Women’s Independent Press

By Rieva Lesonsky
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It’s not enough just to have created a Facebook fan page and Twitter account. You have to actually use these tools to promote your business, or you’re missing out on a valuable marketing opportunity. While Facebook seems to work best if you target consumers, while Twitter works for both consumers and B-to-B sales, most customers expect you to be active on both platforms. Here are some tips to help you leverage your social media activity.

1.Show up every day. Although you don’t want to overburden your customers with too many postings, it’s important to show you’re active everyday of the work week. Are you running a special this week? Want some feedback on what your customers think of your new service or product? Send a shout out to a great client who made your day? Make a point of posting at least one interesting thing daily so customers will want to check in.

2.Make it worthwhile. Post a special promotion code for Twitter followers or give out a free item for customers who “Like” your Facebook page. Own a restaurant? You can also tweet about the daily special.

3.Be timely. Think about the time of day you tweet or post. Post too early or too late and many people will miss what you have to say. If you’re highlighting a food item, try and tweet near the lunch or dinner hour. Any holidays coming up? Make sure you post last minute seasonal specials.

4.Get familiar with helpful apps. Helpful new applications for Facebook and Twitter seem like they’re issued almost daily—and many are business-oriented. Do a search on applications for Facebook and Twitter, read the reviews to see which really work, and then experiment with them to see if they are truly helpful.

5.Don’t flake out. Social media is time consuming (and can be addictive). As a business owner, if you don’t feel you have the time to make a good effort, delegate the tasks to someone else. The point of using social media is to make sure customers see your business as dynamic.

BizSuccessTips Editor Rieva Lesonsky is founder and CEO of GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company. A nationally recognized small-business expert, Lesonsky has appeared on hundreds of radio shows and numerous local and national television programs. Read more of her insights at www.SmallBizDaily.com

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This title doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with an employers’ W-2’s, but it does. A provision in the Act now affects any employers who sponsor health care plans. 

“Increasing Transparency in Employer W-2 Reporting of Value of Health Benefits: This provision requires employers to disclose the value of the benefit provided by the employer for each employee‟s health insurance coverage on the employee‟s annual Form W-2.” (quoted from PPACA Detailed Summary)

Employers must now realize that they need to become aware of and adjust to the new reporting requirements that will take effect in 2013.  However, because employees can ask for their W-2’s early, for instance, if they terminate employment during the calendar year, employers will need to have their payroll systems adjusted to be able to report this in early 2012.  While the IRS had originally slated this to be effective for 2011, they have since changed this and made reporting of the health insurance value information optional for 2011. Since employers have only 30 days to respond to the W-2 request, it is in the employer’s best interest to prepare for this new provision immediately. 

A detailed summary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is available online at http://dpc.senate.gov/healthreformbill/healthbill04.pdf .  As you can see in this 14 page summary, the Act covers everything from Americans having affordable health care to revenue provisions.  As there may be future regulations to help employers clarify the different types of coverage, such as how to report for less than a month’s coverage, if coverage starts or stops in the middle of the month; or how it applies to former employees who are provided health care coverage, including retirees, COBRA participants or even surviving spouses; it is important to work with your accounting department, payroll company and health insurance providers to stay abreast of the ever changing regulations surrounding healthcare reform. 

This article courtesy of Pomaybo, Inc., providing solutions to workforce issues. Please visit www.pomaybo.com for more information.

3 Reasons Why Most Women Entrepreneurs Fail To Attract Clients Using LinkedIn

By Kristina Jaramillo

There are over 80 million influential professionals from over 200 countries on LinkedIn that can become your woman-owned business’s potentials customers. In fact, LinkedIn’s membership is what Neilson Online is calling “The world’s largest audience of affluent, influential professionals” as you will find executives from all Fortune 500 companies there. Plus, you will find experienced professionals from large and small companies and every type of business and industry imaginable.

So, why aren’t you able to attract more clients?

You as a woman entrepreneur have courage, vision, intuition and persistence. You connect easily with others. You are passionate and enthusiastic. In fact, you cannot stop talking about what you. And, you don’t forget to emphasize the benefits of your services to your potential customers. You are a real pro at using your contacts – but you are just not connecting with anyone on LinkedIn.

Out of the 80 million professionals, there are only a few internet marketers and companies that are successfully getting more clients each and every single day from LinkedIn. Below, you will find out their secrets to attracting clients that are ready, willing and able to invest in their products or services.

3 Reasons Why You Are Not Attracting More Clients and Making More Money with LinkedIn

Reason #1 – You are waiting for prospects to come to you

Clients who are willing to pay for your products and services will not just fall into your lap.  As an entrepreneur you have to make it part of your job to go out and find them.

Think of it this way, who is the interested party in this situation: You or the person who doesn’t even know they know they need your services or products.

You have to be the one the take charge and find your prospects. Here are a few ways to easily engage with others on LinkedIn…

• Update your status message daily.
• Start a vigorous discussion in various groups that you belong to. This will enable you to prove your expertise in your given area.
• Answer questions on the Q & A Boards. This will show your experience and help you become a thought leader.

Reason #2 –You fail to take advantage of LinkedIn groups

LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups – where you can network, join conversations and show prospects that you have the answers to their problems. Yet, most small business owners and internet marketers do not actively seek groups that they should belong to.

If they do join groups they make these two mistakes:

• They become a member of a group – but they sit there like a lump on the log. How can you expect prospects to come to you if you do not take the time to make yourself heard?
• They join groups where there are like members. Let me put it to you this way, do you want to be a member of a group that is full of your competition or do you want to belong to a group that is full of people who could turn out to be your prospects. It sounds pretty obvious to me that you would want to be where your prospects are. But many entrepreneurs fail to think outside the box and strictly join groups based on their field of expertise.

Another way, to take advantage of LinkedIn groups is to create your own group. This is the absolute best way to create your own community of followers. You are the one who is in charge of the type of content that is posted. You can make sure what you have to say is heard and you have the power to control your own group.  From my experience, many group members religiously check out what is being discussed in the groups they find the most useful.  Why can’t your group be one of them?

Reason #3 – Failure to Create Content and Distribute it to the Different Groups

Eric Gruber (My Partner at GetLinkedInHelp.com and Founder of Article Marketing Experts) belongs to 50 different groups. Now, if each of the 50 groups has at least 1,000 members, then each time he submits content, he is getting his content in front of 50,000 potential clients – just with a couple clicks of the mouse.

So, you need to create content that…

• Proves your expertise
• Sparks controversy and debate
• Gets people talking
• Entices prospects to visit your blog and website
• Motivates prospects to take action (using your products or services of course)

If you need help creating content, check out these free article templates.

Just by avoiding these common LinkedIn mistakes, you will begin to build your list of connections and prospects. Continue the conversation – and you will turn these prospects into paying customers and clients.

Now the three mistakes I outlined in this article is part of a larger special report where I detail 14 LinkedIn mistakes and the opportunities you are missing. You can get it for free at www.GetLinkedInHelp.com.

About the Author:
LinkedIn Expert Kristina Jaramillo creates online marketplace opportunities for women entrepreneurs who want more website traffic, prospects and profits. Now, with her free special report, you can uncover how you can become “the trusted source for your industry on LinkedIn” and along with easy ways to gain more connections fast by avoiding the top 14 mistakes. Get this information for free at www.GetLinkedInHelp.com.

We look at potentially hundreds of applications every year, but do we really know what to look for?  A few simple tips can go a long way in identifying the character of an applicant.  The first that thing that should jump out at you is the neatness, or lack thereof, on an application – especially if you are using the old “paper and pen” method.  If an application is not legible, the applicant may be trying to mislead or confuse you, especially if the illegibleness makes it impossible to verify the information provided.  In addition to legibility, accuracy is the next thing to look for although, I am not sure that if we were ranking the importance of that I would keep this as #2.  The application should contain information that is complete and accurate.  Full names and address, contacts and phone number should be listed in the appropriate chronological order along with salary information.  If there is any information missing, background checks or reference checks may be next to impossible.  Lastly, did the applicant fill out the application in front of you?  If they did not, you may not be able to verify if they had assistance in filling out this application. 

There are several red flags that you should be aware of when looking at, the first of which is gaps in employment.  It is your responsibility to make sure that the applicant can explain satisfactorily any gaps in employment and that their explanations are verifiable. Another issue that many employers should look out for is job jumping, or the frequent changing of jobs….although with the generational diversity that we as a nation are now facing, this may not be as important.  Some may argue that we as employers are responsible for keeping our employees beyond the 3 year hump…which of course is an article for another day.  If employees are missing information such as a supervisor name, this could be an indicator of an attempt to hide a poor or unsafe work history.  Applicants should be listing not only the name of the previous employers but their direct supervisors, as well.

The most important thing that I can tell you is to NOT write on the application or resume.  Make all of your notations and markings on a separate interview forms.  If you ever need to bring those documents to court, do not jeopardize the use of what could be a potentially fraudulent document by writing on it and deeming it inadmissible. 

All of your applications should have an expiration date. For example, “This application is valid for thirty days from the application date unless renewed in person or in writing.”  If you do not carry this statement on your application, then you may be called upon to identify why you did not call this applicant in for an interview six months later.  All applications need to be kept on file for a minimum period of one year if not hired. 

Lastly, don’t forget that if part of your pre-hire process is to conduct background checks, drug testing or anything else that you have the appropriate release forms fill out.  It is very easy to forget to have the applicant sign off of the Employment Policies And Release Form, Consent To Release Information Forms, confidential Reference Inquiry Form, Request for Written References of 3^rd party specific Background Checks/Drug Testing Releases. 

To learn more about effective pre-hire processes, please contact Pomaybo, Inc. 412-963-6311.  This article courtesy of Pomaybo, Inc.  www.pomaybo.com.