Can I use a Blog or MySpace to promote my Business?

I have tried both using a blog www.BizCreditPolicy.com and My Space www.myspace.com/michelledunn to promote myself and my books. I had heard of My Space but thought it was a place for teens or kids, the description on their website is “a place for friends”. One afternoon I was reading an issue of Entrepreneur and they had a story about a woman who said she had used My Space as a marketing tool for her business. My first thought was “there are business people on My Space?” So I checked it out. I found there were very few business people that were active members, and a lot of teens, younger kids, musicians and people looking to party and meet other people with similar interests. I also saw that they have groups and some do pertain to business while some seem as if they are business related but are “Get Rich Quick” groups. There are groups for anything you can imagine someone might have an interest in. I thought I would try it, since I like to try everything to market myself and my books and it was free! I created my profile page, uploaded my pictures and began browsing the site for other business owners.

I have met a few people that I network with but I did not have a huge response or increased traffic to my website or orders of my books because of my myspace page. It is a fun way to meet a few other business people but you also have to weed through the emails from people just “hanging out” there and sending you emails about dating or partying. I found it was not worth the time and effort to continuously maintain a My Space profile for my business, but am hoping that will change. It was taking me too much time to weed through all the “friend requests” and “emails” from people who had no interest in my books or business. I have left my page up and do check it occasionally as well as post to my blog. My Space page also comes up when someone does a search on Google or Yahoo for me, so that is a bonus as well. If they find me on My Space and then visit my website, I have accomplished what I started out to do.

My recommendation with My Space is that if you have the time to create a page and do a little searching for business groups and people, it is something that does not hurt you to have it out there, but I wouldn’t count on it to help you make more sales or increase your websites traffic.

Depending on what you are marketing, a blog at My Space may be the tool for you. Tish Hill, from “Off the Hanger” which sells, buys and trades quality high-end used clothing and accessories tells me that she had no experience in blogging, websites or anything to market her business online. “My Space is a great option for me because my target audience is young people who want high quality fashion without the big price tags.” states Tish. “My Space is user friendly, anyone can create a page without any technical knowledge” says Tish. “You can screen the friends you accept, so you have quality contacts, and send out bulletins of special events or sales and keep a blog with fashion tips and ideas from what we have in the store.” I think this is a great option for young people who visit My Space; to have other profiles to view that are positive if they are going to be “hanging out” on My Space.

Depending on your business and who your target audience is, My Space can work to help market your business. Check it out and you can decide if it is a good fit.

I have a blog (www.BizCreditPolicy.com) through Know More Media, which is an online publisher of business information and news. The authors provide a broad spectrum of business knowledge, publishing their expertise on a continual basis. This is a great marketing tool. When you blog, it is like a diary. You can post every day, a few times a day or whenever you have something you want to share with your readers. In my case, my blog is about Credit Policy for businesses and how to extend credit and manage credit risk. The difference here and why this is so much more successful with marketing yourself than My Space, is that this is a blog for business! My Space does not provide me with my target audience, but Know More Media does, so this is a perfect fit if you have something of interest to entrepreneurs, business owners or business professionals.

When you use a blog to market yourself and your business, remember it is not a bulletin board for advertisements. You can list accomplishments, such as an award or press event, but don’t blatantly advertise your business. If you do, you will not have many readers. Give your readers valuable information, and update it often to keep them coming back and to keep the search engines coming back to index your blog. You want to post quality information, for example, I write books about collecting money and starting a collection agency. In my blog posts I try to give people tips on how to collect more money, or what is going on in the news in regards to my subject matter. You can incorporate other authors from your genre and do little interviews with them, link to their websites, and have them linked to your blog.

Easton Ellsworth who writes for “Business Blog Wire (www.BusinessBlogWire.com) and is also an associate editor for the Know More Media network of blogs about business has some great tips for businesses who want to utilize a blog to help promote their business. “A blog can promote your business in many ways. You could use a blog to tell existing and potential customers about new products or services” states Easton. “No matter what you do with a blog, make sure you have a clear plan before you start blogging about anything and everything.” Says Easton.

Easton was kind enough to share with me a simple process anyone can use to launch a blog right:

Choose a specific purpose and target audience.
Pick a smart URL and title.
Establish guidelines for the person(s) who will write for the blog.
Read other blogs and talk to bloggers in your industry.
Prepare a modest collection of ready-to-publish posts and quietly put several of them online.
When you’re ready, tell the world about your blog!

Michelle Dunn, author of an award winning book has spent the last 18 years stepping into dangerous debt collection potholes. She shares her hard-won expertise on debt collection with the release of a Second Edition title in her “Collecting Money Series.” She is the founder and president of Never Dunn Publishing, LLC, is a writer, teacher, and consultant. Michelle started and ran M.A.D. Collection Agency for 8 years. She created Credit & Collections a nine year old Association for credit and business professionals with over 978 members.

Michelle has been featured in Forbes.com, The Nilson Report, The Wall Street Journal, Ladies Home Journal, PC World, Home Business Magazine, Home Business Journal, Entrepreneur, Professional Collector, Credit & Collections Risk, NH Business Review and in many books including Home Based Business for Dummies. Michelle has been a featured guest on (NPR) National Public Radio and has been in many newspapers and magazines nationwide as well as on the CBS Early Show. She has many published articles and 7 published books to add to her list of accomplishments. Entrepreneur Press released “The Ultimate Credit & Collections Handbook, the check IS in the mail” penned by Dunn in 2006.

Visit www.michelledunn.com and www.credit-and-collections.com for more information about Michelle Dunn and her books. To learn more about “Off the Hanger” visit www.myspace.com/offthehanger or www.offthehanger.biz Get more blogging tips at Easton Ellsworth’s blog www.businessblogwire.com

$141 Billion of Consumer Debt was charged off last year

The Boston Globe is doing a series right now called “Debtors’ Hell” in their last segment, Part 4, they state, “They generally owe the money, but seldom anticipate the consequences.” I have found that to be my experience even when the consequences were printed on the credit application they have signed.

Richard S Daniels Jr. the Boston lawyer The Globe interviewed said it perfectly, “Any system that puts people’s backs up against the wall doesn’t work.” If you listen to my interview on NPR that aired on January 29, 2003 on All Things Considered, you will see that I spent my debt collection years trying to help debtors to get the bill paid that I was collecting on while having understanding for their situations. Sometimes this meant advising my client there was a hardship situation, or offering a settlement amount and taking payments. This only works with the debtors who seriously have run into hard times, not the “career” debtors. I created an online community for debt collection professionals and explain in my book “Starting a Collection Agency, How to make money collecting money” that being a bully does not work and is also against the law. Compassion, patience and understanding will help you collect more money and also let you and the debtor keep their dignity in an already embarrassing situation.

I am not saying everyone follows these practices but I think that debt collectors have been given a bad rap collectively and there are many collectors out there who follow the law and try to work with people rather than bully them into paying. I encourage collectors to join associations in the collection industry, as well as the Better Business Bureau and their local Chambers of Commerce. This is because when you are operating an agency, even if you are the most perfect agency on the planet, this will let anyone who is considering using your agency see that you belong to these organizations, which lends your agency credibility and shows you have ethics. The people who hire an agency, should realize the agency they choose is a reflection of their business, and not choose an agency because it is the lowest price, but because it is an honest, ethical agency that can back that up with references and statistics.

Something to consider is if there are debtors who feel they are being treated unfairly by a collection agency, we might want to look at the creditor that chose to use that agency. Why did they choose that agency? Maybe they are not aware the agency might have done something they wouldn’t have done, but shouldn’t they be?

How to Deal with Customers that Do Not Pay

Author Michelle Dunn, has been interviewed by Tom Taulli who writes a weekly column for Forbes.com. “Tom contacted me on a Sunday night and had just found my book online”, says Dunn. Tom had a deadline for his column which is featured on the front page of the Forbes.com website each week, and this weeks column is about how business owners can deal with customers that do not pay them, how to decide if someone should be on a cash only basis, if you should collect using phone calls or letters, hot to escalate things when no payment is forthcoming and when and how to place accounts with a collection agency. “The article will get front page exposure and Forbes.com gets quite a bit of traffic approximately 9 to 10 million unique visitors a day” says Tom.

As a recognized expert in her industry Dunn has received nationwide press through the years based on her knowledge and expertise in the debt collection industry. Michelle has been featured in Business NH Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, NH Business Review, NPR, The CBS Early Show and many other national media.

Tom Taulli is an author and advisor to startup companies, is the author of various books on finance, such as The Complete M&A Handbook (Random House) and Investing in IPO's (Bloomberg Press). Mr. Taulli teaches finance and investing at a variety of educational institutions, including University of Southern California (USC) and University of California , Irvine (UCI). He has written numerous articles for such prestigious publications as Business2.0, CBS MarketWatch, MSN Investor and Forbes.

In addition to being a published author, Mr. Taulli often appears on high-profile television venues such as CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg TV, and is frequently quoted in the various print media sources such as the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, USA Today and LA Times. Besides his books on M&A and IPO's, Mr. Taulli has written five other books on finance, with publishers such as Bloomberg Press and McGraw-Hill. Mr. Taulli has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Cal Poly, Pomona , and a law degree from Whittier School of Law.

Dunn was a debt collector for 17 years, started and ran her own debt collection agency for 8 years and has written 7 books on the subject of collecting money. The Second Edition to her first book “Starting a Collection Agency” has just been released in June and Entrepreneur Press is publishing Dunn’s book “The Ultimate Handbook of Credit & Collections, the Check IS in the Mail” on August 1, 2006. Dunn also owns and moderates Credit & Collections a 10 year old online networking community and website with over 950 members. To learn more about Michelle or her services please visit www.michelledunn.com or www.credit-and-collections.com To learn more about Tom visit http://www.taulli.com.

Press!

I am happy to announce that I was featured in The Dollar Strecher Newsletter yesterday and received a lot fo great comments from people, thank you!
Look for more articles I have written in the April/March issue of "Home Business Journal" and in the March issue of "Business NH Magazine" as well as the March issue of "The Neighborhood Watch" newsletter for Glen Allen, VA.
Check out my website for new articles, books and updates on consulting, speaking and teleclasses.
Have a great day!
Michelle Dunn