To learn more Free tips to attract more clients with online and offline marketing, download your free kit at http://www.theconnectionqueen.com/

To learn more Free tips to attract more clients with online and offline marketing, download your free kit at http://www.TheConnectionQueen.com

Summertime is usually a downtime for business but you shouldn’t stop networking. Take advantage of this quiet period to be creative and network in a different way by reactivating your contacts.

Since there are less events and people have more free time, use this opportunity to invite people for a social happy hour or join groups that you never joined before. It’s a good time to explore new opportunities to meet new people in new environments for new leads.
One of my favorite places to invite people for a summer cocktail when I was in New York was the Terrace at the Metropolitan Museum. With its great view and ambiance, it’s a great place to reactivate your connections. If you play golf, tennis or run in the park, invite people to join you. If you attend free concerts in Central Park invite a group of people and introduce them to each other. Have your own party or plan outdoor events or organize “Me Time” at the spa. These are some of the creative ways to take advantage of the relaxed pace of summer and connect / reconnect with your old contacts, prospects or clients.

Very often social meetings will lead to business contacts because everyone, for once, won’t try to sell anything. Remember that everything doesn’t have to be about you or your business and it’s more important to be memorable and give the right impression. When you invite people unexpectedly and don’t try to sell them anything but instead, ask them how you can help them, the return on your networking time will be ten times more efficient.

A good networker is a good listener, so LISTEN and take mental notes to find out how you can help others (then write your notes down to use them later to follow-up). Do they need a specific contact or resource? Is their birthday or their kids’ birthday coming up, take note of the date. What if somebody mentions that his birthday is in two weeks, and two weeks later he receives a birthday card from you, this is one of the various opportunities to follow up. They’ll be impressed you’ll be number one on their list when they need your service or have a referral for you.

In addition to attending events and parties, summertime is a great period to track and check up on what happened since the beginning of the year. How many events you attended, how many business cards you collected, how many follow-up meetings you scheduled, and how many new clients you got from your networking efforts.

Take this opportunity to organize and update your database, formally enter your contacts on software’s like Act or Outlook, and set up a concrete follow-up system. Send a note card to say “hello” or “happy summer” or to invite them for a drink or to your party. Send postcard mailings with a marketing message, run a special offer or send a coupon or a special discount.

Re-activate your contacts in one way or another but do it now!

September it will be too late, everybody will be busy again and you’ll go back to your routine.

Need help to reconnect with your contacts and or set-up your follow-up system? Just give me one hour, and I will reveal 10 simple ways to reactivate your contacts so you can get tons of new clients by September.
Schedule your session to reactivate your network before the end of the summer NOW

This week Craig H Collins, a friend who specializes on Social Media for Real Estate Agents, asked a question on Facebook “Do you spend more or less time on social media compared to 12 months ago?”

This is a great question. I don’t know about you, but I definitely spend a lot more time today than a year ago and have learned a lot more about social media as a result. Now, because of an entire year of consistent presence on social medi , I get much better results attracting more traffic to my website, which translates to more clients.

Since moving to Miami 3 years ago, I don’t organize monthly networking events as I used to in New York. And while running 3 companies, I don’t have lot of time to attend networking events anymore. I spend most of my day on internet and phone conducting coaching and consulting sessions for both my American and French businesses.

For example, most of my French speaking clients still live in France. They find me because of the important visibility I have online and people who look for help to start a business in the US, find me on the 1st page of Google. How? Because I am online all the time promoting my business via social media, articles, blogging, participating in groups on Facebook and Linkedin, connecting with new people every day, and building my list and therefore my clientele. I use the exact same strategies for my American business.

Most of my clients who take my networking and marketing sessions, have the same challenges. They don’t know how to promote their business online or offline. During a monthly 30-minute session for my mastermind group or 3-hour programs, it is not always enough to really understand all of the strategies to boost your business with social media. Some people don’t have the time to use social media daily, others don’t know what to write every day or don’t use it consistently and effectively and of course, don’t get the results they are expecting.

For months now, I have people asking me if I could do it for them, set up their profile, post on a daily basis on their page, set-up their blog, or even write articles for them. Already running 3 businesses my hands are already full, but I realized that too many solo-entrepeneurs need help to develop their business via social media. I have expanded my team to now offer these services for both French and American businesses.

How can we help you:

1.We will help you set-up and manage your blog on a weekly basis, with a minimum of 2 new post a week, providing blog content and exposure across social network sites to your target market.

2. We will help you set-up and/ or maximize your profile on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.

3. We will help you create and maintain your Fan Page, update daily status, manage your friend requests, and your wall.

4. We will help you get exposure on targeted groups according to your business on Facebook and Linkedin

5. We will distribute your articles on ezine directories.

And much more on a customized basis.

Learn more and contact us NOW to maximize your online presence and attract a lot more clients.
Click-here　

Did you ever stop to think how much your Facebook Page is worth? One company did and proposed to put a value on your Facebook Page and even your fans. This same company, Vitrue, even went further by offering a free application to help you understand how much your Page is worth.

How does it compute for your Page’s value? It’s dependent on many things: fans, posts and interactions, plus a pre-determined “engagement multiplier” and an earned media value in dollars. The default earned media value is $5, but you can tweak this, among many other factors, to suit your own observations and computation.

It’s a pretty cool idea, not only because it’s able to assign a dollar amount to your Page, but also because it confirms one important thing—that it isn’t only about getting the most number of fans—it’s engaging them as much as you possible can. The number of interactions trumps the number of fans.

Case in point: the Skittles Page, with its over 4.4 million fans, is, according to this article, worth more than the Coca Cola Page, despite the latter’s close to 5.5 million fans. Why? Skittles posted more than Coca Cola did.

Virtue’s Social Media Evaluator offers a lot of cool and interesting features. It measures your Page’s current value against your potential value. Not fulfilling your full potential? It even gives tips on how you can maximize your potential. It evaluates your post frequency, post types and even the URL shortener you’re using—of course, these evaluations are generic and based on a 3-level system indicated by red, yellow and green ratings. What’s more is that you can compare your Page with that of your competitors.

Unfortunately, this calculator only computes for Facebook pages. I’d like to see—as I’m sure that you do, too—this applied to other social media sites, such as Twitter and Foursquare.

So, how much is your own Facebook Page worth?

If you are one of my French readers, check out my interview in the newspaper “Ouest-France” about my experiences in the US over the past 7 years and the launch of my new business QuidExpat.  Read the article here

We are almost in August! Time goes very fast. Are you on track with your goals? Remember back to January. What did you have planned for your business? Not to worry, it is not too late, you still have 5 months to reach your goals by adapting your marketing to get the results you want.

If you need help to refocus your business, in just one hour I can help you to make the necessary changes to boost your last 5 months of the year. I’m offering you a one-on-one Marketing & Networking Makeover. I’ll walk you through a step-by-step proven system that will not only turn you into a fabulous networker, but it will also make marketing and networking a rewarding and enjoyable activity.

I have only 10 spots available for August, so make sure to schedule you makeover session NOW
Learn more Here

Have a question about your busines on how to develop it?
Just ask me

-How to create your marketing plan?

-How to develop your communication plan?

-How to network more effectively and get more clients?

-How to integrate social media in your business?

-and much more

Just ask me your question via chat or phone -
Click-here

Revive Your Business and Your Spirit at the Premier Event of the Year for Women Entrepreneurs…

Featuring BRAND NEW Content and Increased Networking Opportunities
Join acclaimed entrepreneur and business coach Ali Brown for a powerful conference this fall to revive your business and your spirit. As we emerge from one of the most challenging shifts in business history, entrepreneurial women are poised to create a better world for ourselves than ever before. And it all starts with you!

It’s your time to Shine. And this three-day event in Las Vegas, Nevada, will jump-start your success like nothing before… guaranteed. Whether you’re a home-based mom with an idea for a part-time business or you already run a wildly successful million-dollar company, Shine 2010 will deliver stellar education, inspiration, and networking bar none.

Shine 2009 was a great success with nearly 500 entrepreneurs attending. This year Shine will be even bigger and better with room for 1,000 participants, more education, more levels of training, more inspiration, and more networking opportunities. Plus you’ll enjoy inspiration and advice from our keynote speakers, who have overcome huge odds to build the empires and careers of their dreams.

Ali Brown’s events, programs, and coaching have helped thousands of women and men create, redesign, or expand their businesses to dramatically increase their incomes – and often while working less than before. Ali created SHINE to lead entrepreneurial women through their own personal revival, helping them discover new ways to propel their businesses and lives to new levels. It’s an event uniquely designed for both experienced and new business owners alike that delivers an exclusive combination of insight, information, and business formulas that can be found nowhere else.

The last couple of years were very challenging for entrepreneurs. One of the main issues, besides just staying in business, is how to maintain a competitive edge. Many small business owners had to lower their prices but other reinvented their businesses to still attract new clients. If you lower your price, you will need more clients to make the same amount of money were already making. Is that the best solution? There are ways to work smarter not harder!

How to attract more clients without losing money and staying competitive.

1. Repackage your services or products. For example, let’s say you sell your physical product for $299, you can now offer the digital version for half of the price. You won’t have to change anything on your marketing just redirect people to a different webpage and since it is less expensive, you may get more clients. You’re offering a new and abridged version of the product at a lower cost because you aren’t paying for the physical version. The most important part of this equation is to follow-up with the people who bought the digital version so you could sell them later the more complete physical version at your regular price. If people like your program, they will be more willing to buy again from you.

Another example, if you work one-on-one with clients, consider offering a group session at a reduced price. Your clients will each pay a little less but since you will be working with a group at the end of the hour you find you’ve more than made up the difference. For instance if you have one client who pays $250 per one hour session, 4 sessions equal $1000, if you offer a group session at $150 per person per hour and you have 5 people to a group, 4 sessions now equal $3000. At the end of the sessions, you have worked the same amount but triple your revenue.

2. Work with a more specific niche. Target clients with a very specific problem that you can solve and offer a solution different form your competitors. What do you offer that makes you and your product unique? For example, if you have been targeting women business owners try honing your focus to working mom entrepreneurs if you are a mom. Based on your experiences you may have unique solutions to balance their lives with their businesses. Sharing your unique success stories and tips can make you indispensable!

In one of my business I work exclusively with French speaking entrepreneurs starting businesses in the US. I was in their shoes seven years ago, when I moved. I know their problems, obstacles, frustrations, we have the same culture. With my knowledge of the American culture from a French point of view I can help them to adapt their business, teach them market the “American way”, and the steps to start and success a business here. Develop your communication and services around the people you are targeting who can relate to your experience.

3. Sell differently. If you used to sell via internet, your website, your blog, how can you sell using other media? Did you ever use direct mail? Lot of people think that direct mail is not working anymore, but combine with everything you do online, you raise you conversation rate. People don’t always have the time to read your email or they are blocked by their spam filters and don’t see you offer. A post card, a brochure or a simple letter can make a big difference. But remember don’t just send one card and wait for your phone to ring, you will need to send your post card campaign at least three times in a short period of time (maximum 3 months) for people to pay attention to it and then act on it.

In order to stay competitive in your business you really need to step back and look at what you offer and how you offer it. By just tweaking your offers you can attract more clients. Look at what your competitors are doing, see what is missing in their offers and use this lack of services to make a difference.

Do you want to learn more about how to stay competitive in this challenging economy? Download my 60mn FREE audio Networking Mastery Secrets