Free Business Book Giveaway

Small Business owners are largely forgotten. Thats why I only focus on them. I have experience several members of my family file bankruptcy due to small business failures. I also I suffered through 2 destroyed businesses due to failure however, in my failings I have learned some of the secrets to success. (Who can say they know it all?)
What I like about small business owners is that they are not afraid to take huge risks and lay it all on the line. But, I agree they do need a lot of help with their marketing. I think having them go the social media and email route is not only the least expensive but its also the most effective. Thanks for the stats!
www.onlineuniversalwork.com

Did my eloquent answer truly disappear? I was going to edit it, realized I didn't need to, and then it was gone! Will tears and passion win me any points? LOL

I won't try and retype the fluff (anyone reading this can be thankful) ... I'll just say that as part of Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma, we have several initiatives and alliances in play where our Social Media discoveries and resulting policies will be affecting not only our membership of 13,000 but will be shared with other United Way agencies as a model as well as part of best practices among Girl Scout councils. I took it upon myself to create a "soft start" to experiment. It has proved valuable and we are starting the formal council involvement with Membership Executives and our "cookie diva" ... next step? Formal policies, trainings, and collaboration.

These books would not only benefit our efforts to make wise steps with a variety of audiences and needs, but their impact would be shared throughout a network of organizations and people dedicated to doing something GREAT in this world!

Tears and passion always win points in my books :)

You have a great project underway, and I wish you all the luck in the world with it. Good for you for taking the initiative to get it off the ground!

I commented yesterday... hmm.

After several years of ardent convincing, the suits have agreed to move forward with a digital marketing strategy and to start taking seriously the importance Facebook, search engines, blogging and, to some extent, Twitter. Our goal is to begin to distinguish ourselves as industry leaders - we want to increase communication and discussion with others in our business. As well, we want to increase communication between ourselves and our clients (or potential clients).

Some of the most exciting things we will do this year:
- Company blog - a discussion blog for the company and our clients, as well as those in the industry that are interested (our clients are the type that will read blogs)
- Twitter - this will serve as another point for discussion (many of our clients are on Twitter) and we can rely on our blog as the hub
- Facebook - again, the blog is the hub of our efforts, but we will participate on Facebook to gain exposure and be represented there

In addition, the company I work for is digital publishing company that works with some of Canada's favourite retailers and I see some opportunities there for us.

So this is sort of my show - and while I know what I am doing, I sometimes lack the language. I studied anthropology which in fact is very useful (tribes are nothing new to me) but kinship terminology sometimes does not work in situations like this. This is a great opportunity for me and I want to impress the bosses, and more importantly, impress myself.

I think Duct Tape Marketing appeals to the do-it-yourselfer in me - and since the initial budget on this won't be that big, I might need all the help I can get in "practical" marketing.
Trust Agent - well we want to become leaders in the industry, and this book would be a great help in identifying how to go about become the reputable, 100 million dollar company we feel we are.
The Whuffie Factor is one I have wanted to pick up for a while - we want to build a community and discussion around what we do and improving/enhancing those solutions. Tara Hunt's insights would be really useful. As well, this would be a great book for retail community building strategies.
Avinash's Analytics book - MUST HAVE! I have his other Web Analytics in an hour a day, it was very gripping. I loved it and want to know what he thinks about analytics for social media.
The New Community Rules would be helpful to us in building communities around the brands we work with, using the our digital publications as an access point - another great book I ashamed to say I don't have.
Crush It would be a great book to get me pumped for starting my own social media revolutions.
And Six Pixels of Separation - from what I hear of this book, it might be a good gift for the suits when I have devoured it. They want to understand but still chuckle when mention Twitter.

I would read them all cover to cover. And I suppose I will even if I don't win. After all, that is why they invented Amazon. Cheers and have a great day!

At Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma, we have entered with a soft start and slowly adding elements to our endeavors to make sure we can sustain what we establish. We are at the point of solidifying our experiments into policies and procedures which will affect approximately 13,000 girls, volunteers, and staff members in our area as well as other United Way nonprofits in the area (we are working toward a model that can be adopted by other nonprofits) and even other Girl Scout councils (a few of us are comparing notes and working to establish best practices).

As part of our formal Strategic Learning initiative, we want to utilize technology to build relationships. As the staff and volunteers lead this initiative, I would love to learn from the leaders in this realm and make this library available throughout our organization as share what we learn with other organizations. Our vision is to enliven a new element of community and be more able to reach out and connect to truly make a difference in the world!