A listener question that has been coming up a lot lately is “How do I connect social media with the rest of my marketing?”

Smart business owners are wanting to let their social media contacts know they have a print newsletter. It’s their most powerful marketing tool, and they want to move potential customers onto a mailing list. When you consider that over 70% of people still prefer to marketed to through mailed promotions, you can see how these business owners are definitely on the right track.

So we start the show off this week with how to connect your offline and online marketing. There are several things you can do to move people off social media sites (EXTREMELY good idea since you don’t own the list when it’s on a social media site), and there’s one particularly important thing you should NOT do.

Making this one mistake can completely destroy your efforts to move people onto your mailing list.

“Showrooming” is becoming such a large problem for the big box retailers that Target recently sent a letter to its suppliers asking them to come up with special items exclusively for Target.

(Showrooming is going into a store to see the item you want, then purchasing it online through your smart phone while standing in the store.)

They have the right idea – they’re looking for the solution. And they’re trying to eliminate price comparison shopping by having exclusive items. But they’re trying to solve the wrong problem.

We have no loyalty to these big box retailers precisely because they don’t care about us. They have zero customer service, and their employees know little about the store and almost nothing about specific products.

On the bright side, this presents a huge window of opportunity for you to step in and fill that customer service gap. Listen to this week’s episode of Social Media: Cheap and Easy to find out how.

Then we wrap up the show with another listener question I’ve been getting frequently over the last few months: How do we use the online business listings?

The truth is that online business listings represent some excellent low-hanging fruit. Google and all the other search engines are putting a lot of time and energy into making Local Search useful to us a searchers and as business owners. So it makes sense to take advantage of the free business listings.

This week, I walk you through which listings to go after first. All the search engines talk to each other, so getting a few of them right takes care of any others you might miss.

You also have a lot of options for the types of content you can include with online business listings. This is a case where less is more, and there’s one type of content you definitely want to avoid including with any online business listing. Listen to this week’s episode of Social Media: Cheap and Easy to know what it is.

This week, we start with a social media reality check.

Yes, mobile phones and social media are growing presences in the marketplace. They are, however, no where near as big as the cow-pattie gurus want you to believe they are. The idea that you “must have” a Facebook Page or risk losing out to your competition is poppycock. And the numbers back me up – listen to the show and check my sources for yourself.

You can listen right away by streaming the audio, or click “Download” and take the show with you on your phone, tablet or MP3 player.

We also take a quick look at a company that’s doing social media very well. It’s Collective Bias, and their primary social media tool is blogging. All of their results are trackable, and highly profitable, so it’s worth paying attention to what they’re doing.

Then we take a look at the truth for what it takes to attract an audience.

Would you be willing to sit and watch a 45 minute video of two scientists discussing Systems Biology? Me neither, but Dr. Hidalgo has an audience of thousands. We take a look at how he has done it, and why you’re able to do the same thing for your business.

And we wrap up the show with how you can use technology trends to benefit your own business.

The Consumer Electronics Show – one of the largest consumer shows of during the year – ran from Jan 10 – 13. There were some decidedly non-tech companies at the show, and they were very smart to be there. You need to know why, and how to follow their example. So listen to this week’s show.

You can listen to right now by clicking the Play button, or hit “Download” and take the show with you on your laptop, phone or tablet.

And please do tell me what you think of the show. Is it entertaining and informative, or do you think I’m full of wind? Leave a comment here, or send me an e-mail at listeners@theconradhall.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

This week, I’m making some predictions. Nine of them, with maybe a bonus one thrown in at the end because “10″ sounds so much better than “9.”

We kick off with an economic prediction for 2012 because business owners are always interested in what the economy is doing, right?

Prediction #2 is about Cause Marketing. We’ll see it rise in 2012, and I give you a couple of
good examples to follow. Plus a key piece of advice for making Cause Marketing work for you.

Prediction #3 – The Rise Of The Machines – or at least digital assistants. You too can have the crazy person look by talking to your technology. But all joking aside, I think programs like Siri are great. Although they’re likely to reduce productivity, and increase the frequency of bathroom conversation.

Prediction #4 – A resurgence of print media. Specifically, I think we’ll see the “zine” come back into vogue. It’s already a popular style among bloggers, and now it’s making a comeback in the streets. Listen in to this week’s show to hear what I mean and how it can help you.

Prediction #5 – This one is easy. It’s hardly a prediction…The convergence of smart phones and laptops. There has been some interesting progress with “ultrabook” laptops, but I think the real progress is coming from motion controlled games like Kinect.

Prediction #6 – Time Wasting is on the Rise. There are more ways to buy smoke and mirrors than ever before. You need to be prepared so you can cut the time wasters out of your business.

Prediction #7 – Micro-Employees Arise – Ever have an emergency and need something done quickly? There’s a service for that. TaskRabbit and Zaarly are just two services that enable you to hook up with a micro-employee to get something done.

Prediction #8 – Online Spending is going up – but not necessarily for you. There’s no question more people are making use of the ability to shop online. I very much enjoy being able to order from Amazon and get free shipping with their Prime service. But online spending is going to merchants that people know and trust, so I have some useful guidance for you to get – and keep getting – those online purchasing dollars.

Prediction #9 – What prediction show is complete without a reference to the Facebook IPO? Regular listeners know I’m less than a fan of Facebook, and I’m not changing my opinion.It’s useful for you to know what’s going to happen, and that Facebook simply can’t avoid it.

Prediction #10 -yes, there really are 10. You know I’d never do 9 and leave you hanging like that! But you do have to listen to find out what #10 is. (Hey, I have to keep you through to the end, right?)

And I’ll give you a heads up about the show length this week. There’s a lot to cover here, and I set aside the 30 minute time limit. This show goes for just over 50 minutes, so download it and listen at your convenience. The shoot me an e-mail at conrad AT theconradhall DOT com to tell me what you think. And you’re always welcome to leave a comment here.

GlobalRevolution.tv has moved from a tarp in Zucotti park to a second floor office in NoHo (North of Houston), and is being led by a former Wall Street derivatives trader, Vlad Teichberg.

On the other side of the country, OWS protesters are depriving the working class of their pay checks by blockading ports.

As surely as oil floats over water, and cream rises to the top of milk, it is inevitable that leaders stand out in a movement. Even while they’re insisting that it’s a team effort. In this case, it’s Vlad Teichberg who has become the face of GlobalRevolution.tv.

GlobalRevolution.tv started out under a tarp in Zucotti park. After weeks of frustration due to equipment theft and fighting the elements, they made the wise business decision to seek a secure – and weatherproof – site for their budding media outlet.

They found what they needed on the second floor of a building owned by the A.J. Muste Institute. Rent is a bargain at around $400 per month. It’s no palace, but it gives them a reliable working space for their enterprise. You can get an idea of what it looks like in this video of an interview they did with CNNMoney.

Vlad Teichberg's caricature in The New Yorker

The media has definitely caught on to this enterprise. Vald has been featured with his own caricature in The New Yorker, and media from Huffington Post to the New York Times are covering their efforts. If all goes well, Vlad hopes this media enterprise will take off and provide him with the means to get a home for himself and his pregnant wife.

Contrast this organised, productive enterprise with the efforts of OWS participants on the west coast.

Although their video content is being streamed through GlobalRevolution.tv, that seems to be where the commonality ends. Rather than trying to build anything, or even be constructive, they’re attempting to block ports in Alaska and the Western U.S.

Even the unions these OWS participants claim to be supporting have come out in opposition to the blockades. They want their members to be able to go to work safely, and get a full pay check at the end of the week.

OWS Participants blockading access to ports

In a recent USA Today article, one trucker was quoted as having lost $600 – a day’s wages – because the protesters succeeded in closing the port facility.

“This is joke. What are they protesting?” said Christian Vega, who sat in his truck carrying a load of recycled paper. “It only hurts me and the other drivers.

“We have jobs and families to support and feed,” he said. “Most of them don’t.”

Thomas Ryan has written an interesting post on Big Government that reveals the agenda of many OWS participants. It’s well documented with a complete archive of e-mails from OWS. The tone of the e-mails aligns with activities on the west coast, but seems quite different from the enterprise happening in New York.

OWS, protesting about inequality, is experiencing a practical lesson in reality. Every group divides out into 80% followers, 15% achievers, 4% leaders and 1% celebrities.

In Brooklyn, Vlad Teichberg is the celebrity and his team are the leaders. The citizen journalists are the achievers, and then there’s the rest. People who take action simply to feel powerful; even when it harms those they claim to be helping.

The efforts at GlobalRevolution.tv have been so successful that Livestream is providing them a channel free of advertising. It turns out that some advertisers didn’t want to be associated with the OWS channel, and rather than weed them out Livestream simply removed all advertising. That’s a huge benefit to an organization trying to communicate their message.

Ustream, another online video streaming service, has provide two citizen journalists with better camera equipment. Tim Pool in New York, and Spencer Mills in Oakland, both provided consistently good content so Ustream has loaned them better video equipment.

Livestream and Ustream both claim to simply be supporting their platforms rather than specifically supporting the OWS movement. You can read more about GlobalRevolution.tv and their successes in a recent New York Times article.

The question that remains is: How long will it be before OWS participants turn on Vlad and his teammates as being part of the 1%?

It’s only a matter of time before GobalRevolution.tv gains the attention of advertisers able to align themselves with OWS. When that happens, it’s going to become a profit-generating business. Will the 80% who have built nothing claim a share of their success?

George Colony at LeWeb 2011

At least this is what George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research, thinks. He unveiled these predictions during his presentation at LeWeb in Paris this year. I caught this story through the Logic & Emotion blog, and decided to include it in this week’s episode of Social Media: Cheap and Easy.

You can watch George’s presentation and read the transcript on his blog.

According to George, the web is moving away from a network/browser model to something that leverages devices, apps and the cloud in a more powerful way. Not exactly an earth shattering prediction, but I think George misses what the future really is.

My prediction: Apps become our electronic servants – ever more sophisticate and specialized. Vivint is one current example. Apps are the precursor to software that will operate robots in our homes and businesses.

George’s second thunderstorm is the saturation of social media. He thinks we’re running out of hours and people to provide audiences for all the social media sites out there. He even predicts the demise of sites such as Foursquare.

Obviously George vastly underestimates our ability to find creative ways to waste time. Not to mention the more than half of the world’s population who have only just begun to access social media.

If a service like Foursquare dies, it won’t be for a simple lack of audience participation. It will be because they fail to engage business owners and show them the power of Foursquare as a rewards program for customers.

And finally, George predicts businesses will make use of social media tools to increase productivity with employees and for making better business decisions. It’s an interesting prediction that smacks of utopia.

There will certainly be some businesses – such as Dominoes – that use social media well and profitably. But the vast majority will simply add it to their business model, overlay it with bureaucracy, and end up wasting more time and effort than ever before.

Not to put too fine a point on it, I think George has some interesting ideas but missed the boat completely. For the guy in charge of Forrester Research, I expected him to have a much better understanding of human nature. Listen to the whole story on Social Media: Cheap and Easy.

Little Dudes and Divas is going head-to-head with the likes of Nordstrom, Macy’s, Babies “R” Us and even Diapers.com.

This small business does 90% of their sales through the internet and the rest through their brick-and-mortar store in Rockaway Park, N.Y. Even with the bulk of their business being done online, the founders of this company say their greatest strength is relationships with customers.

Steve and Susan Karasanti founded Little Dudes and Divas seven years ago. They sell clothes and accessories for infants and toddlers – everything from diapers and stroller blankets to diaper bags car seat covers – and now have 3 employees. They ship around the world and are always ready to help a customer find what they need.

The Homepage for LIttle Dudes and Divas

When a call comes in from a customer wanting to know how to pack a particular bag in a certain way, the staff at Little Dudes and Divas makes a video. They walk through how to pack each item, special tips for preventing leaks or breakage, and then make it available to everyone on their site.

I spotted the Karasanti’s and their business in Gabriel Shaoolian’s column (You’re The Boss) in the New York Times. There are two things in particular that he’s looking at with Little Dudes and Divas – the trust factor, and reasons for buying. In addition to what I share here, you can listen to this week’s episode of Social Media: Cheap and Easy to discover the one mistake Gabriel is making that will truly make the difference between massive growth and stagnation in any business.

Competition has certainly stiffened since they started seven years ago. Mr. Karasanti says “It’s very hard to compete with the bigger online companies on price, but we can compete by giving our customers personal attention.”

That personal attention is a key element in business success at any time, and it’s becoming increasingly important in today’s marketplace. We’re experiencing a crisis of trust – everyone is sceptical of everything (even this statement) – and business owners are feeling the pinch.

Here are 3 strategies for to make your customer relationships stronger, and help your business stand out from the competition:

Show Appreciation

One of the simplest things to do is run a birthday program in your business. Simply ask customer for the month and day of their birth so you can give them special attention on their birthday.

The same thing can be done for anniversaries, customers who bring in referrals, frequent shoppers or any other criteria you care to use. The key to all of these programs is choosing the behaviour you want to reward then building a program to reward that behaviour.

Encourage Communication

Restaurants do this all the time. I’m always spotting comment cards at the table in restaurants, and you can use the same approach in your business. All you have to do is make the cards available and give customers an anonymous way to drop them off.

Blogs and social media can be good ways to encourage communication if you actually listen and respond. Like a comment card, you have to be seen to be taking action on what people say.

Reward Referrals

Your existing customers are the easiest people to sell to, and the person they refer is the second easiest. This alone is a great reason to encourage referrals.

When someone refers another person to your business, they’re also increasing their commitment to do business with you. Now that they’ve told someone else how great you are, part of their personal credibility becomes wrapped up in continuing to do business with you. For this reason, you also want to treat referrals very well. As easy as a referral is to turn into a customer, getting it wrong just as easily means losing the referral as well as the referrer

Another way to strengthen your customer relationship is through cross-promotion. This one takes a little bit of time and effort. It also yields multiple benefits to your business.

No one business can satisfy every need of their customers. So to help you be more important to your customer – and more appreciated by them – connect with other business owners who fulfill your customers’ needs. Whether that be a hair salon, landscaping, or dentist, the objective is to make your customer’s life easier.

For example, I know a painter who advertises on a local pizza joint’s boxes. They both serve new-movers, and this cross-promotion has paid off handsomely for both businesses.

In the case of Little Dudes and Divas, they could easily cross-promote with another shop that sells strollers and car seats. That’s an obvious one. What other businesses can you think of that would make good cross-promotion partners for Little Dudes and Divas – or for your own business?

Having been covered by the New York Times and Huffinton Post, and even getting his own caricature in The New Yorker, Vlad has gone from being a derivatives trader working for Deutsche Bank to OWS pariticpant to budding media mogul. Although he currently lives in a squat with his pregnant wife, Vlad hopes the media project takes off and provides an income.

GlobalRevolution.TV started out under a tarp in Zucotti Park. But after weeks of frustration due to equipment loss from theft and rain, they were able to relocate to a building in NoHo (North of Houston St.). They’re now in a second floor office space and getting organized.

Here is a video from CNN Money that shows the GlobalRevolution.tv media headquarters and two of the team members.

This budding media mogul and his outlet, Global Revolution.tv have become the switchboard, or clearing house, for video related to OWS. The channel is hosted – apparently ad free – by Livestream. It seems more than one advertiser didn’t want to show up on this particular channel, so Livestream seems to have removed all advertising from the channel.

How long can it be before OWS turns on Vlad and his media outlet for the success they are achieving?

Personally, I think it’s great that the group involved with GlobalRevolution.TV has found this opportunity. They’re getting organized, supporting a cause they believe in, and attracting support. For now, the donations are just trickling in. Give it another week or so, and it’s likely they’ll attract the attention of donors – possibly even one or two of the millionairs who agree with OWS.

This is proof in action that populations consistently divide out into 80% masses, 15% achievers, 4% leaders and 1% celebrities. In this case, Vlad is becoming the celebrity, his team are the leaders, the citizen journalists are the achievers, and then there’s the rest.

It’s too bad that “the rest” are turning from protesting to harming the people they claim to serve.

Over the last week, USA Today has reported OWS protesters have managed to close several ports along the west coast. They claim to be targeting ports where Goldman-Sachs has an interest, yet they fail to accept the real consequences of their activities.

By closing the ports, the only people being hurt are the workers who can’t work. They’re losing a day’s pay. Since the corporations carry insurance to protect them against lost production, they’re coming out doubly ahead whenever a port facility is blockaded. Not only do they get to collect on their insurance, they’re saving the cost of paying employees.

Many congratulations to Vlad Teichberg and his team. Let’s hope they’re able to lead their fellow OWS participants to better pursuits and higher achievement.

The leaders and achievers in OWS are producing a live media outlet (article from New York Times) while the OWS wanna-bes and masses are organizing protests that hurt the working man (article from USA Today). Listen to this week’s show to know what’s happening and where the OWS movement is going.

Then we look at one small business that is succeeding – online – against competition from the likes of Macy’s, Nordstrom and Diapers.com. The business is Little Dudes and Divas (www.LittleDudesAndDivas.com), and they sell diapers, diaper bags and all sort of baby accessories.

The story comes from Gabriel Shaoolian’s column (You’re The Boss) in the New York Times. There are some really good points about this business, and there’s one spot where Gabriel and I disagree.

Listen to this week’s show to know how we disagree, then you tell us who’s right.

And we wrap the show with a look at George Colony’s predictions of doom. George is the CEO for Forrester Research. He presented his Three Thunderstorms at LeWeb this year, and in two cases I think George is dead wrong. And he simply doesn’t go far enough with the third thunderstorm. I picked this story up from Logic & Emotion, and just had to “set the record straight.”

This story is so important I let the show run long this week. George raised some really good  points, and unfortunately missed the boat with his predictions. So I’m going to add a special blog post Thursday, 22 December to expand on what we discuss during this week’s show.

So listen in to the show now, then watch for the blog post Thursday, 22 December. Then you can tell us who is seeing the future, and who is a touch off their rocker.

The first is a service called ValuText. You can guess from the name that it lets you send text messages to people who have opted-in to receive them. And it does far more than just that.

ValuText allows you to be very targeted about who receives your message, and when. This gives you huge potential for creating events and promotions specific to your location, the day of the week, even a change in weather.

It also carries a significant risk for how you use it. Many retailers are going to be caught in a laziness trap. Be sure you rise above the crowd, and leave your competitors behind, by injecting personality and experience into your use of this very practical and profitable service.

Listen to this week’s episode of Social Media: Cheap and Easy for all the details.

Then we have a look at Square.

It’s an innocent looking, little device that makes payment processing simple and easy to use. Small businesses and charities across the country are using Square to process billions of dollars worth of transactions – and Square is little more than a year old.

Are you going to an event and need to do back-of-room sales? How about a community market down the street from your store? Or even a special promotion in the parking lot? Square gives you the versatility to turn any smart phone or tablet into a portable cash register.

Tune in to Social Media: Cheap and Easy to discover how it works.

And we wrap up this week’s show with a look at how the world of search engines is catering to small business marketing. Google, Bing and Yahoo are all jumping to milk their newest cash cow – small business.

The attention they’re paying to serving us is making it a lot easier to understand how Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising works. That’s because they’re putting a lot of effort into developing support tools for all of us who can use a computer, but we’re certainly not technology pros.

As good as the support tools are becoming, there is one in particular you want to avoid using.

The search giants are offering done-for-you services where their staff  handle creating your ads and setting your bids. Even if that seems a little vague, what you need to know about this type of service is crystal clear: Avoid Using This Service At All Costs!

Remember: They get paid based on how much you spend on PPC advertising.

It makes no sense to let them determine how much you pay per click. It makes even less sense to have their rank-and-file employees create the ad you’ll be spending money on.

And there’s an incredibly ironic point you definitely don’t want to miss. Google, Bing and Yahoo are foaming at the mouth to get you using their PPC services, but they’re using a completely different media to persuade you.

Listen to Social Media: Cheap and Easy to hear what it is, and why you should follow their example rather than their instructions.

Start listening now to Social Media: Cheap and Easy

Small business marketing is far easier than most business owners make it out to be. But you do need to do some work, and professional advice is often helpful.

Have a look at www.SkyRoll.com. It’s the subject of our first story. More accurately, the bozo that owns it is the subject.

I meet way too many business owners who ask for advice on small business marketing, like this guy, and then disagree with me. It makes me want to scream “Are you KIDDING?!” This is why I’ve learned to weed out the problems by making business owners jump through hoops to get to me.

After I go to town on SkyRoll, we take a look at Facebook’s upcoming IPO.

Like Groupon, Facebook’s IPO is like to be successful. That is, Facebook and the investment bankers are going to make a whole lot of money. Also like Groupon, those who buy in are going to lose money.

Listen to hear WHY Facebook is doing an IPO – and HOW they’re preparing for it. It’s definitely odd, and should be screaming DANGER to every investor in the world.

Hear it all this week on Social Media: Cheap and Easy.

Then we’re wrapping up the show with a look at Occupy Wall Street. If I haven’t offended you by this point in the show, I probably will with this story.

After more than a quarter century of owning my own business, becoming a master carpenter, and writing 5 books in 19 months, I have little patience with anyone who whines about life being hard. Have you noticed a lot of the people getting press coverage over Occupy Wall Street are college professors? Talk about professional underachievers.

If you think lawyers are bad, we should stone the people who train them. That’s right, college professors.

I’m all for being social, but socialist is just insane. I’m a dedicated capitalist – everyone who listens to Social Media: Cheap and Easy knows it. And by the way, that means I’m first in line to put crooked bankers and corporate executives in jail. They give capitalism a bad name.

Just click the Instant Download link at Social Media: Cheap and Easy. And when you’re good and riled, come on back here to leave your comment. Just click on the post title to go to the comment page.