We wrapped up our discussion with
Chris Brogan today on The BIGG Success Show. Chris is the President of
Human Business Works, a media and
education company.

He is the New York Times best-selling author of Trust Agents, Social Media 101, and his latest Google+ for Business.

In Part 1, Chris shared why small businesses & entrepreneurs should get on board with Google+. Last time, he talked about the primary difference between Google+ and Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Listen to this show to discover:

• what a “warm” sell is
  
• why it converts.
  
• how social media helps you build relationships for your “warm” sell
  
• why social media is such a great way for your customers to share their good buying experiences with you
  

Click a player to hear Chris talk with George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show Podcast. (Show length 4:25)

iPhone/iPad/Mobile Podcast Player

He’s done it again with Google+ for Business. We know you’ll benefit greatly from reading this book.

We thank Chris for sharing his wisdom with us. And we thank you for the gift or your time. Until tomorrow, here’s to your BIGG success!

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00801-041212.mp3

On The BIGG Success Show today, we continued our conversation with Chris Brogan. He is the President of Human Business Works, a media and education company.

He is the New York Times best-selling author of Trust Agents, Social Media 101, and his latest Google+ for Business.

Last time, we discussed why small businesses & entrepreneurs should get on board with Google+. In this session, you’ll hear:

• why Google+ is “more open than Facebook, more deep than Twitter, more rounded than LinkedIn”
  
• what Circles are and how they work
  
• why segmenting your Circles is such a valuable tool
  
• a unique way to distribute “how-to” information to your customers using Google+
  
• content marketing strategies that keep people engaged with your business
  
• how to combine your personal & professional lives on any social media channel
  

Click a player to hear Chris talk with George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show Podcast. (Show length 10:00)


iPhone/iPad/Mobile Podcast Player

Please check back tomorrow when Chris tells us what a “warm” sell is.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00800-041112.mp3

We were honored today to chat with
Chris Brogan on The BIGG Success Show. In
case you don’t know Chris, he is the President
of Human Business Works, a media and education company. He is one of the original Trust Agents, the title of a New York Times best-selling book he co-authored.

He’s one of the superstars of social media according to Forbes and Ad Age. We could go on and one but we’ll also just include that he’s one of our absolute favorite people.

He’s here to chat with us today about Google+ for Business, his latest book. Listen to this first of a three-part interview to discover:

• what “human business” means
  
• the three edges to the triangle of your community
  
• why you need all three to make your business work
  
• why small business owners and entrepreneurs should get on Google+
  
• How “search + your world” will effect the way your business comes up in Google Search
  

Click a player to hear Chris talk with George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show Podcast. (Show length 7:55)


iPhone/iPad/Mobile Podcast Player

Join us next time when Chris tells us why Google+ is “more open than Facebook, more deep than Twitter, more rounded than LinkedIn.”

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00799-041012.mp3

Specifically, we want to talk about an asset that is particularly valuable now. Yet it doesn’t show up on your Balance Sheet. It’s your credit score.

___

___

Target credit

This was highlighted in a recent post over at Mashable about Google ads targeting people with high credit scores. People with good credit are positioned to take advantage of these times. Not just with consumer goods, but also with investment opportunities. There are some great deals out there on real estate and businesses.

In addition, people with good credit will get better rates on the money they borrow. So if you have a good credit score, protect it like any other asset.

FICO

FICO was developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation. They have a great piece that explains how your FICO score is determined [PDF]. We’ll summarize it here, but we highly recommend you read their article if you want to know all the details.

Your FICO score can range from 300 to 850. Obviously, higher scores are better. Anything over 720 is considered SuperPrime according to the Mashable post. These are the people Google is targeting in their new ad program.

We’ll look at the five components of your FICO score (along with the weight given to each one for the general population).

Your payment history (35%)

Pay your bills on time. It’s probably no surprise that this is the single biggest factor in determining your score. If you’re not current, work hard to get current and stay there.

The amounts you owe (30%)

We found it interesting that, even if you pay your credit card balance in full every month, you may still show a balance on your credit report. It shows the balance posted on your most recent statement.

One myth they debunk is that you should close accounts so you don’t have too many credit cards. If you’re in good standing with no balance on an account, it doesn’t affect your FICO score.

However, you are better off having fewer cards with a balance. It’s also better to have a small amount outstanding compared to your available credit line.

Be careful not to have too much credit available. It can actually hurt your FICO score. So don’t get, or keep, credit cards you know you’ll never use.

Length of credit history (15%)

Here they look at the age of your accounts in general as well as how long it’s been since you used your account. One tidbit we found interesting:

If you just established credit for the first time, you’ll hurt your FICO score if you open too many accounts too quickly.

New credit (10%)

Here they look at what’s going on now. What credit have you applied for recently? How are you doing on those payments?

This is good news for people coming out of a period of late payments. Just remember, though, it gets a relatively small weighting.

The types of credit you use (10%)

You want a mix of both revolving credit lines and installment debt. For example, a credit card along with a car loan would include both types of credit.

Your credit rating is an important asset. It affects your credit capacity. Your credit capacity may help you fund your next bigg opportunity!

___

___

Thanks for sharing some of your time with us today. Please join us next time when we talk about a higher level of problem-solving. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00431-070709.mp3

Related posts

Savers Spenders and Investors

Squirrels, Nuts and Business Cycles

(Image by Andres Rueda,CC 2.0)

___

___

___

Amy, you told us this incredible story that we want you to share with our whole community. You recently ordered some pizza from Domino’s. But it took an hour to get the order to you and, when it arrived, it wasn’t right. What happened next?

___

___

I called the store and they said they would send over another one. I’m also very active on Twitter – as a social media consultant it is one of my preferred methods of communicating. So I tweeted what had happened. I was just venting my frustration.

___

___

And that's when Ramon De Leon, who is the owner of the local Dominos stepped in, right?

___

___

Yes! He twittered me right away and asked which location I ordered the pizza from.

___

Get in on the conversation

___

This is a good thing for local business owners to understand. Since you are a social media consultant, Amy, how did Ramon know that you had tweeted about him?

___

___

There are great tools out there that allow you to monitor the real time feed of what's being said on Twitter. Ramon probably had an alert set up for the word “Domino’s” or “Domino’s Chicago.” You can use any term that's relevant for you. In addition, you could also set up a Google Alert, which will alert you whenever your name, brand, or company is mentioned on the Internet. So Ramon said that he would remedy the situation and be back in touch when he had more information. I figured I was going to get a credit for free cinnamon sticks the next time I placed an order. Imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning, logged onto Twitter, and saw a tweet from @DPZRAMON. It said, "Amy, we want to make it up to you, please click on this link." The link took me to a video apology from Ramon, who is the owner of six Domino’s franchises in Chicago. He was standing there with Junior, who is the General Manager of the store where I ordered my pizza. They were offering an apology for what had happened that previous night.

___

The buzz begins

___

Like a lot of people, we've watched that video. I really liked that the apology was very sincere!

___

___

Yeah, what's so crazy is, just this morning, I actually got a tweet from Ramon. He said that video has been embedded on over 30,000 websites! And this is not just 30,000 watching the video; this is 30,000 people who think it's noteworthy enough to feature on their website.

___

Wow!

___

And in this video, not only did Ramon apologize to you – and promise to make it up to you – he said that they were going to wow you! Now that's more than cinnamon sticks. So what did they do to wow you?

___

___

First of all, I was totally wowed by this video apology. I had never seen or heard of anything like it. Well as it turns out, I'm also involved in the Social Media Club of Chicago. We hosted an event on Thursday, April 30th – the kick-off to SOBCon. It was a great event where we had all kinds of Chicago social media minds in addition to friends from all over the country. Independently of this video apology, Domino’s was already secured as an event sponsor. So if that wasn’t enough, Domino’s showed up with over 100 pizzas for our club. They also brought a personal pizza for interactiveAmy, with my name all over the box. Ramon delivered it himself.

___

___

So he didn't delegate this!

___

___

No, he didn't! Not only was he there, he was really excited about it. He couldn't wait to meet everybody who had heard about him after the video apology. But he was most excited to come and meet me, which was really cool.

___

___

And who can blame him, Amy? We know you!

___

___

He also brought some members of his team including Junior. And it was his day off! In addition to the personalized interactiveAmy pizza, Junior also brought me a dozen roses in my favorite color, fuchsia. See video of interactiveAmy with DPZRAMON and Junior.

___

___

How on earth did he know your favorite color? He must have visited your website where that color is so strong.

___

___

That's true. I don't know if he did his back end research or if he just took a guess that women like bright pink.

___

___

Well, I am just wowed by all of this. It’s just incredible!

___

___

The conversation begins when a mistake is made

___

I thought so too. Ramon and I are still in touch. He has become an example of what great customer service is and can be – how to take steps to forge relationships with your customers which is a huge opportunity. When somebody makes a mistake, it doesn't have to be the end of the conversation. It really should be the beginning.

___

___

That's a great point, Amy. But you could have just said nothing and not gone back to Domino’s. Instead you said something – not even expecting a response – but he responded in such a magnificent way that you've talked about it ever since. Plus 30,000 bloggers have talked about it too!

___

___

Exactly. As the owner of my own social media company, this is definitely something I try to advise business on, from small mom & pops all the way up the Fortune 500 ladder. Take any opportunity to engage in a conversation about your brand, product or service. And listen – especially when someone says something that might not be the most flattering. It’s a great way to get insight and take steps to remedy the problem. So first you have to listen. Then you can engage. You can become part of the conversation and take the necessary steps to forge your relationship going forward.

___

___

Those are great points, Amy. Here’s what I’ve learned – if you need a case study for your social media consulting business, just be your own.

___

___

I think that's a lesson to all of us … go out there and make things happen!

___

___

___

Thanks Ramon for being a shining example of great customer service.

And thanks Amy for sharing your story with us.

And thank you for reading our post today.

Bigg Question

Have you been impressed with the response to a complaint? Share that with us by leaving a comment below, e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com or calling us at 888.455.BIGG (2444).

Please join us next time when we’ll continue on this thread. We’ll discuss bad and ugly apologies. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00392-051209.mp3

Related posts

Apologies – The Bad and the Ugly

Relationship Building Blocks

Failure to Do This Harms Relationships

Creating Wealth in the Next Generation Economy

(Image in today's post provided by interactiveAmy)