Another new microsite for our Detroit Office Furniture client

It’s a funny thing…playing with Google. They’re smart, aren’t they?

It forces those of us who work in the space to be equally smart. The wore part of SEO is what works today, may not have any impact on ratings six months from now. That’s okay, we will keep getting better too.

I want to have my Detroit area office furniture client rank high so I have to blog about microsites we are creating. These microsites link to their main site and are being used like a pulley system to lift their current site higher.

The new site is http://detroitofficefurnituresales.com/. It will link to their current (and not overly dated) site: http://facilitymatrix.com.

So hopefully this gets the microsite on page 1 for the keywords Detroit Office Furniture Sales pretty quickly. Couple that with this post and maybe it will lift up all the pages. Let’s see how it works, shall we??

Five Steps To Build Better Business Relationships Faster

There are so many aspects to building the right business relationships that it makes it hard to know where to start…until you start at the very beginning. This video looks at introductions, handshakes, eye contact and more with the idea of making sure you make the right impressions.

The 3 R’s have changed for business today

When I was in school we learned about the 3 R’: Reading
Riting
Rithmatic

These R’s were considered the core skills students would learn. They were easy to remember, and the values in the skills were easily understood. In retrospect they could’ve been better understood had they all actually begun with the letter R but this isn’t a spelling test, or a history lesson. This is a lesson in the R’s of modern day business.

While I’m certain reading and writing are still important (my jury has always been out on arithmetic) there are new R’s which require our immediate attention.

These three elements are the core skills, and matters of practice for modern day businesses.

The first R is a driving factor in the happiness of our lives Relationships. Relationships have always been a staple for people, and come in many different types:
Family
Friends
Co-workers
Clients
Business partners
Spiritual connections
Most importantly, the one we have with our self.

Aside from keeping us happy, relationships are the life streams of our business communities, costumers’ connections, and a constant reinforce for our personal brand. We must take great care not only to connect but to also relate to the people around us.

Relationships do not thrive without some neutering and commitment. You must maintain a balance of all aspects of give and take in order for an authentic relationship to be maintained.

Which is why the second R is Recommendations. We’ve always collected letters from satisfied clients, and now more than ever word of mouth is making or breaking brand images. Capitalizing on modern social networking tools allows for constant rapport care, but also an opportunity to mutually recommend peers, professionals, staff, and the like.

Linkedin uses the term up upfront, but don’t count out other venues such as facebook or twitter. A quick positive status update on facebook, or brief thank you tweet on twitter is another trick to represent those who you would recommend.

The third R is brand spanking new: Real-time search. The SEO/SEM strategists have been extolling the virtues of search for a couple of years now, and this business has evolved. It is no longer enough to own page 1 on Google. You need to make your presence known on page one on Twitter, Facebook, and other social sites.

Relationships
Recommendations
Real-Time Search

The modern R’s of business take old school classic spin on the new school technologies. And when you use these 3 R’s well, you get the most important R there is in business:

REFERRALS

The foreword @chrisbrogan wrote for my new book on Networking

Chris Brogan totally puts the AWE in awesome. His blog and newsletter are so full of information that it makes you wonder how he can “give” so much away. He is a two time New York Times Best Selling Author, (Trust Agents which he co-authored with Julien Smith and Social Media 101) co-founder of a cool community that shares new marketing techniques called Third Tribe Marketing and an amazing speaker. I am so grateful that Chris took time out of his really busy schedule to read my work and shared some of his wisdom in it.

Here is the Foreword he wrote exactly as it appears in The Universal Guide to Business Networking (this is a link to the book on Amazon)

Foreword: The network is everything.

Terry Bean knows networking. We met a few years ago, and within moments, I felt that I knew Terry, knew what mattered to him, believed from the bottom of my heart that he loved people, and was well on my way to connecting to people he thought mattered. And now, we have it all in a book.

The first point I picked out of his thoughtful book was about one’s AQ, your Awareness Quotient. This nugget is exactly the phrase I have needed for a while to explain how some folks can be so clueless.

Go a little further and you see that Terry and I agree that all business is relationship business. He’s proven this to me in person, online, and everywhere that Terry’s spent his incredible value.

Terry’s first rule of networking is maybe why you have this book in your hand: SHOW UP. If you’re thinking about networking, then you’ve done the first right move by putting this information in front of your eyes. You know, Terry’s made quite a career from building via networking. And now that you’ve shown up, he can help you.

What Julien Smith and I discovered through writing Trust Agents was that the network was the most underrated part of most people’s business assets. Undervalued, too. What Terry’s done here is really brought out the best of what to do with regards to building that most vital piece of your business assets.

One last point: Terry’s spent years developing this material. It’s worth more than a glance as you rush through your litany of what you need to do to improve. This book, when PRACTICED and really considered, will change how business happens for you.

Are you ready? Can you feel it? I’m there already and I’ve got shivers. From online to off, Terry’s got us covered. Let’s use it, shall we?

–Chris Brogan, author of Social Media 101.

I’m proud of the content you will find in this book and I’m sure you will enjoy it. Thank you again Chris Brogan and thank you to all who have picked this book up and will do so in the future.

Be connected-

Terry Bean