Martin Print Blog

May 17, 2012

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY
The Perils, Pitfalls and Pleasures of Family Business

Last night, the usually peaceful and serene surroundings of Smokey Joe’s Small Business Bar looked like complete carnage.

I was intending to pop in there for a quiet drink on my way home from Martin Print H.Q, but I took one quick glance at the chaotic scene, and ended up briskly walking right past it, never looking back for a second.

I’m not sure what it was exactly that put me off venturing inside and taking my usual seat at the bar.

Perhaps it was the screaming and shouting and shrieking noises that were echoing around the whole building.
Perhaps it was the chairs and tables being thrown out of the glass windows and bouncing off the pavement.
Perhaps it was simply the fact that the entrance was blocked by a huge group of people all angrily attempting to set each other on fire.

Whatever it was, it’s fair to say that Smokey Joe’s Small Business Bar just didn’t have the usual elegant ambience for me that night, and I wasn’t getting any closer to the pandemonium.

I probably needn’t have worried too much.
When I bumped into Smokey Joe himself the following morning, he explained to me that last night was simply the Annual Business Dinner for the notorious Amberson family, and that he expects that kind of behaviour from them every single year.

Apparently, the Ambersons used to be an incredibly close-knit family for whole generations – until they suddenly all decided to go into business together.
Now they’re permanently at loggerheads with each other the whole time, as witnessed in last night’s typically explosive Annual Business Dinner.
Mind you, Smokey Joe never really minds the mayhem too much, as the Ambersons are always very quick to pay an exceedingly generous bill to cover all damages the next morning.

But with family business now accounting for over 70% of Aussie Businesses (actually employing half of the total workforce of Australia), let’s hope they’re not all run in quite the same manner as the Ambersons!

Some would say that a brilliant family-run business is the ultimate dream enterprise for everyone involved.
But is it really the stuff that dreams are made of? Or can working alongside your family members turn out to be nothing more than an endless nightmare of feuding and fall-outs and fighting in the bank?

Posted In Business Clinic, Entrepreneur Zone, How-To's and Tutorials, May 2012, Staff Management

May 16, 2012

GOOGLE+ PREPARING FOR LATE BLAST OFF!
Are Business Pages on Google+ Set to
Rocket In Popularity or Sink Into Oblivion?

It’s been ten months now since Google+ first stormed onto the Social Media scene in a tidal wave of excitable hype and speculation – and a whole six months since the service rolled out Pages for Business for the very first time.

The arrival of a social networking platform backed by the colossal power of Google was naturally tipped by many to rapidly evolve into a genuinely powerful new force in Social Media Marketing, and it was even expected to give the mighty Facebook a serious run for its money.

So, has Google+ taken over the world yet?

Erm…well, not quite.
It may well have attracted 170 million registered users since the launch last year – and that does sound quite impressive when you say it out loud very slowly – but that’s clearly just a splash in the ocean when compared to the 900 million users who prefer to post their thoughts and messages and silly photographs on Facebook.

Google+ has even found itself overtaken and overwhelmed by much smaller surprise candidates entering the Social Media race, such as Pinterest, who have somehow managed to generate more buzz and excitement without making nearly as much fuss about it all, and despite only having a tiny fraction of the budget and muscle and powerful backing enjoyed by Google+.

So, is it time to finally write off Google+ for good?
Is it destined to go down in history as one of those massively embarrassing failed experiments from a corporate giant who just got it hopelessly wrong this time?

Time will tell…
But according to new figures published by Simply Measured, the Google+ platform is still happily piloting a slow but determined course to the stars, and the future might well be looking very bright indeed…

Posted In Entrepreneur Zone, Google+, May 2012, Newsdesk, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

May 15, 2012

FALLING FROM THE EDGE
OF FACEBOOK EDGERANK
Why Most of Your Facebook Fans Could Be Missing Your Small Business Status Updates

Ever heard of Edgerank?

What exactly is it, and how does it determine just how many of your Business Page fans can view your Facebook updates?

Could it be that the vast majority of your fans are completely missing out on nearly everything you post?
And if so, then how do we go about putting this right?

Well, first of all, here’s a shocking statistic which may well get you spluttering with disbelief into your coffee cup.

On average, just how big a percentage of the fans of a Facebook Page are likely to see the very next status update created by that page?
All of them? Nearly all of them? Half of them?

Nope.
The flabbergasting truth is that only a staggeringly low 17% of fans of an average Facebook Business Page will actually see the next status update pop up into their news feed at all.
And a big portion of the blame for this alarmingly low stat lies with your rating on the enigmatic Edgerank system.

Before I go on to explain Edgerank and reveal how you can improve your own rating to ensure that your Facebook messages aren’t simply disappearing into oblivion, let’s just slow down for a second to get our bearings before we all panic and blindly sprint right off the edge of the Social Media mountain.

Firstly, there’s every chance that the audience stats for your own posts won’t be quite as low as that.
Although that figure of just 17% is the average fan reach of every Facebook page floating around out there in Cyberspace, this will naturally include a lot of page owners who aren’t even trying.

I’m sure that Martin Print Blog readers will be more driven and motivated than most to really deliver a rich and engaging experience for loyal Facebook fans, and this is actually half the battle.
I’ll return to that crucial point in just a moment.

Posted In Business Clinic, Entrepreneur Zone, Facebook, How-To's and Tutorials, Marketing Secrets, May 2012, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

May 14, 2012

LOSING THE SMALL BUSINESS BIG BUZZ
Is It Time To Drop The Cliches and Buzzwords from Business?

Are we all at risk of alienating our clients and indeed our own colleagues by the increasing use of silly buzzwords in our communications?

Could some of us be in serious danger of falling rapidly into tired old cliché?

The other day, I was quite surprised to discover that something as simple as a broken electric stapler could stir up quite so many utterly useless clichés in such a short space of time from just one person.

Doris had just popped her head round the door of my office, whilst I was clearly struggling in yet another miserable attempt to repair my broken electric stapler.
I was about to feel the impact of an avalanche of painful clichés hurtling in my general direction.

“Cheer up Martin, it might never happen!” she said, unhelpfully. “Hasn’t Old Bert fixed that stapler for you yet?”

“Well, he did try and fix it a while ago,” I replied. “But he couldn’t do it. He said there was a problem with his mole wrench or something.”

“Ah, a bad workman always blames his tools!” said Doris. “Would you like me to see if he’s free to have another go for you now?”

“No thank you, don’t worry about it Doris. I think he’ll be busy. Big Ted already asked Bert to help him with something in the printing press earlier this morning.”

“Ah well, the early bird catches the worm!” said Doris. “Is it completely broken?”

“Well, it works now and then, but…”

“Well you know what they say, even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day!”
She was really reeling them off now. “Why don’t you just treat yourself to a nice new one? You’ll probably end up preferring a new improved model. After all, every cloud has a silver lining.”

Posted In Business Clinic, Customer Care, Entrepreneur Zone, May 2012

May 11, 2012

LOST IN TRANSLATION
The Funniest Ever International Marketing Mishaps and Howlers!

Old Bert, our veteran resident caretaker, had been wearing the same blank expression on his face for a good ten minutes now.

It’s always a joy to behold in the Martin Print H.Q canteen, when Old Bert just happens to share a table with Josh, our youngest designer, during a lunch time break.

Although Old Bert’s true age remains an ancient secret buried in the mists of time (it even cheekily says MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS on his passport) I think it’s safe to say that there’s quite a significant age-gap between him and Josh.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why it often seems as if there’s a peculiar language barrier between the two of them.
Watching them both attempt to have a coherent conversation with each other is a bit like watching a little green alien visitor attempting to buy a train ticket from a bewildered giraffe.

“I’ve been tweeting more often these days,” Josh was saying as Bert took his first bite into his pickled onion sandwich.
“It’s always quite interesting to see what’s trending on Twitter, and I find that Tweetdeck helps synchronise my tweets with my status updates on Facebook, so all my tweets get posted straight to my timeline straight from the deck. Have you tried that yourself yet, Bert? Or are you more of a Google + or LinkedIn man?”

Old Bert stopped munching and his face froze for that full ten minutes.
I think he spent that time just trying to decipher a single word from Josh that might have made any kind of sense to him.

In the end he gave up, replaced his pickled onion sandwiches back in his toolbox, and got up to leave the table, muttering something about having to go and clean his mole wrenches and open-ended spanners.

But the language barrier is an all-too-common problem for companies taking a tentative step into the overseas market without quite enough due care and attention.
It always raises a chuckle when some of the bigger companies out there overlook a few simple details, and end up getting just a little tongue-tied with their global marketing messages.

Posted In Entrepreneur Zone, Weird & Wonderful

May 10, 2012

AN INTERESTING SMALL BUSINESS DILEMMA
Is Boredom Crushing Productivity In Your Workplace?

Is there a chance that your Small Business could be….hello? Are you listening? You didn’t fall asleep there for a moment, did you?

It’s far too early to be doing that now, I haven’t got to the interesting bit yet. Bear with me on this one. You’ll have plenty of time to fall asleep later, I promise.

Right, where was I?
Oh yes.
Is there a chance that your Small Business could be suffering from the smothering impact of sheer boredom in the office?

Can something as simple as boredom really have the mighty all-conquering power to destroy our productivity, our morale, and even our general professional efficiency?
And if so, what on Earth can we do about it?

A new study from Robert Walters has delivered intriguing fresh insight into the causes and effects of Small Business boredom, and the final conclusions from this potentially boring report are…very interesting indeed.

Fortunately, boredom is very rarely an issue here at Martin Print H.Q.
There always seems to be some kind of drama going on, usually involving Old Bert getting trapped inside the coffee machine again, or some forgotten piece of electronic equipment taking us by surprise and exploding in our faces.
This kind of stuff usually helps keep us all on our toes and poised for action.

However, I always like to keep one step ahead, and in order to reduce the risk of boredom ever becoming an issue here in the office, I took the liberty of building a military-standard Assault Course in the car park, so that we’d always have something to do during our lunch breaks and quieter moments.

Posted In Business Clinic, Entrepreneur Zone, How-To's and Tutorials, May 2012, May 2012, Newsdesk, Staff Management

May 09, 2012

SMALL BUSINESS ANGELS AND DEVILS
Are You Too Naughty or Just Far Too Nice For Business?

Have you ever been told that you’re far too rude or even just plain too nice to run an efficient Small Business?

Aren’t great Business owners supposed to be a little bit ruthless and aggressive in order to get exactly what we want?
Then again, aren’t we also supposed to be nice and friendly and approachable so that we actually get on well with everyone around us, whether they’re our clients, our staff, our suppliers, or even simply our fellow business owners?

A heated argument was erupting on this very topic down at Smokey Joe’s Small Business Bar just the other night.
Well, I say heated argument…all the heat was actually coming from one side of the argument, whilst the other side was batting it away with sheer politeness.

Angry Jack and Chirpy Clive were having another one of their discussions about attitudes in business, and the conversation had quite bizarrely turned to angels and devils.

“Clive, you behave too much like an Angel!” Angry Jack was shouting from one end of the bar. Angry Jack was always shouting, I don’t think he actually had a lower volume setting.

“You can’t afford to be an Angel in business!” he went on. “We haven’t got the time to mess about being painfully nice to everyone around us! We’ve got a professional business to run here, not a social club!
“You need to toughen up Clive. You spend so much time on pouring pathetic politeness everywhere, you’re taking your eye off the ball and wasting all your time on people who don’t deserve it!”

Chirpy Clive smiled in return, and offered to buy Angry Jack another drink.
Everybody in the bar loved Chirpy Clive, he was just about the most likable man on the planet.

Posted In Business Clinic, Customer Care, Customer Complaints, Customer Rewards, Entrepreneur Zone, May 2012, Staff Complaints, Staff Management

May 08, 2012

AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST FREE PARTY
The Party People Launch New Mega Store With Fundraising Free Party in Drummoyne!

It’s been a while since I last got invited to a party.

Ever since that unfortunate incident with the bouncy castle, the chocolate fountain, the faulty hosepipe, and the man in the clown outfit with a surprising lack of good humour, party invitations have been pretty thin on the ground for me.

I still don’t think it was entirely fair that I got landed with all the blame and indeed all the subsequent cleaning bills, but I suppose there’s nothing I can do about this gross miscarriage of justice now.

Last weekend, the majority of the Martin Print team were invited to a very swanky party at the other end of town, but sadly my own invitation was mysteriously missing in the post.

Still, I’m not bitter. It sounded rubbish anyway.
Whilst they were all out enjoying themselves, I consoled myself with a few quiet drinks down at Smokey Joe’s Small Business Bar, where I had the good fortune to bump into Dean Salakas from The Party People.

To my surprise and delight, Dean invited me along to Australia’s Largest Free Party in Drummoyne on May 26^th, to celebrate the grand opening of The Party People’s brand new Mega Store, and help raise funds for the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation along the way.
The good news is that you’re invited to this spectacular free party too…

Posted In Case Studies, May 2012, Newsdesk, The Party People

May 07, 2012

ARE YOU LOSING YOUR FACEBOOK FANS?
New Hidden Tool Reveals Just How Many Fans Are Switching OFF From Your Updates!

I’m sure that you’re quite used to Facebook telling you just how great your Business page is doing right now.

We get a thrilling notification whenever a fresh new face chooses to like our page, and our total number of fans sits proudly near the top of our new Timeline pages for everyone to see.

If you’re a regular user of the Insights section of your Facebook page, then you’ll also be keeping yourself fully in the loop on the joyous results of every post you’ve ever made, whether it was a status update, a photograph, or even just a simple link.

You can see exactly how many people you reached out to (hooray!), how many readers you actually engaged (whooo!) and even how many people are talking about your post! (This is too much, we’re going to burst!)

All great spirit-lifting stuff.
But without wanting to put a pin in our happy little bubble, wouldn’t it be equally useful if we could discover the negative impact of each and every post that we produce?
Wouldn’t it be quite interesting to see if any of our particular posts and updates actually prompted some of our fans to put their fingers in their ears and switch us right off?

Well, now you can….although it’s such a low-key feature buried deep within the Insights section and with no sign-posts of any kind, it’s practically bordering on an elusive hidden secret.

Perhaps Facebook aren’t quite so keen on promoting the less pleasant side of your interactive experience….which is a real shame, as this hidden little chunk of data is actually one of the most powerful and genuinely insightful tools that they could ever possibly deliver.

If you’re curious to get going and have a look for yourself, then here’s how;
(But don’t start panicking just yet if you see higher numbers than you were expecting….)

Posted In Business Clinic, Entrepreneur Zone, Facebook, How-To's and Tutorials, May 2012, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

May 04, 2012

RUNNING OUT OF PC STEAM?
How to Speed Up Your Slow and Sluggish Small Business Computers!

“Martin, I think I need a new computer.”

I tend to hear this several times a month here in Martin Print H.Q, and it nearly always comes from Josh, whenever he’s just experienced the slightest technical glitch that could actually be resolved in minutes.

In fairness, there was that one day when his old PC did actually blow up out of sheer frustration, and it really was time to invest in a brand new computer for our talented young designer.

But on just about every other occasion, Josh’s PC problems were relatively simple issues which just needed a little bit of due care and attention, rather than splashing out on Josh’s preferred choice of new equipment which just happened to match his new favourite colour of the week.

Today, his supposedly spectacular and completely incurable problem was that his PC was running far too slowly to be of any practical use.

“It’s no good,” Josh whimpered. “It’s taking about 20 minutes just to boot up, and then another ten minutes to launch each program that I need, and even then they all run so painfully slowly that there wasn’t much point in launching them all in the first place.
“So far, the only thing I’ve managed to do all day is open up that email that you sent me this morning, the one where you were asking me to hurry up a bit.
“There’s nothing else for it, I definitely need a new PC. Perhaps I could have one in a nice burgundy or maroon shade this time? What do you think?”

What did I think?
Well, I thought it was time for a quick and simple tune-up of Josh’s PC to get it running right back up to speed at zero expense.

Here’s my own rundown on how to put the spring back in the step of your sluggish Small Business computers, and breathe new life into those tired and over-worked machines…

Posted In Business Clinic, Entrepreneur Zone, How-To's and Tutorials, May 2012, Technology