From the category archives:

What We Do

How I Help Small Businesses

by Sue on March 29, 2010

in What We Do

I keep getting questions about what I am trying to do with this business.  I’ll admit, it is not perfectly clear to others because I am not a traditional web designer or graphic artist.

It sounds corny, but think of me as a “web empowerment” consultant.  My whole goal is to help YOU take control of your OWN website and web presence.  I want to help  small businesses take advantage of the web technologies that used to be the province of just the big guys.

So, for example, I might help a small business owner to:

  1. Re-deploy her existing website in a way that gives HER complete control of the content of the pages (so she doesn’t have to call his “web guy” to change each and every typo on the pages).
  2. Establish her thought leadership in his field through blogs, Twitter, and specialty communities.
  3. Elevate her website’s Google ranking with no extra effort
  4. Teach her to develop “downloadable products” (such as research reports, eBooks, software, etc) in a way that protects the content but doesn’t interfere with the end-user’s experience. She can then  sell these products from her own website, and find other websites and affiliates to sell them too.
  5. Set up an email newsletter, so our small business owner can regularly stay in touch with her customer base and maintain “top-of-mind awareness.”
  6. Set up plans to automatically drive traffic to the business’s website, via both non-traditional means (blogs, Twitter, community sites) and traditional means (press releases, etc.).
  7. Help her learn to use web advertising effectively, without wasting money.

Said another way, I help you identify which new approaches to marketing on the web and social media might benefit you.  I then find the right combination of  technology and services to make it happen for as low a cost as possible. I can set it up for you, or work with your existing team – doing all the integration, etc. And then I help you put processes in place that make the “magic” automatically happen (as much as possible) going forward.

I don’t want you to have to call me or someone else to make minor changes to your site or to help you see how your latest Twitter marketing is going.   I want to identify your goals, come up with the appropriate mix of products and services, set it up for you, teach you to use it, set processes on “automatic pilot”, and then leave you in charge of your own web destiny.

{ 0 comments }

Why I’m Writing This Blog

by Sue on March 29, 2010

in This Blog,Uncategorized,What We Do

As the owner and principal of a consultancy focused on software product management and product marketing for software and SaaS companies, I’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with how to use social media to improve my business.  I’ve also used social media heavily in my work with clients –it’s now mandatory for any decent product marketing or product management pro to know how to best market products with social networking, but to also consider how users might want to use your products in a “social” way.

And now, years later, I’ve spent more time than I care to count working on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email newsletters, forums, eBooks, and all dozens of other specialist social networks, communities, and tools.  Thus, from my professional interest in social media grew a personal interest, then a full-fledged hobby, and now a small business.

I’ve always been very excited to check out the latest services and tools and figure out how to use them for best advantage.  As a result, I might have been one of the first 1000 people on LinkedIn back in 20003 (one of my co-workers was married to an early LinkedIn employee).  I’ve also been blogging since late 2004, and over the years I’ve had 8 blogs, one of which became a full-fledged “online brand” with several thousand blog subscribers and thousands of Twitter followers.

I’ve also helped many clients, colleagues, and friends set up their own web and social media presences.  And from this, “Sure Web Consulting” was born.  I help small businesses and individuals define their web and social media goals,  find the right low-cost services and tools to help them meet these goals, and remove the obstacles they hit when trying to leverage the web.  I’m not a web designer or graphic artist that will custom-code your website from scratch.  Instead I help you identify and put into place the right packaged (read not custom) services and products to meet your goals.

And why should you go for packaged rather than custom?  1) Cost, 2) Long-term maintainability, 3) Long-term ability to integrate with other new services and products, 4) Cost, and 5) Cost.

This blog is an extension of this new business.  I like to share what I’ve learned about websites and social networking, especially as it applies to my own business, and hope that you find it useful.

{ 0 comments }

wordpress hit counter