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Traveling For Business The Right Way

Traveling For Business The Right Way ~ Guest Post

It’s no secret that we travel less for business than in the past. With Skype, GoToMeeting and other technological advancements, many companies have stopped traveling if possible. This guest post from Logan Baker with Jet Charters in Knoxville, TN may change your mind.

Traveling For Business The Right Way
Photo by Andy Rusch used under Creative Commons License.

Traveling for business the right way

Lately it seems like business travel is getting a bad rap. Depending on your business, travel expenditures can be one of the first things on the chopping block. It’s often easy to justify cutting out the cost of sending people all over the place, but the costs associated with that philosophy can be quite significant. Travel is a great way to invest in your business, but only when it’s handled correctly. Read on to find out how you can maximize the return on your business travel investment.

Travel with purpose

Think about your previous business travels. Why did you go? Who did you see? How much profit did the trip generate? The first two questions are probably pretty easy to answer, but that might not be the case with the third. The vast majority of business trips can and should generate revenue. You should approach business travel like any other revenue stream in your business plan. How much is it going to cost, and what kind of returns should you expect? More importantly, what does the historical data say about whether the trip is worth it in the first place? If you haven’t been analyzing your travel like everything else then now is the time to start. Every trip should include a purpose, a goal (revenue or otherwise), and proper tracking for the future. Put the analytical skills you’ve perfected to good use here!

Travel with efficiency

You can almost never go wrong with efficiency. Making efficiency a part of your company culture will increase your returns in nearly every sector. Business travel is no different, but it often requires some creative thinking to get the job done. Many business trips are for a specific purpose. Sometimes you might be making a trip to see your best customer and reassure them that you’re doing a great job, and other times you’ll be traveling for lead generation. Whatever your primary goal, it’s likely you’re going to have some down time you can put to good use. If you’re there for your customer, don’t be afraid to go out and land some leads when you can. You could spend the extra time sightseeing, but that’s what you do on vacation. Business trips should be — not surprisingly — all business.

Efficiency also refers to your travel time. You can probably find cheap flights if …

Power to the Online People

Where were you when news of the tsunami hit Japan in 2011? How about when Michael Jackson died? Probably online, according to many experts who claim that social media has become the main media source for hundreds of millions of people. Not just in the U.S., either; Facebook alone has more than 900 million users spread across the globe as of 2012. Other social media giants like Twitter have facilitated revolution against unjust leaders and warned people of impending natural disaster. In fact, so many people regularly interact online that if the Internet were a nation, it would exceed the Americas, Europe and the Middle East combined in population. No wonder more than 13 million members of the online community used Reddit and other media platforms to protest SOPA, a proposed Internet censorship bill. Keep this graphic in mind next time you log on, because knowledge is power — and a little knowledge goes a long way in the Internet Age.

Power To The Online People

Own and Protect Your Content!

Other than the devastating news out of Oklahoma, the digital world is buzzing this week over the news that Yahoo has purchased blogging site Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Or as some are now referring to it: Yumblr. It is too early in this process to know what plans Yahoo has for Tumblr, but one thing is for sure: Tumblr will change. Tumblr subscribers will either embrace the changes or they will leave. In droves.

Protect Your Content
Image Courtesy of Slate

In March 2012, the headline was Twitter Buys Posterous. Many people speculated that Posterous would stay around; that Twitter only wanted the owners/management team but would leave the product alone. Alas, that was not the case. Posterous shut down May 31, 2013.

Tumblr and Posterous offered users a simple to use and user friendly blogging format. Something that the novice or casual blogger could use, customize the look and feel and create what they wanted without all of the “heavy-lifting” involved with a self-hosted website or blog. Sounds easy, right? Well, as with all things in life that sound too good to be true, sometimes free and easy is not the best solution.

What is one thing that the former Posterous and the “future unknown” Tumblr have in common? The users DO NOT own their content!! If you didn’t download a backup of your data from Posterous, it is gone. Forever. Will that happen with Tumblr? Who knows. Yahoo may keep it up and running and not change the platform at all. They may start charging for it or they could fill it up with ad space to offset the Billion Dollar purchase price.

The bottom line is this; you must own your content and protect it. Work with professionals to develop and host your website and blog. These are your thoughts, ideas and professional work. Own it. Protect it. Value it just like you do financials for your company. If you need suggestions on who to work with to build your site, contact me.

Now, if you are saying in your mind; “but John, what if I publish something and someone steals it?” Well, my first suggestion is you go after them! But before you even think about that, I STRONGLY encourage you, suggest, will drive to your house and twist your arm to read Erika Napoletano’s suggestions. I consume most everything Erika writes and last week was no exception. It came to Erika’s attention that someone was, in her words, “ripping her off!” She published two phenomenal blogs on her experience: If You’re Going to Rip Me Off, At Least Be Creative About It and On Stealing Shit. Check her blogs out, determine a plan to deal with it if …

STOP the Social Media Insanity!

Do you remember the Stop the Insanity weight loss program from Susan Powter? In the 90’s, you couldn’t turn on television without hearing her infomercial with that famous catch phrase, “Stop the Insanity!”

insanity

Do you ever feel the need to scream, STOP the Social Media Insanity? Websites, Blogs, RSS feeds, Emails, Email newsletters, Facbook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ Instagram, Vine, Pinterest, FourSquare, Yelp, and on, and on, and on! Do you get overwhelmed as you try to keep up with reading information, posting or joining various social platforms for yourself or your business? If so, I have a few suggestions that may help you stop your own insanity.

Tips for dealing with social media insanity:

Take a deep breath and decide which platform(s) are right for you!

No one can be everywhere or be on every single social platform. There are too many platforms and cloning isn’t perfected, so if you try to do them all, you will burnout. Quickly. Approach social media just as you do any decision for you or your business; how does this serve me or my clients/customers. If your niche market or demographic hangs out on Facebook, then spend time building your following or Facebook Business Page. If your prospects spend time on Twitter, then build your Twitter brand. If email newsletters work for your business, produce the best newsletter possible! If you want better search results and enjoy the platform, spend time building your circles on Google+. Remember, no social platform, no matter how good it is, should take the place of your own website. Spend the time to get your site right and use these social outposts to drive traffic to your site.

Develop a schedule and stick to it!

One of the best pieces of advice I have for individuals and businesses is this: develop a schedule. Use a legal pad, an online calendar or create an editorial/social media calendar and stick to it! This will save you hours of frustration and make it much easier to develop or produce content. It’s more calming to know you what you need to write about or post for the next week or month than getting up everyday and trying to decide. Voice of experience talking here, so listen! My dear friend Julia Rosien published an exceptional post about this on her Social North site: Editorial Calendar – Social Media Strategy Must Do.

Evaluate, update and move on!

Maybe you have had a presence on Facebook since it was The Facebook. Does that outpost still align with your personal or professional goals? If not, then move on. I think far too often we get used to being on these platforms but forget to regularly evaluate whether …