From Our Community: An Open Letter to Seattle, Dealing with Mean People


From Our Community: An Open Letter to Seattle, Dealing with Mean People

It’s time for another edition of the community news and information roundup. Here’s what’s being talked about on the small business blogs and in the small business communities we follow.

Mr. Mayor, Franchises Aren’t Big Business (The Franchise King)

You may have heard. Seattle’s decided to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next seven years for small businesses and over the next three years for larger ones. In the wake of the decision, Joel Libava writes an open letter to Mayor Ed Murray to clear up just one little point.

How To Deal With Mean People Online (GeriRichmond.com)

We’ve all been there. And if it hasn’t happened to you yet, it likely will someday. Someone will choose to be less than respectful to you online, leaving you feeling discouraged and upset. This wonderful post from online marketer Geri Richmond was shared with the BizSugar community by member Donald Thomas. And started a lively discussion on the topic.

How To Curate Content for Your Website (Social Media Just For Writers)

It doesn’t matter if you maintain a website or social channel for your own business or provide it as a service for others. You already know curation can be a great way of broadening the kind of content you offer readers and potential customers. Frances Caballo has these suggestions for tools and techniques that will help you do it better.

Improve the Reach of Your Message (J.G. Communications)

Up until now, content marketing has been about the quality (and maybe the volume) of your content. Now, it may be about something else, as well. John Grimley shares this post about the move toward improving marketing messages through better distribution. This involves not just creating your marketing message but getting more precise about targeting your customers.

Facebook Will Share Less Data (Adventures in Career Change)

That is, Facebook will share less of your data with third party sites. These are the websites and applications that are always requesting data in order for you to click through. In this post, freelance social media specialist Janet Gershen-Siegel points out that Facebook will go on collecting data on its members for its own purposes. Arguably this is good news for businesses with a Facebook presence worried their data may be shared. But it’s bad news for small third party website or app operators who have previously benefited from this customer data.

Five Content Marketing Approaches (BloggingTips.com)

In the past, online marketers often talked about blogging, social media, online video, etc. Today, they talk about content marketing. And, as blogger John Conor explains, this can include creating content for any number of different platforms. But it also includes having strategies about how to reach the right audience or customers.

Unmanaged Emails and Meetings Can Drain Away Your Time (Tweak Your Biz)

Contributor Flor McCarthy, the managing partner in a legal practice, calls these “time vampires.” Unscheduled meetings from within your organization or without and reading and dealing with every email when it arrives can be tremendous drains. There are exceptions, of course. But McCarthy gives small business owners some advice on how to drive stakes through these particular vampires and stop them from draining away your productivity.

Seek Tools for Better Organizaion (Doug — Off the Record)

We can’t all be born well-organized. For example, business and computer science educator Doug Peterson admits to being the kind of person who drops files into folders with names like “Doug’s Documents.” And he says moving to the cloud has only made things worse. Fortunately, Peterson says, there are tools to help put your digital house in order.

Think Hard About Your Pricing (Creative Live)

Pricing of your product or service should not be taken lightly. Kari Chapin, author of “The Handmade Marketplace” and “Grow Your Handmade Business” gives some advice. (See the video of her presentation in the BizSugar community.) Many of Chapin’s suggestions on pricing extend to other kinds of small businesses. Thanks to member Martin Lindeskog for sharing this one.

Use Social to Grab Your Prospects’ Attention (Small Business Sense)

Kim George gives us seven tips to grab the attention of prospects using social media. This is about more than just boosting your brand. Kim’s advice is about targeting the right prospects with the right message, a recurring message in the social media and content marketing world these days.

Tablet reader outdoors image via Shutterbug

9 Comments ▼
9 Reactions
  1. Hey, thank you for the shoutout!

    One thing about Facebook (just in general) – YOU are the product. All users are the product, which is being sold to advertisers. It is a lovely place to go, and I enjoy it as much as many other people do. But make no mistake about it. Facebook is a business and their product is a semi-captive audience for advertisements.

  2. Thank you so much for including my “Open Letter To The Mayor Of Seattle” on your weekend rundown.

    With the reach of the Small Business Trends website, Mayor Murray will find it hard to miss my letter.

    Again, thank you!

    This issue is huge.

    The Franchise King®

    • Martin Lindeskog

      Joel,

      My comment on BizSugar:

      Joel: Thanks for speaking out! The mayor should use Foursquare and check-in the local franchise establishment in his area and say that he his sorry…

      I am getting so upset by the Big Brother attitude by the elected servants…

  3. Martin Lindeskog

    Joel:

    Be strong and keep up your great work!

    It is time that we have a real debate on who is a real creator and who is a mean person…

    Best Premises,

    Martin

  4. Great collection as always. I have particularly enjoyed the article about nasty comments. We really cannot prevent those things when you’re operating online but you can control how you react to it and that’s all that matters.

  5. Wow. Thanks so much guys for including my blog post on Using Social Media to Grab Your Prospects’ Attention. It’s truly an honor to be included as a resource on Small Biz Trends. Cheers all!