Should rural broadband be 25 times slower

Let's talk about the National Broadband Plan, and its 100 Squared initiative. The goal is to get 100 million households on 100 mpbs by 2020. All well and good.

The problem is the remaining 5.5 million households, almost assuredly rural. They are not included in the plan, and there is no "phase 2" or second plan or goal to get anything to those households above the "minimum" 4mbps goal. So the urban and suburban households get the 100 mpbs; the rural households get 4 mpbs. Should we really be happy with that 25x difference?

Right now, approximately 14 million US homes do not have access to high-speed Internet at all. Here's a map of rural broadband availability in the south, created by Southern Business and Development based on data provided by the state economic development agencies.

Also, pay attention to the debate over proposed changes to the USF, Universal Service Fund. 

For an in depth look at rural broadband, from the perspective of an independent broadband provider, head to Daily Yonder for The Battle For Broadband.

"The best result for rural communities is to have locally-owned and operated broadband networks. The telephone and cable duopoly has a different vision of the future."

What action are you taking to support equitable rural broadband?
For those outside the US, how is your country approaching the issues around rural broadband?

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1 Step to Compelling Tourism Photography

Every tourism business needs photographs. Lots and lots of photographs. But not every photo is equally compelling.

As I look through tons of destination and tourism websites, I notice a theme. Where are the people? Your new water park is amazing. Why is it empty? That playground must be wonderful fun, but I don't see any children in your photo.

I think we get caught up in the idea that we want to feature the thing, the infrastructure. What really sells is social proof, the idea that if other people like it, it's probably good. That's why we want to go the restaurant that has a crowd, to see the popular movies, and to read the book four friends said was outstanding. While it isn't perfect, our brains tend to work this way. You might as well work with it, rather than against it, when you promote your destination.

Putting people in your pictures gives you instant social proof. It draws your potential visitor into the story. 

Here are a couple of picture pairs for comparison. In each, think about the one that seems friendlier, the one you can see yourself visiting.

First, the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas, with no people. A lovely photo of a by-gone age of elegance.


And here is the Driskill with a few people. Seriously, I could not have ordered a better person than the guy with the bowtie and suspenders. He seems connected to a different era. Perfect for the historic hotel.


Second, here is a beach with a lighthouse in the distance, at Arawack Cay, west of Nassau, Bahamas. The sunset colors are beautiful.


A few steps down the beach, here are a father and son feeding the gulls. Suddenly, there is a human story, an activity, an interest.


A photo with people is able to tell a story. That's a story the thing alone could never provide.

Take a quick survey of your tourism website (or printed materials). How many pictures include people? An occasional "empty" shot is fine, as long as you don't give the impression that you're promoting a ghost town.

Side question: do you need permission from the people in your photos? 
I would say you usually do not for basic tourism work, but it never hurts to have them. This is a subject of legal debate, so I'll defer to someone with far more experience than I have, professional photographer Brenda Tharp, at BetterPhoto.com, Photographic Model Release Forms: When You Need Them, When You Don't.

In my example photos above, only one person is identifiable, Mr. Bow Tie. The other people are either too far away, or turned the other direction, and are not identifiable.

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One Delicious Economic Development Idea

This week, I have a tip to help you promote entrepreneurship.

Use a social bookmarking site to collect the websites of businesses in your area.

This idea is one way of recognizing your existing entrepreneurs, presented by Dave Shideler in a webinar called "Building Entrepreneurial Communities."

Why use social bookmarking? 


1. As you bookmark those businesses, you're building a resource that you and others can re-use. It's a resource that is always synced up. You don't have to rely on various website owners to update their list. You don't have to update the list in more than one place. And by sharing it all over, you reach more potential customers for your businesses. 


2. I see this as a great Shop Local tool, also. Most people don't realize how many local businesses they really have. Your bookmark list can help them find stores and businesses they didn't know existed. 


Learn more about social bookmarking using Delicious with this video from Common Craft.

Use tags to organize and make sense of your small business list.

• Tag your business links with keywords so they are easy to find: restaurant, service, accounting, etc. 
• If a business closes you could delete the link, or tag it as "closed" 

Share those bookmarks on your website:

• Make a Linkroll: http://delicious.com/help/linkrolls. This could be all your links, or just one tag. So that could be a linkroll of just "Eateries." 
• Make a Tagroll: http://delicious.com/help/tagrolls. This makes a list of your tags, so readers can click on "Shopping" and go to a page with all your Shopping links. 

Share the bookmarks other places on the web:

• Share on Facebook with the Delicious box application: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=47595357651. 
• Share anyplace that uses RSS, using RSS feeds: http://delicious.com/help/feeds 
• Share on Twitter, via Twitterfeed: http://twitterfeed.com/ 

Local bloggers and others can take that RSS feed and integrate it in their sites. Another instant avenue for sharing. 


What ways can you think of using social bookmarking for sharing the links to local businesses?


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United Linen is not a typical linen service

My friend Scott Townsend from United Linen took time out after the Get Social Conference in Oklahoma City to share some of the online techniques they use to stand out from other linen services.



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Come on in to the Brag Basket

Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news, or congratulate a friend.

The basket is open all weekend, from June 25 - 27, 2010.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or comment on Facebook. You tell something great about your week, or you give applause to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate something wonderful that you tried that failed.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.

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Twice 4 Ways to Build Your Twitter Following

Here are four ways that I am using Twitter itself to attract interesting and interested people on Twitter.

1. Live tweet from events. Include the event hashtag. (If there isn't one, make one.)

2. Participate in tweet chats. Find one that interests you on this list of Twitter Chats on Google Docs.

3. Create lists of like minded people. She who convenes the network, reaps the benefits.

4. Follow lists of people you find interesting. Look on Listorious to find more good ones.

I wrote this because my friend Julien Smith says Twitter is useless to build a following. (note for the delicate in the crowd: Julien uses bad language.) Just for the record, I agree with Julien's main point: "getting RT’ed doesn’t build audience if it doesn’t go to your content."  


Now, I told you that story to tell you this one. 


Here are four ways outside of Twitter to build your following. 

1. Attend events and share you Twitter name. If you speak, put it on your beginning or ending presentation slide. (or, if you're like me, on your handout)

2. Put it on your business cards. And anything else you hand out from your business. I'm pretty lax about this one, myself. 

3. Put it in your email signature. And on your website, and on everything else you do online. 

4. Recruit new people to Twitter. Do demonstrations. Offer to help. Do a bit of hand holding. I realize this doesn't scale very well, but do what you can with your little corner of the world. 

What works for you? How do you attract interesting and interested followers? 

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One step to make your email blast much more effective

Lots of local tourism groups and chambers of commerce send out excellent email blasts to their members. If you send an email newsletter, I'll bet you routinely talk to people who didn't know about it. It's like the best kept secret.

Did you know you could be multiplying your reach with social tools?

You can use the same content to reach out in multiple ways, in multiple places. I realize you don't have time to do more work. So, we're going to do this the absolutely easiest way. Posterous. Add post@posterous.com as a subscriber to your email list. Then Posterous will automatically create a new post from each email you send out.

Posterous includes a wonderful Autopost feature that will then send the post to your regular blog, the post and photos to Facebook, the headline and link to Twitter, and the photos to Flickr. Yes, you do have to go in and set those up, but you only have to do it once. Then it works on automatic pilot.

So from your existing effort, you can multiply that to reach many more people. The Posterous site becomes a new public face for you. Every email is saved there. The search engines are able to crawl through that content, all those events, adding to your online presence. The autoposts to Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr put you in front of your residents and visitors where they spend the most time online. And the autopost to your regular blog means it's all backed up on your own site.

Do this, and your email blast won't be the best kept secret in town any more.

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Finding Success with Dogs at Camp

[Glen Kowarsky emailed me the other day, and I had to pass along his story. It's a great rural small business story. -Becky ]

I started Dogs at Camp back in the Spring of 2002. At that time, I had a dog named Abby, who was my ‘one and only’, as I don’t have children.

Glen Kowarsky
and the Dogs at Camp

Abby came from the Humane Society in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which is where I was living at the time. She was a very nervous dog, who had clearly been in an abusive situation in her previous home. In addition to that, she experienced epileptic seizures, which were controlled for the most part by medication.

I was very attached to Abby, as so many of today’s dog owners are to their own dogs, and I found it very difficult to leave her. When I was out at work during the days, I had a dog walker who would come and spend time with her and take her for walks. But I worried about leaving town (to travel), as given her nervousness, fear, and epilepsy, my concern was that if she were to be nervous or frightened, she’d suffer a seizure.

She therefore could not be left in a traditional kennel environment in which she would be in a ‘dog run’. The anxiety she would experience would just be too much for her.

I had a dream of a large country property outside of a small town, where dogs could come to stay while their owners travelled, and where they would be cared for by well trained ‘dog loving’ staff members.

The result is Dogs at Camp, with three locations and two more in the works. We are Canada's largest dog boarding business. We are an 'open concept dog camp' as opposed to a traditional kennel. The difference is that our locations are in small town / rural settings on large acreage, and the dogs are cared for together with full time staff - socializing, playing, and just 'being dogs'. They are not kept in crates or in runs. We do screen each dog first of course, to ensure sociability.


Most of our business draws people from nearby cities, who prefer a small town / rural based setting for their dogs. We have created a franchise package which includes all of our advertising materials, our web site, our online booking systems, etc., and we are now getting franchise inquiries from the U.S. as well.

We are in our 9th year of business, and we have worked out all of the 'kinks' over time, so that new franchisees have a solid, profitable, small town / rural business.


I lost Abby in October of last year, after 14 years, and I still miss her dearly each and every day. But her legacy lives on as we provide a wonderful and caring environment for dogs while their owners are away. We also have what we call a ‘Foster Camper’ program, through which we take dogs out of shelters and other rescue situations, and bring them to camp, where they stay at no cost while we help to find new homes for them. This program has been very successful, as we’ve placed some 20 dogs in new homes within the last six months!

I wish you all the best with your continued efforts to help small businesses. Only those who have owned small businesses, particularly in small towns, know of the challenges – and I applaud you for supporting them!

Glen Kowarsky
CEO, Dogs at Camp Canada Ltd.
dogsatcamp.com

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Do small towns need websites

I was disappointed I couldn't find more info about a small town I wrote about in http://eldergeneration.net. Even small towns need websites.

@Miss_Dazey

I don't care how small your town is, you have visitors and tourists. If you aren't online, you are ignoring them. Some of them could be writing about you, promoting you to more potential visitors. Why wouldn't you help them out with some basic info online?

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Come and share some good news

Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news, or congratulate a friend.

The basket is open all weekend, from June 18 - 20, 2010.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or comment on Facebook. You tell something great about your week, or you give applause to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate something wonderful that you tried that failed.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.

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Rural community building ideas

This is the second of several reports from the Making Place Matter in Northwest Oklahoma Rural Community Economic Development Summit held in Alva on June 3, 2010.

A session on community building covered a wide range of topics, from the Main Street approach, to supporting local businesses, rural tourism, rural grocery stores, the participation of young people, rural tourism, and service projects closer to home.

Linda Barnett represented Oklahoma Main Street. The Main Street approach teaches communities to put together a team and get things done, she said. A listing of the four point approach is available on the Oklahoma Main Street homepage.

They teach people to raise money in innovative ways, Barnett said. Small business owners are tired of being solicited over and over in small communities. In one unusual community fundraiser, children collected enough pennies to line the sidewalk all the way around the courthouse.

Oklahoma's Main Street provides extensive support services, including architecture, interior design, and business development.

"If we don't have profitable businesses in our buildings, we will lose them," Barnett said. "Why can't we do more to incentiveize local businesses, not just to attract big boxes?" Local stores are worth more to your local community. A previous Small Biz Survival article said that local stores are worth three times more than chains.  

Your front windows are free advertising space, Barnett said. Use them! She also mentioned that limited and erratic business hours hurt local businesses. 

"Every community needs a sparkplug to get things done," Barnett said.

"I say BE the sparkplug," attendee Laura Girty tweeted.

Marci Penner leads a break
out session on rural tourism

Kansas Sampler Foundation 
Kansas Sampler Foundation was represented by Marci Penner and WenDee LaPlant.

The mission of Kansas Sampler is to promote and sustain rural communities, and includes many diverse initiatives.

"Help your community be the best it can be at being itself," Penner said. "Don't try to be something you're not."

"What we do as a foundation is fill voids," Penner said. They focus on what organizations like the Department of Commerce, Main Street, etc., don't do. This is what lead them to the rural grocery store project.

The health of the local grocery store is a barometer for the community's ability to get along, Penner said. If people are supporting the store, they can work together to accomplish more. If they aren't supporting that store, they are not likely to work together. It takes a $10,000 grocery delivery each week to get the wholesale truck to stop. Maybe five cents more for a loaf of bread is worth it, she said.

Penner is involved in presenting the Rural Grocery Store Summit, in Kansas, which is drawing a global
audience. The goal is to support the survival of rural and small town grocery stores.

"More than money, we need creative thought, social invention," she said. "To me the small towns that make it, are the ones that have the will to survive."

"I'd like to see our legislature value our volunteer led towns more in their decision making," she said. "Now, if we don't value our towns, who will?"

Our job as leaders is to empower people who choose to live in those towns, Penner said, shifting the conversation to young people. The Foundation is starting Power Up Kansas, and young residents ages 21 to 39 are the power ups, the ones who are rural residents by choice. It is similar to the Young Professionals programs in cities.

Asking one young person to serve on a board is a token, Penner said. Power Up Kansas is about asking them as a group what they want to do to shape the new rural and letting them lead it.

In a discussion, one audience member asked how to get young people to participate in traditional boards. Penner said to get them together in a community and truly listen to them. LaPlant said that in a local exercise of listening without interrupting for 15 solid minutes, they found that they had in fact, not been listening to the younger people. A young person in the audience pointed out that she is busy with raising her young children, and does not have time for traditional opportunities. The discussion continued, with consensus that tradition makes it hard for young people to participate. The existing leaders have to be open to change.

Tourism is one of the main focuses of the Kansas Sampler Foundation. Their 8 rural culture elements help towns discover their tourism potential. Penner said they work with Explorer type people, the kind of people who like to get out an explore small towns.

Mark Riffey, who followed the discussion online, said that geocaching is a great way to attract explorer types to your community.


The 8 Wonders of Kansas project, based off of the 8 elements of rural culture, has drawn enormous interest, and highlights some gems in Kansas, Penner said.  More than one small town has been surprised to find out that something they take for granted is of interest to visitors. One example is the Davis Memorial in Hiawatha, Kansas. Get Rural Kansas is the result of many workshops by the Foundation to bring small town leaders together to learn how to create their online presence.

Talking of quirky business hours and closing down for high school sports, Penner said to give the reasons to the world why we do things that are quirky. Then it's part of our charm.

Another project Penner presented is the WeKAN bank. It lets small town businesses put their needs in the bank, and Explorers come and help them out, by doing business makeovers, etc. They brought 100 people to help owner Rosa refurbish the Whiting Cafe.

"Why can't we do these service trips in our own country, too?" Penner asked.

The next report will cover the keynote by Dr. Glenda Humiston, Director of Rural Development for USDA California. 

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How can small towns encourage entrepreneurship

Encouraging and supporting entrepreneurs is a hot topic in economic development, and I'd like to start a series on it here at Small Biz Survival.

Most of you are involved either in a small business, or in economic development in one form or another, so I'd like to start with you. Do you have an opinion or a story to share? Here's the kind of thing I'm looking for:

• From towns, cities and other local governments: Specific actions you've taken to encourage entrepreneurship, 
• From organizations: Programs you've carried out, including training, workshops, events, etc., to support entrepreneurship. 
• From entrepreneurs: What helped you start your business? Or what could have been done to make things easier for you? Did your town make you feel wanted? 

Be sure to tell us about the results you've had. Success and failure stories are both welcome, since we can learn from both.

You can comment here, email me, Tweet me, Facebook me... what ever works for you. I want to hear your stories!

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Training for tourism in social media

If you are interested in training for social media marketing in tourism, look at the courses Sheila Scarborough and I developed at Tourism Currents. Enrollment for the new courses starts today. (yay!)

Sheila Scarborough, Liz Strauss,
and Becky McCray

Sheila and I met on Liz Strauss's Successful Blog, on her open mic nights a couple of years ago. Fast forward to Liz's SOBCon 2009, and I arrived with a notebook full of possible business ideas, including a travel/tourism/social media education project with Sheila. And it makes sense, with Sheila's background as a travel writer, and my background with small towns and tourism, and both of us experienced in social media tools. We had both been on a tourism "fam" (familiarization) tour of Hutchinson, Kansas, with a group of bloggers.

We started talking to every tourism professional we could meet. We networked locally. We networked online. We participated in every tourism conference being discussed on Twitter. We attended local events. We did everything else we could think of to connect with people working in tourism.

All that insight lead to making courses that reflect the actual work that tourism professionals do. Every tourism person deals with special events all year long. We dedicated an entire lesson to promoting your special events, before, during, and even after the big day. We carry that same approach into making more of your tours, finding your online champions, listening online, building your home base and outposts. Instead of "how to use Twitter," we show you how to reach a network of people who want to promote your destination, and how Twitter is one part of that. The focus is not on the tools, but on the application.

One of the biggest roadblocks we hear about over and over is no time. Tourism professionals already have too much to do, and there is no time or staff to throw at pioneering this new field. We get that. We're busy, too. We knew that if tourism professionals were going to make a difference in social media, we'd have to show them ways to multiply their results. That was the inspiration for our Results Multipliers course. The centerpiece of that course is Finding Your Online Champions. By finding and working with your online champions, you stop having to do all the work yourself. You mobilize a small army of supporters who go out and promote your destination for you.

Enrollment is open through June 30, 2010. If you're interested, please stop by Tourism Currents to get all the details.

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How two small business people connected with OpenSky

I first met Ted Rubin at BlogWorld Expo in 2009, where he took time out for a video interview about starting small. He is super sharp, very engaging, and a pleasure to connect with. Now Ted is working with OpenSky, which he describes as "empowering small businesses to grow, thrive and find a new means of distribution." I asked him to share the story of some real people taking advantage of OpenSky. -Becky

Meet Ashley Steves from Clarksville, Tennessee - mother of two and married to her high school sweetheart. She spends her days lovingly supporting her family with one hand, and creatively making charming necklaces, earrings, vintage wreaths, and other elegant keepsakes with the second hand (all under the same roof). She has made a few sales from her “Our Daily Chocolate” store on Etsy, but has yet to see the distribution or return that her beautiful products deserve.

Enter OpenSky. OpenSky is a new platform that empowers content creators like bloggers, media personalities and trusted experts to sell products they love directly to their audiences, and connects product creators with influential tastemakers to get their products broad distribution (you’re welcome, Ashley).

So, who are these influential tastemakers we speak of?

Meet Sarah Mae Hoover from “Lancaster, Pennsylvania”- a dedicated wife and mother of three. Sarah Mae founded LikeaWarmCupofCoffee.com - an inspiring soul searching blog that sees over 20,000 visits a month.

Sarah Mae is an OpenSky Seller, hosting products that help her feel beautiful in life’s journey.

In April, OpenSky introduced Sarah Mae to Ashley, and Ashley to Sarah Mae (we’re more reliable than cupid). The two jumped at the opportunity to combine their individual passions and make money off what they already love and do daily. The following week, Sarah Mae posted a video on her blog, introducing her readers to Ashley’s handmade Rose Bud Earrings, offering them in her store at 20% off, and committing a portion of the sale to charity. The earrings sold like hotcakes, and it didn’t take long for Sarah Mae to reach her goal of selling 150 pairs! One week later, Ashley had her happy hands full with earring orders, and Sarah Mae was that much closer to purchasing her much-needed newly used car!

OpenSky is changing the way the world shops- bringing back human interaction, and leaving behind machine transaction. We’re about connecting trusted products with trusted voices, capturing passion and giving real product innovators, the real distribution they deserve.

Thanks, Ted, for telling us about the human side of OpenSky. 

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The resurgence of the American Heartland

A terrific article from New Geography, "The Heartland Will Play a Role in America's Future." Take time to read the whole thing.

One of the least anticipated developments in the nation’s 21st-century geography will be the resurgence of the American Heartland, often dismissed by coastal dwellers as “flyover country.”

Yet in the coming 40 years, as America’s population reaches 400 million, the American Heartland particularly the vast region between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi will gain in importance.

These discussions always hit people where they live, so the comments section is highly interesting as well.



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Do you endorse everything you retweet

On Twitter, when we see something interesting, we retweet it, or pass it along to others. A quick look at any Twitter page will reveal a whole bunch of items marked RT, or using Twitter's built in retweet function. Clearly, we like to pass along what we find.

A retweet has been described as saying "Amen!" to the preacher when you agree. But we don't always mean it that way. Sometimes we mean, "I found this interesting." Or, "this challenged my thinking." Or, "what do you think about this?" Or even, "what the...?"

But how do your readers take it? How can they tell what you mean?

Dark-haired people are smart. :)
Tiffany Monhollon, Cory Miller,
Aliza Sherman, and Becky McCray

@TMonhollon, @CoryMiller303, @AlizaSherman and I discussed this (on Twitter, natch) and I wanted to share some points here.

Cory started me thinking, and I kicked off the discussion with this question: "Do you intend to endorse what you retweet? Or are you just passing it along? Perception matters."

Cory said he had a customer ask if he was endorsing a retweet. "I only put my name on things I absolutely believe in." He continued, "I find all kinds of interesting but it's not an endorsement - I try to protect my name & am jealous of my social capital"

I admitted that I have retweeted things I thought were provocative, without necessarily agreeing. I also consider whether I want my name associated with items I tweet directly. So, I realized that I might retweet something I would not tweet myself.

Aliza agreed. She said, "Interesting about endorsing what you retweet or just passing along. I'm guilty of both."

I asked, "How do we know which you intend?"

Aliza and I both said we had not thought through these perceptions before. Sometimes we retweet before we read an item, retweet something as a favor, or retweet favorite brands to show support.

Business Retweeting Guidelines
Tiffany asked, "Also, how do people take it when a company account that shares & RTs?"

I said, "I think a company account must be more judicious about retweeting. Do you want to endorse all items?"

Cory said, "company accounts to me are more for relationship building & communication than RT content."

Conclusions

Aliza said, "I would hope most people realize a retweet doesn't necessarily mean 'endorsement' & each of us 'has our reasons'."  She continued, "I think w/o comment it is more endorsement or trust. W/comment is obvious. I often put 'interesting' or 'useful' as comments."

I said, "But at first glance, you cannot tell the intent of an RT. Don't expect everyone to take time to guess."

I'll give the last word to Cory. He said, "I love using Twitter but I've also realized I'm a gatekeeper of trust for our community who follow my tweets."

Want the full discussion? Download a PDF of our tweets. (It's in reverse chronological order, of course, so start at the bottom to see the first of the discussion.)

Had you thought about whether you endorse everything you retweet?

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Never say never about the Brag Basket

Every once in a while, someone will tell me, "I could never brag." Well, it's time to make an exception. I give you permission.

Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news, or congratulate a friend.

The basket is open all weekend, from June 11 - 13, 2010.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or comment on Facebook. You tell something great about your week, or you give applause to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate something wonderful that you tried that failed.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.

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Start Blogging Today

I think blogging is one of the best ways to promote your small business. You don't need any one's permission to start, it's not terribly difficult, and it lets you share your knowledge with your customers. In fact, you and your customers can learn together through your blogging.

I frequently advise small business people who are considering blogging to take this test. For two weeks, write down every question a customer asks you. If you could write an answer, it's a potential blog post. At the end of two weeks, you'll either have a ton of material for blog posts, or you'll know that maybe blogging isn't for you.

Some people are happy to just jump in and experiment. (like me) But most people want more help. With all the blogging advice that's out there, I was pleased to see that our friend Grant Griffiths has created a blogging course with some other smart folks, including folks we know and respect like Michael Martine and John Haydon.

Their project is called Start Blogging Today.

I've looked through their materials and outline, read through the lessons, and thought about their approach. It's good. It's good enough that I'm proud to be an affiliate, and to recommend it to you.

If you are wanting to start blogging for your small business, and you are the kind of person who likes an outline, likes learning in a structured way, then consider this course.

Things I really like about their approach:

• They've gone to great pains to make sure you keep up with it, and don't fall behind. Lessons are released to you weekly. You have a progress tracker and checklist.   
• The material is great and getting better. What they have already is great, definitely above the other courses I've seen. And they are improving it as they go with new materials, examples from students' blogs, and contributions from guest bloggers. That's what will keep it from getting stale. 
• They understand blogging for small business. They talk about why to have a blog for a small business, and how to align your blog with your business. They go into promoting through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• There's more. Of course there are forums, Q&A calls, bonus lessons and more stuff like that. But the important part is the course, the weekly lessons. 

If this sounds like a good match for you, take a look at the  Start Blogging Today site. And if you have questions, feel free to ask. I want you to make sure it's right for you before you invest in it.

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Northwest Oklahoma Population Changes

This is the first of several reports from the Making Place Matter in Northwest Oklahoma Rural Community Economic Development Summit held in Alva on June 3, 2010.

Deidre Myers from the Oklahoma Department of Commerce presented statistics and analysis about Northwest Oklahoma's population changes.

Most Northwest Oklahoma counties have lost 50% or more of their population since statehood, Myers said.  Woodward County is the exception through 2000-2008 with a significant gain, and not just a spike around the oil boom. Population declines hurt in workforce supply and consumer demand.

Demographics
Age distribution is important when trying to recruit companies. They look for lots of people in the 25-55 age cohort, Myers said. The largest age cohort in Northwest Oklahoma is under 5. That is the region's biggest asset. The working age group cohort is lower, and the oldest age cohorts are also huge. That means Northwest Oklahoma has lots of service needs, but fewer workers to support it.

The ethnicity of Northwest Oklahoma is 80% white, with a growing number of white Hispanic and a significant percentage of American Indian. Myers explained that the U.S. Census defines white Hispanic as those with Mexian heritage. Non-white Hispanic includes African heritage (Haiti, etc.).


Northwest Oklahoma has a lower educational attainment, a lower percentage of the population with a bachelor's degree, than the statewide average.

Economy and Employment
Oklahoma went into the current recession a year behind the nation, Myers said. We seem to be coming out sooner, based on last two months. Oklahoma suffered a smaller job loss during this recession than it did in the 2001 recession. The 2001 recession was harder on the energy sector, and it lasted much longer in Oklahoma than the rest of the nation. Even with that recession, Oklahoma's unemployment rate did not exceed the national average in 2001. Oklahoma's unemployment rate has not been above national unemployment rate since 1999.

Regional Advantages
Oklahoma is actually made up of a number of regional economies. Memories of competition between communities keeps us from coming together as a region, Myers said. However, these same communities are part of a regional economy based on shared assets. Northwest Oklahoma is different from other regions of the state. Unemployment rates in the Northwest are currently lower than the state average by a full point. Usually, Northwest Oklahoma unemployment rates are two to four points lower than the state averages.

The Northwest Oklahoma economy has a head start on recovery compared to the rest of Oklahoma, Myers said. She recommended the region capitalize on this by saying, "we have solid jobs," and "you don't have to worry about your job out here." Populations will move where jobs are available.

Demographics show two assets for Northwest Oklahoma, Myers said. There is huge potential in under five age group and huge knowledge in the over 55 group. She recommended getting the people over age 55 involved in the education and lives of the children under five.

Next week, I'll share the comments from Linda Barnett of Oklahoma Main Street and Marci Penner of the Kansas Sampler Foundation. 

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Northwest Oklahoma Rural Community Economic Development Summit

The Making Place Matter in Northwest Oklahoma Rural Community Economic Development Summit was held in Alva on June 3, 2010.

Marci Penner leads a break
out session on rural tourism

An estimated 85 people attended the event in person. Over 100 more people participated online. Three event participants live tweeted during event with the hashtag  #ruralok. Those participants were @beckymccray, @okiej (Jeanne Cole), and @lauragirty. Tracking the clicks on links tweeted during the event, over 100 people clicked on a single link.

Twitter users retweeting and participating in the discussion came from:

• Spain
• Portugal
• Alberta, Canada
• Toronto, Canada
• British Columbia, Canada
• Oklahoma
• Texas
• Kansas
• Montana
• Missouri
• California
• Iowa
• West Virginia
• Georgia
• Ohio
• Colorado
• Tennessee
• New York
• Indiana
• Washington
• Hawaii

A PDF of the live tweets, and the list of participating states and countries, is available here: #RuralOK Tweets PDF.

Coverage of the event includes: 

• Wildheart's Web 2.0:  What Can Topeka Learn from Rural Communities? 
• Alva Review Courier: Economic development summit offers challenges, information to participants 
• Small Biz Survival: Northwest Oklahoma population changes
• Small Biz Survival: Rural community building ideas
  
• Small Biz Survival: USDA is more than just ag - Keynote address by Glenda Humiston  

Event co-chairs were Kay Decker and Patti Wilber from Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Speakers included representatives from USDA Rural Development, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, the Oklahoma Main Street Center, the Kansas Sampler Foundation, USDA Agricultural Research Service, the Workforce Investment Boards of Northwest Oklahoma and North Central Oklahoma, Preservation Oklahoma, East Central University, the Oklahoma Municipal League, and the Oklahoma Association of County Commissioners. The keynote speaker was Glenda Humiston, California USDA Rural Development State Director.

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8 ways to reach more visitors with your tourism content

Let's start with your existing tours. Seems like every destination has a paper brochure for a walking tour or something similar. Here are eight ways to post that same content, reach new potential visitors, and make your site easier to find in searches.

See, different types of people visit different places online. So every different way you can post your information gets you in front of different types of people. And with each of these postings you get another chance to link back to your main site and to include your description, both making the search engine bots happy. Then, you can put links to each one you create on your website's tour page. That way, people can pick the format that works best for them.


Eight ways to reach more potential visitors with your existing tourism content:


1. Create and post a PDF of your tour brochure.
Example: walking tour of Guysborough, Nova Scotia. I think most places take this step. Although, I'm constantly surprised to find sites that only give one option: "stop in and pick up a copy."

2. Make a set of photos of the stops on Flickr. 
Example: Richland Creek Greenway, by Rex Hammock. Visuals are great to give the impression of a place. Flickr also lets you place your photos on a map, which gives you another way to be found.

3. Create a map of the route and stops on Google Maps. 
Examples: Richland Creek Greenway, by Rex Hammock, and walking tour of Guysborough, Nova Scotia. Perfect for those folks who have Google Maps on their phones.

4. Create a tour on Gowalla. 
Examples: Austin 360. A fun way to lead your visitors through your tour, and make it a game.

5. Use FourSquare to post Tips on each tour stop. 
Examples: Visit PA. By leaving tips on FourSquare, you're making it easier for visitors to find "the good stuff."

6. Shoot a video along the tour and post it to YouTube. 
Example: What makes Round Rock special? OK, it's not strictly a tour, but Sheila made it, and I just had to include it.

7. Record some audio of your best guide giving the tour. 
Example: Henry Ford Museum audio tour. Possibly the most extensive online audio tour I've run in to. I wonder why I couldn't see an easy way to download the whole thing.

8. Put the content of the tour on Posterous or Tumblr.
Example: I'll admit, I couldn't find a good example. Could I be the first person to think this up? The reason it makes sense is that both of these services make it easy to post audio, and both come with an automatic mobile-friendly version. Put one stop on each page, and make it easy to move from one page/stop to another. Soon, you'll have visitors walking down the street, cell phones in hand, as they page through the tour on the mobile web. Here's one site that's close, but it lacks any way to navigate between the stops: Jersey City Art Walking Tour.

The first bonus? You don't have to create a new tour, or come up with some new set of information. You build off of the information you already have compiled.

The second bonus? No cash outlay. Zero. You don't need an expert consultant, and you don't pay anything for any of these services, sites or tools.

The third bonus? You don't have to do it all yourself. Rex Hammock, who created two of the samples above, is what we call at Tourism Currents an Online Champion. These are enthusiastic locals, visitors, former locals, fans and others who like your destination. It's in your best interest to find and support your Online Champions. (We spend an entire month on Online Champions in Tourism Currents. We also spend a month on creating different kinds of tours.)

I don't expect you to do all of these, but I hope it will make you think of some new ways to distribute info about your destination.

What interesting ways have you branched out using your tourism content?

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Are you an entrepreneur or small business owner

What is the difference between an entrepreneur and a small business owner? Is a franchisee an entrepreneur? And is every new business a "start up"?

Entrepreneurship is a "No wuss zone!"

Seems we wonder about labels, or others labeling us. It's hard to decide what word or description fits you best, when you are out on your own.

I've noticed that people who do business primarily online, who make their living creating content, don't really fit into the traditional labels, and often don't fit very well as traditional employees.

Here's part of a discussion of labels among three people I would call entrepreneurs on Twitter: 

Chris Garrett: am often confused by the term entrepreneur - I'm in business but wouldn't say I'm entrepreneurial?

Chris Brogan: I often make the joke that we accidentally identify as entrepreneur instead of "not really employable."

Deb Brown: psychologically unemployable. that's what I tell people.

We don't fit in as employees, and we don't fit old patterns of business ownership. We're making up new ways of doing business. It's easier to go with "unemployable" than to explain that you see yourself as some sort of new publisher or not-quite-entrepreneur.

Add to that the new perception: you may only be an entrepreneur because you were unemployed. Here's the New York Times Op-Ed from Robert Reich:

So why all this entrepreneurship last year?

In a word, unemployment. Booted off company payrolls, millions of Americans had no choice but to try selling themselves. Another term for “entrepreneur” is “self-employed.”

And now, entrepreneur itself has become a bad word, staring to take on implications of greed, predatory tactics, and unfair dealings. When I first saw people say that entrepreneur has negative implications, I was surprised. This was news to me.

Does that leave us any positive way to describe ourselves? In a "What do you call yourself?" discussion held at Remarkablogger, people seemed to go to great lengths to make up new descriptions to replace the terms entrepreneur and business owner.

Entrepreneurs and Undertakers

The original meaning of the word entrepreneur is much like the original meaning of undertaker. It's one who undertakes an enterprise. The person who takes the risk is the entrepreneur. Common usage now is different, implying a personality trait, or an intention, of growing a business.

High Growth Firms, Gazelles and Startups

These are the companies that are building rapidly, or intend to. They may start small, but the goal is to get big, fast.  This is the world of the venture capitalist and the angel investor. These are tech startups, biotech firms, and other innovative firms shooting for hockey stick growth curves. 

These are the firms that are responsible for almost all the new jobs created in the United States. I would guess that is true world wide, too, but I haven't seen the research. 

To some people, to be an entrepreneur, you have to be the founder of one of these firms. 

Mom and Pop businesses, Bricks and Mortar

If you say you are a small business owner, this is probably what most people picture: the mom and pop retail store (hey, I've got one of those!), a restaurant, or other little firm. This is also where your small town lawyer, nail salon, and insurance agent fit in. 

To some people, you can be entrepreneurial in these businesses, but only if you have an entrepreneurial attitude, striving for growth. 

Who am I?

I am an entrepreneur. I like starting businesses. My view of the world is an economic view. I see new business ideas and potential everywhere. I also call myself a business owner or rancher, when the occasion seems to call for it.

Who are you?

How about you? Are you entrepreneurial? There are dozens of quizzes and lists of traits, but I disagree with most of them. I did find one that I like: 10 Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs by Tim Berry. Tim is an entrepreneur himself, so he knows.

What do you call yourself? What traits would you add for entrepreneurs? 

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Two rural development resources sites

Two rural development resources worth exploring, both with business and entrepreneurship sections:

Rural Community Building blog
American Farm Bureau Federation put together this blog "to enhance the quality of life in rural communities so that future generations will want to stay on the farm." Sabrina Matteson, AFBF director of rural affairs is the lead author. Entrepreneurship is clearly one of their top topics so far.

http://ruralcommunitybuilding.fb.org.

Rural Information Center
The USDA has pulled together a wide range of rural resources at the Rural Information Center (RIC).  You know I got excited about the rural tourism section, but there is also a section on rural emergency responders, funding resources, and many more. The RIC also provides information and referral services, so you can ask a question if you need help finding an answer. Under the Community Development heading, you'll find a whole page of business resources.

http://ric.nal.usda.gov/



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Make an exception and brag

Every once in a while, someone will tell me, "I could never brag." Well, it's time to make an exception. I give you permission.

Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news, or congratulate a friend.

The basket is open all weekend, from June 4 - 6, 2010.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or comment on Facebook. You tell something great about your week, or you give applause to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate something wonderful that you tried that failed.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.

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How do you get found in search results

How do you get your name out there and associated with a particular phrase? That was Jill's question:

I was just wondering what I need to do to get my name out there. I'm a seamstress specializing in country/western style wedding attire. I google "Oklahoma seamstress" and no one pops up. How do I get it out there so that if a person needs a seamstress in Oklahoma my name pops up?

Jill aka Territory Mom

Lenovo ThinkCentre a63 review

Lenovo is paying special attention to the small business market with their ThinkCentre a63 desktop. Has their attention paid off? Lenovo provided the a63 system for our review from the small business perspective.

Here are the positive points:

• This thing is quiet, very quiet. It also runs cool.
• The wide aspect monitors are excellent. I hooked up two monitors, with no trouble at all.
• Energy efficiency and greener manufacturing seemed to be well thought out. I appreciate that.
• The enhanced boot and shut down sequences developed by Microsoft and IBM have paid off. I noticed that start up and shut down are quick.

I also appreciated some of the listed features that seemed particularly good for small business:

• Migrate software tool. I didn't test it, but it's a good addition.
• One button recovery. I haven't had to test this yet, but I'm glad to know it's there.
• Room to add a second hard drive and tool-less entry. I still think of myself as the person ready to break open the case and install something. :)
• Rigorous testing. Looks like they took this pretty seriously. Good to know.

OK, what didn't I like?

• Ads. Lenovo includes some proprietary software, Idea Notes, that puts ads on your screen. It also handles updates, etc, but ads? Really? When you shut Idea Notes off, it gives a dire warning about missing out on important product support messages. I found no option to receive only support messages and not ads. This, I think, is a bad move for Lenovo. 
• Trial ware. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I don't want trial versions of software, especially for the small business market. Give us a good price on the software, or leave it off. Still, it's easy to uninstall.
  
• The cheap feeling keyboard and mouse. I promptly tossed those aside. A minor point, but if they are serious about the small business market, a decent business-like keyboard would make sense.
• It's big. Really, this is not a home office-friendly size.

Overall, I like this machine. It's solid. The quiet fan is a bonus in a business setting, and the ability to easily handle two monitors is a plus. The extra work on the streamlined boot and shut down pays off. Now, Lenovo, let go of the trial ware and ads.

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Talking tourism with Des Walsh

Sheila Scarborough and I were happy to connect with Australian Des Walsh to talk tourism for our Tourism Currents listeners. I thought you'd enjoy it as well.

Des Walsh
(cc) by trib

Des attended some presentations on the Tourism Queensland project, The World's Best Job. He joins us with some thoughts on what went right, what didn't go as well, and how to maintain ongoing momentum.

Audio interview with Des Walsh

A few choice tidbits from our conversation

• How would you like some repeat business? Makes a great opening question to small tourism operators. 

• Fear of using online tools and social networks is a bit like fear of travel. You are never really safe, no matter where you are. 

• It doesn't matter who prints your brochure, but it matters who answers your phone or works the desk at your visitors center. And it matters who represents you online. 

Des and I met at BlogWorld Expo 2008. Neat guy. We shared stories about small town life and farming, from half a world apart. 

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