Do you think your website is exceptionally good? Then submit it for consideration to the Web Marketing Association’s WebAward Competition, which is open to all international businesses.

We at MycroBurst are big fans of great design, and we think great design should be recognized – we do run design contests, after all. So we are very pleased to say that we are a proud sponsor of this competition.

The WebAwards recognizes the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the best websites on the Internet today in a myriad of industries. It’s run by the Web Marketing Association, which is a voluntary organization founded in Boston in 1997.

Entries compete within their own industry category. Judges include members of the media, advertising executives, top website designers, content providers and webmasters. Websites are judged on the following seven criteria:

• Design
• Innovation
• Content
• Technology
• Interactivity
• Copywriting
• Ease of use

The submission deadline is May 31st. Judging will take place in July and August, and winners will be notified one week before to the announcement of winners, which is tentatively set for Mid-September 2012. For more information, and to enter, visit www.webaward.org.

I have been on Twitter for a little over a year and I firmly believe that it holds a whole new future for how businesses, big and small, interact with their customers.

As a consumer, great customer service is extremely important to me. I’m not afraid to pick up the phone or send an email to let a company know how I feel. Twitter is an even more efficient way to give and receive feedback.  Let’s dig a little deeper.

I’m a huge Chobani yogurt fan; I bring one to work with me every day to eat for breakfast. A couple of weeks ago, I realized that there was a hole in my bag and my Chobani yogurt had fallen out. I was so disappointed that I tweeted about it. And this is what happened:

Chobani isn’t the only brand that is using Twitter to their advantage; here are a couple of my other encounters:

As a consumer, being responded to makes me feel as though I actually matter to these companies. Your company can be perceived the same way too.

Here are a few tips to consider when you are using Twitter to communicate with your customers effectively:

• Tweets with photos have a higher response rate. We’re visual people!
• Retweet. A brand once retweeted one of my personal blog posts, and I received a 200% increase in views.  I also saw a spike in followers.
• Want to mention a brand or someone? Be sure to “@” them, so they’ll see your mention.
• Respond. If someone tweeted “@” you, don’t ignore it. Would you ignore someone if they called or emailed your support team?
• Search your company on Twitter – it’s that little search bar up at top. Someone may be mentioning you, but if they don’t use the @ symbol you won’t see it immediately.  I’ve found SO many people talking about MycroBurst this way & I’ve been able to respond effectively.
• Get involved in the conversation! See what others are saying in your industry, search blogs and tweet it!  The more you know, the more you’ll be seen as an expert in your field.

Follow me on Twitter & like MycroBurst on Facebook!

David Shepherd is a former business school professor at the University of Texas who has launched successful businesses in the technology and services industries and has just launched a new business to provide guidance about the best business books for entrepreneurs.
MycroBurst worked with David on an e-book cover project.  See the contest here.

1.  Who has been your greatest influence as an entrepreneur?

 David Shepherd (DS): Steve Jobs. I’ve followed him since his early 20s. I have always purchased Apple products, and I’ve been impressed by his ability to take risks, overcome failures and achieve major successes.

2.  What’s the one book, in your opinion, every entrepreneur should read?

(DS): Born Standing Up by the comedian Steve Martin, which is autobiographical. He hammers home the amount of work and practice and perseverance required to overcome failure. That is the centerpiece of entrepreneurial success.

3.  What was the greatest challenge you had to overcome as an entrepreneur?

(DS):  In 1985, I raised a couple million in venture capital for a tech company. I assumed it was going to be a major success, but infighting took place: the investors and leaders weren’t on the same page. I accepted a well-paid consulting position not long afterwards, but it wasn’t where my heart was. I started a new company five years later, and since then, I’ve bootstrapped my companies or used a line of credit.

4.  What’s the one consistent trait you see successful entrepreneurs have in common?

(DS): Perseverance. It’s a stock answer, but it’s true. What works is attention to detail, long hours, perseverance and measuring systems. All of these enable an entrepreneur to succeed. David Brooks, op-ed columnist for The New York Times, did a good job explaining this in 2009 in his article “In Praise of Dullness”.

5.  What’s the most common mistake most new entrepreneurs make?

(DS): Underestimating how much capital they will need to grow their business. They often don’t understand what working capital is, and they will need cash in order to grow. Ideally they need to figure out how they can create positive cash flow either in their model, or build in a strategy to accommodate for ups and downs, seasonality and past due payments.

6.  Most companies face sales and marketing challenges. What marketing or sales strategy have you observed or used that has been most successful?

(DS): I introduced a concept about a year ago called “the end of marketing”. But what I really mean is the end of thinking about marketing. Just about any marketing method will work, but most people try to do too many. The small business owner should just pick three—any three—and commit to learning, tweaking and mastering those three.

7.  What new technologies do you think are going to be critical for current and future business owners?

(DS): An easy one is moving everything to the cloud. I’m a big believer in anything that people can do on the cloud in order to avoid maintaining hardware and software. The other one is utilizing a true customer relationship management system. I’ve used Salesforce, and it works great. Having a strong database with information on your clients is really important.

8.  How did you become an expert in small business and entrepreneurship and what led to your passion to share this with other business owners?

(DS): Within six months of a graduating from the University of Texas where I was a track athlete, I was awarded a franchise for an athletic shoe store. I ran it for four years and sold it to my partner. Then I got involved in a small start-up with major financing from a Fortune 500 company, and I got to see how growing a company to $20 million worked. After this successful venture I was hooked, but then I went through the unsuccessful venture I mentioned before. I worked on my MBA at the University of Texas, and because of my practical business experience I ended up teaching at the university for a few years, with a specialty in finance.

The type of business owner I want to share my passion with is a hardworking “mom or pop” with a family who has no business education, struggling to make $30k per year. I admire the battle they have to go through day in and day out. I want to give them one piece of advice that may help them.

9.  You are currently writing an ebook for entrepreneurs. What can you tell us about this book, and who should buy it?

(DS):  I wrote my first book in 2001, which is called Your Business or Your Life: 8 Steps for Getting All You Want Out of Both, and it will soon be relaunched as an ebook called The 8 Steps. I’m planning on writing a series of books for entrepreneurs over the next 10 years. The book that I’m currently writing is about writing a business plan, and my next book is about managing cash flow. They’re sort of like the “Dummies” series. My books will be action oriented, pragmatic and affordable. I’ll also be reviewing the books of others on our new Website.

10.  What’s next for David Shepherd?

(DS): I’m launching a website in about two months called ebooksforentrepreneurs.com. It will be a site where small business owners can read business ebook reviews. The goal is to save readers time and help uncover some gems. Steve Martin’s book is a good example: they’ll learn about it from a blog post, e-mail, press release or social media, and then go to read my review and purchase it through our site.

Want to hear more about David Shepherd?  Follow him on Twitter & Facebook!

Don’t forget to follow Joe on Twitter – @wittejoe.  
Have suggestions?  Tweet them to @MycroBurst!

I couldn’t help but share their story.

Amanda Moore is a sales representative at PIP Printing and Marketing Services in Tampa, FL, which is a full service print marketing company.  PIP belongs to a civic leadership group called Tampa Connection.  Tampa Connection led Amanda to Seniors in Service of Tampa Bay, which was in need for design services for a new program.

Seniors in Service has been in business for over 18 years and has over 500 active volunteers.  Their largest funder is the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the services of Seniors in Service fall under their Senior Corps programming.

The organization offers mentoring, tutor and companionship to meet challenges within their community.  With a large military community (located close to MacDill Airforce Base), Seniors in Service saw a need to help military children and veterans in their area.

“One of the strategies of Seniors Corps is to increase volunteer service to veterans and the families of active military personnel.  In consideration of our large population of military families in our community, we decided in February 2011 to invest in providing specialized tutoring and mentoring services to meet the special needs of children of military families,” Tammy Criollo, the President and CEO of Seniors in Service, told me.

At first the program was simply called, “military initiative.”  After a thorough process the programs’ name, Operation Connect, came to life.

“The program recruits veterans and other military families to help military children succeed and provide companionship for veterans,” Amanda explained.  Just like Seniors in Service, the volunteers of Operation Connect provide companionship, mentoring and tutoring.

After adding Operation Connect to their line of services, the next step was to get the branding sorted out.  Amanda led Tammy to MycroBurst.com where they started a logo design project. They received a total of 102 design concepts.  Amanda took some time to speak with me about Operation Connect and their experience.

“I loved the different perspectives,” said Amanda, “Five or six out of the 102 would have been perfect for [Operation Connect].”

Amanda described how Tammy got the entire board together to decide on the best logo for the program. They chose the one featured above.

“The designers did a really great job interpreting the creative brief. They were very receptive to the feedback that we were providing for them as well, and it was so much fun checking every morning to see what new designs had come in. It was an all round great experience,” she said.

With a brother recently joining the Marine Corps, this program’s mission touched me. The outreach of the program spoke to all of us at MycroBurst as our co-founder and Executive Vice President (as well as a contributor to On The Cloud) served as an Army Captain in the Iraqi war veteran.  Operation Connect works to connect military families for a little extra support.  There are several programs such as mentoring or tutoring children of deployed military parents or providing friendship to disabled and elderly veterans.

“It’s an important support system, especially when the children are involved,” said Amanda.

Operation Connect is currently working on the slow release of their company and plans to be fully rolled out by the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.  We’ll keep an eye on this program as it continues to evolve. We can’t thank Amanda, Tammy, Seniors in Service and Operation Connect enough for their kind words.

“I love [the logo]!  Our board, staff and volunteers love it,” Tammy said, “Anyone and everyone that we’ve shown it too loves it.  So much so that we are adapting our logo to use on all of our print and media, not just for Operation Connect.”

For more information on Seniors in Service and Operation Connect, visit the Seniors in Service website.  The Operation Connect website will be up and runny by the end of May.
Don’t forget to follow Jes on Twitter - @JessicaDianeK or @MycroBurst 

Wouldn’t we all be better off if we worked HARDER to keep our current customers (and yes, wives) happier?  We sure know it’s a heckuva lot cheaper to keep both happy!

So, imagine that you’re single and ready to go on a date with a woman that you are digging. (It could be a man, but since I’m a guy and the author, I’m going to refer to MY date as a woman). Do you plan to take them to a cheap restaurant and whip out a coupon — you know, like the local greasy spoon you took your wife to in order to save money — or the new gourmet restaurant?  Will you wear cut-off jeans shorts and a T-shirt? Of course not!

You’re gonna shave, shower, put on your best cologne, pick out some stylish clothes, cut your mullet,  make sure you are on time and behave like a gentleman… right? (Special note:  Not too much cologne guys and despite the funny commercials, DO NOT wear Old Spice!)

Now, let’s transfer that to your customers. If you are meeting with a client, how are you presenting yourself? Are you on time? Do you look professional?  Do you have a proper logo, website and apparel? Do you call ahead of time to confirm the meeting or appointment?

I recently had some carpet installed. They didn’t call ahead to confirm when they arrived (they came four hours after I expected them) and one of the guys (although very friendly) smelled like a sewer rat. I can just about GUARANTEE I won’t be making a follow up call.

Now back to the dating scene. Let’s say this first date goes well and you REALLY like her.  She’s attractive and smart. Do you ignore her to go watch football for seven hours on a Sunday? NO! Do you write down her phone number and call her back? Do you ask if she enjoyed her date? Of course you do; because if you don’t, you’ll never see her again!

So why not CONSISTENTLY do this with your customers? Here are some ways you can ensure you get a second “date” with your customer:

1. Thank them for their business personally. Don’t bother with an automated email and expect to get brownie points.  Sending a postcard or note will go a long way.  A personal phone call will certainly win them over as well.
   (Special tip for your date: sending flowers after the third or fourth date goes a LONG way.)
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2. Get their feedback on how your company performed. This can be done either online, through a tool like SurveyMonkey.com, or by giving them a form in person (as restaurants do). Either way, feedback from your customers will keep your company sharp and your employees accountable.  Ask for referrals.
   (Please note: I do NOT recommend asking for a referral when you are on a date.)
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3. Get their email address and send them a monthly newsletter with coupons/discounts or some sort of interesting information. iContact is our email partner and it is VERY reasonably priced with a great ROI.
   (Another note: Don’t ask for your date’s email right away. Wait until you have a reason to get it.)
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4. If it’s a service-based business, send a reminder for the next time they need their AC, vacuum, car or website serviced. There is software out there called Reminderxchange.com that will send your clients a text, voicemail and email to remind them it’s time for a follow-up visit.  I haven’t used this, but it looks like it’s worth exploring.
   (Ummmm …do NOT use automated messages in dating. Seems obvious, but just wanted to be sure we are clear).

Really running a business, just like any relationship, is all about effort and showing that we give a darn about our “significant other.”  It’s always easier to keep a customer than it is to find a new one.  If you don’t show your customers the love, expect someone else to sweep them off their feet.  In that case, you’ll be headed back to Match.com.

Be sure to follow Joe on Twitter – @wittejoe.  Be sure to check out his bio in the “About Us” section above.