Albert Einstein was not only a great theoretical physicist and scientist, he was a philosopher whose ideas and theories still ring true today. He's one of my personal heroes. One of my most favorite quotes of his is this, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
So here we are on the first workday of 2010. Its 5:44 am and I'm already doing things differently. I've dedicated my first hour of the day to my blog and will continue to do so as many days as I can this year. You're going to be hearing a lot more from me this year. I hope you'll stick around.
For me, blogging is a form of corporate therapy. It helps me think about things that have been on my mind lately and gives me a place to put my ideas into solid form. It also helps me to share ideas with my fellow business owners which might have an impact or help you see things differently too.
Without further ado, I'm going to share with you my own personal list of what I'm going to be doing differently this year at Bella Web Design, Inc. TM
- Blogging daily to help my thought process flow, share great ideas with others and help build our Bella Buzz audience to over 5,000 subscribers this year.
- Publishing a weekly newsletter instead of quarterly. This will keep our clients posted on what we're doing over here that might be helpful to their business. New services and clients will be featured in the newsletter as well as advice, quick tips and software/hardware reviews. If you want to subscribe by all means click here. We'd love to add you to our list!
- Pulling back from social media conferences. There, I've said it. Last year, I learned some hard lessons from 4 major Atlanta social media conferences I attended. The biggest thing that stuck out to me was small business owners weren't there. Most small businesses are just learning about social media. When it comes to learning about social media, people want a personal touch, not necessarily another conference. My audience is attending personalized webinars and one-on-one sessions with trusted advisers. They don't have time for conferences where the back noise channel is the most entertaining distraction in the room when the presentations get too technical and boring. or worse, totally off-topic and self-promotional. They want real, practical and personal advice on how to use these tools which can be a little scary at times. Business owners have told me they want solid information about how social media applies to their day to day business, not just theories of application. Not every tool works for every business. That's why I'm here--to guide and share practical, personalized information and I'm glad certain circumstances pointed that out to me last year.
- Hosting monthly webinars in which people can share and learn on their own time and in their own space. Webinars are great because you can attend them from anywhere you wish as long as you have a computer and a phone. You also don't have to get dressed up. Heck, if you're in your pjs (as I am right now) no one will know. They are also easy to host using tools like WebEx. We plan on sharing some great information this year and practical advice that you can really use in your business the very same day. Stay tuned.
- The Bella Buzz podcast is going live! We're going to do a monthly video webcast from Forrester Media Studios where our audience can be involved as we broadcast live through tools like Twitter, email and Facebook. We're very excited about this new venture and will be taping our first show this month. Video is where things have moved as we've talked about earlier this year. Our podcast is almost 1 year old in March and we thought it was time to stir things up a bit. Again, doing things differently. You'll still be able to find Joe Magennis and myself here every week on our audio podcast (subscribe with iTunes so you don't miss an episode). This will just enhance the show a bit and make things more interesting. We want to get our audience more involved this year and we hope this will help us accomplish that goal. Our subscriber base is over 1,000 strong and we thank all of you who believe in what we're doing and have shared your enjoyment with us of the podcast. Hope you'll "watch!"
- Sticking to the knitting web design. At the core of every online marketing campaign still lives a website. Its easy to get off track with all the shiny free social media and marketing tools we have and put our efforts there while ignoring our websites. I've seen this happen a lot this past year and we're just as guilty. We're a web design company and we always will be. People still need great websites which enhance their business and tell their story. That's what we do best. We'll always look for great enhancements for our client's sites like this nifty toolbar which allows visitors to share their site on many social networks, but all in all, it comes down to what message your website is sending both its visual message as well as the written content. People will check out your site eventually from LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any other of the most popular networks. Do you like what its telling them? If not, its time to contact a web design company which understands good use of visuals and has writers on staff to craft a great message for your company.
