Erin Tillotson

Business Alliances vs Joint Ventures

April 27, 2012 By Erin Tillotson 2 Comments

I recently watched this video with Janet Attwood where she introduces a notion of business alliances. I love this idea and will definitively be going forward with this!

Watch this short video as Janet shares 5 essentials to business alliances and how they’re so much more powerful than affiliate and joint ventures for your business.

I can’t wait to learn all the juicy details from Janet at Internet Prophets LIVE in Chicago. Want to join me, and grab a cup of coffee together? Check out this awesome event and see you there!

Filed Under: DIY Marketing, Events, Internet Marketing Tagged With: Internet Marketing Conference Chicago, Internet Prophets LIVE, Janet Attwood, Steve Olsher

Pinterest for the Social Entrepreneur

April 10, 2012 By Erin Tillotson Leave a Comment

Are you Pinning yet? Or are you thinking “Another social network to keep up with!” I feel your pain. Just as we’re getting used to the changes on Facebook we have a completely new network to try and work into our busy lives.

But hear me out on this one. I‘m really loving this pinning stuff, you can check out all my pins. It’s not just business and branding but I really get to see a new side of everyone and learn about them in a different way.

This is such a powerful new network for entrepreneurs and is driving a ton of traffic to websites right now. The network already has over 10 million users, of which about 97 percent are women (via AppData and Facebook).

So all this excitement, now what can you do and how can you do it? Let’s look at a few cool ways to start using Pinterest.

Creating Your Pin Boards
Your account will come with a few pre-made pin boards. I changed most of the titles to be more in line with my personality, you can do this too if you’d like. Then add some new boards as well, do you like quotes? Consider creating a board based around your industry. Let’s look at an example, gardening. You can create a board with beautiful garden pictures and layouts. Even a funnies board, with some oops pictures. Another valuable board would be based around your business and valuable information. Consider a portfolio, featuring some of your work, or a training area where you can feature great blog posts and videos.

The objective here is to have several areas you can pin a variety of content to. You will be pinning your content and others, so keep that in mind when you title the boards. You can always add more boards as you need or change the ones you have.

Start Pinning
Once you have your boards setup let’s add some images! You can do a search in the top left corner. Type in something around your industry and start browsing for images to add to your board. You don’t have to spend too much time just enough to have some content on your profile (you don’t want to invite people to connect to a blank profile!).

Next let’s add the Pin It button to your browser. This will allow you to pin content from any web page while you’re browsing the web. Go the Goodies page on Pinterest and follow their instructions, really easy promise!

Once you have that installed you can visit your business website and pin a few pages from there. Items to consider:

A few recent blog posts (that have images of course)
If you have a portfolio section I recommend pinning a few pictures from that page
An optin page, if you have a great graphic on one of your optin pages pin it!

Don’t pin your entire website right away. Adding content over the next few weeks and staying in front of your new connections will be more valuable in the long run.

Remember, each image you pin will link back to the page you’re pinning from. If you pin an image from your portfolio website page and someone clicks on your image via the Pinterest website they will be directed to the portfolio page on your website! Cool right?

Finding People to Follow
Once you have your boards up and a few pictures pinned let’s see about adding some followers and starting your network. Keep in mind while you’re following people that they match your target client or market.

One of the easiest ways to find people is to look up your Facebook friends. To do this go to the top right corner and click on “Find Friends” from the drop down menu. You’ll be taken to a page were you can see what Facebook friends are already on Pinterest. You can click Follow All, or go through and only follow specific people.

Next you can search for thought leaders in your industry and mentors. These are great people to connect with!

You’ve got the basics setup, now what?
Something I do when I join new social networks is I leave the email reminders on. Why would I want to clutter my already crazy inbox? Well, this helps me remember to go back and check these new people following me. It helps me see what content I’m posting is most popular so I can do more of that. I can see when people are commenting on my posts and reply back to them. All in all, it helps me get in the groove of the network.

Next, add some time on your schedule to test and play on this new network. Maybe 10 minutes at the end of the before you shut down the computer. In these 10 minutes you can:

See what’s being pinned and re-pin some content.
Follow new people each day, set a goal – say maybe 10 people
Comment on some content you find interesting or have insights on
Pin a few more items from your website

Start slow and see if this is a network that fits your business. If you love it, stick with it and put a plan into place for using it. If you chose to stay active on Pinterest be sure to add the pin it button to your website! So Pinterest users can share your content with their friends. Then add your profile button with your other social media links so people can follow you.

Are you going to start Pinning? Share your links with me below, I’d love to connect!

Filed Under: Social Media

5 Social Media Foundations for the Busy Entrepreneur

April 1, 2012 By Erin Tillotson Leave a Comment

We’ve all been there, yes even me! Where you feel like you’ve spent nearly all day on Facebook or Twitter yet you haven’t accomplished a darn thing. That’s the worst feeling!

Now wouldn’t it be great to log into Facebook or Twitter spend about 10 or 15 minutes on each site and really connect with people and build your authority? I’m going to share 5 foundations you can start putting into place today that will save you hours every week.

Delegate – there are definitely tasks you can outsource to a trained professional. You don’t want to outsource your personality of course. But consider tasks that need to be done, but not by you personally. Let’s take a look a few ideas: weekly or monthly post scheduling, customer service questions to your profiles, JV or affiliate requests, posting events and inviting friends and fans, and inbox management.
Boundaries – put in place specific rules for yourself, and your team if it applies. If you put some delegation into place be sure there are clear guidelines in place so both you and your team are clear on what needs to be handled and how it is to be handled so nothing falls between the cracks. What does that mean? If you have a professional scheduling your social media posts, have a process in place were its clear when the content will be given to them, how will it be provided (I personally love to use Google Docs for team collaboration) and how will all this be tracked. Perhaps your team is also handling customer service and inbox management; should requests be handled online or should the prospect be directed to email – or will it be a combo? In what cases should email be necessary? How often is your team to check your inbox for messages, maybe once a week? Are they to forward them to you for review, or respond to some if possible and keep you in the loop with a weekly update?
Lists – create several lists for your accounts to save time everyday. On Facebook you can create Friend Lists, I have quite a few of these in place. Here’s some ideas to get you started; a list for thought leaders, one for close friends and family, a list of joint ventures, and possibly a list of Facebook pages you want to closely follow.
On Twitter you can have lists as well. I have both public (these lists are visible on my profile) and private (I am the only one who can see these) lists. You can have lists very similar to the ones I just listed for Facebook. Once you have the lists in place be sure to start using them. I save a TON of time by using these more often then scrolling down the live home feeds of each network.
Vetting – this is a big time saver for me. This is a big one! I use Social Oomph to vet all new Twitter followers, and actually this is a task I have my assistant help me with. When someone new follows me the system does not follow the person back right away. Instead it places everyone in a queue for me to review. I review this list Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If the person appears to be a spammer or does not have a profile picture, or for another specific reason I choose not to follow them. Everyone else I chose to follow. This helps to keep my network completely targeted!
I do something similar with Facebook, when I receive a friend request I do not simply hit accept. I go to the person’s profile and see who they are and what they’re interests are. If we have something in common then I can approve, otherwise if I don’t find something of common interest I will likely not accept. For me personally I want people to connect with my fan page over my personal profile.
Targeted Audience – nothing can waste more time then questions or concerns from people that are not your ideal client. You want your message to reach the right people, and have a meaningful impact on their life or business. By maintaining a targeted audience your message will have a much greater impact on your connections and they will likely share it with their connections!

Start working on at least two of these items this week. And put the other items on your calendar to work on as well. Once you have these 5 foundations in place you will see time wasting dwindle down to almost nothing.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: heart centered entrepreneurs, Social Media, social media marketing

6 Steps To Prepare For a Newsletter

March 6, 2012 By Erin Tillotson Leave a Comment

As some of you know I launched my new monthly newsletter theme this year, Socially Savvy (grab your subscription to the top right, and get my special report). I’ve had a blast on the last few issues! While prepping for this year I thought, now here’s a great blog post! So here we go, a few must do’s to prepare for your newsletter.

How?
What system are you going to use to distribute your newsletter? When you’re searching for a provider for your business you may want to “date” a few before you commit. Most companies are offering a trial period for a low cost that will let you check out the inter workings. I recommend you sign up for a few that you have been considering and play around with the system. Then you’ll have more information to make an educated decision. Two systems that I recommend are 1ShoppingCart and Aweber.

Template
I’m sure you’ve seen a wide range of ideas from businesses you follow. Some you love, some not so much. Think about what fits you and your business best. You are the person who is going to have to keep up with this every month…so be sure you love it! Also consider the amount of content you plan on sharing every month. If you have too many content pieces to keep up with frustration may set in. Love your layout and be excited about the content you’re going to share with everyone.

Video Newsletter
There are some awesome video newsletters out there right now, I love Marie Forleo’s! If you’re comfortable with video this could be really fun and engaging for your peeps.

When?
How often do you want to publish a newsletter, once a week or once a month? Think about the amount of time this take from your schedule. Be sure you can commit that time to creating quality content.

Publishing Calendar
Once you’ve worked out what you want in each issue and how often you’re publishing it, consider creating a publishing calendar. Plan long term and make the commitment. Do you want to hold a spot for affiliate opportunities? Factor in any launches you have planned and think about all the other content you have going out on the internet. Everything you publish should work together in harmony.

Spontaneous Moments
Ah yes, don’t forget those times when you have a light bulb moment and have to share something with your list. Have a simple template in your email system where you can plop in some yummy message and send it off! Simple, stress-free and easy…that’s what you’ll need