Our featured guest will be Shama Kabani–president of The Marketing Zen Group, a full service digital marketing firm that serves clients around the world.  She has been dubbed the “master millennial of the universe” and “an online marketing shaman” by Fast Company, and was listed as one of Business Week Magazine’s ’Top 25 Under 25′ entrepreneurs in North America.   

Register here: THE NEW FACEBOOK -GREATEST WEB TOOL!

Stay tuned for some upcoming A Red Bench teleclasses on Facebook and You Tube, but in the meantime check out this interesting article called Selling Services for the Price of a Tweet.

For more information on social media and marketing check out our audio recordings on a variety of related topics.

Tim was full of incredible information and was very inspiring.  You can learn more from Tim’s books Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends and The Likeability Factor at his web-site.

So…who are three people that you can introduce to each other?  Maybe you have a client who is moving and you can introduce them to mover and a custom closet company.  When you send the e-mail introducing everyone be sure to include the reasons why you thought they might be able to work with each other. 

Here’s to your new habit!

We’ve opened our conference offer to everyone in our database.  For three more days you can purchase 2 Audio Recordings and get 1 Free.   Offer ends May 31 at midnight and coupon code is Conference2010.
 
We have over 50 Audio Recordings to choose from and many may apply towards your continuing education credits.  Click here to see our audio library. 

Keeping Track of CEU’s? 
Depending on your services and scope of work, A Red Bench Audio Recordings may apply towards your continuing education units.  With each audio purchase you receive a certificate of attendance upon passing the class quiz.  Calls are 75 minutes long and may count as 1 CEU.  

What causes do you stand for?  How could you incorporate this into your business.  For more information on social media, listen to one of our many Social Media Teleclasses.  Topics include How to Plan, Build and Promote Your Blog, Secrets To Leveraging Facebook, Turn Followers Into Fans (and Leads!) and Be On Top Of Google.

Of the 16 categories, however, it was not technology that posted the biggest rise but, rather, financial institutions, with a 12% growth, compared to half of that for tech. Only beer and fast food, with increases of 10% and 1% respectively, showed positive, with the other 12 sectors dropping. It’s worth comparing the list with Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2010.  

The report–its methodology is explained here–has a lot to say about social media and how it affects a company’s brand–especially for those in the tech sector. The BrandZ list didn’t feature Facebook in the top 100, but it slipped in at 20th in the tech rankings. The site, however, featured large in the report, and is seen as a crucial tool in how the big firms will increase their reach using social networking sites. 

Its advice to budding Jobses, Brin/Pages, and Zuckerbergs is to forget about philanthropy (not something, whisper, that either Apple or Facebook is known for) and embrace responsibility, to see mobiles as the new billboards–RIP Don Draper–and that successful brands are built from the top down.

How does this relate to your small business?  If your branding was as strong as your organizing skills, you could drastically increase your revenue.   Once you create a powerful, compelling brand, business comes to you instead of the other way around.  To create a compelling brand purchase audio recording with fellow organizer and brand expert, Krista Green, called Get Noticed, Be Remembered.  You’ll learn how to communicate your values, personality, talents and unique skills to create your own personal brand and influence the way others perceive you.  Brand is not only for the fortune 500 company, perception is everything.

It was one of the most fun days ever.  We went through all my clothes, drank wine, laughed and just had fun.  My husband is thrilled because now I don’t have to bother him every morning asking him how the same old outfit looks.  As if it looks any different than the 30 times prior I’ve worn it.  I have a few things I need to buy to complete the wardrobe, but I now with them help of our teleclass and my friends, I know how to put clothes together in a whole new way. 

Additionally, they taught me a little trick that is pretty helpful.  Since I always gravitate to the same item, they said instead of organizing my closet by clothing type and then color to only organize it by color.  So now all my black clothes, or brown or red, or blue, or whatever color are in one place regardless of whether they are a shirt, skirt, jacket or pants.  So the next time to go grab the same blue shirt I wear all the time, I will see the other 10 blue shirts with it and the pants opening my mind to many more outfits.  Its a pretty good idea.

So if you find yourself saying you have nothing to wear, give our teleclass a listen and apply what you learn to your closet.   Darcey says, “If you are your own brand then your wardrobe is your logo.”  Best part, as an organizer, using what you learn on this call you can help them project the image they want to portray and use this class as a CEU.

Style Expert, Darcey Howard

Whether you are dressing for a new consultation, a networking event, a date or taking your kids to the park, to create great style, and make the right choices for you, there  has to be a connection between identity and image.   

Attend our next live teleclass with Personal Style Expert, Darcey Howard of Lifestyled and we’ll help you bridge the gap between how you feel and how you look.  Don’t worry. This isn’t about bright orange suits, $3,000 hand bags or dresses that require tape to stay on.  LifeStyled is about you, your own personal style, the life you want to lead and how you want to wear it.   The facts are you have about 6 seconds to make an impression so from calm and casual, to slick and stylish, to professional and powerful, we’ll teach you how to identify the personal style that plays to your strengths, increase your self confidence and make you feel like the person you’ve always wanted to be.

On the call, we will talk about how todevelop your own style, how to create a fantastic capsule wardrobe you can grow from and share some do’s and don’t of the pros.  Best part, as a professional organizer, many of us work with clients on closet organizing project so you can share what you learn on our call with your clients.  How many clients have held up a sweater with shoulder pads and said, “Is this out of style?”   Using what you learn on this call you can help them project the image they want to portray and use this class, called Brand Yourself Through Your Appearance, as a CEU.   Click here for more information and to register for this April 5th class. 

Highlights of the survey include the following:

• Seven out of 10 social media users between the ages of 18 and 34 regularly use Facebook more than such other sites as MySpace, Twitter and Classmates
• 71.8 percent of social media users said that after an online search, they tell others about a product or service through face-to-face communication
• More people who use social media prefer to give advice about a product or service rather than receive it
• Social media users are more likely to use other new media, compared with average adults age 18 and older
• 70.6 percent of female social media users regularly use Facebook, vs. 61.0 percent of males
• More men than women like to communicate with others via cell phone conversation after searching for a product or service online

Click here to review the full report.   This is interesting stuff, social media is changing the way we market ourselves.  For more information on how you can use social media in your business, check out our Social Media Teleclasses.    These classes, which feature will answer your most common social media questions for both new and seasoned users.   We had a Facebook expert, a Twitter expert, a LinkedIn expert and an expert to talk about time management and social media.  We wanted the goods, no fluffy stuff; if you are a social media beginner or Tweeting several times of day, you want to learn how to maximize your social media results through questions, examples, case studies and tools, you can start using immediately.  No one needs one more thing to do; but everyone wants and needs new clients.  By listening to our social media audio recordings you will finally understand how this marketing phenomenon can expand your clientele to a place you have not imagined.

A Red Bench Effectively Uses Email Marketing by Jason Meserve, Constant Contact

A Red Bench is a continuing education and resource organization that targets service-based businesses, such as designers, wardrobe consultants, professional organizers, and interior decorators. Founders Christa Wagner and Angela Ploetz started the company in 2007 after recognizing that small business owners don’t have a place to turn for continuing education and business development tools. (Christa herself owns another consultancy, called Savvy Solutions, and has experienced these challenges personally.) The duo host fee-based teleseminars featuring interviews with topic experts, and they also publish a monthly newsletter and an ongoing blog on topics ranging from work/life balance to pricing your business.

For the A Red Bench team, since the entire business is online, being able to promote their various e-books, live seminars, audio recordings and membership offerings — while cutting through the inbox clutter — is a challenge. “Everyone is overloaded with information,” Christa says. “We’re trying to communicate to them and do so effectively.”

As little as four years ago, that communication took the form of a PDF newsletter that was emailed around to customers. That is, until someone pointed Christa in the direction of Constant Contact Email Marketing. Now, the monthly communications go out as professionally-designed HTML newsletters. Christa and Angela also send out weekly email reminders about upcoming seminars and send customers directly to 1Shoppingcart for payment.

Christa and Angela continue to build A Red Bench’s database by collecting email addresses when clients register for their free audio magazine and other information available from the company’s Web site and blog. “They receive free, valuable tips in exchange for giving us their info,” Christa explains.

In an effort to save time and be more efficient, the duo also combines their blog writing with their newsletter production to ensure the content that gets mailed out is fresh and well thought out. “This way, I don’t have to sit at the computer and come up with a topic right then and there,” Christa says. “I blog on a frequent basis and always have relevant content available making the newsletter easy to get out the door.”

Christa loves Constant Contact’s reporting features, which allow her to track what customers opened in the newsletter or clicked to. They use the tracking information to better target those interested in a seminar offering, sometimes following up with a phone call. “Plus, it allows us to see what posts and articles are of most interest to our clients – that is extremely helpful.”

A Red Bench saves money and increases its reach by using Email Marketing, as opposed to another advertising media. “Our list is large — to advertise to that many people six times a month, I’m not sure how we would do that affordably,” Christa says. “That’s a huge cost savings. Our entire business is advertised through Constant Contact.”

If you would like to use Constant Contact, e-mail us at info@aredbench.com and get a $30 credit for your account with them!