Wed Jan 18th: Techivity went dark!
Published January 18, 2012 | 
In opposition to the SOPA and PIPA proposed legislation techivity.com went dark today, January 18th, 2012. The day passed, but the risk remains.
The philosophy of this legislation is analogous to holding a postal carrier liable for the material in his bag when he’s out on his route; he didn’t choose to carry it, doesn’t know what’s in there, could find out if he stopped to read everyone’s stuff, but certainly couldn’t make any deliveries on-time or maintain any privacy doing so.
That is almost precisely what the proposed legislation would do to the internet. Its appalling and would damage most of our clients hosting and stop much small business from engaging in legitimate online business.
So call your representatives, sign the petitions, email your friends. YOUR internet is on the line and it needs you…
What is the difference between Marketing, PR and Sales?
Published August 8, 2011 | As small to mid-size business and non-profit leaders, many of you have to wear multiple hats, providing technology advice, marketing strategy and engaging in sales work supporting relationships. This is for you.
I was watching a video by my sister Payson Cooper, who has cultivated a nice skill-set in strategic marketing, and I thought she articulated something more clearly than I’ve ever heard it before, so I wanted to share it with my audience.
So what is the difference between Marketing, PR and Sales anyway?
Professionals blur the lines between these disciplines, its not surprising that small business entrepreneurs who have less time to specialize do the same.
Here’s what Payson had to say:
Marketing is identifying what problems you solve, how you solve them, and getting that information in front of the people who care. This covers everything from strategic marketing, where you are thinking about your audience, what problems they face, and how you can solve them, to lead-generation marketing, where you identify people who care and pass them to a sales team.
PR (Public Relations) is defining information to help third parties understand what you do and who cares about it. This is very important because it provides your potential customers with a third-party, relatively independent, perspective into what you have to offer. Its dependent on marketing, but entirely different. It supports sales, but is different. This is identifying industry experts who have credibility and giving them what they need to make an impartial evaluation of your services and
offerings, so that the folks who listen to them get to know about you and what you can offer.
Sales is the process of overcoming natural objections to purchasing your services or products. Isn’t that a nice description? When you have something to offer, those interested will have natural questions and objections. Why would this help me? Do I need it? What is included? How much is it? Why is that a fair price? Sales is the process of helping a potential customer answer those questions.
So there you go; a nice, discrete separation of Marking, PR and Sales for the small business executives and entrepreneurs among you out there to use when you need to strategize.
I am in training the first couple of weeks of August, when I return Techivity will take a look at some of the new services Google has made available.
If you found this post helpful, and want to take a look at what Payson offers in marketing strategy, take a look at her site. She and I approach things a bit differently, but her strategies are quite effective. As usual, feel free to post a comment, or contact Techivity for consulting services.
Facebook: The future of mobile apps?
Published June 16, 2011 | Well, well. I was checking my news feeds this AM and I see this post about project Spartan.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/15/facebook-project-spartan/
Seems that there’s a top-secret project at Facebook to implement an app delivery service on Safari to target the iPhone and iPad. It also seems that the social media giant is working on a major update to their photo apps:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/15/facebook-photo-sharing-app/
I know many small business contacts who still shy away from Facebook not sure how to leverage their time there.
What this means to you, if you are a small business client, or just someone who follows our blog for tech advice and strategy is that if you haven’t figured out how to use Facebook to connect, network, and grow your business yet, you need to do that. LinkedIn is a great business, professional networking site, but at this point it should be pretty clear to most of us that the mobile world is going to be very important to our future in business communication and networking. Already, we use our phones constantly, most calls are mobile-to-mobile these days, and we use email, messaging, and more constantly. Its only natural that social media would make that migration too.
And Facebook is putting resources and effort into being a major mobile social media player. It will help you if you are comfortable using it. As usual, if you want help, we’re happy to provide consulting and assistance.
So get in there!