Dawn Brewer

I really like Twitter. I joined in as an experiment, but I’ve found two benefits that aren’t mentioned that often (if at all) so I thought I’d share them. 

 

Yes it’s easy to send out a message and yes it’s easy to keep my interest with such a short message, but there’s more to it than that. As ever, all your comments and thoughts are welcome too.

 

Twitter Benefit 1 – To Learn

Do you realise that you can learn using Twitter? It’s free and it doesn’t take long.

 

When I started to use Twitter I had no idea that choosing people to follow could be so rewarding.

 

If you choose people who have something to share that you want to know about, then you can learn – a lot! For example, I started to follow a few expert bloggers and wow have I learned a lot – in a really short time. Although putting it into practice and taking action is another story…

 

Of course the knowledge isn’t usually in the Tweets, it’s in the people and looking at their profiles, following the links they recommend and reading their blogs and websites.

 

So, find people to follow that know what you want to know – and you’ll learn from them.

 

Twitter Benefit 2 – No More Home-Alone Working

Working from home can be isolating. Being online with Twitter means you can have a ‘coffee break’ and connect with colleagues worldwide.

 

I work from home and although I do visit client sites, meet people, attend networking events and I’m not housebound, I spend most of my working hours alone, at home. That can be very isolating – and the scary thing is that sometimes I don’t even realise how long it is since I’ve connected with someone else. (talking to the dog – and waiting for a reply – is a sign!)

 

When I make a cup of tea or take a break, I can share a joke, pass on some info and find out who else is online and what they’re doing – without being interrupted and that’s the key for me. Twitter’s there for me to join in when I want to – not when someone else is interrupting me.

 

It’s not the same as meeting at the coffee machine – but then it’s not a bad compromise and I can walk away whenever I want without being rude.

 

So, if you work at home a lot, join in with Twitter and no more isolation. Follow dawnbwriter (that’s me).

I’ve written an article about the three Es of management:

• Effectiveness
• Efficiency 
• Economy

Different organisations will all have different mixes of the three, but an understanding of what the model means allows performance to be measured and improved.

 

What I’d really like to know is whether this article makes the difference between Effectiveness, Efficiency and Economy clear?

I’ve just completed an article on The Project Management Triangleand whilst I was writing it it struck me how well the triangle explains the difficulties faced by small business.

 

Understanding and managing constraints is an important activity for all businesses, so having a model that identifies three common constraints can help us. 

 

The project management triangle identifies three constraints:

• time
• cost
• scope

The idea is that if you change one then you’ll affect the others too, for example, increasing the time available will affect cost and allow scope to grow – and isn’t that just like running a business or implementing any change in a business. We only have so much time and budget available and we’re constantly trying to deliver as much as possible (the scope) within that.

 

If we want to deliver more, then we have to find more time and/or more budget – by employing someone or asking more suppliers to help us or taking out a loan.

 

So, the only way to grow is to improve capacity at one of the constraints. What do you think?

I was a a little surprised today, talking to a couple of business colleagues, at their lack of understanding about why to add a comment to a blog post – and how to do it too.

 

I’ve just written a short article explaining how to add a comment to a blog post. I’ve also given a few reasons why I think it’s worth taking  the time to do it – especially if you’re a small business and want more visitors to your own blog or website.

 

Adding a comment doesn’t take very long and helps build relationships and connections – always a good thing on the web. So, please, take the time now to let me know what you think of my articles or add a comment below.

Almost the end of January and my first networking event of 2010 was today: The Womens Business Clubs in Horsham.

 

Good meeting! Janette Whitney talked about business planning – very interesting tips. Debbie has a new Beauty Works website… and lots more…

 

What struck me particularly was the upbeat attitude in the meeting. A number of members reported increased business already in January and plans for growth in 2010 – all good news. I don’t know about everyone else, but I came away positive and ready for work.

 

I’ll be launching two new services soon (based on blogging and hosting) and I found it helpful to bounce ideas off the people there today – so, Thank you, to all of you. Proof that business networking is effective for all sorts of reasons.

 

Why not head over to Janette’s Blog on Business Planning and leave a comment.

I was the 4Sight speaker for 4N in Chessington on Thursday (3^rd December) – what a great time I had

 

I talked about marketing touches, my fantastic Auntie and how technology can help to automate marketing touches and so make the sales cycle more efficient.

 

This time I asked everyone to take out a business card and write down a word to describe either what was good about my 4sight, or how I should improve it – and I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped me with this. Your comments were lovely and the feedback was great (my ego is now as big as a house).

 

I’ll definitely be going back to 4N Chessington – see you all soon, when I’ll be touching you again…

 

To find out more about Marketing Touches – as well as other things - sign up for the DawnB Newsletter

On Friday (23 October) I’m the 4Networking 4Sight Speaker, so why not book in for a Business Breakfast Networking Meeting and come along for my talk:

 

Dawn Brewer – web content writer – will talk about:

 

How to Touch Your Customers with Technology…

 

What’s that got to do with writing? Come along and find out!

 

You can find out all about marketing touches and how my fascinating Aunty can help, as well as woefulness and the technology to help YOU.

 

Book in now to see and hear Dawn Brewer, Speaker – see you there!

Choosing the right software can allow small businesses to compete with bigger businesses. I’ve written a number of articles on software and business recently, including one on Essential Software for Small Business, but personally, I always emphasis the communication software. Communicating with customers and potential customers is vital for all business and we’re communicating every time we write, speak or gesture.

 

That’s why I set up my business, to help people communicate with their customers and potential customers. People buy from people especially when we’re selling services, so being able to build a relationship with all our customers – without having to spend lots of money and without having to spend hours and hours doing it – can mean the difference between success and failure.

 

I take your ideas and turn them into words that can used to communicate your message and then we exploit the software to deliver the message in the best way – whether that’s websites, autoresponders, newsletters or blog posts. 

 

If you’d like to know more about how you can exploit communication software to get the right message across to your customers and potential customers, then sign up for my free newsletter (the sign-up box is on the right).

 

… and do tell me what you think of the Essential Software for Small Business article.

I was talking to Janette from Janette Whitney & Associates, Business Consultants recently (at the September TWBC meeting) – very interesting conversation. Janette knows all about legally compliant websites and the rules and regulations that every website must comply with – and has a very good offer on a compliance check too.

 
It still amazes me how little people know about their own websites, in terms of what they could be achieving and also in terms of the information present (or not!) on the sites. It’s a wasted opportunity – and in fact, could even be illegal.

 

An important (and often overlooked) first step is to be absolutely clear on the purpose of your website and also the purpose of every page on your site. If you are clear about the purpose, then you can measure how effective each page is at achieving the objective – that way, you’re already taking steps to improve your marketing. It’s also easier to ensure the site is compliant as the relevant legislation and regulations can be taken into account.

 

If you want to exploit your existing website, then contact me  for a chat – I’m always happy to share ideas. And if you want to avoid fines, then contact Janette to ensure your website is legally compliant.

How do you take an idea and make it great? By taking action to implement and exploit the idea.

 

You’ve got the idea – you’re excited about it – you know what you’re going to say to people – you’ve drafted your blog post …

 

Now you need a web page to explain it. If you already have a website, then I wonder if you realise just how easy it can be to create an additional page, all about your new idea.

 

Let’s have a chat about your idea. I can write the words for your web page – and then, when you’re happy I’ll put the new page live for you too (and the publishing bit is free!)

 

So tell me, what ideas have you had recently?