Business Networking

Customer Engagement for Small Business

January 8, 2012 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

Telling business owners that they need to have some plans for customer engagement is easy. However, once they have absorbed that tidbit of helpful information, many may be lost as to what customer engagement can actually entail. Most likely, there is nothing that you in particular are selling, that can’t be found somewhere else. So what can the small business owner do to show that their product is the right choice for the consumer?

Be a Customer for a Day

Spend a day emulating the actions that your prospective consumers do.

Call your customer service number.
Go through the motions of purchasing your own product.
Fill out your contact forms.

Make sure that your customer experience matches your outlook and ideas.

Build Communication Options

Not everyone uses Facebook and Twitter believe it or not. Make sure you have traditional methods of communication as well as digital ones. List phone numbers and a physical address for your business, even if it is online based.

Exercise and Act on Your Listening Skills

It isn’t enough to reply to customers questions or request with generic terms. When prospective consumers ask for discounts or other beneficial options, show them you are listening by enacting them. You will get no better word of mouth advertising then having a consumer who can say “I asked for a discount, and they gave me one!” This doesn’t mean you have to offer that discount to everyone who asks, but you should never outright ignore those request.

Show Your Integrity

Since bad news can travel with light speed on the internet, you may need to go out of your way to show your customers that not only are you expert at what you do, but that you back that professionalism with personal integrity. Show your customers that the people behind the brand care.

Let Your Customers Advertise for You

Anything that you can do to get your consumers to share their product or service experiences with the public will provide you with two benefits. Obviously it will give you the valuable advertising you are seeking, but it will also provide you with media that you can post to help build top-notch links for your site. Don’t expect your customers to do this for no reward though. Their time is valuable too. Try to run contest for the best written or video reviews of your project. Reward the winners appropriately for their time spent talking about your products and services.

Above all it is important that any consumers approaching you for your products or services walk away with the sense that you are a brand they can trust and rely on.

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Understand the Basics of SEO: Why Geo and Subject Domain Names Rock!

January 5, 2012 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

Search Engines are in the business of helping a user find the content they are looking for! If you keep this in mind you’ll start off with a great relationship with the Search Engines and the Visitors to your site.

Websites have three main areas you’ll want to really pay attention to:

Structure
Content
References

[slideshare id=7181167&doc=seo101-110307150053-phpapp01]

As a website owner you’ll want this to be how you operate your lead generation through the search engines. Unless you’re an adult site, gambling or daily deal, people will not generally respond to a website about Plumbing when they were searching for Pizza.

Time and Money are important, you’ll get alot further if you concentrate your resources were they should be and where they will produce the highest rate of conversion. If you’re going to chase down multiple areas and categories do it in a way that provides unique, useful and provides a genuine experience for the user.

SEO Tip: Geo & Subject Domains > Brand Domains

An example of how this has been done is through domain masking and forwarding. Take the Domain PapaJohns.com, now that’s a great domain because people looking for “papa john’s” will find exactly what they are looking for, but will they still find it if they put in “MyTown Pizza” like “Brooklyn Pizza”, “Chicago Pizza”?

Here is an example of how we use forwarding on Digital Brand Marketing Education, the publically promoted domain is dbmei.com and that makes sense because it is short and simple. It makes for easy emails and sharing in social media without having to shorten the domain. However When you land on the site, you notice the actual domain changes to digitalbrandmarketing.com

Search Engines give a lot of value to domains, after all if you’re naming the site that, then those words must be relevant. In our case we want people looking for “Digital, Brand and/or Marketing” to find our publication and those keywords fit perfectly with our content.

If you own Jerry’s Seafood.com, and your restaurant is in the town or geographic location of East Hampton, you might want to think about masking or forwarding the domain to easthamptonseafood.com or easthamptonseafoodrestaurant.com.

This is just one tip to help with your sites SEO, obviously you want the title tags, content, etc to all also fit this search term.

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Time to Get on Google +: How to Set up Your Google + Brand Page

January 4, 2012 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

I think for many of us, when Google + came along that it also came with a bit of that new social network feel and its accompanying apprehension. Most smart networkers at least made their way there to grab their own vanity URL’s and at least get the virtual networking ball rolling in the right direction. However, with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn usage, many networkers have already found themselves pushed to the limit in either the time or resources it may take to keep all three fed and running properly.

To date, Google +’s numbers have posed absolutely no dangers to Facebooks user numbers, but it has recently passed through a 55% increase in users during its strongest month ever and is focused on reaching the 400 million user mark by the end of 2012. Considering that Facebook didn’t pass the 60 million member mark until almost four years after its creation, these are actually still quite impressive numbers. So if you haven’t taken the time to reserve and build your businesses Google + Brand page, now is definitely the time.

Building Your Google + Brand Page

There are already some incredible Google + Brand pages out there to take important lessons from.

After a few moments of looking over the above pages, you should have a relatively good idea of what your aesthetic and functional options may be. Sign into your Google account and then head to the Google + Business page to get started.

Create a Page

On the creation page you will need to simply select the category your business falls under. If none of the options seem an appropriate match, choose the other option at the bottom left.

Business Info

Next you will add your businesses name and website URL.
Next select the additional category that best suits your business. The sub categories are dependent on the main category chosen.
Lastly, select who, by age group, is allowed to view your Google + Brand page.

Photo and Tagline

You only have ten words to create the perfect tagline for your business page. Put deep thought into this process taking into consideration the most vital keys for your SEO needs.

The Sharing Begins

On the next page you can begin to share your page with your personal Google + circle, or save that task for later.

The Social Media Drill

Google + Brand pages are not so different from Facebook fan pages when it comes to management. If you have even basic knowledge of how to manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts, you can pretty much rely on a try or two before you are just as familiar on Google. Don’t forget, Google + is currently experiencing novel rises in its user base, don’t miss the chance to increase your brand awareness via this format in 2012.

Find A Lifetime of Success in 2012 by understanding “Time” & “Why?”

January 1, 2012 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

Ready to understand why some people are far more successful than others?

Brace yourself! I am going to share my perspective on why 2011 was such a success for me and give you something to think about in 2012. Here’s the funny part, I made more money in 2011 than I have ever and that little fact actually has little to do with why I was so successful in 2011.

I have had some great mentors and it’s all due to listening! You see those that know me might think that I am more of a talker, but I do a lot of listening. The fact that I actually hear what I am listening too makes it all the more effective. A lesson that’s valuable for life and Social Media.

TIME

In the movie “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” the Character Gordon Geckko turns to a young man and tells him that “time is the most precious commodity that I know of” a statement of absolute truth! While Einstein argued that time could be something of perception, in the case of the “theory of relativity” scientists make assumptions and simulations that space-time and other aspects of physics and astronomy do not change the current state of time, in relation to the phenomenon of life.

During my masters program, we studied a concept that fascinated me on its own, supply and demand. The wildcard here was that demand was driven by perception. The concept became even more exciting when later we talked about the monetary value of leisure! The economic evaluation for leisure comes when there is not enough value to make the individual work more, or in the tipping point where the individual is willing to work during a time period traditionally reserved for leisure.

Time is clearly something that holds financial value, and in the case of supply and demand, we have a market where supply is consistent. There is only so many hours in a day, so many days in a week, so many weeks in a month and so many months in a year and so many years that we live. However, what if life is not as long as we believe it to be? The supply may be shorter or longer then perceived. Demand seems to be the one thing in America that we do not have in this equation.

Whatever you choose for your profession, do not let it dictate your life. Travel, Family, Exploration and the Art of Doing Nothing are just as important and I believe a healthy part of a successful life.

WHY?

I will tell you right now, if you work for or with someone who answers “Why?” with “because I said so” or “that’s how we do it” RUN!

That person is likely, lazy, selfish and/or just plain ignorant! Yes, ignorant! I have had these people just like everyone else and it made for a negative professional career experience in the fields of education, banking and sales. There is probably nothing more dangerous to the health of an organization, its culture, and our economy then these people. “Why?” is crucial to success!

Why is how we learn, grow and develop. It is crucial to success both for individuals and organizations. A supervisor, manager or superior has an fiduciary responsibility to both the organization and the client to teach their subordinate everything they know. I pride my work in student affairs with the notion that I had started teaching my staff from day one what I do and why so. In my absence, everything, for at least a while could run as consistently as if I was still there. If you don’t believe that you should prepare for your absence, then what will you do if you should be promoted? Do you not believe that your people are more effective contributors to a culture where you have empowered them?

A small business owner should have the same relationship with their consultant and media professionals, if you do not invest the time to teach them about your business how will they be able to understand its culture? If you do not understand “Why?” the consultant or media professional is doing something then how will you know what to do in their absence or to communicate the evolution of the business. You may not be able to do what others due, either because of talent, skills or time, but you still better understand why they are doing it.

Both “Time” and “Why?” are a crucial part of life, not just business or professional development. Adapt a plan that encompasses learning and educating the “Why?” to those around you, and you will find “Time” which will bring you prosperity in 2012.

It was a great 2011, I am looking forward to an even better 2012! Hope you’ll Join me!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WahafF8Y_E0]

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Mobile Growth in Retail: Cyber Shopping 2011

December 25, 2011 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

What is known as Black Friday and Cyber Monday was extended this year to 10 days, with online retailers continuing their discounts throughout the week. What do the online shopping numbers for post-Thanksgiving sales tell us about the state of online shopping?

It’s important to remember that the data is recent and fresh, many analyzers point out. The real numbers will not be available until all the stores report their sales numbers.

Black Friday

226 million shoppers visited stores and shopped online in the 4 days of the Thanksgiving weekend, compared with 212 million a year ago.
The average spending rose as well, to $398.62 per shopper, up from 365.34 last year.
Overall sales climbed 6.6% this year and stood at $11.4 billion. Up nearly $1 billion from last year. It was the largest amount spent in one day since 2007.

“Black Friday has evolved from an early morning shopping activity to a late night entertainment,” says Ellen Davis, spokeswoman at The National Retail Federation. “A lot of people stayed up until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. to go shopping, and then went to bed.”

Not everyone.

Online shopping on Black Friday jumped 26% to $816 million. Compared with $648 million this past year, such a big jump is unprecedented. The year to year growth in 2010 was only 9%.
50 million Americans visited online stores. The most visited were Amazon.com, Wall-Mart, Best Buy, Target and Apple.

Online sales increased much more than the store sales, with stores open at 10PM Thanksgiving day, pepper spraying and bone crushing included.

Cyber Monday:

The strong sales continued into Cyber Monday. This past Monday was crowned ‘the biggest online shopping day ever.’

IBM’s Benchmark research firm published these numbers:

Spending online was up by 33% from last year.
The average spending per customer was $198 per order, up $5 from last year.
People are using tablets and smartphones to shop as well. Traffic from mobile devices was 10.8% of online commerce.
What is even more impressive is the sales using mobile devices were up to 6.6% from all online sales, an increase from 2.3% in 2010.

Experts say the numbers point to the fact that Americans are growing more and more comfortable with online shopping. The mobile shopping increased thanks to companies embracing the tablet, with 5.2% of tablet shoppers making a purchase.

Considering the top 50 online retailers, J.C. Penny, Apple and Symantec performed the best as for availability and response time.

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Ways to Build Up Your Email List Using Facebook

December 20, 2011 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

Internet marketing is not what it used to be, experts like Guy Kawasaki say. If you were dealing with internet marketing before Facebook, you know it was all about emails. Obtaining prospects, finding the leads and hoping for conversions.

Email marketing, when done right, is personal and not stuffed with ads and commercial. It does help build followers and stay in touch with them. The White House, Barack Obama and Michele Obama, separately are using this method. It works not only in commerce.

But Internet Marketing is changing fast, as do our habits and ways we connect with friends, family and business associates. Today we are building groups – extended families, tribes if you will. And we are doing it on social media.

And it goes without saying that the most popular place to do so is Facebook. As of the end of 2011, Facebook has over 800 million active users with more than 50% of them logging on to Facebook every given day. The question is how to use this resource to build a great marketing campaign?

It can take a lot of time and money to build a big following (100,000+). It is not as easy as it sounds and even when you do manage to build a huge base, it will not necessarily increase your profits.

A savvy social media marketer knows how to transform his following into a very responsive email list.

Here are a few tricks of the trade:

Facebook Connect – Using it on a Squeeze Page is worth a test against traditional Squeeze Page. It’ll show you if Facebook is a faster and cheaper way to build your community. Most of the traffic you’ll get will be from social media sources or paid ad on Facebook. It might be easier to get personal information through Facebook and have more people you can email and your articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos or webinars.

Like Button – Put a “Like” button on your Facebook ads, and the ‘call for action’ would be to press that button. This way, when they click on the picture in your new ad, you already have the Like.

One Time Offer – Drive people to your website page by posting a link to it instead of posting the video directly on Facebook. Give them a one-time offer that is really worth their while. Why? Because this way you have the “Like” and you have their name and email address. The deal you gave will pay for itself with the new customers you just got. Apply it to any special report or newsletter. After they opt in, explain they will be receiving an email very shortly and subsequent email with links to new videos or special reports.

Ads for followers – Making an ad to your Facebook ‘friends’ is very cheap. You should do it often. You’ll get more info very inexpensively compared with other systems.

The Blurred Method – Create something entertaining for your fans, a special – just for them for joining your Facebook page. Create a fan page for this purpose only. Blur out parts of the video, unless they input their information. Put a Like button with the content and a direct responder. When they press the Like button it will reveal a way to get access to the content, with an opt-in. That is how you get their contact info. After that, show them your content. Use Facebook to post information about what you have created. You can also create a Facebook ad for this purpose.

Autoresponder – You have to have a built-in auto responder for at least 30 days. Find out what you are most interested in; videos, blog posts, other Facebook groups or other created content. Be consistent. Write emails every day for 30 days and drop that into the autoresponder sequence. Add p.s. to your emails with your site’s address for services or products.

Direct Response Blog – Create a loop between social media, email, and Facebook. Your social activity will grow your email, the emails will drive revenue. But if you have a blog to tie it all in, you give them a whole new aspect of the business – it’s all about you. If you prove to be a source they like, a leader in your field, they will bring others into the group. More email addresses, more leads to turn into buyers.

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Radian6 – Cloud Based Command and Control of Social Media

December 19, 2011 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

Radian6 provides marketing, communications and customer support professionals with a platform which enables them to see, in real time, what is said about them and their products in all aspects of social media; in tweets, Facebook, blogs, multimedia, forums, conversations and boards. By doing so, it gives the business the ability to manage, track, respond, report and analyze their reach and sentiments toward their products.

Marketing is no longer what it used to be, says Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com. In his keynote speech at the Cloudforce Winter 2011 conference, in New York, he showed how it has become, in big part, Social Marketing. The ability to listen to customers, to reach out to them at the moment they are ready to buy or make a change, is what differentiates great and not so good marketing.

Introducing the New Radian6.

It used to be data-based marketing, when you have the database on premises and you segment it and turn it into your e mail list. But in today’s segmentation, your database can be the entire internet.

There are thousands of conversations going on social media channels every hour of the day. How do we make sense of all those conversations on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks? How do we reach the people that are already taking about our product and use them to spread the word? How do we put out a flame before it becomes a fire-storm?

Here is what Radian6 has to offer: A complete social marketing app that is cloud based. A social hub that includes monitoring, insights and reaction. Command and control everything that you do in social marketing from one place. Based on some criteria keywords that you put into the system, Radian6 will pull out every conversation that is going on, which includes your keywords. This cloud application will do it in real time.

You’ll know what they are saying, where they are saying it, and what is the sentiment. You can drill into the conversations as they are happening and take action. You can set up automated rules that define how you want to handle criteria and route it to the appropriate people in the organization for immediate action.

For marketing campaign managers it means no more 30 day old focus groups, where you are reacting to information that happened 30 days ago. And you don’t need hundreds of people to gather that information and analyzing it. All you need is technology that allows you to scale the social media walls.

With drilling even further, you can find out all the available information about that customer that is asking a question about a service you provide. Where is that person present on social media, where he is located geographically and previous contacts you had.

And you can grab that information, route it to the correct decider and communicate an offers right back to that person through social media channels. Offer that might answer a need the market has at the moment. You can do it across all the channels. Even though the customer used Twitter for example, you can answer in any other form and even present the offer on their mobile device.

Radian6 was acquired by SaleForce in March 2011

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bMim-uGOWY]

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Facebook Marketing Solutions – Staying Ahead of the Social Media Game

December 8, 2011 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

There are so many Facebook Fan pages dedicated to marketing and social media topics that it can seem nearly impossible to zero in on those that actually offer true education and not just covert advertisements of their own products. When searching for an educational Facebook Fan Page, you may have already found that having one source for everything you need is nearly impossible.

Facebook Marketing Solutions may have found the perfect combination in Facebook Fan Page Marketing Education. It supplies more than one needed element when planning a full-bodied marketing campaign. It is proving a useful tool for helping internet marketers reach their targeted consumers.

Run by employees of Facebook, you can find an abundant wealth of information here that can directly benefit your business.

APIs

Through efficiency and innovation, Facebook’s marketing APIs can help marketers achieve success. The companies listed on the Facebook Marketing Solutions page have developed proprietary tools with various functions for reporting, monitoring, campaign management, and ad creation.

They also provide a list of managed services. Managed services generally support both business models but may, in some instances, use different brand names.

Some of the available API tools include:

Tools

Some of the managed services listed include:

Managed Services

Success Stories

With a long list of small and large business success stories available on Facebook Marketing Solutions fan page, users in any industry should be able to find a story similar to their own goals for business growth.

Here are a few stories we previous covred on dbmei, Facebook Success Stories

Endless List of Resources

Facebook Marketing Solutions fan page seems to have an endless list of resources.

Facebook Marketing Bootcamp U.S.
Facebook Marketing Bootcamp U.K.
Videos from Business Leaders like CEO, Chris McCann at 1-800-Flowers.com & Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.
Past and Future Events Listings
Business Boost for Beginner Small Business Owners

You can find resources and case studies available on their wall at any given time on such things as scaling, product development, and even a good buy or two along the way.

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The ABC’S of Networking Follow Up

December 6, 2011 by Basil Puglisi 8 Comments

Most of us have attended numerous networking events. We make it a point to meet and greet many people with the idea of building a relationship for potential business. So, why don’t we follow up?

How often after an event have you found yourself with a dozen or more business cards only to put them in or on your desk to collect dust. Weeks may go by before you look at them again and forget who they are or where you met them. Well, that is why, right off the bat I suggest to put your picture on your business card. It does help when people see your picture to remember who you are. That would be my first suggestion.

Next, I would suggest you ask yourself what your goals are. Are you going to these events to become a card collector? I know in some industries it’s a numbers game but then that is not really networking. Networking is about building relationships not necessarily transactions.

So many of us put so much time and effort into networking but fail to follow up. Did you know that follow up should actually begin shortly after the introduction? You should instinctively know during your conversation whether or not you would like to speak or meet with them again. (Remember don’t just look at them as a potential client but rather a potential referral source.) So, you might want to say something like “I really enjoyed speaking with you and would love to follow up with this conversation. Would you prefer I contact you via telephone or email?” At that time, they will either say:

Response A: “I enjoyed speaking with you as well but I am really busy right now – maybe we will run into each other again.” (meaning – they are not interested in networking with you) Keep in mind that doesn’t mean it’s over simply wait until you run into them again and let things happen naturally.
Response B: “The best way to reach me is via email or ….”

At this time, you may want to make some notes on the back of their business card to help remind you of some key points in the conversation for your follow up.

The only way to see the “ROI” on networking is by putting in the time. Successful people know the importance of a strong network.

According to Dr. Ivan Misner, the founder of BNI – offers 2 tips – 1 for networking and 1 for follow up meeting:

1. A one-page flyer – Have a brief overview of your business ready to pass along at all times in case you meet someone while networking who wants to quickly pass along your information to a prospective client he/she knows. You should have a hard copy to fax and an electronic copy to email.

2. Question-and-answer sheets – One of the quickest ways to learn about a person’s business as a networker, and for him or her to learn about yours, is to make the initial meeting as organized as possible. A sheet with questions that you can each ask each other can ensure you don’t forget to find out the information that could lead to a quick referral.

A great article to read, by Dr. Ivan Misner, is “Don’t make this networking mistake” He explains how to go for the “long-term relationship” and not the “short sale.”

Try to follow up from immediately to up to 72 hours while the person and conversation is still somewhat fresh in not only your mind but the other persons mind as well. Hopefully, during the initial conversation you did most of the listening this way you can offer something of interest to them based on things they have said. For example, they may have said they love golfing – so maybe you can let them know of a golf outing that is coming up or an interesting article you may have recently read about golfing. You want to look for a solution to a problem they may be having. Your follow up can include:

An article or a book you read
An expert opinion
A contact or introduction
An invitation to an upcoming networking event or target event
Refer to a commonality you both may have. For example:

Could be You came from same town
You share the same hobby
You Vacationed at the same location
Your both reading the same book

Just remember to be genuine and real and do not try to sell unless they showed an expressed interest in your product or service.

Visibility comes with being present.
Credibility grows during the follow ups.
Conversations create stronger relationships.

For a more personal follow up, which will help you stand out from the rest, send a personal handwritten note or a personalized card from sendoutcards.com.

During the course of a conversation, you may want to ask if they utilize social media. You may request to connect on facebook. If that is too personal, ask if they have a business page that you can become a fan of or try connecting on linkedin. Start building the relationship before you actually need them. Suggest a date to meet explaining how you would like to know more about their business. People like to talk about themselves so be sure to ask open ended questions.

You need to feel out the person you are following up with. Be mindful of their time. Become someone they enjoy talking to. In order for your follow up to work you need to follow through. Remember it’s not about “chasing prospects” it’s about “building relationships”

There are guidelines or campaigns for your follow ups – one is reaching out with the 8 x 12 method – meaning – you reach out to potential prospect 8 times over a 12 week period which is more for a sales follow up. Networking follow up is a much longer process to building relationship that you hope to keep for most of your career.

You may want to break down the cards into 3 catergories:

Prospective clients
People you will refer to others
People who will pass referrals to you

As the saying goes “The Fortune is in the Follow up” speaking of which, there is a recently published book out by Heidi Sloss called “The Fortune is in the Follow up” I have not had the pleasure of reading it yet but I may soon.

To help you stay more organized with your contacts and follow ups there is a site called jibberjobber.com – it is a personal relationship manager that can help you organize and track personal & professional relationships. It is free to set up and free to use or you can upgrade to a premium package for a low monthly cost but it is not necessary.

Don’t forget to reconnect with old business relationships, clients / customers because they too can become a good referral source.

Appropriate and sincere follow up will ultimately lead to meaningful and fruitful relationships

Here is a great guide for sales follow ups – creating a great follow up with your clients in 7 simple steps by followupsuccess.com

Statistically speaking – for sales…..

48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect.
25% of sales people make a second contact and stop.
12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop.
Only, 10% of businesses make more than three contacts. This means they’re losing a small fortune.

Because…

2% of sales are made on the first contact.
3% of sales are made on the second contact.
5% of sales are made on the third contact.
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact.
80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.

Back in January, 2011, I wrote about Networking 101. This article is a follow up to networking 101 on how to follow up.

Sources:

Ezines Articles: Networking 101

“Don’t make this networking mistake”

Creating Great Follow Up With Your Clients in 7 Simple Steps

Social Media Management Tools Keep Updating: So Be Informed

Social Media Saturday:Management Tools

#Ignition2011: Sheryl Sandberg Shares Concerns for Facebook and Women

December 3, 2011 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

At the recent Ignition Conference Sheryl Sandberg shared that Mark Zuckerberg’s greatest fear is lack of innovation. She mentions that the two factors are fueling that fear.

Google has as many job openings as Facebook has current employees.
Facebook lacks the resources of many of its direct competitors.

Sheryl understands that one of Facebook’s immediate concerns involves their need to rely on less product launches in favor of those that have bigger impact. Facebook has a current focus targeting the balance of moving forward in their business growth, while still protecting user-privacy.

Sheryl’s Advice to Career Focused Women

Voted in at number 7 of 10, Forbes awarded Sheryl Sandberg the status of one of the world’s Top Ten Power Women of 2011. Sheryl has some very sound advice for other power women as well. She shares that a woman’s most important career choice is who they marry. She encourages women to find a partner with whom they can share their lives 50/50. She reminds them that in general, men lean forward or continuously focus on the growth of their careers, while many women seem to lean back, and let others take the re

Check out this video with Sheryl’s top three pieces of advice for women who aim to reach the executive suites in their careers.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4]

She also notes that when it comes to an individual’s GPA, the women tend to remember their numbers as slightly lower than they really were, while men remember theirs as a tad higher. She also admits that it seems in general, people like men who are in power, women – not so much. However, people do actually seem to like Sheryl Sandberg which is proven by the number of people, men and women alike, who flock to events where she will be a key speaker.

The Google vs Facebook Battle Continues

Although she initially deflected questions from Henry Blodget about a Facebook phone at the Ignition Conference, she later relented. She has a desire to see Facebook users able to snap a photo on their smart phone and upload right away to an album, wall, or page. She is worried though that Google’s Android may be a factor in preventing that.

“If you buy a phone, you should be able to share pictures and upload your photos with Facebook, we care that Android works and does that,” she said. “Android has made a public commitment to openness, and we want to see that commitment kept.”

She also mentioned that Facebook is thoroughly committed to providing an app that will work on all phones. She shared that she is currently actively working towards this with every single phone manufacturer to see that it happens. Citing that she believes that all consumers should have a choice, when asked by Blodget about whether or not Facebook is currently building a phone, she answered that she would not speculate on the topic. Although this is by far a mysterious and obscure comment, coming from Sheryl Sandberg, it’s definitely worth giving some attention and perhaps a bit of closer inspection.

note: Special Thanks to Business Insider for hosting such a wonderful event and having DBMEi as their Guest.

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