Get Social - Bellwether Q3Y11

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BELLWETHER

Volume 2 | Issue 3 | Third Quarter 2011

Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 20112

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s Letter from the Editor 6

Leadership 7

Sales and Marketing 8

Cover Story 16

Book Report 18

Industry News 20

Customer Relationships 24

Human Resources 26

Work | Life | Balance 30

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5bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership

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LETTERFROMTHEEDITOR

BELLWETHERA Blytheco, LLC Magazine

Volume 2Third Quarter, 2011

www.blytheco.comwww.bellwethermagazine.com

STAFFEDITORApryl Hanson

CREATIVE DIRECTORGreg Went

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSAlicia AndersonDonna BaezaJoanne BlackGary DahlApryl HansonSusan McLainCortez NaPueBrian VellemureDawn WesterbergGeni Whitehouse

ADVERTISING SALESDori Fitch

SUBSCRIPTIONSwww.bellwethermagazine.comOr contact Dori Fitch - (800) 425-9843, Extension [email protected]

Bellwether Magazine is published by Blytheco, LLC with principal offices at:23161 Mill Creek RoadSuite 200Laguna Hills, CA 92653

If you wish to be removed from the mailing list or to add names to the mailing list, send your request, including name, business name, and mailing address to the above address or to [email protected]

This is a copyrighted publication and all articles herein are covered by this copyright. Any use of the content for commercial reasons or other form or reproduction of material herein is strictly prohibited without prior, written approval of Bellwether Magazine.

Scan the QR code to the left with your smart phone to view the Blytheco Social Media Guide or go to www.blytheco.com/socmed


Leading Social TeamsIn this day and age, we have to be prepared as managers and leaders to equip ourselves

with tools to be effective in an ever-growing social environment.

There are several misconceptions about hiring people that do not work where you work and how to manage them.1. MYTH:It’shardertomanagepeoplethatwork

remotelybecauseyoucan’t“see” them. How

often do you really stare at your employees while

they are working anyway? In reality, I find that

managing and leading employees that do not

reside in the same location easier. Why? Because

you can keep to what you should be managing,

and that is results. With remote employees, you

focus on the deliverables and all of the rest of the

stuff goes out the window.

2. MYTH: You can’t have a relationship with anemployeethatisn’tinyoursamelocation.With

today’s tools like Skype, GoToMeeting, and many

more, there are plenty of opportunities to engage

and interact with your employees. With my team,

we meet at least once a week as a team via group

Skype and I’ve gradually transitioned my one-on-

one meetings to Skype as well. This helps me truly

see how someone is doing, not just by what they

are saying, but by their facial expressions. With

today’s tools you can interact in a similar but more

productive way with your employees.

3. MYTH: You can’t be collaborative with teamsthatcan’tbeinthesameroomwitheachother. I beg to differ. I have one of the most collaborative

teams that I know and very few of us are in the same

office. So what do I use to keep them creative?

One, visual meetings like I mention above – but

then we can break and work on our own, come

back together to present what we’ve come up

with. Usually these types of meetings start with one

idea and lead to an even better one. Being able to

see each other is key. For one month we did our

meetings without being able to see each other

and the creativity level went down dramatically.

We also suffered from miscommunications that

month. Keeping your teams talking to each other

is important, as is allowing them to work through

their issues.

So what does it take from a leader’s perspective to keep

them creative and communicating and keep yourself

managing to results.

1. Setcleargoals. If the team understands the goals

at hand they can work better as a team (no matter

where they are) to achieve them.

2. When problems arise managing themaggressivelyandheadon–don’tsweepitemsunder the rug. When something happens that

needs addressing, address it quickly. Each moment

you let go by decreases the effectiveness you will

have as a leader to resolve the issue.

3. Get on the phone and talk to everyone oneon one. One-on-one time is the most important

time you can spend with your employees. Put it on

the calendar, make sure it is a regular occurrence,

and don’t move them. Your employees need to

know that you are there for them, and that you are

reachable and approachable. It should be their

time to bring up anything they want to discuss with

you and your time to coach.

4. Don’tresolveyourteam’sissuesforthem. Let

your teams work out their issues, and don’t get

excited about them. Focus them back to the goal

and how they are going to resolve issues to achieve

the goal at hand.

5. Rewardthemforthegoodtheydo. Employees,

whether virtual or in front of you, need to have

feedback on how they are doing. Make sure

feedback is early and often.

LEADERSHIPby Apryl Hanson


SALES&MARKETING

The fundamentals of business haven’t changed – but the tools and technology available to us and how we can (and will be forced to) accomplish fundamental business goals like “New Customer Acquisition” have.

I’ve attempted to illustrate my thoughts in the image below – called the AIPEE Pyramid.

So let’s examine each stage of the pyramid:

STAGE 1: ATTENTION For marketers, here is where we are casting our net far and wide. The key difference versus what we’ve traditionally done is that companies can no longer rely on “shouting” a message. The new goal is to provide something of value…something so valuable that folks who have never even heard of you or your brand want to share it with their friends. The content that you provide might be a public webcast, podcast, video, white paper, etc. The idea is to get something interesting and valuable in front of the eyes of some key influencers within your demographic.

STAGE 2: INTERACTIONYou’ve now garnered some attention, and have established a little bit of relational capital. Now is the time when some 1:1 interaction might take

place. Dialogue at this stage will vary – but the offline equivalent might be saying “Hi – how are you doing?” to someone while waiting for a drink at the bar on in the line at the bathroom at a networking event. There is a shared common interest, and we’ve just been presented with an opportunity for some dialogue in passing. We’ve just gained permission to continue the conversation.

STAGE 3: PERMISSIONWe have offered something of interest and value that the individuals have implicitly or explicitly asked to know more about us. Some examples of ways that this can manifest itself are:• Subscribing to our blog

• Inviting us to connect on a Social Network

• Giving us their contact information in exchange for a white paper, webinar, newsletter, free product sample or trial.

How do we create customers? And once we get them, how can we keep them?

Has any of this really changed with the rapid rise of Social Technologies?

Getting to R:The AIPEE Pyramid

by Brian Vellmure


STAGE 4: ENGAGEMENT:The two parties are fully engaged, figuratively “sitting on the same side of the table” and seriously exploring how they can help each other out. The company’s main goal is to understand in detail what their prospect is trying to accomplish, and either offer an existing solution from their offerings portfolio, or co-create with them a product or solution that helps them accomplish their goals.

STAGE 5: EXCHANGEWe’ve consistently added value over a series of interactions. We’ve established trust. We’ve now earned the right to ask for something. It might be a sale (Revenue). It might be a Referral. It might be a Recommendation. In some cases, it might be all three. We’ve successfully executed an R Value Exchange. But it doesn’t stop there…

Let’s dig a little more into the Value Exchange Retention Cycles and the potential response(s) of the customer at all stages in their journey up the pyramid.

1. The customer’s response to their journey upthepyramidHumans have always been social. We’ve always told our friends, family, acquaintances and business associates about our day, our experiences, our hopes and dreams, who we like and don’t like, etc.

What has changed is how many people we can tell things to in such a short amount of time. Social Technologies are an amplifier.

Good experiences get amplified – an exponential boost to your brand. Bad experiences, well, can spread like wildfire, and can do significant damage to your brand and reputation in a short amount of time. But really, this isn’t new either. Bad PR stories have been picked up and spread via the press for decades.

What is new is that EVERYBODY is the media. There is no longer a filter. Information and Stories that are worth spreading will be spread.

2.TheValueExchangeRetentionCyclesHopefully the relationship we’ve worked so hard to nurture doesn’t stop there. I’ve highlighted 3 areas where and how further exchange might take place. Let’s briefly touch on each of them.

A.RepeatTransactionsWe may keep getting referrals. We may keep selling the same consumable over and over. But remember, in order to keep our customers with us, we need to continue to add value.

B.UpsellOpportunities(DeeperCommitment)We’ve had an initial exchange. But, there’s more there. There are more problems to be solved. You’ll see that the retention circle extends back down into the engagement stage. Layers of the onion are peeled back as new needs are discovered and new solutions are presented.

C. CrossSell Opportunities (Different ProductandServiceOfferings)You’ll notice that this retention circle ventures all the way back down to the permission stage. While we’ve exchanged value for one business purpose, we may need to display competency in another area in order to earn permission to engage in dialogue for that need as well.

So that’s it. We’ve taken a look at how to get our prospect’s attention, and facilitate a journey towards a mutual value exchange. We’ve looked at how social technologies amplify everything good and bad, and we’ve taken a brief look at how our relationship with our customers (partners, influencers, etc.) can be retained and nurtured for continuous value exchange.

The key is to start by creating something of value, something that is sure to garner attention. Start there and you can learn the rest along the way.


Social Media is any online platform that helps you engage with others and communicate your message, for example, websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. Like traditional marketing, the goal of Social Media is to get the buyer to think “This company might be able to help me with my problem. I’m going to check them out.” It’s the “aha” moment that drives the prospect to act further – to call you, fill out a request for information form, or email.

Search engines have revolutionized the buyer’s ability to track down products and services and placed them firmly in charge of the buying cycle.

They believe they shouldn’t have to call to get more information – it should be available online. What this means is that the blog and website have replaced much of the role marketing used to perform through print marketing materials: educating and guiding the buyer through the Know-Like-Trust-Try-Buy-Refer-Repeat continuum.

Social Media has a word of mouth component, a referral component, and an advertising component. And as we know from our experience in traditional marketing, word of mouth, referrals and advertising can all generate leads.

SALES&MARKETING

by Dawn Westerberg

In a way, the question “Has Anyone Ever Generated Any Leads Using Social Media?” is a little like asking “Has Anyone Ever Generated Any Leads Using the Telephone?” Regardless of the platform - social media, conferences,

telephone, or pen and paper – the message has to be good. The message has to result in the buyer getting to know, like, trust and try you so that ultimately they will buy from you and refer business to you - repeatedly.

Has Anyone Ever Generated Any Leads Using Social Media?


Dawn Westerberg is the President of Dawn Westerberg Consulting LLC where she specializes in helping business owners fall in love with their business again through installing marketing

systems that optimize fun work and awesome results. She is an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach and has held senior management marketing positions at Sage, Lawson, and Open

Systems. You can learn more about Dawn at www.dawnwesterberg.com.

Word of mouth in Social Media happens through someone favorably tweeting about your products and services to their network of Twitter followers. It could also occur through someone “liking” your Facebook page or writing a review on a site like Yelp.

Referrals can come through someone retweeting your tweet, sending a link to your site to their Facebook followers, or posting a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. A Social Media referral might also be an invitation to write a guest post for a blog which would introduce you to a new audience.

Advertising through Social Media works the same as traditional advertising – you pay to play. But with Social Media advertising you have greater control over who gets to see your ad. I’m going to use Facebook ads as my example (LinkedIn and Google ads are similar) because they offer so much flexibility in reaching the right audience.

Facebook ads will guide you through a set of forms for creating your headline, entering a link for viewers to click on (this can go to a landing page that you create that elaborates on the information contained in the online ad as well as your call to action – click here to purchase, click here to download a whitepaper, click here to receive more information, etc.) and the body of the ad. The number of characters for both the headline and the body of the ad are very limited. You will need to be very brief – yet make the ad compelling enough to encourage the viewer to click on the link.

You select the demographics of the audience you’d like to see the ad. You can go as wide as an entire country or as narrow as a city. You can select age groups, gender, interests and job titles. As you make these selections, Facebook will show you the number of people who fit your criteria.

You chose whether you want to pay per click or pay per impression and select a daily budget, for example $25 per day. This means you can control your budget and run the ad for any number of days you specify.

Social Media benefits your online presence. By taking advantage of multiple platforms, you increase your chances of amplifying and accelerating your message and presence. But most important, Social Media makes it easier for prospective buyers to find you.

by Dawn Westerberg

by Apryl Hanson

AbouttheAuthor:


But while it has altered our sales processes, technology

won’t save our sales careers. It won’t fix our business

development, sales, or customer relationship

management (CRM) challenges. It can be a great tool,

but it is the person behind the LinkedIn profile, all the

fancy gadgets, and high-tech presentations who actually

makes the sale.

Here’showtomakesocialmediaworkforyou.

Do develop a social media strategy. Like a sales or

marketing plan, you should write out your social media

plan. What is your goal? Who is your audience? What do

you want to communicate? Leverage social media as part

of your go-to-market strategy. How does your strategy

Pundits can rant all they want about the “new normal” and “new realities,” and how Web 2.0, Web 3.0, and social media will change the way we sell. The Internet is

the most powerful, life- and business-changing tool created in generations, if ever.

by Joanne S. Black


SALES&MARKETINGNO MORE

CALLING

America’s leading authority on referral selling and founder of No More Cold Calling, Joanne Black helps salespeople, sales teams, and business owners get more referrals and attract more business fast without increasing sales and marketing costs.

Discover how to turn cold prospects into HOT clients more than 50 percent of the time and ace out the competition with her proven, referral-selling system.

A captivating speaker, sales guru, and innovative sales seminar leader, Joanne is changing the business of sales.

Joanne is the author of NO MORE COLD CALLING™: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust (Warner Business Books). In this groundbreaking book, Joanne outlines her powerful, proven, step-by-step system for building a referral business.

Some of Joanne’s views are contrarian, and in the established school of traditional sales, considered heretical thinking. But for Joanne Black, and her clients, the only smart approach to client acquisition is referral selling. Joanne Black is a member of the National Speakers Association and regularly speaks at sales and incentive meetings, sales conferences, and association meetings.

Share your sales challenges and tell us what you think. Email Joanne: [email protected]

link to your customer’s needs and your business priorities?

Do link up beyond LinkedIn. Take the time to build your

personal connections: pick up the phone and talk to

people. Go to lunch. Have coffee. Just get out from

behind your computer and nurture your

relationships—even if you did build them

virtually.

Don’t skip the introduction. Just because

you have a Facebook friend in common

doesn’t mean you have a relationship.

Social media is a great way to find out

who knows someone you want to pitch,

but if your mutual associate doesn’t

provide a personal introduction, you’re

basically cold-calling. When you reach

out to someone who isn’t expecting your

call and probably doesn’t want to hear

from you, it’s a cold call.

Don’t turn your Facebook page into

an advertisement. Social sites are not

for selling. They are for establishing

connections, identifying ways to collaborate, and providing

value. Instead of telling people you’re an expert, prove it.

What tips or other useful information can you provide your

visitors? Link to other sites that you have found helpful.

As you become recognized as a resource in your industry,

you will build your web presence—and eventually, your

business.

Do incorporate your keywords. Your

profile pages are an excellent place to

get extra attention from search engines

and increase your web presence.

Don’t forget to do your homework.

Social media sites can help you

prepare for meetings with potential

clients by allowing you to learn about

their backgrounds and your mutual

associates. Instead of rambling about

the weather, you’ll have something to

talk about during your first meeting.

Don’t look for new clients; do look for

new referral sources.

If you have been trying to get a

meeting with a particular company or

individual, social media can help you quickly find out who

in your network has a close connection so you can ask for

a referral.

“Socialmediasitescanhelpyouprepareformeetingswithpotentialclientsbyallowingyoutolearnabouttheirbackgroundsandyourmutualassociates.

AbouttheAuthor


SALES&MARKETING

You point an iPhone at him and ask a few questions. At

this point, you have invested maybe 10 minutes. You take

the video home and tweak it - maybe add some titles

using inexpensive video editing software. You upload it

to Youtube, and embed it in your website, your blog and

Facebook. You have someone transcribe it. Repeat as

necessary.

The question is not “Should I include videos on my

webpage, blog and Facebook?” The question should be

“Where do I get the camera?”

Decision makers evaluating your products do not have

time to wade through a lot of PDFs, web pages, feature

lists and bullet points. A product demo video may be too

specific and detailed. They just want to get a quick hit of

your product and features -the Cliff Notes version.

People prefer video because :

• They don’t have a lot of time

• They want things summarized

• They are visual

• Video is accessible and easy for them

• They have a short attention span

Videos of experts, when placed on your Facebook or web

page, position you as an expert. They confer credibility

on you – just by virtue of being on your website. You are

educating your audience and providing information. It’s

not a hard sell right now. You’re drawing them in with

some easy to digest information.

Video enables you to:

Position yourself and your company as experts

Give useful, interesting or important information to your

prospects and clients

Inform your target market about your products and

services

Deepen relationships with your customers

Show who you are (which adds personalization and tells

your story)

Add to your credibility with customer testimonials

Free you from answering the same question over and

over again

Picture this. You are at a convention; there is a breakout session with an expert who is of interest to your clients. You grab him/her after the session and get him to agree to a 5 minute interview. He approves because you are positioning him as an expert and essentially giving him free advertising space on your website. by Gary Dahl


Show your gizmo doing what it does - because you might

not be able to explain it with words

Provide content for your website, blog and social sites

Video Ideas:

• Interviews with industry experts

• Direct messages your prospects or clients

• Customer testimonials

• Roundtable discussions (industry experts, clients, business owners)

• Interviews with your employees

• Demonstrations of your products

Get your videos on your home page and link to your videos

from inside your emails. This will help get your information

out there and make it easy for people to pass it along. You

can also put a link in your advertisements or send a prospect

a video that addresses their concerns.

OK, so how do you do it?

Don’t be intimidated by the process; try it, and be willing to

make mistakes. Sure, polished professional videos present

us in a great light, and if you can afford it, go for it. Others can

disagree, but my opinion is that right now, the expectation

is lower. We’ve done videos with web cams or lower quality

video. Get started now, get better later. Here are some tips:

1. You can use a cheap camera to get your feet wet,

(seriously, even try your iPhone). You

can upgrade later as you find out

how this will be working for your

company.

2. When interviewing, have

your questions prepared ahead

of time and your topic decided.

But be prepared to go off-topic

if your interviewee goes in an interesting or unexpected

direction.

3. Make sure you get a business card so that you get their

name spelled right. Before the interview, I usually just turn

on the camera and say, “can you spell your name and give

your title and company name?”

4. Always start by introducing the topic of the video.

5. Introduce the speaker on camera before asking the

questions and thank them on camera when the interview is

done.

6. Do not assume that you will be comfortable or can “wing

it” in front of the camera. I’ve seen really knowledgeable and

passionate people who, when the camera is rolling, cannot

put a coherent sentence together. If necessary, you be the

“Producer” and have someone else ask the questions.

7. Don’t ask “yes or no” questions. Ask open-ended

questions that can’t be answered with a simple yes or no,

and if you can, send your interviewee a list of questions in

advance.

You can find great editing

software for under $100. See my

demonstration of making a quick

video for YouTube, visit our blog at

think.blytheco.com/videotips

Marketers are increasingly turning to making short videos to as a relatively easy way to dramatically

enhance credibility, sell products and services and provide valuable information to their prospects and

clients. Video has impact and is compelling - most importantly your competitors are doing it more and

more.

With a little time a little money and a little preparation almost anyone can do it, and the payoff is huge.

Now smile and put your best video forward.


From orchard to harvest to manufacturing to shipping, Chukar Cherries owns the complete process of offering delicious fruit treats from their Prosser, Washington location.

They make their own food – with fewer companies doing that now (most have a big company produce the food and just package it themselves), Chukar is understandably proud of their work. They like explaining what they do and how they do it, in real-time.

Pam Montgomery, Owner and President of Chukar Cherries, recognized that social media could help them tell those stories, and engage with customers. The company has always rewarded and encouraged customer feedback – social media just makes it faster and easier.

Pam now says customers are “absolutely” engaging with them online on a daily basis. Their blog, Facebook, and Twitter streams are getting the attention of new customers every day. Below is our interview with Pam with more information about how they got started, how they approach social media and the benefits they are seeing.

Many companies are concerned about precious company resources being used in social media with no immediate benefit. But, as Pam says, “The world is changing – we know communication and how people buy, meet and talk is evolving – I don’t want to NOT get a ride on that carriage!”

How did you decide who in your company would be responsible for social media? It’s a team effort. We did hire a point person for our social media effort – Beth is very smart, a writer and editor. She’s

by Alicia Anderson

COVERSTORY

How

So c

ial

Media Can Wo rk

Pam Montgomery, Owner and PresidentChukar Cherries


curious, which is important, and she is a good person, so her authenticity comes through. We spent a lot of time with her to ensure a good match for our brand.My role is to be sure the identity and brand of our company comes through. It took some time to articulate that identity - it’s not the easiest thing to do for me.

At first I was the only supporter of a social media initiative. Others in the company thought there weren’t enough time, money, and personnel for it. It took a lot of time to get everyone to buy in – but now the team is eager to participate. Everyone sees the importance and benefits now.

Now it’s fun, largely because there’s immediate feedback. And I like the discipline it brings to the business.

What’s your approach with your posts? Our goal is to engage, build loyalty, strengthen the brand, integrate social media to our other PR and marketing efforts – and of course to grow sales! We do that by working as a team to be sure the voice remains authentic. Social media is like “being naked” - you can’t fake authenticity.

The voice should be consistent even though the person behind it may change – our voice is conversational, warm, with enthusiasm and passion for the business. And it must be honest – if we don’t know the answer, we say so and find out. We also must follow-through with questions that come in to us.

Do you have an editorial calendar for social media posts? Yes. We have a plan created a year out, and then review and revise at three months out and again at one month out. We have a calendar with integrated marketing activities for B2B and B2C, including other PR and marketing items like our regular newsletter.

Which social media platform outlet do you find most useful? Facebook. Least useful? Twitter.

How often do you try to post? On the blog, once a week. For Facebook and Twitter, at least daily.

Did you model yourselves after anyone else online? I choose not to look at competitors’ social media. It makes it easier for us to be authentic that way, if we aren’t influenced by others. The point is to be yourself and tell YOUR story.

I do look at other successful bloggers – people who I would want to know, or who I feel like I do know. Some of the blogs that have inspired us are: 101cookbooks.com, heavytable.com, and smittenkitchen.com. Some companies that we see doing an excellent job with Facebook are Food & Wine, Food Network, Pike Place Market and the Tri-Cities, Washington page.

Any to-dos or helpful hints you would recommend to small businesses starting a social media program? Be yourself. Talk to your fans rather than hard-selling. Ask lots of questions.

Get a college intern. College students are good social media experts – they were raised on computers and it’s natural to them.

Take it slow – it can be a process of getting up to speed. Technology companies are developing roadmaps to make it easier, but those are more about nuts and bolts. Focus on developing your voice, and knowing your customers. Define what your message should be.

Don’t look to “normal” channels to help – marketing and PR departments might not know how to be supportive or helpful.

What are the challenges of social media at Chukar Cherries? The “real-time” quality of social media is both a benefit and challenge. You have to constantly evaluate what you’re doing.

What are the benefits of being active on social media?It lets us hang out with our customers in our blue jeans--we get to be ourselves with them. Social media gives us a bead on who our customers are, what they enjoy and allows us to interact with them in something close to real-time. It also gives our customers a chance to give us valuable feedback. I’ve noticed that fans are particularly receptive to posts that reflect their values. We had a very good response to a post honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. and to one talking about “Stand with Japan,” a ceremony put on by the National Cherry Blossom Festival showing solidarity with Japan in the wake of the tsunami.

Youcan(andshould!)findChukarCherriesonlineat:

www.chukar.com http://blog.chukar.com/www.facebook.com/ChukarCherrieshttp://twitter.com/ChukarCherries

by Alicia Anderson

Pam Montgomery, Owner and PresidentChukar Cherries


by Geni WhitehouseBOOKREPORT

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

Thaler and Sunstein offer an enlightened perspective on human decision making. Their mission is to

help people make decisions that are inherently good for them – an approach they call “Libertarian

Paternalism.” They explain basic human behavior when it comes to choice and offer simple, elegant tips on

providing choices that are likely to result in desired outcomes. They offer suggestions that can be applied

in a number of areas – from getting people to sign up for 401(k) plans to choosing healthier food in the

cafeteria line. They compare results from opt-in versus opt-out programs and explain how to apply their

research without raising social or political objections. The book exposes a world of “choice architecture”

which promises to have far-ranging impact on businesses that hope to nudge their employees or customers

towards decisions that are in their own best interest.

The Most Human Human: What talking with computers teaches us about what it means to be alive | Brian Christian

Author Brian Christian takes on the world of Artificial Intelligence and along the way raises plenty of

questions like: “Why do computers get computationally faster but no faster to use?”, “How can voice mail

systems be improved?”, and “How does a computer win at Jeopardy?” In his fascinating quest for answers

that will help him win the Turing test (a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior), Brian shares

insights that can help businesses better meet the needs of their human audience. He gains insights equally

from brain research and leading chess champions. By the end of the book, we are hopeful that businesses

of the future will spend their time helping humans leverage technology so we are free to spend more time

making judgments, exploring, discovering, creating, and ultimately building long-term relationships.

the mesh : Why the future of business is sharing | Lisa Gansky

Gansky’s book turns our view of markets and products on its ear. In a world of “meshed”

businesses, tangible products will be built to last and designed for universal repair. Businesses

will create products that can be shared, tracked and managed on mobile networks.

And these products will be marketed primarily by word of mouth on

social networks. The virtues of ownership will be supplanted by a take-

only- what- you-need, use-only-when-you-need-it mentality with an

emphasis on long-term sustainability. The book gives you more than 1,000

examples of mesh businesses that are already up and running including

Zipcar, thredUP, and Kickstarter. Businesses of every variety need to pay

attention to this new way of serving an increasingly mobile and

technology savvy consumer seeking high value products without

the hassles of ownership and the high cost of waste.

With all of our focus on technology and tools, we tend to forget about the things that make us uniquely human - our ability

to connect, to make choices, and to share. These authors provide insight for businesses seeking to apply technology that

improves the human experience of the future.


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With so many tools out there, finding the right one can be like finding a needle in a haystack (or is it

tweetstack?). It’s important not to feel as though you need to use every social media tool out there as

there is a lot of overlap between them with many offering the same or similar features. Here are some

options to choose from as organized by their most prominent features:

Inbound Marketing and Lead Generation

Many small-to-mid-sized businesses will (and already have) find solace in Hubspot’s

inbound marketing platform. On average, small businesses do not have

designated marketing teams and often have to outsource their marketing

tasks. Hubspot is a one-stop shop for many of your inbound marketing needs,

offering tools for:

• Lead Generation and Lead Nurturing

• Landing Page Management and Tracking

• Web analytics

• Content Management

• SEO Tools

• Social Media Monitoring and Engagement

• Blog Management

Hubspot also integrates with virtually any CRM or e-Commerce system. Users

will also be astonished by Hubspot’s unparalleled training and education

services. Hubspot offers 1:1 monthly coaching, training sessions, access

to learning center tips and documents, and even help with marketing plan

development. Hubspot also publishes free webinars, whitepapers, and blog

articles on a regular basis. Hubspot really works with you to make sure that

you not only understand their products, but marketing as a whole.

Monitoring the Twitterverse and Beyond: Audience Engagement

TweetDeck is a platform that allows you to view and respond to activity across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, mySpace,

Foursquare and more in real time. Anyone hoping to have a strong presence in social media communities can strongly

benefit from this type of product. Tools like TweetDeck and similarly, HootSuite, allow users to easily engage fans,

Now that Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (among others) have catapulted social media into a huge ever-booming industry, one would expect the recent influx of third-party social media software and companies. Many of these software applications offer

the ability to monitor social media activity and generate leads, while others provide methods of audience engagement. With Wal-Mart recently acquiring Kosmix, Salesforce acquiring Radian6, and YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen recently buying Delicious and

tap11, not only are social media tools in obvious high demand, so are the companies that develop them.

INDUSTRYNEWS

TOOLS YOU CAN USEby Cortez NaPue


followers, and friends. You can also disseminate videos,

photos, and other content across several platforms with the

touch of a button. With TweetDeck you can:

• Use your TweetDeck Account to add all of your social network accounts in one go

• Integrate LinkedIn for your professional contacts

• View YouTube videos within TweetDeck, and record and share video clips though TwitVid

• Retweet Twitter style - or your style

• Manage conversations with @replies and direct messages

• See what’s currently hot and trending with Twitter Trends and TwitScoop

• Manage multiple Twitter accounts easily

• Locate your friends

• Send longer messages through our new Deck.ly service

• Use our scheduling feature to check-in or send a tweet in the future

• Add, create and manage Twitter Lists

• Use the Global Filter to remove unnecessary tweets by account, service or hashtag

• Add networks that use a compatible Twitter API, like WordPress and Tumblr

• Avoid Twitter spam with TweetDeck’s spam button.

Monitoring the Twitterverse: Social Media Metrics and Analytics

A great tool to use to analyze social media activity is Radian6.

Radian6 is often marketed to larger corporations. Radian6

provides in-depth metrics on specific topics, conversations,

or industries in real time. With this cloud-based software, you

can see what is currently trending across virtually any online

social space including: blogs, forums, online communities,

Facebook, and Twitter.

Essentially, with Radian6, you are able to measure the

ubiquity of certain topics and compare them. This can be

important when determining relevant conversations and

brand mentions, insertion opportunities, or when gauging

the current sentiment of your audience and industry. Radian6

is very much about understanding consumer sentiment and

how your brand fits in. Here are some of its amazing features:

• Volume: Learn everything you would want to know about the amount of conversation surrounding your topic. This includes share of voice and share of conversation, a graph of volume trends, a breakdown of volume by media type and Insights information such as top sources.

• Sentiment: The way people feel about brands can change

overnight. Stay up-to-date with the ‘Sentiment’ section, which includes sentiment trend over time that allows you to monitor for spikes of positive or negative posts and a snapshot of the three most recent positive and negative posts.

• Demographics: Find out more about the authors of social media content with our demographics section. Receive a breakdown of social traffic by gender, age, location and more.

• Influencers: Who are the most important members of your social conversation? This section gives you a breakdown of the top influencers from different media channels such as Twitter, news sites, blogs, forums, videos etc.

• Content: Know what people are saying about your brands or products by looking at top trending topics, most used keywords, #tags, as well as sample words and phrases from your social

traffic.

Looking to spruce up your Facebook page? Check out these awesome apps:

RSS Graffiti: RSS Graffiti periodically checks the RSS/Atom

feeds that you specify and posts any new entries it finds to

the Facebook Walls that you specify. You can get any feed

written on any wall (Facebook Profiles, Fan Pages, Groups,

Events and Application Profile Pages). In fact, you can

even have multiple feeds to multiple walls. You choose the

combination.

SlideShare: SlideShare is the world’s largest community for

sharing presentations. You can: share presentations and

documents with your Facebook network, upload portfolios,

PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, college lessons, etc.

Formats supported include: ppt, pps, pptx, odp, pdf, doc,

docx, odt, Keynote, and iWork. The SlideShare app is also

YouTube compatible and allows for direct webinar creation.

If you’re not an avid Facebook user, the application is also

available for LinkedIn.

Buddy Media: Buddy Media is one of the hottest Facebook

platforms available right now. They can do almost anything

-- host contests, create video galleries, and provide user

analytics.

Wildfire: Wildfire is the most popular way to run a promotion

on Facebook. They offer a thorough suite of apps that

allow you to easily set up contests, sweepstakes, and offer

coupons.

Payvment: Why direct your customers to Amazon when they

can buy your product on Facebook? Payvment makes it easy

to set up an online store on your page.


A marked decrease in sales and use tax income over the past few years, compounded by overall budget shortfalls, has caused states to focus on ways to collect additional

revenue. To this end, states are changing sales tax laws and regulations to broaden the definition of nexus, increasing the number of audits and decreasing exemption qualifications.

This environment requires businesses to be even more diligent in keeping accurate sales tax records including:

• Tracking and applying correct rates according to product taxability, jurisdiction and sourcing rules for each state where there is liability.

• Easy access to exemption certificates and proper association with non-taxed transactions.

• Ensuring timely filing and remittance along with appropriate registration for sales tax liability.

Keeping diligent in these areas can help reduce your risk of exposure to sales tax audits and enable you to respond rapidly to any inquiries from state authorities. It’s been estimated that for every $1 of sales tax error, the cost to fix the error exceeds $50 when using manual processes. This estimate is very modest and does not take into account the cost of lost staff productivity and customer dissatisfaction when overcharged.

BESTPRACTICES

In a 2010 Aberdeen Group survey, responses showed companies that implemented Best-in-Class sales tax compliance practices experienced a decrease in audit penalties and fines as well as in the time spent addressing tax errors.

Driving factors for companies to adopt effective sales and use tax management were identified as:

• The need to comply with regional and jurisdictional regulations;

• Increased audit activity in the states;

• Lack of skilled staff with tax domain expertise;

• High cost of negative audit results;

• Mandates to improve organizational productivity.

In order to achieve Best-in-Class performance and the benefits associated with sales tax compliance, three steps were cited as “must-do:”

• Automate workflow from tax preparation to remittance.

• Enable centralized management of tax information.

• Establish standardized procedures for managing government audits.

Automation using a cloud-based tax management service reduces costs by providing a solution that is scalable to the needs of the business. A full-lifecycle automated solution will include tax calculation, exemption certificate management and filing and remittance services.

Learn more about best practices and automation of the sales tax compliance process atwww.avalara.com.

by Susan McLain

INDUSTRYNEWS

When seeking an automated solution

that supports best practices, companies

should look for a product that provides:

• Thorough tax analysis of state rules and regulations

• Accurate calculations based on sourcing rules, jurisdiction and product taxability

• Exemption certificate management for non-taxed transactions that includes:

• Digital collection of certificates

• Easy accessibility

• Certificate to customer and transaction association

• Reporting capabilities

• Full sales tax cycle support with filing and remittance of returns

• Easy integration with ERP solutions

Stop wasting your time

calling people who don’t

want to hear from you and

boost your close rate to

80 or 90 percent!

Following Joanne Black’s proven, referral marketing system, you’ll discover how to turn current customers and your myriad contacts into rich sources of referrals and get qualified prospects, ready to do business, asking for yourhelp.

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Set up a company Facebook page and ask your customers and friends to “like” you.

Set up a blog with relevant articles and commit to posting new content at least three times a week.

If you are selling to businesses or busi-ness people, get yourself and your company listed on LinkedIn, and make sure that your em-ployees are listed under your company.

INDUSTRYNEWS

Top three things you MUST DOto get started in Social Media

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SELLINGSOCIALLY

Are You Listening?As any sales person will tell you, the more they

know about their prospects, the more effective they are in identifying and closing sales opportunities. Simply put, it pays to listen. This basic concept is the centerpiece of leveraging social media to support sales. Sales departments can use the same tools as marketing teams to monitor and respond to activities occurring in the socio-sphere, and then identify opportunities that will enhance their account strategies and on-going activities. Check out “Social Media Tools You Can Use” on Page 20 to find out more about social media “listening tools.”

Social media – it’s not just for marketers anymore. The age of logging onto Twitter or Facebook to tell someone that your cat snores in his sleep is not obsolete, but in the past. There is a

trend emerging where departments outside of the scope of marketing are beginning to use social media to complete certain tasks. Think Twitter is used only for people with opinions to share or organizations with agendas to promote? Think again. With the right hashtag (scan the QR code to the right or go to ‘think.blytheco.lcom/headlines’ for more info on how to use hashtags on Twitter), you could easily have a job posting up and searchable in minutes. Need a phone to provide “real” customer service? In the Stone Age, perhaps, but more and more customer service centers are researching customer social activity

and public conversation trends in order to better (and perhaps more compassionately) service people and establish rapport. Sales teams, too, are

now using social media in order to find leads, to maintain relationships with current clients, and to gauge the climate of opportunity.

Social Media has evolved from its humble beginnings of digital fraternizing and marketing into an application that customer service,

human resources, and, sales teams can take advantage of in order to enhance their performance.

by Cortez NaPue

CUSTOMERRELATIONSHIPS

SALES and social media


In this day and age, monitoring the social web is fundamental to any social media marketing or sales approach, however, where the marketing and sales departments need to focus their resources differs significantly. Marketing tends to monitor keywords, phrases and activities that provide insight on brand awareness and sentiment, which is less actionable for sales people. Contrarily, the sales department should create and monitor Key Sales Indicators (KSIs) to locate information that is specifically relevant in the sense that it points to a prospective customer and indicates where they are in the decision process. KSIs indicate a clear need, interest or evaluation of a product or service, though they can be harder to find. For example, a prospect may be considering switching to a new vendor by expressing their dissatisfaction with a current vendor on competitive forums, which can easily be elicited by enabling real-time keyword analysis notifications with social media monitoring software like Radian6, Tweetdeck, or tap11. A sales team can monitor these forums and third-party support blogs on a continual basis and remain in sync with their community or industry. Then, when armed with knowledge of the prospect’s specific pain points, the sales person can effectively contact the prospect with relevant solutions suited to their needs.

Empowering your E-mailThe initial step in leveraging social media for sales initiatives is to integrate the sales staff’s contact databases with their social media networks. Whether managed through a single client application (such as Outlook) or a sales automation application (such as SalesLogix), a sales person can easily create a single view of their contacts. Combining contacts and social networks allows for a more unified approach when maintaining communication with clients and/or leads.Several tools currently exist to integrate contacts and social media networks—including SalesForce.com’s Jigsaw, Microsoft’s Outlook Social Connector, or Gist. Sage SalesLogix has recently added the ability to integrate your Facebook or LinkedIn contacts as well. Some key features to these tools include:

• The ability to compile all contacts from various sources—inboxes, address books and social networks—and incorporate news, status updates and blog posts to create rich business profiles

• Synchronization of contact data with status updates from various networks and recently posted files

• Display of a snapshot of recent conversations, meetings and shared attachments

Once you’ve done that, you can spice up your e-mail messages by adding templates or widgets that feature

methods to socially share your content or that link to your social media websites. This could help spread the word about the e-mail’s subject matter and provide a way to organically market sales team initiatives.

Empowering the Individual SalespersonSales agents need to know that they can share or promote company content. Giving them this ability is a great way to market your brand and promote your business. For many organizations there is a large gray area that surrounds company social media use. As such, a prerequisite for this is drafting a corporate social media policy that outlines what all employees -- not just the sales team -- can and cannot do (Scan the QR code to the right for more info on developing a Social Media Policy or find it at ‘think.blytheco.com.’)

Another way to empower the individual salesperson is to create content for ideation platform such as a blog, Facebook page, or LinkedIn group. An ideation platform can be any kind of platform that fosters feedback to help improve the product or service being offered by your brand. Sales agents can write blog articles, respond to lead inquiries in online communities, or examine KSIs across several platforms.

Sales agents are in a unique position in that they have a direct link to customers and prospects and are therefore extremely familiar with the most common patterns of customer feedback. With

this unique customer insight, sales agents can generate relevant and specific content that many clients have an interest in or have had questions about. The sales agent should then post the content to the respective ideation platform(s) and/or work with the marketing team in order to use the customer insight for effective messaging.

If your organization employs local/regional sales reps, provide them with the tools and training that can facilitate the creation of locally targeted web content, and then work with your search team (in-house or agency) to develop a strategy for optimizing the content to rank for local and regional keyword phrases. Often, certain facets of this strategy can be automated or streamlined in a manner that allows for optimization across a wide swath of locally targeted keyword phrases.

Social Media…not just for marketers anymore.

“SocialMediahasevolvedfromitshumblebeginningsofdigitalfraternizingandmarketingintoanapplicationthatcustomerservice,humanresources,and,salesteamscantakeadvantageofinordertoenhancetheirperformance.


If you’re not yet into social media, you’re not a part of 1/3 of the world’s adult population. According to the Nielsen Company, the global average time spent per person on social networking sites is now nearly five and half hours per month (February 2 0 1 0 data), with Facebook accounting for the majority of

that time. With all of the recent changes and innovations in social media (particularly with Facebook), that number has surely increased. Some 1 billion people are accessing social media nowadays and it is no surprise that businesses are quickly following suit. The Forum of Private Businesses reports that 69% of SMBs (small-to-mid-sized businesses) currently access social media sites, again, with the majority of the usage coming from Facebook. Among businesses and consumers alike, social media use is becoming more ubiquitous by the day – however, there are stark differences between personal and company use.

TheIntentSocial networking in business was founded on a

completely different premise than personal social

networking. Businesses identified sites like Facebook,

Twitter, or LinkedIn as platforms for marketing and

consumer engagement. Soumitra Dutta of the Harvard

Business Review clarifies the reasons so many businesses

have joined the social media bandwagon, saying social

media sites “provide a low cost platform on which to

build your brand, allow you to engage rapidly and

simultaneously with peers and customers, and they give

you an opportunity to learn from instant information and

unvarnished feedback.” Businesses access social media

to share information, but generally only when it pertains to

their company or industry. It is not so much about sharing

opinions or thoughts as it is about engaging consumers

and maintaining customer relationships.

Personal social networking began with something entirely

different in mind. It began as a way to keep people

connected and to facilitate an easy communicative

environment for information sharing. Mark Zuckerberg,

founder of Facebook said in 2010, that his initial intent

for creating Facebook was to create a “visual directory in

which people with common interests could stay in touch.”

Today, it has morphed into not only a communication tool,

but literally a way to rate the world. With Facebook, if you

come across something that you’re interested in on the

web, you can ‘Like’ it or share it with a touch of a button.

On Twitter if you like what you see, you can retweet it.

Every time you like, share, or retweet something, you

are essentially boosting its popularity on the internet.

However, you can also attach negative comments to most

things shared this way, fundamentally giving what you

shared a negative “rating.”

DoYouTrustMe?The unfortunate reality is that for many businesses, both

public and private, social media is a nuisance and is treated

as such. The culture of trust is all too frequently absent

for many organizations. Employees are often reluctant to

HUMANRESOURCES

Social Media 102: Business vs. Personalby Cortez NaPue


share information on their company’s behalf

as not to offend any policy. Many employees

even go as far as blocking their employers in

hopes that their disseminations will remain

private. This type of behavior more than likely

stems from the fear of getting disciplined or in

some cases even terminated. There have, after

all, been dozens of cases where employees

have been terminated for sharing things on

Facebook, including an employee of National

Suisse who was fired for accessing Facebook

at home while sick.

With personal social media use, trust is

inherently given upon acceptance of the

connection. Most people follow, befriend,

or ’Like’ a person/page based on a genuine

or common interest. It is easier to trust and

engage with an entity that you have something

in common with (and who is not responsible

for your paycheck).

Russ Edelman of CNBC states, “in the corporate

world, a proactive effort is required to build a

culture of trust; one that allows participants to

dip their toe in the social networking pool and

see the benefits that are duly derived.” Some

techniques for building trust with social networking in

your business could include recognition of contributions

and/or the inclusion of gaming theory (contests and

group trivia are some examples) to foster a friendly sense

of competition and to motivate the team.

ToRegulateorNottoRegulate?

Businesses generally have

some sort of policy in place

that outlines their expectations

of social media use within

the company. These

policies can often

be restrictive, but

a business must

protect its interests.

Consequently, social

media use among

businesses requires much more rigor than personal use.

In the workplace, content disseminated via social media

in many instances has to go through an approval process.

The trick to developing a social media policy is to figure

out the perfect balance between too much regulation and

not enough.

Believe it or not, personal social media use does come

with its share of policies and regulations, though many

are site-specific. Facebook for instance has taken a

strong stance against harassment of others and posting

obscene or offensive material. Most people however have

no issues with following these guidelines providing for an

environment of basically-free expression.

TheVerdict

It is clear that businesses are beginning to master

consumer interaction via social media and people too

are pros at communicating with or about businesses. It is

much less rigorous and involved when using social media

personally, and businesses have a lot more to consider

when accessing social platforms. The main issue with

SMB’s and social media lies within the culture of trust.

If your own employees are not willing to promote you,

consumers will probably have a difficult time doing so as

well.

“Thetricktodevelopingasocialmediapolicyistofigureouttheperfectbalancebetweentoomuchregulationandnotenough.

Business vs. Personalby Cortez NaPue


LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are a few of the more well known social media sites but there are hundreds of social media sites available today, many with very specific focuses. LinkedIn, as an example, is a social media site with a focus on professionals from all different industries. It is a global site that allows users to: (1) post their professional experience; (2) have those whom they have worked for, and with, provide on-line “recommendations” (i.e. references),

and; (3) identify their education, professional memberships and certifications, etc. all for full viewing. It allows users to post short snippets of content on a given subject, such as “I’m attending the upcoming IT Professionals Conference in Chicago next week.” It also allows for social media sites such as Twitter to mirror posts on a user’s LinkedIn account. This allows for double the exposure with half the effort.

While some industries may still utilize newspaper recruiting and/or a walk-in kiosk or paper application approach, most employers have moved far beyond those options to utilizing sophisticated on-line

recruiting solutions. These applications tap into well-known existing job boards and the recruiting page(s) of an employer’s corporate website. They also tie into an organization’s HRMS and provide robust analysis and reporting. Just as job boards such as Monster and Careerbuilder were revolutionary years ago and changed the way employers sourced candidates, today social media is doing the same. As it was with job boards, the transformation is both for candidates and employers, but with a twist. When utilizing social media, recruiting efforts

HUMANRESOURCES

Sourcing and Interviewing in

by Donna Baeza

the World of Technology


Where social recruiting provides the twist for employers is that is provides a current and historical view into a users account. Oddly enough, not all users will approach their account from a strictly professional perspective until they are searching for a position. However, a prospective employer who is using LinkedIn to search for candidates can sort and filter based on skills and make notes about specific candidates at any given time. So while a candidate may not be looking today, their profile may have been viewed some 12 months ago by an employer. At that time, the recruiter may have noted specifically why their profile was not of interest, even though the user’s account may not reflect the negative content today. This isn’t news for recruiters utilizing LinkedIn but many users of LinkedIn remain clueless to this fact.

Many employers have a Facebook page and can place open jobs in the Marketplace section of Facebook, reference them on their Facebook page, and point the candidate back to their corporate jobs website. Employers use Twitter in the same way, by letting followers know about available positions. Users of Twitter can conduct key words searches. Employers can highlight key words in their posts by using a hash (#) tag. For example: Blytheco is currently looking for an experienced #MAS90/200 #Consultant in their Laguna Hills office, and then follow that with additional key words such as #recruiting #employment.

Social recruiting allows employers to source candidates and communicate who the organization is (i.e. its brand and identity) early on in the process. In the same way a candidate can view an employer’s LinkedIn recruiting page, Facebook page and Twitter tweets to see if the content speaks to an organization, culture and environment they would want to be a part of prior to actually applying for a position.

In using social recruiting, employers can tie into traditional job boards, corporate websites, etc. to allow them to connect the recruiting process to their HRMS solutions. During this phase a good recruiting solution can: (1) filter candidates based on skills, education, location,

etc; (2) flow the candidate through the interview / hiring process; (3) track feedback / input during that process; (4) rank top candidates based on skills and feedback; (5) manage open positions and provide recruiting activity exposure to the hiring manager and Human Resources; (6) and much more.

Technology and factors such as telecommuting have not only changed many aspects of employment, they have also changed the tools employers use to recruit. Due to distance, on-site interviews are not always feasible or cost effective. Today many employers utilize in-house web conference applications or free web-based applications such as Skype. Web conferencing allows both the employer and the candidate the opportunity to meet face-to-face when an

on-site interview is not an option. Web-based skill testing is another tool that employers utilize to determine skill level and span a full range of assessment focuses. Some examples are: typing, accounting, customer service, Microsoft Office products, problem solving, project management, legal knowledge, etc. Employers also utilize personality assessments which point to behavioral tendencies of candidates, flagging employers on extremes and identifying potential areas for an employer to ”dig a bit deeper” during the interview process, and perhaps identify areas for potential development post hire, if an employment decision is made.

Today HRMS solutions can interface into background check agencies,

can generate offer letters, send thank you / no thank you letters and can move an individual from “candidate” status to “employee” status all with minimal effort.

Technology has dramatically changed they way we source candidates and move them through the recruiting process. Social media is continuing to evolve and recruiting continues to evolve with it. One thing is certain – where there are people – business will continue to try to reach them, recruiters will continue to try to source them, and technology will continue to make it possible.

Donna Baeza, SPHR is Director, HR and HR Business Solutions for Blytheco, LLC, and has over 15 years of experience in HR management. She holds a BA in HR Management from AIU, an HRM certification from UCI and an SPHR through HRCI. Donna oversees Blytheco’s Human Resources and HRMS divisions.

“Technologyandfactorssuchastelecommutinghavenotonlychangedmanyaspectsofemployment,theyhavealsochangedthetoolsemployersusetorecruit.


Have you ever been having a conversation

with someone and had the conversation

interrupted by a text, e-mail, tweet, phone

call, etc.? Have you been the one guilty of letting

your conversation be interrupted by the barrage of

information coming at you? We have to remember

that all of this online activity is just another way for

us to be connected to each other, but when you

are standing in front of another human being,

there is nothing more disheartening than

being interrupted by someone that isn’t

even in the room.

We’ve got to learn when it is

appropriate to engage with our online

tools and when we need to disengage

from them. Trying to watch twitter

feeds and updates while trying to have a

conversation with an employee, for instance,

is not the best use of your time. Even worse, try

talking to one of your kids while they are updating or

reading status feeds on Facebook. The conversation

won’t go anywhere.

Online tools can do a wonderful job of keeping us

connected to those that we can’t see every day, but

we should work on prioritizing our connection with

people that are in the room with us.

Many of us have the ongoing challenge of disengaging

from our technology when we go home for the day.

You can feel like you’ve never left the office because

from anywhere you can receive phone calls, e-mail,

twitter and Facebook feeds and much more. With all

of this at your fingertips, it is hard to disengage.

When we get in the habit of being constantly

connected and spending too little time away from

the office, we tend to get less creative about our

work and sometimes can get into a rut. Time away

is a healthy and can

give you the much-

needed space

and free time to

think about an

issue or a

problem in

a different way.

If we are constantly

inundated with information,

we can’t give our minds

the break needed to think

creatively again.

TIP:Pick times to tune in and times

in which you promise yourself

to tune out to technology and

social media tools. Give yourself

the break needed to fall in love

with what you do, all over again.

WORKLIFEBALANCE

When to STOP Listening to Social Media

by Apryl Hanson

Calc •Certs •Returns

Fast. Easy.

End-to-end sales tax compliance solution.

Sales tax automation is the fastest way to “yes.”

The name of the game with sales tax compliance is how to minimize your audit risk – and doing so with the most minimal investment in terms of time, costs and people.

Simply put, you have better things to do. That’s why automation makes so much sense. AvaTax (which you may also know as Sage Sales Tax) is the easiest way to manage your end-to-end sales

Get AvaTax.Just go to Bellwether.Avalara.com today and sign up by August 30, 2011.

Are you ready for your next audit?

$1795 value*

http://bellwether.avalara.com

http://bellwether.avalara.com


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RESULTS IN

errors*




* PwC study




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5564 Hilliard Rome Office ParkHilliard, OH 43026877.462.5984

http://www.centage.com/budget

www.centage.com

Get Social - Bellwether Q3Y11

Business

Transcript of Get Social - Bellwether Q3Y11