Small Business Boomers

The question has been asked, “Is it worth your time to try to reach Baby Boomers on social media?”  The answer is, “Yes.”  and “No.” I write a lot about Baby Boomers as business owners, but not as much about Boomers as consumers.  Today’s post is about both.
Donya Schweizer markets her Beyond Chocolate products using Facebook. 
What is Social Media? First, I need to define “social media.”  It’s one of those “if you don’t know what it is, I can’t explain it” kinds of things.  Social media involve the Internet and mobile technology (iPhones, cell phones, blackberries, that kind of …read more

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Yelp! is a website that allows people to post reviews of service providers. But there are two sides to every story. A San Francisco chiropractor was accused by a former patient of over-charging him. The patient took his compliant to Yelp! and the chiropractor sued him. The SF Chronicle related the story and it got me to thinking – has online rating gone too far?
it’s one thing to give a book a bad rating on Amazon or to rate a monitor at Best Buy. But rating people is a different story. If you read the …read more

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I have been talking about Testimonials: Why you need them and how to get them.  I also wrote yesterday about how the FTC wants to limit our use of testimonials. One kind of testimonial is more powerful than any other.  That’s the video testimonial.  If print and visual testimonials are powerful, video testimonials are even more so.
Here are a couple of examples:
Service Testimonial. First, watch these video testimonials for a photographer.  I loved how the photos shown tied in perfectly with what the people were saying about the photographer.  I was ready to sign up, and I don’t even …read more

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I firmly believe in the power of testimonials.  You know, those “I lost weight and so can you” things you see on ads for weight loss programs.
What is your first though on seeing this “before and after” photo?

Was it “Wow! How did she do that?”  or was it “They must have altered that photo” ?  But even if your response was skeptical, didn’t you wonder how she did it?  Before-and-After photos may not be believable to us, on one level, but deep down we think, “Gee, it worked for her/him, maybe it will work for me.”  Testimonials are probably the …read more

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Over at the Lifestyles channel, they have put together a Virtual Mall with lots of great shopping ideas.  Maybe I can talk my family into looking at the list of gifts for quilters and fabric artists on Quilting and Patchwork.
The Splendicity (Beauty and Style) channel will give you plenty of inspiration in its holiday gift-giving guide.  I’m checking out the fabulous shoes list for my daughter-in-law.
I’ll give you more as I find them.

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Today is Black Friday.  The official start of the holiday shopping season.  Some are predicting a dismal season.   Lots of bargains will be available, I predict.  But should all of us rush out and spend money or not?
Although it hasn’t been officially announced, we certainly are in a recession.  Defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the economy, a recession is clearly underway. With the decline in home values, the hit we Baby Boomers took on our retirement funds, and the media’s constant bad news, it’s no wonder the predictions are for a dismal holiday shopping season.
According to …read more

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Where are you on the range of Internet users? The Pew Internet and American Life Project has studied Internet users and created a user survey. They have categorized nternet users into several categories
Do you use the Internet, cell phone, and other technology frequently? If so, you are probably an “Elite Tech” (34 percent of American adults). If you use a cell phone but you don’t use the Internet much, you are probably a “Middle of the Road Tech” User (29% of American adults). And if you use cell phones and the Internet …read more

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A few days ago I talked about Baby Boomers getting back into the job market and some possible networking resources, if you decide to start a new business or to go back into the work world full-time or part-time.   So how do you make contact with people at networking events and expand your network of possibilities?  Here are some tips for networking:

 Attend local networking events.  It’s been said that 90% of success is just showing up.  That’s true with networking.  Showing up gets you talking to the right people.  Some possible networking events/meetings: Local chamber of …read more

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While the rest of the world was watching election returns, an interesting case came before the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court yesterday heard testimony in a case that could have an impact on our viewing habits.  While we can watch movies on cable that include many expletives and adult language, network television has, for the most part, been the last place where you would expect to hear sexual or bathroom humor. Well, except for when George Carlin appeared with his “Seven Words You Can’t Say on TV.”
The latest case in the war between “freedom of …read more

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I have been talking about networking this past week.  One of the best pieces of networking advice I have received is to collect email addresses.  Then keep in touch with these people.  One way to keep in touch is to send them invitations; a new way to send online invitations is with one of the new online invitation sites, like Evite or Socializr.
That’s E-Vite (like in-vite).  Evite is an online service that allows you to send free invitations to events.  You select the invitation template and the words and you create the email list. Most of the sample invitations are …read more

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