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Managing your email can take up a large chuck of time if you don't have the right tools and policies in place.  If you find yourself spending too much time sorting through email and even missing important messages then you need to evaluate your email management approach.  It doesn't take a degree in rocket science to tame the email beast but it does take the right tools and a little thought.

Start with a good email client.  We recommend Mozilla's free Thunderbird program.  It has a great interface, plenty of add-ons (like calendar) and it's FREE.  Check it out at Mozilla.org

More and more people are using yahoo or Gmail to manage email.  you can pull in your domain based email address right in to their online format and manage all of your emails right there.  The pro to going this route is that you can access your email from any computer you can connect to the internet with.  We recommend gmail if you go this route.

As for email management, our number one tip is to set up folders to help you organize your messages.  Create a To Do folder and drop any message that requires follow up in to that folder so you don't mess around and forget to handle something.

Here is an article that has a lot of great information in it for managing your email.  Take a look at it and be sure to share your own tips and tricks.

How to Organize Your E-mail Inbox

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Social Media is the hottest trend in marketing.  If you're not already using it for your business in some capacity you're at least thinking about it.  Right?

For this particular discussion let's look specifically at the use of Facebook.  Facebook is definitely one of the most convienant ways to reach your customers but it is also one of the easiest ways to alienate them too.  If you try to use Facebook as a traditional marketing avenue you could run the risk of annoying your customers rather than endearing them.

Simply put, think of Facebook as a tool for building your relationship with your customers and potential customers.  Every good business relationship is built on trust.  You can use your Facebook page to share information about your business, offer industry related tips and tutorials and ultimately build trust in you.  When you do that, you are much more likely to get the attention of the people that choose to follow you on facebook.  If, on the other hand, your Facebook page is just a running ad that tries to stuff your product or service down the throats of your followers... well, we all know what happens then.  They tune out.

My advice for the day ... look at the Facebook pages that you follow.  Which ones do you like?  Which do you dislike?  Are there any that you pay more attention to than others?  If so, why?  Learn from your own experiences on Facebook and then follow suit with your own approach.  Test the waters and be patient.  Good things come with time and diligence and the use of social media as a marketing tool is no exception to that rule.

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Has your life been touched by Cancer?  I think most of us would sadly have to answer yes to that question.  Because of that reality, we have joined a Relay for Life team this year and will be doing our part to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

What is The Relay For Life? "The American Cancer Society Relay For Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. At Relay, teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events up to 24 hours in length." http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/whatisrelay

This year we will celebrate, remember and fight back as a member of the State Farm Relay for Life team.  We will raise funds to support the quest to find a cure.

In honor of our commitment to Relay for Life we will donate all proceeds from our SEO Analysis Plan in the month of March to our team fundraising efforts. 
You can help raise money for the cause and help yourself at the same time!  If you have considered working on your websites SEO practices an Analysis Plan is the perfect place to start and now it is also the perfect way to help celebrate, remember and fight back too.

God bless and please support the American Cancer Society or your preferred cancer research charitable organization.

Everyone wants to be #1.  But does everyone want to be #1 for the right thing?

Search Engine Optimization is important if you want to get the most out of your website.  The more traffic you have, the more likely you are to increase revenue.  Lots of businesses (mistakenly) think that means that they need to rank high for the most basic of terms in their industry.  Wrong!  All traffic is not good traffic.

Let's say you have a website selling pet supplies.  When someone searches for the word "pet", do you really want to be #!!  Probably not. Why?  Because it's too loose and they probably aren't looking to buy what you're selling anyway.

Think like YOUR customer.  The customer that is looking to buy what you have to sell.  Wouldn't you rather rank #1 (or at least top 10) for the phrase "custom dog collars"? (if you sell custom dog collars that is)  Now there's a customer who might actually buy from you!

So ... when you are working on your SEO plan, the first thing you need to do is determine what your targeted key word "phrase" is and shoot for that.  If your product or service is geographically connected, include your geographic area.  For example, "lawyers in Florida" or "Plumbers in Bay County".

Make sure the keyword phrase you've chosen is well represented in your website.  Want some help figuring out how well your website is measuring up for your targeted keyword phrase?  Get an SEO Analysis done today.  It's just $39.95 and it will give you the direction you need to rank Top 10 for your targeted keywords.

Afterall, your website should work as hard as you do!  Contact Us Now...

You've read all the great articles that tell you that Social Media is the way to promote your business.   Yeah, yeah... we all know it but how do you really use it and how much time will it take to do it right?  (right is the operative word - lots of people do it wrong or half hearted and that's easy.  Doing it right, not so much.)

I promote the use of Social Media as a format for promoting your business and yet at the same time I, myself, struggle with keeping up with using it "right".  Time is the biggest barrier.  It's not cost.  Social media is one of the few things business related that are free or nearly free but... there is a payout for everything.  I don't know about you, but my time is more valuable to me than my dollars.  Can I really afford to spend so much time on Social Media.  Just figuring out a good strategy is time consuming!  GAH!!

With this challenge always on my mind, I found a recent article at mashable.com of particular interest.  A well written piece, it outlines the way that a successful small business uses Social Media to support, enhance and grow their business.  I found the article compelling and I hope you will too.  Please take the time to really read it and understand the effort that this company has put into their Social Media strategy.  See how they use various mediums to achieve various goals, who is charged with managing the tasks and what it has done for them.

I'm impressed with the company and I find myself wanting to model myself after them.  Now if I can just find the time...

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http://mashable.com/2010/02/04/social-media-helps-small-business/

Kudos to Leah Betancourt!  Nicely done.