Long Island Online Marketing from Bruce Chamoff

If you feel that you should be on this list, feel free to add a comment to this blog post.

As I finally took Hot Web Ideas, Inc. full time in 2009, I started doing more business networking and realized how valuable of a marketing tool it really is. I have made so many friends and business relationships at some of the hottest business networking meetings on the island.

During late 2008 and all throughout 2009, I have encountered many people this year who just give and give and give and want nothing in return. They often sport the phrase “it is all about you and not at all about me”. Compared to some of the other famous people in the Long Island business networking community, these people do not charge money to help promote you. There are so many famous people in the Long Island business networking world, but most of them will not promote you unless you pay them some fee, usually in the $300 to $700 range for an ad on their web site. Once you pay those people, then they give and give and give, but again, only after you pay them money.

The terms “givers” and “takers” are the latest buzz words in business. A giver is someone who like the people below, just promote you and your business and want nothing in return. A taker is someone who will do nothing for you until you pay them or compensate them in some other way. I think there is a 3rd term called “receiver”, which is similar to a “taker”, but becoming a receiver is an amazing accomplishment, because this happens only after you become a giver in someone’s eyes. Becoming a receiver is automatic and the next stage from a giver.

For example, I consider myself a giver as I offer free marketing via video podcasts to local business people, free seminars (yes some of them are paid, but most of them are not), and have created several free web sites including the Long Island Blog Directory, the Long Island Podcast Network, and the Long Island Social Media Business Directory. However, there are just so many more people out there who give a lot more.

The reason I consider myself a giver is because I never ask for money for these web sites. We will be offering upgraded memberships on the Long Island Social Media Business Directory in 2010 to help you get more connections on Facebook and Linked In, but basic membership will ALWAYS be free, unlike some of the popular business advertising web sites on Long Island where a basic listing costs money.

There are so many givers out there in Long Island, but it is hard to name them all in this blog post. Maybe I have not met them yet which is why they are not listed here, but trust me, when I meet you at business networking meetings, I will be glad to list you here:

Here are 2009’s biggest givers in the Long Island business community: If you feel that you should be on this list, feel free to add a comment.

Yvonne Bisk:

Yvonne Bisk has taken on not one, but three networking groups and consolidates them into her biweekly business networking meetings. Comprising over 500 business owners in her mailing list, Yvonne’s tireless efforts to hold business networking meetings, blog an average of over 7 posts per week, and attend others’ business networking events is amazing. Yvonne does all of these while attending to children at a local day care center as her day job. You can find out more about Yvonne’s events on her Meetup.com site at http://www.meetup.com/longislandentrepreneurs/

Michele Michael:

I met Michele earlier this year at one of the many business networking events on the island and initially we did not connect. It was a month later when I got involved with the Giving Back Long Island web site at http://www.givingbackli.org and I found out that Michele was the PR coordinator. Michele and I immediately hit it off and 2 months later, she told me that she was forming the Long Island Business Force with Rick Cashman. The Long Island Business Force currently being designed by yours truly is another networking group that meets in West Babylon every Thursday morning and I made many contacts there as well. Michele’s tireless efforts did not stop there. Now, she has networking group that meets the 3rd Wesneday at the Farmingdale Panera. Also a member of the Melville Chamber of Commerce promoting the Young Professionals events.

Do you think Michele does all this for living? Not at all! She does all this for free in addition to having 2 businesses: It’s a Sign and her commercial real estate business.

John Ciampa:

For those of you who do not know John Ciampa, knowing this man is a real treat for those business people who want to excel in blogging and social media. John created Bloggers School, a company helping small businesses AND large corporations learn how to market themselves through blogging.

With this partner Carolina Federico, Bloggers School holds social media events at the Roger Smith Hotel, classes, and keeps people informed with the cutting edge technologies of Social Media. John, you go Boy!

Rich Kruse:

Rich Kruse of Execuleaders has been involved with many corporations and has promoted many small businesses with Execuleaders.

Rich has been involved with local politicians and was a big player in the marketing of the New York Islanders.

Knowing Rich Kruse was a pleasure and an association with this amazing man is a great asset to anyone’s business.

Adrian Miller:

Adrian Miller became one of my most valuable friends and clients in the Long Island business community because of her amazing talent of creating synergy between companies who do not know each other at all. Adrian runs Adrian’s Virtual Network. Besides being a fantastic sales training consultant, Adrian holds phone conferences with businesses and people can attend simply by dialing a simple phone number and listening, but her events also feature guest speakers.

Knowing Adrian Miller, I have already acquired 3 clients and 2 leads, including an improved version of Adrian’s web site AdrianMiller.com which I performed search engine optimization for.

Erica Prince:

Erica Prince is owner of the Professional Speakers Bureau and has found a unique niche in creating speaking engagements for public speakers to educate attendees at a venues across the country. With financial planners as Erica’s main target market, Erica will create speaking engagements for professionals from any field and she has over 100 venues waiting for quality speakers to come in and educate their employees or members.

Erica creates opportunities for speakers to grow their business through speaking engagements. She works with health professionals, lawyers, accountants, people in the financial industry, entrepreneurs, consultants who use her service, which is unique. Her concentration is the Long Island/Queens/Manhattan areas. With lots of contacts with different venues she is able to open doors and opportunities for speakers to make their presentations. She works with hundreds of groups that need speakers and has filled a need in that niche market through creatively marketing her topics and speakers. She is the consummate deal-maker and matchmaker.

In early 2010, Erica will be holding a series of webinars called the “Public Speaking: The Gold Card of Marketing”. Erica has been featured on WCBS, 880AM with Joe Connollly, Small Business Consultant.

I encourage people to attend Erica’s business networking events and for those of you who have not yet attended one, let me know and I will send you information on the next event, which will be on January 11, 2010.

Donna Drake:

Donna Drake of Live It Up TV is an amazing entrepreneur and a great promoter of businesses. A native of the mid west, Donna came to Long Island and was immediately successful with a flourising online TV show, a member of several podcasts, and the host of the 2009 Long Island Way Breakfast of Champions. Donna works with some of the coolest companies including the Melting Pot in Farmingdale performing their marketing strategies.

Debi Pisano:

A regular fulltimer at Island Group Plans in Bohemia, Debi was a huge asset to the Long Island Way’s 2009 Breakfast of Champions, but also remains a huge asset to the Long Island business community attending many business networking events. Debi also remains an active member of the Melville Chamber of Commerce. I consider Debi a true business networker.

A lot of my good friends in the Long Island business community have submitted their companies for the Best of Long Island and now are looking for votes. That is great, but as I see some of the businesses on Long Island who have entered this contest, I am not buying that the Best Of Long Island, a brainchild of the Long Island Press, is that good of a measure of the quality of a company on Long Island. I apologize to those businesses who may have entered this contest, but this is the way I feel. 

The model that Long Island Press uses for its gauge is not the best one. Having businesses vie for the most votes just makes it a popularity contest to me without really showing Long Islanders how much quality a local business offers in its products and services.

Ok, I understand that if you really like a business, you will vote for it, but I have seen one too many business owner advertise that they need votes without the voters purchasing their products or services. So, how can those voters give true votes without knowing how good the business really is?

I think a solution to this observation should be to allow local businesses to enter and get nominated, but a panel of judges should make the final decision as to who really wins. Take a baking contest for example. A panel of judges actually tastes the baked goods and judges based on the taste, texture, and overall delectability of the baked good. They do not ask the audience to vote unless the audience actually got to taste the product, which in my opinion, would make them a judge as well. Why would the Best On Long Island be any different?

I am looking for your opinion to my concern. Please feel free to comment.

I was watching one of my favorite all-time sitcoms, Seinfeld, and noticed that after watching the same episode over 25 times over the last 10 years, something was different. Fox network is now shortening the episodes in favor of more advertising jammed into the already short half hour that sitcoms usually air for per episode.

How do I know this? One of my favorite lines was cut off for a commercial break. I assume that this is happening all over TV. I can only assume that advertisers are not pouring money into broadcast marketing as they once did. According to Ron Gold of Marketing Works PR, “I changed the name of my company from Advertising Works to Marketing Works PR since advertising is associated with being too expensive”. I think that rings true in this economy and advertisers are finding new and creative ways to marketing their business through avenues like business networking, social media, and improved search engine optimization.

I understand why television programs are being cut, but I do not like the fact that the shortest unit of television air time is half hour. I conducted a fun little experiment one night a few years ago when the economy was good. I timed the episode portion of the 1/2 hour and cut out the commercials. I came out to 18 minutes. 12 minutes of advertising took up half an hour. That is 40%. Now, with this economy and advertising being increased, it is more in the 50% range.

When you watch your next television program, see if you can spot this trend. Hopefully this will stop when the economy improves. It is as annoying as the MTA tax that businesses and the entities pay for the MTA in NY State when we business owners do not even commute other than our car.

The solution: I think if these broadcast companies lower their cost per advertising, maybe the viewing public will see some value.

What do you think?

After building web sites for 14 years and seeing that everyone can build their own web sites today, I felt that it was time to re-position my company, Hot Web Ideas, this year, especially with the economy.

Competition is a necessary evil of doing business and it seems that there are more people than there are careers. It makes total sense that we overlap in what we offer to our clientele. You know the horrible feeling of losing out on a job or product sale to a competitor. It happens to everyone in every field. Especially with all the business networking events that we attend where each person stands up and tells the group what they do for a living and you hear someone else at the same event that does exactly what you do, it gives us this “oh no, I have to compete with THAT guy for clients” feeling.

In March 2009, I figured that competition was not as bad as the economy, but I wanted to work with my competition in some way where neither of us would be threatened by the other. In the web design field, there are at least 5 specializations. In EVERY profession, there is specialization. I wanted to see if there was a way that I can expand my business to work with my competition as well as my clients. If you can apply this concept to your own business, you may just eliminate the competition in a sense. I know you cannot totally eliminate it, but you can surely make it work for you in a more positive way. We all talk about specialization. Although specialization is not the point of this blog article, that is one way to go about it. If you do specialize and find your niche, you may find that your competition does not offer this service and you could easily work under the hood to offer it to their clients. This is a win-win situation, because now your competition can make money with a service that they don’t even offer. Your competitors will thank you for the opportunity. You also would have converted your competitor to an ally. That’s awesome if you can pull it off. It is easier than you think!

In my own business, I was performing web design, but by now, almost everyone has a web site. Most web design firms have not figured that out yet. So, I wanted to fix the one hole that is apparent on most web sites, lack of traffic and sales. I can get the traffic and the 9 web design firms that I have been working with for the last 6 months know it. Likewise, I leverage their web design services for my clients and we are actually happy.

In my own local business networking scene in Long Island, New York, I see this issue prevalent with insurance brokers, financial planners, marketing consultants, graphic designers, printers, and even networking event organizers.

Think about how this will work for your business and field. In this economy, you can either complain about the competition or work with it.

Ask these questions:
1. What can I offer to my target audience that my competition is not?
2. Will my competition work with my company to offer my services to my clients or will they adopt it into their own business model and shut me out completely (pick my brain) ?
3. Is there some way that I can market a particular service as my own (I am not talking about trademarking, patents, or copyrights) in such a way where my competition perceives it as a service where they cannot offer it themselves?

The answers to these questions are not easy, but if you can answer them intelligently, you have just expanded your business and have found a way to make the competition work for you and not against you.