We talked about giveaways, where you try and target to a specific audience that is interested in your product. Remember, if you plan on doing anything with the information you collect, disclose it when people sign up for the contest. Now, what are you going to do with all of the contacts you get from the giveaway?
Hopefully, you thought of that and asked people to opt-in to receive future communications from you about your products and services. I highly recommend an opt-in program, rather than expecting people to remember to opt out, or worse, forcing them to agree to future …read more

Giveaways. Contests. You see them all the time. But are they effective? I guess it depends on what is being given away. If it’s something I might like, or want to try without investing a lot of money, then yes. But I also wonder whether people only enter contests because they like free stuff, or because they actually want or like the product being offered.
For example, I received some eco-friendly scrubbers and a bamboo dish towel at a party. I wasn’t expecting them, but as I looked closely, I realized it was something I want to try. And if they …read more

In the last article for my column, I shared how you should and could obtain customer feedback to help you as a business owner determine how to meet the needs of your cutomers. The article was entitled, “Do You Know Your Customers“, and it shared different ways you can obtain feedback from your customers.
In this article, I want to share suggestions of what you can do with the customer feedback once you have collected it. Make sure when you collect your customer feedback that you setup a tracking system because it can help you quantify and qualify your customer feedback.
The …read more

“If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always gotten – the same result.” That is the definition of insanity and in this insane economy, you better have some relative sanity to combat the foolishness. Whether you are employed or unemployed, creativity and out of box thinking should become your favorite companions.
For those of you who are employed, you must be focused on preparation and planning. What will you do, if your job was gone tomorrow? Everything looks great today. No layoffs or very few in your organization. Everyone seems relatively happy despite the economy. …read more

I was visiting Linkedin this afternoon and saw a link to this site iHispano.com. This site is focused on Connecting Latinos to great jobs. There is a tremendous amount of information on this site, from job boards, to career advice, and interview tips. “Since 1999, iHispano is commited to promoting Hispanic Employment and networking opportunities through its partnerships with leading Hispanic organizations and corporate clients.”
One of the resources on the site is a S.T.A.R. Story Worksheet.
S.T.A.R. Story Worksheet

S = Situation
T = Task
A = Actions you took
R = Results delivered

Situation:
 

Where:
 

When:
 

Who else was involved from your team or people who were impacted:

One …read more