Cash Back Cards

One of the most sought-after rewards is the cash back reward. This rewards certain types of purchases, and sometimes all purchases, with a small percentage earned back in cash. These cards are a great way for small businesses to earn revenue for doing nothing more than making their routine purchases.

Australian cash back cards include Commonwealth Bank rewards cards, including the Commonwealth Bank Awards card, which has a cash back award system as well as a points award system. Commonwealth Awards, Gold Awards, Platinum Awards and Diamond Awards cards from Commonwealth offer varying credit lines. The cards award one point for each dollar spent. The ANZ Business One Cash Rewards credit card pays cardholders 0.5% cash back on all purchases. It also offers up to 40 interest-free days on each purchase.

Frequent Flyer Cards

Most small businesses have a need for travel, but that travel is a major expense. With most frequent flyer rewards programs, you earn airline points for making routine business purchases. Some give you extra rewards points when you use the card to book a flight with a specific airline and still more points for signing up for the card.

The Virgin Money High Flyer Card offers almost-free flights on specific Virgin Airlines flights after you have purchased a flight with the card. It also earns you 1.25 Velocity Points for each spent dollar. Purchasing flights with the card earns you free international travel insurance and interstate flight inconvenience insurance.

The HSBC Platinum QFF Credit Card offers two frequent flyer points with Qantas for each dollar spent overseas and one point for each dollar spent in Australia. It gives flyers two free invitations to the Qantas Club lounge annually.

The ANZ Frequent Flyer Platinum card offers an unlimited number of frequent flyer points, a free membership in the Qantas Frequent Flyer program and travel insurance when flying overseas.

The AMEX Qantas Premium Credit Card has an annual fee, but for each dollar spent it offers 1.25 Qantas Frequent Flyer points and transfers the points to your Qantas Frequent Flyer account automatically each month. Signing up earns you 5,000 points and an additional 2,500 points the first time you use it for Qantas services.

The ANZ Classic Frequent Flyer Credit Card awards you with 10,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points upon acceptance and no limit on the number of points you can earn. If you don’t already have a Qantas Frequent Flyer account, you can get one free as a cardholder. The accounts are normally $82.50.

Store Rewards Cards

Some Australian stores have their own credit cards that offer a store-specific reward to cardholders. By choosing these wisely, a small business owner can earn free or discounted items at stores that sell what the business needs.

A Coles Myer Source credit card gives you the option of using the rewards points that you earn at any of several stores, including Coles and Target. These stores carry countless items useful to small businesses, including paper products, cleaning supplies and snack-room supplies. The Coles Myer Source card also gives cardholders a discount on fuel and has no annual fee. There is no interest on balance transfers for six months. Cardholders can redeem 1,250 FlyBuys points from purchases for $10 off a Coles purchase.

Rewards Points Cards

Rewards points cards give cardholders a specific number of points for their purchases, and those points can be redeemed for merchandise. That merchandise can include business machines and office supplies.

The Citibank Rewards Platinum card rewards each dollar spent with 1.5 Citibank rewards points. These can be spent in a merchandise catalogue or cardholders can request specialty items. The rewards points can also be redeemed for Qantas Frequent Flyer points. The rewards points never expire, and the annual points maximum is 250,000. When you spend internationally, each dollar spent earns you three rewards points. The card also offers free insurance on all purchases and international travel insurance.

Finally, another great option if you or your employees travel overseas frequently is the 28 Degrees Mastercard. It may not come with any loyalty programs but it does not charge any international transaction fees, currency conversion fees nor annual fees. This can’t be overlooked if your business requires frequent overseas travel. The 28 Degrees Mastercard also recently won the 2012 Choice award for Best Travel Money Card.

Kristy Alexander is a freelance travel and finance writer for HotelClub Australia where you can earn member dollars with every booking. Whether you are seeking a business hotel in Adelaide or a romantic hotel in Sydney you are sure to find something to suit your needs.

Simple SEO applied to your writing can significantly improve the number of visitors to your article
Think about the lifetime of online articles – potentially years!

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Public Relations (PR) doing in the same sentence?

If we take the extreme view that Journalists simply copy and paste press releases as stories then it figures that the text being published (online) should be optimised for a search engine (ie Search Engine Optimisation). The logic is that an optimised piece of text will rank much higher on a search engine, and will allow your target audience to find that particular piece of text through a search engine such as Google.

In the example above it assumes press releases are simply copied or pasted, but in general this isn’t how the system works. Usually PR firms send their press releases and journalists look for newsworthy content that they can either add to, or change to fit their publication or angle. This example is much closer to the truth, so in this next example let’s assume that an optimised press release receives editorial changes of +/-30% to the original. This means that 70% of your optimised release is still being published, again you’re probably still sitting on a search engine optimised winner.

Following the rules of SEO while writing a press release in this example is a sure fired way to ensure you maximise the number of eyeballs on your carefully crafted message. This translates to more of whatever your object was when you wrote the press release, be it more enquiries, sales, awareness etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattsearles/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Isn’t SEO just for IT geeks?

This is where I think the topic gets really interesting. SEO has primarily been the domain of IT professionals who optimise websites to improve your ranking in Google, and also a bunch of dodgy email spammers who promise the world for only $12.95 a month.

However with standardisation of websites through things like templates much of the html (the framework for a website) has been optimised for you straight out of the box. In our example we are focusing on the content on sites that you have no direct power, so SEO for the frame work of HTML is pointless. So the only thing left for PR firms, Journalists and creative writers to focus on is what is actually being written. If you could look at all the information written on SEO in one sitting (which is impossible) you’d find that well over 40% of the suggestions made can be directly or indirectly applied to your creative writing, the hardest part is trying to find the information to apply directly to your own work. I look at SEO as a simple process, you spend a few minutes thinking about what you’re about to do, what you think will work and you begin the creative writing with this in mind. During the editing phase you spend a few minutes thinking over the guiding principles and again with the bigger picture/end result in full view you review your content and apply any finishing SEO touches to it.

How important is SEO to PR?

Very! The difference could be over 100,000 visitors(1)

This is a question of measurement, better put, what is the measurable performance benefit for the additional effort required? For the most part this has been unmeasurable, you generally do not  get a chance at writing two pieces of text, one optimised the other not and being able to measure the pairs of eyes that have read the article. Compounding the problem is that you don’t have the website statistics for your particular article on the newspaper website, and lastly what elements of SEO apply to writing a press release (this definitely isn’t taught in Universities that I know of – and if you can find a University that is willing, I’ll give a two hour lecture on how to optimise your writing for an online universe!).

Technology and measurement have come a long way in the last five years, for instance with a few clicks and a bit of cut and paste code you can measure the online performance of any text on your website. I am sure that Google Analytics has made a great many of people richer, and has helped an even greater many more deliver information to an audience that requires it.

What specifically do I need to understand about SEO and how I can apply it to PR?

You can optimise optimisation! Use the 80/20 rule to focus on the 20% of SEO that will deliver you 80% of the gain. The hardcore IT professionals spend their life refining their SEO techniques, but at the top end of SEO a 5% improvement can win them more business and a reputation. At the creative writing level if you have the beginners tricks under your hat then you’re 80% ahead of the pack.

Writing an optimised press release requires a slight change in how you think about crafting your message, although the actual change to the press release or text is generally so subtle that to the general reader there is no difference at all.

Here are some really basic points on SEO that most creative writers do not consider, and at their own peril!

Step 1. Complete before you begin writing. In defining your message and target audience, have you defined what they’ll be searching for to find this information? Create a list of five or so keywords/phrases that you think sum up your press release, think about what people will be searching for both sets of keywords/phrases should be the same/similar (if you need to decide which ones to use go with your gut about what people will be searching for – if you don’t know, simply sit down at Google and try and find the information yourself, look at what your searching and how you refine your search – get creative!). Rank them in order of importance.

Step 2. When reviewing your title of the press release, does it contain the top two keywords/phrases you selected from step 1?

Step 3. Does the first paragraph contain the top five keywords, with at least one of them repeated once.

Step 4. Your keywords and phrases can be reworded – imagine a keyword was ‘search engine optimisation’ repeat it throughout the first few paragraphs but reword it like ‘search engine optimise’

Step 5. You should be bolding a few of the keywords, not all of them, but at least one or two in the first two paragraphs.

Step 6. You should always always include an image. Again using the SEO example, make sure you have an image with a name like ‘search-engine-optimisation.jpg’, give it a caption with similar wording.

Step 7. Include (where relevant) a few relevant links to websites that Google ranks higly – this is simple, Google search the keyword, and look at the first page of results, these are obviously what Google considers search engine optimised for your selected keyword/phrase. If Google sees you’re linking out to those sites then the chances are they’ll think you’re more of an authority as well.

Step 8. Review your creative writing, look for new opportunities. As you wrote the press release you may have included new ideas, thoughts, products etc that have a whole new set of keywords, maybe this should be in another press release – Search engine optimisation is all about focusing on a few keywords (also known as keyword density)

Step 9. This is the last step – once you get published, send the link to any websites that came up when searching your keywords. If they link to that article then chances are Google will look at you and think that if the current authority on that keyword is linking to your article then you too must also be an authority and worth putting on the front page of Google.

Step 10. Include your list of keywords (also known as tags) at the bottom of your creative writing. This will assist Journalists and any online publication to tag your writing for you, using the intended keywords. If you leave them out then they’ll make them up for you and you’re at their mercy.

If you’re enjoying this article please take a few seconds to Digg this article so more people can find it! It’ll take 5 seconds and it’s part of social karma Click here

Is there a way to tell if my writing is SEO optimised for online publication?

With websites like www.ReversePR.com.au you can simply add your press releases, let it do the magic, and at the bottom of the press release you can review how many people have read the article, the higher the number of views the more successful it can be considered as being an optimised press release.

Experiment! Write a few different press releases, and release them to online sites and see how they go, does one go better than another?

One of the best examples I can find is this press release – http://www.reversepr.com.au/2009/09/21/1397/alex-fevola-in-temelli-jewellery-for-2009-brownlow-awards/

It was released right before the Brownlow Awards (this means there is going to be lots of search traffic about ‘brownlow awards’, ‘alex fevola’), it’s about a celebrity and I think the title of the press release, along with the image and the first few paragraphs nailed this one home as an SEO winner! What keywords do you think the writer used? The writer of this should receive a pat on the back but I think the sheer number of hits is reward enough!

I (Matt Schmidt) will be writing more on this topic over the coming weeks, however if you want a hand, have a question or need some advice feel free to drop me an email matt@mylifemynews.com.au.

Lastly, did you notice this article has been search engine optimised? If done well you shouldn’t have noticed!

(1) Depending on what site it runs on, how well you’ve optimised it and what you’ve optimised it for (topic, keyword, audience, time of day, event driven, and timeliness). Obviously there are a lot of other contributing factors but the point is you have the power to significantly improve the number of people who read what you want them to read.

Peak cashflow:

One key ingredient is the principle of peak cashflow. This is understanding how, at certain times of the year, and even at certain times within a month, the flow of cash into the business can ebb, if not dry up completely. Being prepared for this eventuality is what can make the difference between a business staying afloat or going under.

The business owner who gets this right can plan ahead so that finances can be balanced, and banking and credit facilities can be geared to cope.
The cashflow killer:

Late payments are the curse of the small business owner, especially if payment periods extend to 90 days, as is more common since the recession. This clearly has a knock-on effect on cashflow, because the small business owner also has bills to pay, but these may not afford the same 90-day grace period. Where possible, however, that is exactly what the business owner must strive to achieve – deferring his or her own outgoings to more evenly match the cash that is physically coming into the business.

Slack banking habits must also be avoided. All money coming into the business must be banked as soon as possible. A cheque sitting on the desk may count as paid, but it will have no positive effect on cashflow until it is in your business account.

Ideas to increase cashflow:

Make certain that requests for payment are clear and that your business banking account details are plainly understood. Offer as many ways to pay as possible to facilitate the customer’s ease of payment.

If possible, delay large business purchases until one of your historically better cashflow periods.

Keep a single dedicated business account.

Talk to your bank about setting up a special overdraft facility to easy cashflow worries and carry you through the tough times.

Make use of your own interest-free credit period by using a business credit card rather than petty cash. Just make sure you keep track of purchases so you don’t get a nasty surprise when the statement arrives.

Offer incentives to customers to pay early, such as discounts for those who pay within 7 days, or even within 30 days – no matter whether you believe this should be the norm.

Charge late fees to customers who exceed your mutually agreed payment period.

Consider legal advice if payment periods are being routinely flouted.

Do a background check on new customers to ensure they have no troubling credit history. If necessary, request references.

Send out invoices the same day as the product, not weeks later, and never send out new product to customers who are not up-to-date with their payments, however good their sob-story sounds.

Try not to hoard inventory unnecessarily. Product sitting on factory shelves does nothing for your cashflow.

As a last resort, consider selling your unpaid invoices to a debt collection company. You will get a reduced figure, but if it makes the difference between continuing to trade and liquidating the company, it might be worth doing.

This article was written by Jeremy Cabral who is a regular writer and part of the team at Credit Card Finder, a 100% free Australian credit card comparison and application service. Visit the Credit Card Finder website for more information on the available Business Credit Cards, or Subscribe to their RSS feed for more practical articles.

Blogs allow you to increase the number of readers and followers, increase your profile and show people that you are current. Once you have the followers, a blog can easily help you network between the groups and build relationships that you never had before. Having a link from your website to your blog, simplifies the process for clients and fans to connect with you.

A weblog, or blog, was intended to be a personal journal on the web. Weblogs express as many different subjects and opinions as there are people writing them. Some blogs are highly influential and have enormous readership while others are primarily intended for a close circle of family and friends. However everyone would have noticed that blogs are now being used by businesses to allow a continuing relationship with their potential, current and past customers.

The blogging phenomenon
A few years ago, web search was revolutionised by a simple but profound idea — that the relevance of a site can be determined by the number of other sites that link to it, and thus consider it ‘important.’ In the world of blogs, hyperlinks are even more significant, since bloggers frequently link to and comment on other blogs, which creates the sense of timeliness and connectedness one would have in a conversation.

The power of weblogs is that they allow millions of people to easily publish their ideas, and millions more to comment on them. Blogs are a fluid, dynamic medium, more akin to a ‘conversation’ than to a library — which is how the Web has often been described in the past.

The benefits of blogging
Your favourite thing about having a blog may be that they naturally attract search engine traffic. Blogs already have optimised site architecture. Most are set up with a clear navigation, where every page is set up to link back to the other main pages. They also have the inherent potential to be well-linked.

Increasingly, savvy companies are turning to blogs to complement their communications arsenal of press releases, sustainability reports and investor conference calls. What’s more, some start-up companies are forgoing press releases altogether in favour of blogs.

For a business, blogs also:
• Build your profile as blogging demonstrates expertise
• Allows you to shares information with customers
• Informs people about other things your business is doing
• Generate powerful referral networks
• Creates an opportunity to network and share information with people from around the world
• Permits the kind of conversations that are necessary to truly connect with modern customers
• Creates an opportunity to build relationships with your customers
• Search engines are attuned to finding blogs

How to blog
Starting a blog is easy. Several companies, such wordpress.com offer free blogging tools, and other Australian businesses like picaholic.com offer a website subscription service where you can add a blog through their proprietary Side Bar. The Picaholic Side Bar tool acts as a home for custom links and is prefect for your blog and social media sites. Upon rollover, text is displayed and which can communicate your current posts.

You don’t need to a technical whiz, they are take care of almost everything everything. It does take a little time to do the initial set up but once you have done that all you need is the story ideas and away you go.

What you write is up to you, but try to spark discussion and share experiences, ideas and relevant information. To build traffic, read other blogs and comment so that it links back to your own blog.

Tips for using a blog

1. Pick a topic for your blog that is related to you or what you do. Identify your focus so that readers can quickly decipher if your blog aligns with their interests.
2. RSS Feeds. Make it visible and also offer an email subscription form as a way of keeping track of your subscribers.
3. Profile. Tell them a little bit about yourself and include a photo so that readers can relate with you.
4. Add media. Visuals can tell a thousand words. Make sure to include images and/or videos to your blog to break up the text. This type of media reinforces your message.
5. Don’t ramble. Posts should be kept short and to the point. Otherwise make sure you use headings to separate block text.
6. Links. Link to other sites as this increases readership and lets people know you are writing about them, as they can see the incoming links in their blog. Blogs collaborate and link conversations, so make sure you also comment on other blogs that can be linked back to you.
7. Use categories and tags. Category lists and tags help users find posts that they are interested in.
8. Contact Information. Include a contact email as an alternative way of getting in touch with you. They may want to ask questions about your ideas, ask you to become an expert writer in your field for a magazine or offer you to speak at an upcoming conference.
9. Blog url. Make sure the url matches your name or the name of your blog. This will always make it easier for readers to remember you and your location.
10. Encourage Comments. If a reader leaves a comment, make sure to thank them for commenting. This shows readers that you are real and your posts turn into a conversation.
11. Regular posts. Make a schedule of how often you would like to post and stick to it. Whether it is daily, weekly or monthly, once you build a readership base, they will want to be kept up to date on a regular basis. It will help you build a greater community who will leave more comments.

Monitoring crisis situations through blogs
From a PR perspective it may be very important for you to see who is commenting on your business or your products. Certainly if you are managing a crisis situation you will need to monitor it, not only through the media, but now through blogs.

Tracking company, Technorati tracks the number of links, and the perceived relevance of blogs, as well as the real-time nature of blogging. Technorati automatically receives notification from weblogs as soon as they are updated, it can track the thousands of updates per hour that occur in the blogosphere, and monitor the communities (who’s linking to whom) underlying these conversations.

According to Technorati data, there are about 75,000 new blogs a day. Bloggers update their weblogs regularly; there are about 1.2 million posts daily, or about 50,000 blog updates an hour.

To search for comments in blogs, go to http://www.technorati.com/ and type your search terms.

Relevant links:
Monetizing your blog – www.problogger.net
Adsense (Make money from Google by displaying Google ads on your blog) – www.google.com.au/adsense
Measuring the traffic – www.google.com.au/analytics

Story contributions sought from Catriona Pollard @ www.cpcommunications.com.au and www.picaholic.com

About CP Communications
CP Communications provides public relations and marketing services that are vital to building your business. CPC offers truly strategic and creative solutions that achieve positive media coverage, increase brand awareness and improve sales results. P: (02) 9922 1063, cp@cpcommunications.com.au, W: www.cpcommunications.com.au blog: www.PublicRelationsSydney.com.au

About Picaholic.com
Picaholic (www.picaholic.com) is a web design service catering for the creative industry, Picaholic enables their members to establish a web presence on a subscription basis. Clients pay a low monthly fee then using basic computer skills, subscribers can edit the site and immediately deploy sophisticated, configurable, state of the art, flash website.

While we are starting to hear about a more positive economic outlook, the lessons we have learned remain fundamentally important to how we manage our money more effectively to secure our future and realise our goals.

The fundamentals of savings are simple, and we’ve all heard them before—set clear and achievable deadlines; create and follow a realistic budget; establish how much you can afford to save and set up your savings plan accordingly. In practice, it is not always that easy.

Michael Cant, Executive General Manager Retail Products Commonwealth Bank, looks at three possible strategies to help you put your savings on a secure path.

1. Term Deposits
If you’re looking for certainty on your return, or the discipline of locking your money away for a defined period of time, a high-interest Term Deposit account may best meet your needs.

There are a range of options in Term Deposit products based on the length of the deposit term and the corresponding interest rate return. Term Deposits are often the most appropriate vehicle for longer-term, big-ticket savings, such as a deposit for a house or car. They also suit people who may unexpectedly come into an amount of money and are unsure of what to do with it, providing a guaranteed rate for a fixed term off a single commitment.

The main consideration, besides the length of the term, is the impact of potential interest movements over the life of the deposit. Currently longer-term Term Deposits are offering high rates—rather than speculating about future rate increases, certainty can be gained by locking away your funds now. You can further utilise this approach by locking away a portion of funds for a high interest, long-term rate and another portion for a shorter term to maintain flexibility with your funds.

2. Saving accounts
While some people are looking for longer-term certainty, some of us are looking to build up our savings, but want to retain the flexibility and access to funds to cover the unexpected. A high-interest online savings account or Cash Investment Account may be the answer.

Online savers are high-interest accounts linked to your transaction account. They give you instant access to your savings anytime, anywhere via online banking and require no minimum balance and no fixed terms.

Cash Investment Accounts will suit those who have $10,000 or more to invest. Interest is calculated every day and credited monthly, so you’ll notice the returns right away—it could be the ideal place to grow your funds while giving you ready access to your funds when you want them.

With an online savings or Cash Investment Account, you can dip in and out of your funds whenever you want. But remember, you need to deposit money into the account regularly to see it grow and continually put in more than you take out.

3. Diversify your cash
For maximum flexibility, certainty and security, spreading your savings across these options may effectively give you the best of all worlds. For example, people often split their Home Loan across both a fixed rate and also a variable rate, and similarly, you can split your deposit funds across Term Deposits and savings accounts. This helps you gain greater certainty around your interest earnings while maintaining flexibility to take advantage of future opportunities.

Ultimately, there is no “one size fits all” approach. The savings strategies you adopt should depend on your own goals and circumstances.

For more advice on developing your financial strategies visit a Commonwealth Bank branch today. For more information visit www.commbank.com.au

You cannot rely on other people to do it for you, no matter how great your product or service is. Business promotion doesn’t have to cost you a fortune either… Here are some low-cost ways to promote your business.

Use every outgoing piece of paper and every electronic document as business promotion.

Business stationery is an ideal business promotion tool. Is your business name, logo, contact information (including URL if you have one), on your envelopes as well as on your letterhead? Your phone and fax numbers, your URL, and even a memorable slogan should be there. It’s not just an envelope; it’s a business promotion tool! You’re sending it out anyway, so why not make it work for you?

Whatever paper you send out should carry your full company message. And don’t forget to make sure that your email has a complete signature that provides all your business information and a promotional tagline. Email is also easy to update with your latest business promotion information, whether it be a special price on your product or service, or letting people know that your company has won an award.

Use buddy marketing to promote your business

For example, if you send out brochures, you could include a leaflet and/or business card of another business, which had agreed to do the same for you. This gives you the chance to reach a whole new pool of potential customers.

You might also plan and carry out business promotions with complementary businesses. If you support a charity, then utlise that as a partner, and tap into their member base to advertise sales or promotions. A pet store and a pet grooming business, for example, might use shared advertising, or run a contest together. This can considerably cut down the cost of business promotion, and allow each business to use promotion techniques that would be too expensive to implement alone.

Writing articles on topics related to your business expertise is an excellent business promotion technique.

Well-written articles can provide free advertising and build positive word-of-mouth. If you’re a realtor, for instance, you could write a piece on preparing your home to be shown. If you’re a hair dresser, you might write a piece about caring for hair. The more specific your topic, the better. Write a short biographical note about you and your business to go with the article (usually at the bottom) Then send it out!

Where? As the goal is to promote your business, you’d like it to appear in a publication that your target audience will be reading. Magazines generally have a long lead time, so I would focus my first efforts on the net. There are an astronomical number of e-zines and sites with newsletters that are hungry for content.

Newspapers are also excellent places to place your business promotion article, as they too have a much shorter lead-time than magazines and are always looking for material. Try contacting the Business editor of your local paper and pitching your article.

Sending a press release is another great way to get some free business promotion

The catch? Well… it must be newsworthy and capture people’s interest. Do you have a new product? Have you been involved in some promotional activity such as sponsoring a charity event? Have you or your company recently won an award? All of these are examples of “news” that you can capitalize on to get some free promotion for your business. Check out www.reversepr.com.au.

Give out freebies as business promotion

I’m sure you’re familiar with the saying ‘the first 50 people to visit a particular store will receive a free (____)’. You fill in the blank. We’re familiar with this kind of spot promotion because it works. People love to receive things that are free.

How about? using this regularly as customer “rewards”. For example, I recently had a picture framed; the framer had attached a free picture hanger to the painting’s wire, with a small card thanking me for my patronage. It’s only a small thing, which certainly didn’t cost him much, but as the customer, I appreciate not having to rummage through my home looking for a suitable hanger, and can’t help thinking positively about the service he provides. What small, inexpensive things could you give out with your product or service that will get your customer thinking good thoughts about you? Definitely a win-win situation.

Promote your business by guest speaking at a seminar or presentation

You have expertise that other people are interested in! Why not share that expertise and promote your business at the same time?

For example, a local hardware store advertises a free seminar on installation techniques for a type fire alarm. Participants not only learn how to install this type of alarm themselves, but are offered special discount prices if they wish to purchase the item.

If there’s no direct tie-in to your product or service, you can still give a presentation on a related topic. Many government-sponsored organisations, Economic Development Centres, and non-profit programs are always looking for experienced business people who are willing to give presentations. You may also be able to arrange to present your topic through the Continuing Education branch of your local college or university.

Public speaking not for you? Start small by making a presentation to one of your local groups such as your Home-Based Business Association or Business Women’s network. Try something like Toastmasters; this organisation has helped many people become great public speakers.

Use your vehicle to promote your business
Depending on your business, this might work. I have seen vehicles that note the name and phone number of a business decorated on their windows or doors. Think of all the people who see your vehicle when you’re driving around – especially if you live in a place where people often get stuck in traffic!

Promote your business through your leisure activities
Everyone does something for “fun”. Whether your chosen leisure activity is working on a cause or project. There are all kinds of ways to promote your business while you do what you love to do.
• If your activity involves a group with possibly a quarterly newsletter, you might ask to contribute in exchange for your business information to be noted.
• Consider sponsoring an event and utilising this to either present a speech or promote your business by means of branding.

With a little experimentation and time, you’ll find out which of these ideas work best for your small business.

*Jennifer Black is a specialist PR Executive with expertise in Public Relations, Marketing and Image Consulting. To learn more see: www.blacklinepr.com.au

“The social networking community is not longer satisfied with logging on once a day, from their PC. Twitter and Facebook aficionados are updating their status and getting their fix of information in real-time, on the move,” said Jessica Forrest, PR Manager at VHA.

Vodafone and 3 customers wanting to sign-up to Twitter will be able to do so directly from their mobile phone by typing in http://m.twitter.com into their web browser. Previously Tweeters had to sign-up online before being able to access the site from their mobile phone.

Tweeting etiquette
1. Tweet regularly – we want to know now!
2. Be relevant to your audience – no one wants to know what you had for brekkie
3. Don’t be a spectator – participate in conversation
4. Think before you tweet – don’t brag about your sickie
5. Know your acronyms – LOL doesn’t mean “lots of love”

Top mobiles for twittering

1. iPhone 3G S 16GB is $929 up front for Vodafone prepaid customers. Vodafone Prepaid Flexi Caps give customers the freedom to spend their included Flexible Credit any way they like – on Twitter, calls, txt, IM, games, music or mobile TV.
2. HTC Magic with Google, free on Vodafone’s $59 Cap (24 months)
3. Nokia N97, free on Vodafone’s $79 Cap (24 months)
4. BlackBerry Storm, free on Vodafone’s $56 Cap (24 months)

How much does it cost?

Vodafone Prepaid Flexi Caps^ give customers the freedom to spend their included Flexible Credit any way they like – on Twitter, calls, txt etc. They start at $29, which includes $300 total value ($150 Flexible Credit plus $150 for standard calls within Australia to other Vodafone customers). Data is charged at $2 per MB and is billed per KB.

Providing regular and informative Twitter updates is the key. Remember it is about building relationships and not directly selling your products or services (well most of the time).

So here are some ideas for Twitter updates that can help you connect with and attract more followers.

1. Announcement of sales, specials and discounts
2. Welcome a new staff member
3. Promote a new product line
4. Recruit members for a focus research group
5. Run competitions and giveaways
6. Recruit new staff by listing job vacancies
7. Post industry articles that support your products or services
8. Promote happy hours for online stores
9. Retweet your supplier messages
10. Welcome new clients
11. Promote your next event
12. Get customer feedback
13. Welcome new suppliers
14. Comment on current affairs in relation to your industry
15. Share useful websites for your business
16. Link to your new blog posts (yes its time to get a blog as well)
17. Broadcast updates made to your website
18. Lessons learnt from business that day
19. Promote your other social media networks eg. Facebook, LinkedIn
20. Conduct customer surveys
21. Notify customers to changes in upcoming events
22. Showcase your new TV, radio or print ads
23. Tell your customers about great service you have received from another small business
24. Get feedback on any new systems, software or equipment you plan to purchase
25. Search for new suppliers and contractors
26. Notify customers of product recalls
27. Promote associations and organisations your business belongs to
28. Appointment availabilities caused by last minute cancellations
29. Give tips to show you are an expert in your field – yes free advice, no catches
30. Broadcast news in relation to your industry
31. Highlight your business’s recent media coverage
32. Highlight your Twitter milestones eg. 1000 Followers
33. Profile your staff members
34. Celebrate company milestones eg. 25 years in service
35. Post changes to schedules, timetables or opening hours
36. Update stock information and shipment arrivals
37. Discounts for mentioning your Twitter posts
38. Any appearances you are making eg. trade shows, workshops, seminars
39. Link to any instructional videos you have created
40. Seasonal greeting to customers eg. Merry Christmas, Happy International Left Handers Day
41. New address and phone numbers if you have moved
42. Any unfortunate outages or delays in customers getting service or products from you
43. Promote your client’s product, event or services
44. Highlight any community involvement or charity associations
45. Send reminders to your customers eg. end of financial year approaching, Father’s Day
46. Going on Holidays- set automate Twits to connect to your customers in your absence
47. Give your business a personality – share a joke or two.
48. Link to photos from your latest event, staff party or networking function
49. Promote a business award nomination or achievement
50. Link to forums you regularly participate in (yes you should be doing that as well as Twitter updates)
51. Share cost savings you have made in your business
52. Use twitter as a customer service/help desk for your business
53. Fundraise for a local community organisation
54. Encourage people to follow some of your favourite Twitters
55. If all else fails, make a comment on the weather, that is always an ice breaker!

So how do you use Twitter for your small business?

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