And then little by little we noticed some of the “specialness”, the “uniqueness” that we had grown to love start to minimize.  As a fellow business owner, I could understand they needed more structure if they wanted to grow.  Some of the changes we noticed included things like instead of being greeted/hugged by the owner, we started getting received by a “manager” who was not friendly or warm and who didn’t treat us with any  familiarity, even though we were coming in once every couple weeks sometimes with 5 or 6 additional people.  No more free flowing wine – the “manager” now made sure everything got accounted for on your bill.  The staff was so busy there wasn’t as much chit chat between them and the customers which created a different vibe between the customers themselves.  There started to be more formality and seriousness to the place.  Logically it made sense what they were doing as they grew – just emotionally it didn’t feel right.

So getting back to the other night when we went back, I could no longer relate to why I liked (see I can’t even say love anymore) this place so much.  All of a sudden it was generic and like so many other restaurants in our area.

It made me start to wonder how many times this happens in everyday business.  When you are just starting out, your business is special, unique – it has soul.  Then as you grow and scale, little by little, that uniqueness starts to dissipate.  Your business begins to lose it’s “point of view” and start to look like – or probably better said “feel” like- everyone else.  The things that made your business get noticed and start to generate “buzz” are the very things you begin to standardize and systematize.

The dilemma becomes can you grow a business without giving up it’s soul?  Can you scale and add processes and organization and all the things everyone says you need to do without taking away the personal attention, the extra perks, the friendliness and all the very things that made is special in the first place?

I don’t know, can you?

1. They have morning rituals that they consistently follow.  They don’t wake up and react to the day. Rather they create each day exactly as they want to.  They have found that starting the day with a powerful ritual is an easy way to begin a cycle of results.
2. They all read and learn voraciously.  Books, Newspapers, Blogs, Trade Journals, White Papers, TED Talks, etc.  Sometimes this reading, especially of newspapers and blogs, is part of their morning ritual. They read to learn from the experts, to challenge themselves, to improve thinking, to find other perspectives, to cross pollinate ideas.  And of course for pleasure sometimes too.
3. They get mentored and coached.  They use personal business coaches/advisors or are part of organizations where they get get honest feedback from their peers.   Sometimes they have both.  (Examples of organizations: Vistage, Entrepreneurs Organization, YPO.)  They have good support structures from people outside their organization who help challenge them as well as deal with challenges plus hold them accountable for what they say they want.

Want to understand the Financial Crisis? Take a lesson From Stan in Southpark.

Wish you had more effective communication skills?  Learn from the best –  Triumph the Insult dog

While you and I have been busy spending time and money trying to change, and usually failing, scientists have been busy trying to figure out what actually works. And now they know:

1. Small steps work.
2. Consistent effort works.
3. Support from peers works.

That’s it. Three things. Set a goal and in small consistent steps work to reach it. Get support from peers when you start running out of steam. Rinse and Repeat. You will change.

Science has proven that if you want to change your life and you apply these three steps to any goal – you will be successful. You now know the secret to success, otherwise known as the goal process. So what’s next?
3 Steps: (easy to describe, incredibly difficult to do)

1. Accept that people following the goals process accomplish more. Your effort pays off.
2. Choose wisely. Pick from among the many things you want to achieve and are willing to do the work to achieve.
3. Stick with the program. Do it every single day until you’re done or until you realize that you don’t actually want the thing you said you wanted.

The results of hundreds of studies on individuals and groups who have been through the goals process are clear: it works. The studies won’t matter if you’re not willing to accept the uncomfortable steps you’ll need to go through to get started.  The steps you don’t want to do – unless you want to achieve your goal:

• Write down your dream list. Without censoring yourself, make a list of anything you think you would like to be, do or have. Anything. (scratch off anything illegal or that defies the laws of physics)
• The Why. For the items that remain, write down what’s in it for you and the people you care about if you reach this goal. If you can’t come up with something, cross it off.
• Balance your goals. Make sure your goals fall into various aspects of your life. (i.e. career, family, financial, mental, physical, social, spiritual). If you are too heavily weighted in one area, you may want to rethink the list.

From your list pick only 3 you are going to start with and do the following exercise for each:

• Goal #1
• Benefits from reaching this goal
• Skills or knowledge required to reach this goal.
• Major obstacles you will face.
• Individuals and organizations needed to help you.
• Plan for reaching this goal

If you stick with it for 60 days, you will be amazed. Unbelievable success is available to all of us, if we are willing to follow a simple process.
*The steps and content from this article came from Zig Ziglar’s Legendary Goals Program, Updated and Simplified by Seth Godin, available on Amazon.com

Beta-think, as you probably surmised, is a software industry term. Software companies always launch beta versions, sometimes called version 1.0. They don’t wait to launch a perfect product but purposely launch a rudimentary product. There could be lots of reasons why they do this, but the main one is because of the “one more thing” syndrome. You know the syndrome. The “let’s add this one last feature before we launch” syndrome. This results in a launch date that gets delayed a week, then a month, then a year and before you know it your competitor comes out with a better version of your idea. Sound familiar?

When you implement beta think, you know you are going to launch the product in an imperfect state and then sometime thereafter launch the next version and then the next one.

Beta-think works with more than technology products though. You can apply it to anything and everything: fashion, restaurants, websites, seminars, etc. Once you realize that you are never finished, you open up new possibilities. Technology companies make their beta versions highly coveted under the conditions that users provide feedback. Apple and Google are known for this. They iterate really quickly and people forget about the mistakes in the beta version and instead have a lot of respect for how quickly they make it better.

Once you take the fear of imperfection out of the equation in your organization, creativity, innovation and the great strategy you talked about can flourish.

Matt Mullenweg, creator of WordPress said this: “You can never fully anticipate how an audience is going to react to something you’ve created until it’s out there. That means every moment you’re working on something without it being in the public it’s actually dying, deprived of the oxygen of the real world.”

Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? describes it perfectly, “Beta-think says that we can make what we do ever better because we are never done, never satisfied, always seeking ways to improve by working in public.”

I could say more about this and I’m certain say it better, but in the spirt of beta-think, I’m ready to hear from you. So I finish how I started: Are you Implementing Beta-Think? What are you waiting for?

It also made me think about what I wish I would’ve known if I were in their shoes today. Here are the key 5 things I came up with to get the most out of your college experience:

1. Take advantage of everything around you.  Take in new, different experiences.  Check out art exhibits, film festivals, music events, the circus.  FSU, as do most universities, has over 500 different organizations so there is always something new and exciting to experience.  Make it your mission to try something new every week at least.  You won’t regret it and you may learn something new about yourself.
2. Spark other areas of your brain.  You are at a great learning institution.  Don’t just take classes because you have to.  Take an extra class every so often just because it sounds interesting.  If you are in business, take an acting or art class.  If you are a music major, take a marketing class.  If you’re a math major, take a literature class or fashion design class.  Spark other areas of your brain.
3. Interact with your professors, deans, faculty and staff.  They are there because they want to help guide you.  Schedule some time every week to chit chat and pick their brain.  They are invaluable resources to you not only while you are in school but also as you embark on your career path and beyond.  Form those relationships now.
4. Start a business while you are in college.  Any business.  You are in a safe and supportive environment and this will be one of the best learning experiences you have plus you can make some money.  Again, it doesn’t matter what your major is.  Just do it.
5. Lastly, view your experience here as a lab.  Everything is an experiment.  Play, have fun and enjoy the experience.  It will be over before you know it.  Don’t take it all so seriously.  Do your best but also pay attention to what you like and, just as important, what you don’t like.  These are good life clues that will help you know yourself better which equips you with the tools to create a life that taps into your passions and strengths vs. just doing something because that’s what one of your parents did or it sounds good on paper.

How much time should I be spending on my magnet program each month?

It is less about how much time you spend on your magnet program and more about how engaged you are with the program. The more engaged you are with your program and your BCN team, the more successful your program will be. If you can’t answer yes to each of these questions, it is probably a clue you are not engaged enough:

• Are you reviewing your Inbound Marketing Report each month?
• Do you know how many visitors your magnets are attracting, what your average time on site is and your average bounce rate?
• Are you sharing with us what is working on your main site that we can replicate?
• Are you letting us know what is working in your offline marketing efforts that we can learn from?
• Are you reviewing at least 5 or 10 of your magnet sites each month and providing us with ideas on how to continually improve the content to build trust with your visitors?

What should my bounce rate be? How can I improve my bounce rate?

Let’s make sure we all understand what bounce rate is. Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page. A high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by making sure you tailor the content on your entrance pages to what the visitor is expecting to see based on the domain name and tag line. Landing pages should provide the information and services that are promised.

So back to what should your bounce rate be? We use 70% as a guideline. To us, anything above 70% means your content is scaring your visitors away. Our goal is to continually improve content and conversion strategies month after month on your magnet program to achieve average bounce rates below 60%.

What’s the difference between a magnet site, a micro-site and a landing page?

• A Magnet Site uses a domain name that represents how a prospect would be looking for you (i.e. popular logical semantic words). That combined with relevant, authoritative content that relates to that domain name as well as specific conversion opportunities (banners, downloads, lead request) make a magnet site. The goal of a magnet site is to attract visitors that are looking for you using the main criteria that search engines use to index and rank sites (i.e. domain name, content, and relevant links). Magnet sites combine some of the elements of a Microsite and Landing Page.
• A Microsite (sometimes known as a mini-site) generally refers to a small website that is the off-shoot of its parent website. It is considered a separate entity as it may present different information and even have a different URL. This would normally be linked from the home page. Many times the information on a micro site is duplicated from the main site. The url could be a specific brand or event of the parent website company. For instance an art gallery might create a microsite for a specific exhibit they are showcasing.
• A Landing Page is a website page designed to capture a visitor’s information through a lead form. A landing page can be the home page of your website but a good landing page will be targeted to a particular stream of traffic – i.e. from an email campaign advertising a particular white paper or event. Landing pages are very targeted and have an interesting offer which can only be taken advantage of by filling out a lead capture form. The goal of a Landing Page is to convert visitors into leads with which you can follow up.

Hopefully this clears it up for you as well as provides information on the role Magnet Sites, Microsites and Landing Pages play in your overall digital marketing campaign.

What are the different types of magnet sites I can have in my program?

• Generic Magnet Site – A generic Magnet Site does not have your company or brand represented on it. It is a combination of automatic feeds as well as specific unique content on a particular topic. These generic Magnet Sites can be used for a variety of purposes. The simplest purpose is as a test to see if that domain name generates an audience and drives specific actions. It could also be a discussion board where initially you just want to create a conversation without any “advertising” or “sponsors” on the sites. It could also be used to test various content before you associate your company or brand with it (i.e. a new product or service idea, a competitor product that you want to get some feedback on, etc.). It could also be a great survey or polling site. The possibilities are endless.
• Company sponsored Magnet Site – These are our most popular types of magnets, especially at the beginning of a program. These sites are independent information/resource destinations that have your company or brand represented on them as a sponsor but are not viewed as company owned sites by the audience. A comparison would be like going to the http://news.yahoo.com/ where there are all types of news sources with various sponsors represented via links, banner ads, articles, videos, etc.
• Company branded Magnet Site - These sites are branded with your logo and colors. Visitors on these sites assume you own and are responsible for the site and all the content provided on it.

What are the different types of things that I should be doing on my magnet sites?

There are a lot of different things you can do on a magnet site – just not all at once though. Here are the most common elements to include:

• Blogroll – bring in outside, frequently updated content from the blogosphere
• RSS feeds – syndicated content from specific trade or industry sources
• Unique Content – articles, faqs, case studies, tips, how to lists, etc.
• Videos – video channel
• Banner Ads
• Contact Us Button(s)
• Lead Capture Form (Sign up for something, daily deal alert, newsletter, etc.)
• Downloads – carrots, motivators, freebies
• Sign up for Webinars
• Discussion Board
• Ability to post comments/ask questions
• Testimonials
• LivePerson (LiveChat)

How often should I be adding new content to my magnet sites?

We believe you should be testing something new every month on a portion of your magnet sites. We also believe that once we find something that is working, whether it is on your main site or one of your magnet sites, we should replicate it to your other magnet sites. Conversely, if we find that something isn’t working – let’s change it. So the answer is monthly.

I have some magnet sites that are doing really well and are consistently in the top 10 performers for my magnet program. How can I leverage this?

There are many ways to leverage your top performers. One way is to convert your magnet site from a generic or company sponsored magnet site to a company branded magnet site. These sites also are prime candidates to convert to a more robust microsite or in some cases a complete website.

When should I add more sites to my magnet program?

The simple answer is when you want to capture a larger audience. Once you begin having success with conversions and have determined what causes your audience to take desired actions, adding to your magnet program is a cost effective way to leverage that. More magnets = larger audience = more conversion opportunities.

To discuss any of these questions in more detail or to add a question of your own, please contact me at wendy@bigcustomernetwork.com. I hope you found this helpful. Thanks!

1. Start small and steady. Commit to 15 minutes per day exploring, learning and getting engaged with social media.
2. Pick a topic you care and know something about. It can be work-related or not.
3. Explore that topic on Google Blog Search, Alltop and Technorati. Check out as many blogs as you can and experience firsthand several valuable resources for discovering blogs.
4. Experience what makes each blog that intrigues you unique. Is it the tone of the article? Is it the images used? What do you notice in the sidebar? Are there interesting links to other resources? What kinds of comments do you notice?
5. Pick five blogs and subscribe to them. You can do so via e-mail updates or RSS (or Really Simple Syndication) in a feed reader, such as Google Reader.
6. Leave a comment. When you receive your updates, click on the title link that takes you back to the source blog and leave a comment. Ideally, your comment should add insight to the blog post (often referred to as the conversation).
7. Explore your topic on YouTube. What do you find? Pay attention to the titles and the descriptions of the videos that come up in search results.
8. Explore your topic on Twitter using http://search.twitter.com. What do you find? Click on the links to evaluate their worth. Click on the pictures to learn more about the person “tweeting.” Which words generate useful results?
9. If you have an account on LinkedIn, see if your topic comes up in LinkedIn Answers and LinkedIn Groups. What do you observe?
10. If you have an account on Facebook, see if your topic comes up in Facebook search. What do you observe?

Rinse and repeat until you feel comfortable.