All of us on this business community are seeking new ways to promote and sell our wares.  We know the value of Word of Mouth Marketing (WOM), but do we all understand the value of business blogging as it related to WOM?

I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point.  For the last week or ten days I’ve been biting at the bit to write this article, but I wanted to wait until I finished the book.  Not only did Malcom ask the questions why some ideas took off, but he answered societal questions on what stifles momentum.  To bring Malcolm’s thoughts into perspective for us business folks in Portland Oregon, I’ll ask a question that directly pertains to US.

Why blog on Portland Business Community?

“The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.“

America is suffering through a very difficult recession. Without arguing politics, let’s assume for a moment that times are still bad and maybe getting worse.  Most, if not all, of us are members of “other” networking groups (chamber’s, lead sharing, associations, etc.) and our goal is to build new connections with other people who may need our services or know someone who needs our service.

Those of us who’ve been around a while know the “Card-Droppers” as me centered folks who will almost never carry our message to their network; but instead attend the groups for just long enough to fail at getting any business before moving on to the next failed networking venture.  I call this process Group Cold Calling.  Work a room, make the same sales pitch over and over and hope that some business is gained.

A Better Approach to networking

Get to know the business people around you, help them solve their problems and they’ll be your very best friend–helping bring you LOTS of new business.

Business Blogging allows you to help people you’ve never met; building relationships with people who find your idea over the internet.

PortlandBusinessCommunity.com, being a FREE business blogging site for business people means your audience may have found your words because they were brought to the site by search phrase liked to another article.

PortlandBusinessCommunity.com, using Malcolm’s terms, is a Connector.  The authors on this site are the Mavens and the search engine become the Salesmen.

Unlike your elevator speech at a chamber meeting, your words in your business blog article live forever in the sales channel (i.e. search engines).

There are a great many correlations between fishing and marketing. In fishing it is important to define what type fish you are looking to catch. Then you can select the proper equipment, lures and techniques. You will have little success reeling in an 8’, 400-pound Sturgeon on an ultra-light Trout Pole with 4- pound line. On the other hand you may not even feel a Trout on a Sturgeon rig.

I am amazed at the number of business owners who join networking groups who are filled with people who would seldom if ever utilize their products or services.

To be successful in business you need to determine who is your target customer.
•    How old are they?
•    What type of cars do they drive?
•    Do they rent or own their homes?
•    Why would they want to do business with you?
•    What can you offer, that is better then your competition?
•    What needs do you fill? Are they Physical or Emotional?
•    Are you simply the lowest price and hoping for high volume of sales or are you the company offering a high quality product, which will provide you with high margins?

Your Competition:
•    How many other companies do the same thing?
•    Is the market growing or shrinking?
•    Are there any pending regulations, which could change the market?
•    How will your customers find you?

Once you know your customer and competition, you are now able to determine a potentially successful marketing strategy. But until then, fishermen would say you are hoping rather then fishing.

If things are not going well, it maybe time to rethink what you are doing.

See You At The Dock.

Ken Bear Cole
Fishing with Bear LLC

Many medium and large companies are members of Business associations, which hire political lobbyists to promote their particular industry. But what about the small business owner, they certainly can’t afford a lobbyist. Who will help them?

Small business owners tend to look to Chambers of Commerce and Networking groups. But do they work? Some will say absolutely, while other come and go.

Most small business need more then just a lead on a potential customer. They are also in need of valuable information on bookkeeping, marketing and management of assets. Sad to say, that information has been missing from Chambers and Networking associations.

That is why the Free Service of Portland Business Community.com was formed. It is a group of small to medium business people, who are willing to share information and ideas, without a sales pitch.

We want to do so, utilizing 21st century technology, which will make all of the information searchable on the Internet. Your information is also able to be linked to your website, which will increase your visibility on search engines. You can also add photos and links to supporting articles. Check out my “Elevator Speech” on the site.

Can’t write? I doubt that, but I understand if you prefer to start slowly. The site has a new category called “Elevator Speeches.” I am sure you are familiar with the term. It’s that 90 second commercial you use at your Chamber of Commerce and Networking events. Well now you can post it on Portland Business Community.com and the world can view it. Remember to add a link back to your site, along with a photo or logo.

You can also use Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about your goods and services. Find a good URL shortening service and you are on your way to driving quality traffic to your website.

I am sure that some of you have even more good ideas of how to build credibility and traffic to your website. Please share some with me in the comments section of the article.

Ken Bear Cole
Fishing with Bear LLC

Welcome to Portland’s news online business community.  This site is designed to help business owners come together online to learn more about doing business, find new business opportunities, share business success stories or gripe about the local business environment.  With the recessions being announced across the globe, business owners must find new ways to market their business.  Joining networking groups to share ideas is one of the more popular marketing approaches; but most networking groups cost money and have very little internet marketing value.  This site is designed to be FREE and FAST.

Blogging has become the number one way of gaining search engine visibility.  70% of all American adults turn to the internet to find information.  Is your business listed high enough on Google and Yahoo?  Could you use one more avenue on the information super highway where customers can find you?  Writing articles on PortlandBusinessCommunity.com is free and easy.

Never blogged before?  Don’t know how to write for search engine visibility?  No problem, I have created a FREE website designed to help you learn how to use blog technology to gain more customers (BusinessBlogging.net).  What’s the catch?  No catch, blogging is absolutely FREE.  You need only follow a couple simple rules:

1. No direct sales pitch.  Talk about your business, how you got into business why you feel your business is the best for consumers, but no direct selling allowed.
2. No writing bad things about other Portland businesses or the people who run local businesses.

This site is for everyone, business owners and consumers a like.  Writing here gains you and your business web site valuable links and search engine visibility.  Reading articles published on this site give you ideas for how to improve your life.

To become an author, simply sign-up and follow the instructions listed on the blogging instructions page.  For more information, you can reach me by phone at (503) 709-1454 or via eMail at ed@zenithexhibits.com.

Happy blogging

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.