SBA video contest aims to spotlight small-biz impact on local communities

By Mark E. Goodman

Your prospects want to know who have you helped — and how have you helped them. Storytelling via user-created content from people you have helped has become a key tool in the marketing of many organization.

The SBA announced this week a National Video Contest that will culminate in the showcasing of the winners during a Google+ Hangout hosted by SBA and the White House with SBA Administrator Karen Mills. This program is part of National Small Business Week 2012 the week of May 20th
Interested small businesses will need to submit a creative video that shows how they have been assisted by an SBA program or service (counseling, training, guaranteed loans, government contracts, disaster recovery, etc.).

The original video created by the business should be two minutes or less in high-resolution format. Deadline for submission is 4 p.m. on May 11.

Here’s a link from the SBA with all the details.

For more insights from the SBA’s Ms. Mills, check out this video:

Mark E. Goodman is CEO of e-Conversation Solutions Inc., a company that aims to enhance clients’ selling process through video and social media. He’s also a volunteer at Score, a national, nonprofit resource partner of the SBA, staffed by former business owners and executives who offer free advice to entrepreneurs. For more information, go to www.scorechicago.org.

Score Chicago shares videos from its website with Crain’s every Thursday.

You can follow Score Chicago on Twitter: @ScoreChicago. Follow Mark on Twitter, too: @e_conversation.

Connect with Crain’s via Facebook and Twitter. Join Crain’s LinkedIn group for Chicago entrepreneurs. And stay on top of Chicago business with Crain’s free daily e-newsletters.

A social media policy provides a framework for staffers’ online conversations

By Mark E Goodman

Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, and other social-sharing sites are ubiquitous. Heinz ketchup has a QR code on the bottle that links to its Facebook page. And an email that I received yesterday declares, “Facebook.com/AAdvantage has your insider tips!”

Obviously, the time to think about incorporating social media into your marketing is long overdue. But even the smallest business needs to have a social-media game plan. It’s not as easy as it sounds, though: How can (and should) a company manage employee interactions online?

I talked to Jennifer Ballard of Hinshaw & Culbertson about this very challenge. Jennifer is an attorney who helps clients develop social media policies. She notes that a social media policy provides the framework for the conversation. The policy should not be limited to just one forum, but defines your company’s overall communication process – the many ways in which you and your staffers want to be communicating with customers, vendors and the wider world.

We also talked about complementing your social media policy with a content creation plan. This kind of plan creates “authorized” content that employees can use and refer to for guidance. For more insights, check out this short video clip:

Mark E. Goodman is CEO of e-Conversation Solutions Inc., a company that aims to enhance clients’ selling process through video and social media. He’s also a volunteer at Score, a national, nonprofit resource partner of the SBA, staffed by former business owners and executives who offer free advice to entrepreneurs. For more information, go to www.scorechicago.org.

Score Chicago shares videos from its website with Crain’s every Thursday.

You can follow Score Chicago on Twitter: @ScoreChicago. Follow Mark on Twitter, too: @e_conversation.

Connect with Crain’s via Facebook and Twitter. Join Crain’s LinkedIn group for Chicago entrepreneurs. And stay on top of Chicago business with Crain’s free daily e-newsletters.

Crain’s small-business editor Ann Dwyer is on Google+.

A social media policy provides a framework for staffers’ online conversations

By Mark E Goodman

Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, and other social-sharing sites are ubiquitous. Heinz ketchup has a QR code on the bottle that links to its Facebook page. And an email that I received yesterday declares, “Facebook.com/AAdvantage has your insider tips!”

Obviously, the time to think about incorporating social media into your marketing is long overdue. But even the smallest business needs to have a social-media game plan. It’s not as easy as it sounds, though: How can (and should) a company manage employee interactions online?

I talked to Jennifer Ballard of Hinshaw & Culbertson about this very challenge. Jennifer is an attorney who helps clients develop social media policies. She notes that a social media policy provides the framework for the conversation. The policy should not be limited to just one forum, but defines your company’s overall communication process – the many ways in which you and your staffers want to be communicating with customers, vendors and the wider world.

We also talked about complementing your social media policy with a content creation plan. This kind of plan creates “authorized” content that employees can use and refer to for guidance. For more insights, check out this short video clip:

Mark E. Goodman is CEO of e-Conversation Solutions Inc., a company that aims to enhance clients’ selling process through video and social media. He’s also a volunteer at Score, a national, nonprofit resource partner of the SBA, staffed by former business owners and executives who offer free advice to entrepreneurs. For more information, go to www.scorechicago.org.

Score Chicago shares videos from its website with Crain’s every Thursday.

You can follow Score Chicago on Twitter: @ScoreChicago. Follow Mark on Twitter, too: @e_conversation.

Connect with Crain’s via Facebook and Twitter. Join Crain’s LinkedIn group for Chicago entrepreneurs. And stay on top of Chicago business with Crain’s free daily e-newsletters.

Crain’s small-business editor Ann Dwyer is on Google+.

What do Google’s privacy policy changes mean to your small biz?

By Mark E. Goodman

Almost every businessperson this week has been getting the “Changes in Google Privacy Policy” notifications. In Score Chicago discussions and workshops around town, people have been asking what this policy means for them.

In simple terms, Google is connecting all of the different services that it provides. In the past, you had a different log-on process for each one of the Google sites that you access. Google suggests that the change will allow it to better understand your browsing experience. For example, Google can now connect what you are watching on YouTube with your search, thereby supplying you more useful recommendations.

Here are some ways to manage the change:

• Separate out your personal and business access points. If you are using gmail for your business, have your personal account as johndoe@gmail.com and your business account as doebusiness@gmail.com. Build and access your business information using your business account. Better yet, purchase a different domain for your business — www.doebusiness.com — and then create a business email as jdoe@doebusiness.com. In addition to helping manage your privacy, a step like this also allows you to look more professional.

• Look at the YouTube services that you have signed up to use, and doublecheck which email account is connected to those services. Think about your company YouTube channel. If you had a summer intern set up your channel, it could have been done via his gmail account. That intern is back in college and your business is now being tied to everything that is going on with his gmail account.

• When you log on to search, pay attention to which Google account you are being linked to. If you are doing a business search, log on with your business account.

• Lastly, it is ever more important to have a social-media policy and a content-creation plan for your business. Plans like these can help empower your employees and get the most out of your company’s social-media efforts. Check out this short video clip from an interview I did with Chicago attorney Jennifer Ballard on the subject of social-media guidelines:

Mark E. Goodman is a volunteer at Score, a 47-year-old, national, nonprofit resource partner of the SBA, staffed by former business owners and executives who offer free advice to entrepreneurs. For more information, go to www.scorechicago.org.

Score Chicago shares videos from its website with Crain’s every Thursday.

You can follow Score Chicago on Twitter: @ScoreChicago.

Connect with Crain’s via Facebook and Twitter. And stay on top of Chicago business with Crain’s free daily e-newsletters.