HJMT's Blog

If you have an online presence, do you really need promotional items? Everyone wants to know if they should develop a brochure and/or collateral materials for their business tohelp it grow.
 
Many may disagree with me, but I tell my clients to invest in a good website instead of promotional materials. In today’s technologically advanced world, more people are online than ever before. According to Internet World Statistics, more than three quarters of the population in the USA are online.  However, a website is no longer an online brochure. Now, a website must be interactive and contain several calls to action throughout the site.
 
Here are some tips to consider when building your website:
 

School districts today are faced with an unprecedented amount of activities, issues and questions from their communities. This kind of information needs to be made available to the public in a quick and effective manner. But, how do school districts get the word out fast enough?

You’re actively tweeting, but is anyone listening? Sometimes the timing of your tweets is more important than your content. Here are a few tips to consider to ensure your tweets are getting the most bang for their buck!

What time of day?
According to recent data compiled by Lemon.ly, the most traffic on Twitter occurs from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. In addition, according to recent research conducted by Hubspot, the best time to tweet is 5 p.m. ET. So make sure you use this knowledge to your advantage and tweet often during these times.

What time zone?

When you’re organizing an event you will face many different challenges. The first and most important obstacle is, how will you raise the money to support the charity or the conference?

Greetings to you. By now you have experienced the HJMT blog. We started this blog to help our clients and friends increase business growth.

If you haven’t subscribed to it, please do so. Every week you will get a new article on public relations, social media, event planning, design, management and leadership.  This is a perfect blog for those who have their own businesses or work in a company where they are the decision maker for marketing and sales.

In addition to the blog, we just became partners with an integrated software company. This software enables us to provide even higher quality services to our clients by offering:

There are so many feasible social networking sites available for business owners today. Sometimes it’s hard to cut through the clutter and determine which site would be the right one to use for your business.

Google+ has been around for a while now and has made headlines in most publications across the country.  In addition to having a personal account, you now can have a business page where you can showcase all of your company’s products or services to your online community.

Currently, there are millions of people on Google+ every day. You’ll also find many of the social media early adopters on there with poignant thoughts and thought provoking content.  Some of the folks you’ll find on Google+ include: Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan and Robert Scoble  (You’ll also find me, Hilary Topper!)

Google+ is a lot like Facebook in that you have status updates and you can tag your friends in posts and in photos. It’s also much easier to send out a group message to several people than it is in Facebook.

What’s nice about Google+ is that it links all of your Google documents including Gmail, Google calendar, Google alerts and even YouTube!  It’s a social networking site that you really don’t have to leave if you don’t want to.  Everything is right there at your fingertips.

Many people ask me how best to use Google+. Here are five tips for business owners:

Use the Hangouts
Hangouts are online video chatting. You can have up to 10 people on a call at one time. This makes things very interactive and personal, especially if you are interested in giving a short seminar or demo. It may even work well with staff around the country for a weekly staff meeting.

Remember You Need a Gmail Account
In order to get started you need to open a legitimate Gmail account.  This will be your user name as well.

Circles are Cool
Remember to organize your friends and acquaintances into circles.  This way you can target a specific group with every post.

Use Lots Of Photos
Photos do well on Google+.  People seem to respond and comment more on photos.

Use the What’s Hot Tab
This will give you your latest news of the day and things that are trending.  It’s a really useful tool. In addition to that, if you want to follow a certain industry, Google+ makes it easy. How so?

I would strongly suggest getting on Google+ and giving it a try. I think you may like it better than some of the other social networking sites out there today.

At its core, Flickr is a website that offers an easy way to upload, tag and share your photos. Its simplicity, services and results attract a wide range of users, from beginners to professionals. With that said, small business owners are obviously eyeing Flickr as a way to market their companies. There are rules and regulations against using Flickr to “exploit for any commercial purposes,” but you can incorporate Flickr into your small business in creative and fun ways!

Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO, has become a term many business owners fear. Whether it’s a lack of understanding or simply apathy, many don’t see the point behind SEO. However, in an ever-changing digital landscape, it is extremely important to remain competitive. SEO can be a direct driver of web traffic and in turn, help you build your business.

The first panel I attended at South By Southwest was called, “11 Reasons Why QR Codes Aren't Engaging Their Customers.” David Wachs of CellIt was the presenter. He made a good case stating that QR Codes actually do suck and I agreed. Here's what he said:

11. QR Codes make accessing simple content very difficult
Why? App didn’t work, code didn't scan, didn’t have an app downloaded, took too long to open, etc.


10. QR Codes stop mobile phones from being mobile
Users have to stop moving, find the app, open the app, scan the code – defeats the purpose of mobile phones.

9. QR Codes remove brand recognition/association
When a customer takes the time to type or text a brand name they are reinforcing your brand. QR codes have no branding and if done incorrectly, people don’t even know where the code is taking them.