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Deb Kolaras

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Small Business and Social Media Coach, Marketing Java

40 points

For nearly 20 years, I've had the pleasure of working with small business owners who truly value the importance of their customers. While most of my coaching has helped clients run their businesses more smartly, much of my work ...

For nearly 20 years, I've had the pleasure of working with small business owners who truly value the importance of their customers. While most of my coaching has helped clients run their businesses more smartly, much of my work centers around marketing strategy and customer engagement. Today, I help clients use traditional and social media marketing, not just to get new customers, but to keep the ones they already have.

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WEB: Google Plus

Aug. 22, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 1 other person answered this question

What's the most effective way of sharing content on Google+?

It's very similar, but allows for more room for a better intro message or "asking" message, but also the element of Circles provides you the opportunity to message people that are interested in in a specific topic. Rather than posting to "Public", for example, I ... more

Content Marketing

Aug. 11, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 6 other people answered this question

POLL: Having an office pet (eg. dog, cat) is beneficial for employees. (Agree or Disagree)?

Here in Boulder, CO, it's commonplace to see dogs in businesses of all kinds -- coffee shops, doctor's offices, (certainly not the Kaiser-type facility!), sporting goods places, even Home Depot. It's kind of refreshing to see the "wagging tail" when you do. Is this good ... more

Human Resources

Company Culture

Employee Engagement

Aug. 11, 2011

Deb Kolaras is now following Charlie Judy and 6 other people

Aug. 11, 2011

Deb Kolaras recommends this answer by Charlie Judy

Does asking people to retweet you really work? What's your success rate?

i would never ask someone to retweet my work but i have no qualms about tweeting it myself. i don't like it when people ask me to retweet and i usually won't unless it's a really worthy cause (like a job, or a charity) and ... more

Aug. 11, 2011

Deb Kolaras recommends this answer by Gail Wallace

Is high employee turnover a good or bad thing?

In most cases, a high turnover rate is a bad thing. You will normally find this in low paying positions, a company culture that is almost anti-employee, recruiting that looks for warm bodies rather than an employee fit, and one or more bad managers are ... more

Human Resources

Employee Attrition

Employee Retention

Talent Management

Aug. 11, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 5 other people answered this question

How do I find a social media marketing expert to help grow my small business?

Hi Nina,
Very sound answers have preceded mine, but I'll add to this thread. We use a system we've labeled PEER -- it stands for Plan, Engage, Evaluate, Repeat (with modifications.) We feel that when reaching out to customers through social media, we really are helping ... more

Aug. 3, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 5 other people answered this question

Are post-interview thank you notes necessary?

Agreeing with Brian's response, I would add that if you are hiring for a customer/client-facing job, thank you notes post-interview show a level of gratefulness and interaction that is sometimes lacking in the marketplace; if a candidate takes the time to make note of our ... more

Human Resources

Career Development

Aug. 1, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 6 other people answered this question

Are there any alternatives to loans to finance my small business?

We're big advocates for bootstrapping a startup, but there are some great "crowdfunding" projects you should check out. If your business suits the platform and appeals to the user base, you can have some great results. http://www.kickstarter.com is a popular one, and this post will ... more

Business Finance

Financial Services

July 22, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 4 other people answered this question

Should job seekers include social media profiles on their resumes?

Yes, especially if they're not going to potentially be embarrassed by what the potential hiring agent will find! Hiring practices now consider these spaces as "free game" and employers often check these sources prior to bringing a candidate on board. Depending on the position a ... more

Human Resources

July 22, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 1 other person answered this question

What's the difference between public relations and media relations?

Hi Liz,
Media relations deals with the press, bloggers, journalists, and similar who could potentially help or be interested your company news, updates and noteworthy submissions. On the other hand, public relations deals with people and organizations with which the business has relationships with, such as ... more

Media Relations

Public Relations

July 22, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 13 other people answered this question

Are you FOR or AGAINST redistribution of wealth?

Wholly against.

July 22, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 6 other people answered this question

How often do you look at your spam/junk folder?

Bi-weekly. All email under our domain is ported through Gmail and they are (thankfully) relentless and accurate when it comes to catching junk and spam. If something has not been received as promised, I will check the spam folder just in case, so as to ... more

Email Marketing

July 22, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 2 other people answered this question

Can you define what "cloud" is, in layman's terms?

My pleasure, Adam. To continue Andrew's great thoughts, for advantages, we emphasize the ability to collaborate with team members no matter where they are located and whatever computer system they're using (Mac,PC, Linus), and hopefully (crossing fingers) whatever browser they're using. Depending on the size ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

July 21, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 5 other people answered this question

What should a small business do if it finds itself engaged in a price war with another SMB?

It's seldom that being in a price war with a competitor will ever garner great things for the participants; rather, the end customer comes away with all they they want, and the vendors are stuck trying to fulfill deliverable expectations with less of a profit ... more

General Management

Business Strategy

July 21, 2011

Deb Kolaras and 1 other person answered this question at this roundtable

Evolving Customer Service for the Social Customer [7/19 @ 11 am]

Who should own the social customer?

Answering this begs other questions be answered first: what is the company composition and size; what is the company culture; what type of customers are they serving?...to name a few. IMHO, we all serve the client, but with social customers, really, only certain personalities are ... more

Customer Experience

Following 16 Topics

Customer Experience

Customer Service

Influencer Marketing

...

Social Business

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Sites

Social Networking

Following 7 People

Followed by 17 People

Knowledgeable in 11 Topics

Company Culture

#46 of 151

#31 of 152

Employee Engagement

#72 of 175

#505 of 1429

Human Resources

#521 of 1481

#884 of 2156

#1340 of 2984

Customer Loyalty

#52 of 120

Customer Experience

#106 of 160

#281 of 386

#499 of 636