various segments? Without price-fixing, businesses that work together with other businesses succeed more than those that do not. What does every billionaire businessman have in common with each other? They all work with others. The thing we were all graded on in kindergarten that said “works well with others” is the thing that determines success in business. I believe this factor to be the single most important trait in business. The deals that a business owner makes with the interests of others in mind will be what makes the business successful. The ten bars on the Dyngus Day route and the Tavern Owner’s Association know this first-hand. Local trade organizations for your industry are essential to your success and the ability to work within the trade groups. In an absence of these groups or if they are too expensive to join, please consider meeting with your competition and make them your cooperative. Farmers have used this method for decades with the co-ops and have done so successfully because they have a shared commodity. The co-op method can turn your local industry into a commodity.

 

Na zdrowie!

 

For more pieces like this, please go to website for Michael Beebe, Spark Plug Strategies, or Full Tilt Business.

Tumblr 101

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With the website for Full Tilt Business, I have started using Tumblr. I have used Tumblr in the past, but just as a minor piece of what I was doing at the time, most notably, while working at the tattoo shop. I have started to see the benefits of Tumblr and even developed a personal method of how to figure out who to follow and get follow-backs from.

 

The Tumblr URL for Full Tilt Business is FullTiltBusiness.tumblr.com. You will always have their name in your Tumblr blog on the site, just like a WordPress.com site. So that’s all fine and dandy, but what does Tumblr do? Tumblr allows you to add a blog posting, photos, videos, links, and quotes for public consumption. Most big periodical companies have a Tumblr account and post on the site, but anyone can have a Tumblr account and many bloggers do. Though you can’t directly monetize Tumblr, it’s an equalizer. Big magazines and individual bloggers with just something to say are all on the same site and their followers are based on their individual merits. As I said, there is no way to directly monetize Tumblr, but make sure you have multiple links back to your website imbedded in any blog post you do for when you post them on Tumblr. That will help drive people to your website.

 

When I was at the tattoo shop, where did I go wrong with using Tumblr? I really didn’t. My main use of it was to help build brand awareness, but with that, you need content. I wasn’t able to get tattoo artists to write content and I didn’t know enough about the industry to effectively create real content for the shop besides adding the pictures that were already on our Facebook page and our website.

 

First, you need to make a site. Sign up as they direct you to. The site will walk you through most of the pieces you need, but keep some things in mind when it comes to design. I can’t give you cover photo and profile picture dimensions because most companies change annually, so I don’t want someone to read this in five years to find my dimensions are wrong. Make your pictures stand out. They need to be iconic of your business and somewhat mimic your page. Also, the style of the page itself has a lot of options to stylize your Tumblr page, so make sure you pick a design that somewhat mimics the flow of your website. This will give your users a more synchronistic feel when getting them to look at your site. That’s the main point, to get followers to your site so you can earn revenues on advertising. Make sure you add a lot of the same information about your website so that it duplicates the same information as your website or Facebook page on the page information.

 

So let’s get some followers. How do you get them? Go the Tumblr pages of other blogs that deal with similar topics, look at their posts, and see the “notes” and that is a list of people who liked or shared that post. Follow the people who share. They will like you back at a rate of around 25% and they are more likely to share your posts since they show a history of doing so. Assuming you create good content, this will get those people, with the proven track records of sharing information, to share your posts and that will start getting people curious enough about your site to click on links and look at it.

 

Create good content. If you own a tattoo shop, get some of your more literate artists to write some of the blogs to discuss things like tattoo aftercare and what tattoos people should look at or modern trends in tattooing. If you are a law student that has a legal blog, discuss recent case law or talk about precedents that have been recently set and what they mean. Get your content out there and make sure it’s damn good. That’s how you will get shares and more followers and those followers will be more likely to go to your actual website based on that content.

 

Tumblr is a confusing site at first, but that soon wanes to an easy interface once you get to a little used to it. It’s a great site to share information, links, pictures, videos, or full blogs and these can result in hits to your website.

 

For more pieces like this, please go to website for Michael Beebe, Spark Plug Strategies, or Full Tilt Business.

Pinterest Strategies that Work

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I love Pinterest. Now I am not a middle-aged housewife with a pill and gin problem or a middle-aged woman who still wears flip-flops and posts about wine all the time, yet denies she has a drinking problem. I am a guy I have found Pinterest as one of the best ways to get your point out to the masses and I have some awesome tips for my readers in this piece. Anyone wanting to send information out en mass should read this about Pinterest. This piece started as a project after I gave a good friend of mine advice on how to market a product she is selling with the bulk of orders being online, so thank you Deb for inspiring this piece with our text message conversation.

 

First, what is Pinterest? Pinterest is ranked by Alexa as the thirty second website in the world as of this writing. That’s not bad for a company that was also launched five years ago this month. Happy fifth birthday, Pinterest!

 

Name Optimization. Come up with a searchable name for your business Pinterest account. The name for the Full Tilt Business account on Pinterest is “FullTiltBiz” and when you go there, you will actually see the page labeled as “Full Tilt Business.” This REALLY helps with your search results when people do a Google search for your business’ name. These will increase your actual meta score and bring your search ranking higher and move you up a few pages on Google when people look up your business name.

 

Push and Pull. This is a great method for using Pinterest and I will probably dedicate an entire video tutorial to it down the line. I call it the “Push and Pull” method, but there isn’t a “Pull” in this one. The Pull is a Twitter thing and I will explain that in a similar piece when I discuss Twitter later. Anyway, follow people! Go to sites similar to yours and follow their followers. If you are a marketing company, follow the followers of your competition. You should expect about a 25% to 30% follow-back rate. Follow similar companies to your competition. If you are promoting your marketing group, follow the followers of bloggers that are similar and deal with the same types of issues and give similar advice.

 

Posts. So what should you post? Links and pictures. Links for your website will get out and circulate. Make sure that your website has pictures to Pin and you will be a hit. My website has a rather generic look to it (intentionally), so it’s bland with the same picture used multiple times, but my recommendation is that you have a different picture on each page so when you Pin an item, they all look different. That helps people of varied tastes open your pin and read it. Blogs are the exact same. The next area is pictures. These are popular. Pictures can be regular pictures or infographs. An infograph is just a picture with words on it, similar to my Thirsty Thursday Tip of the Week (T3). Click that link to take a look. Anyway, infographs get around. They will get pinned and re-pinned over and over again. The pictures also increase the time your Facebook’s business Page is posted in the general newsfeed. I will also discuss this a bit more in depth in another, later piece that is just about Facebook. Anyway, people love pictures and that is what Pinterest is mostly about, pictures and websites with pictures.

 

Geotag. If you are working with Pinterest on your computer, you will have an option to add locations to any and every post you make. This is a must-do if you have a location that your website is “from” or another piece of advice is to geotag pictures into large, metropolitan areas that are either of interest to your viewers. The geotag is a location and people on Pinterest love looking at things tagged near them.

 

The Source. Type https://www.pinterest.com/source/fulltiltbusiness.com/ into your browser when you are signed in to your account. Where it says “fulltiltbusiness.com” put your own business URL in there. That will show you every link that has been pinned from your website. The one thing that is a must is to verify your website on Pinterest, which is an easy process that you can find while setting up your Pinterest account originally. When you go to Pinterest.com, set up a “business page.” The page will ask for your business URL and there will be three options for verification to your website.

 

Downfalls. What are the downfalls to Pinterest? You know there has to be a few. You can only follow 300 people in any given hour. You can’t just spend the entire day following person after person, but you can stagger your sessions out. In theory you could still follow 7,200 people in a single day and with a 25% follow-back rate, have 1,800 new followers based on that 24-hour period. Not everyone that will follow you back will do so immediately, but that is about the number you can expect after a week. So if you religiously follow people every hour and split the task up with a trusted friend when you need sleep, you could have 12,600 followers after a week of doing that method. The other problem isn’t that big of a deal, but the Pinterest website sucks when you try following people en mass from a list of another’s followers, but both the iOS and Android apps work amazingly for this task.

 

This should conclude a quick overview of the biggest and best uses of Pinterest for your social media campaign. I will probably write an entire piece on Search Engine Optimization for Pinterest down the line and do some video tutorials as well on the topics covered.

 

For more pieces like this, please go to website for Michael Beebe, Spark Plug Strategies, or Full Tilt Business.

Google’s AdSense

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With my Interview Section of Full Tilt Business, I have a specific strategy I use to try and attract new potential interviewees. One response puzzled me a bit and I had to do some thinking on the subject. I was told that my site is “ad-heavy.” What the hell was this guy talking about? I have one damn ad that is in the sidebar and one pop-up ad that disperses after thirty-seconds on the main page and the blog page. The standard sidebar ad is below the fold (the fold is the bottom of your computer screen when you first open up to a website), which doesn’t have to be that far down (per AdSense rules) on any page but the first page. Fine! I made my pop-up an email capture. Maybe that will make him happy.

 

So what happened? Nothing. He still wasn’t interested. That’s fine. Then he told me why. He saw too many ads for competitors. He didn’t want to give an interview and have his competition have ads in his interview’s sidebar. I won’t name names because I respect his business decision, but he does own a restaurant. He just didn’t want other restaurants advertising in his interview. The part he failed to grasp was that he needed to go look at some porn. Most people see ads for Asian singles or Russian mail-order brides in the AdSense, but he sees competitors.

 

So why does he see competitors? AdSense looks at your browser history and taylor makes ads for the viewer. So Mr. Restaurant Owner was basically looking at his competition recently online and that’s why he sees his competition pop up when he looks at FullTiltBusiness.com. That’s it! Simple as that…mostly….

 

I am a little too lazy to fix this problem and I personally feel that viewers should get a full spectrum of ads based on their recent searches. Those viewers are more likely to click an ad and that is (currently) the only way I make any revenue from this website (like a nickel a week), so I want to have the maximum amount of potential clicks (please click the banner ads so I can make a little money…PLEASE). I can set “contextual target ads” in AdSense to minimize the potential to have competitor ads, but I think competition is important and except for a business owner, the average person looking at the interview is going to see ads for more Asian singles and Russian mail-order brides. I can actually make more money per click by using the contextual target ads, but that will probably reduce my click rate, though I would make more money per click and the “context” of a person looking at an interview about a restaurant will probably have more ads that pop up for chain restaurants that can spend more money per click on AdSense advertising.

 

So what is my strategy to “sell” this restaurateur on doing an interview? I don’t have one. I will say “next” and simply move on to the next batch of businesses I will solicit. From our correspondence, he seemed like a nice guy and he was quite professional. Not everyone is interested in working with me and rejection is all part of sales and I am “selling” business owners on an interview with Full Tilt Business. I appreciate his critique of my site and took it under advisement. I sat my email capture as the popup, but I will probably set it back a day after I post this blog piece if I don’t have an increase in new subscribers to the Newsletter.

 

For more pieces like this, please go to website for Michael Beebe, Spark Plug Strategies, or Full Tilt Business.

You’ve got Mail!

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I hope everyone finds themselves comfortable today. This piece is going to be a quasi rant about an issue that many don’t think about until it’s in their faces. It’s, many times, a subliminal issue that goes unnoticed, but bothers people in the backs of their mind. We make quiet judgments about businesses based on this. It’s really two topics in one, but both piss me off and can be covered here. You probably guessed the topic by the title, but the issue is email and the stupid things business owners do with it.

 

Contact Forms. Contact forms suck. First, a lot of people (myself included) don’t like filling out all that extra information. We don’t need an entire form to send a simple email. While the benefit is that customers stay on your webpage longer, the use of anything more than “name” and “email address” is invasive. Do you need their telephone number? What if they don’t want calls? I personal make it a point to simply move on to a business’ competitor if there is no method of direct email contact and the more personal the better. I’d rather not deal with the Internet era’s version of an over zealous secretary deciding the importance of your email. Now with this, I’m only referring to small businesses, organizations with fewer than ten people in them. Larger businesses may require that, but there should still be a place for people to get in touch with a business directly via email.

 

Company URL. You have a website, a beautiful, beautiful website. You paid someone to design it, you pay them to host it, and you own the name of the website. Now why the hell are you using a Gmail email address? Are you that ashamed of your company? On every website I’ve made for myself there is always a Michael@ then the URL for my site. It’s not hard to set this up.

 

Michael@FullTiltBusiness.com is my main email address for this site and there are various other email addresses, depending on what you need help with or what you are emailing about. It’s a simple process, even if you are not all that tech savvy. You paid a website designer to build your site. Anyone that builds a website can also set up an email address for your site. It cheapens you and your product if you don’t have one. As a side note, if you are working for a company that needs you to have your own email address and they are even willing to put it on a business card for you with your personal address, leave! Yes! I have, unfortunately, seen that happen. They will cover the cost of $20 for 1,000 business cards, but they want you to supply them with an email address. Any employee that needs email to do their job and works for a company that doesn’t supply the email address for you will likely not be around too much longer. To read that deeper, it means they have a website, but no comprehension of how to use technology. The company may have a good product or service, but they lack the fundamental ability to change with the tides of business. Employers should read that last statement and heed it as a warning. Prove to your employees and customers that you will be around longer. I truly understand setting up a Gmail account. I have several. Even Full Tilt Business has one set up and linked to Twitter because I hadn’t sat up the email accounts yet when I decided on my social networking names. It happens. For your public appearance, set up a real email address for everyone. They are also really handy for company memos. You can ensure everyone received the important things you feel you need sent out from your desk and with that, can ensure that they have seen the memos since employers can view the employee’s mail in this type of a system. It is a business asset, not a private asset of the employee.

 

It’s not a big deal to use email and not look like a cheep dumb ass at the same time. Make it look like you’re trying to grow your business and care about customer contacts. Remember, if a potential customer hasn’t come to you yet, they don’t really care if they go to you or the next guy. Make shit easy and convenient for them.

 

For more pieces like this, please go to website for Michael Beebe, Spark Plug Strategies, or Full Tilt Business.