We’ve decided to consolidate all of our Internet Marketing, SEO, Business and Social Media pages from The Moxie Maven, Moxie Mafia and from Kettlewell.net into one primary location at our new main site, located at Mox & Dom

We took The Moxie Maven and The Dominator, and combined them into “Mox & Dom” and has been serving us quite well from an image perspective, and our ability to bounce ideas off each other better, and combine our specialties gives our clients and audience a better picture of online marketing in one location.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be transferring the three blogs into Mox & Dom, but all the content that you’ve found valuable on this site, will eventually be located over there.

The only exception are personal opinions, blurbs, and fun things that I as a father, friend or funny-man have put up here, will remain here, and this will turn into my personal blog for me, about anything I want to rant about.

If you’ve never visited us at Mox & Dom, I highly recommend that you take a few minutes and check things out.

See you there.

Matt  aka ‘The Dominator’

SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) is the art and science of optimizing elements of your website so that your website will rank higher in search engines like Google.

It seems that many a web designer has realized that offering SEO and Internet marketing advice and services will somehow benefit their clients.  So they find some old articles on the subject, and type out a pretty, well formatted article, and declare that they are experts in the matter.

Even in my own town of Grand Junction, Colorado I’ve recently seen a swarm of web designers that are entering the field of SEO.

Here’s the problem….

They have no proof that they can accomplish what they are talking about. I ran Google searches on a variety of related topics that they should be ranking on, but they are no where to be found.

They don’t really know how it all works, so they write up a few articles on information that they found, and call themselves experts.

But the information given in some of these articles is old (sometimes defunct and even dangerous) and not keeping up with the ever changing algorithms and structure of search engines and how they operate.

Google and the other search engines realize that they are being gamed, and that the game is changing.  Since they own the game, they get to set the rules and change them when they want.  Typically we notice major changes on a quarterly basis, and minor changes continuously.

Learning SEO (and maintaining your skills) is a nearly daily learning activity. It’s a fast paced activity, and can’t be done by reading a few well crafted articles. There are myriad resources of SEO books and videos to buy ( and some for free) that need to be read/watched and then analyzed and absorbed. It’s not unlike going to school where you read from books, do research, and then submit a final project. It takes time and energy.

Think about this, Twitter is now streamed directly into the search engines for results. Social media friends within your own social media circles  was introduced recently.  These are things that we’re possible 6 months ago.  They are new, as the game changes.  This means that you now have to optimize your site to compete with Twitter, FB and all the other social media circles.

Ideally, a web designer should either partner up with and SEO company, or hire someone in-house that only does SEO and Internet marketing.  SEO is a full-time responsiblity.  There is no way that a web designer can be an expert artist, and keep up with the changing rules for SEO.  There’s just not enough hours in a day.

I don’t actually optimize this blog anymore, but I bet if you Google Grand Junction Marketing I’m still on page one!

As the old Latin phrase goes “Caveot Emptor” – Buyer Beware!

With the release of Windows 7, there’s been a lot of questions across the country about what the improvements are, how to upgrade, and if the benefits are enough to make the switch to Windows 7 right away.

Adam and Rick did an awesome job of answering all these questions and tons more.  They had two systems running Windows 7 on display for everyone to see and play with.

Adam Cochran and Rick Castellini

Microsoft says that networking with Windows 7 will be even easier, so Rick and Adam put it to the test.  They networked the two computers right before our very eyes, and showed off some of the features, like permissions, password protection, and deletion.  Deletion does have one pitfall that’s new for networking – once it’s gone, it’s gone.  There is no recycle bin for network deletions.

I played with Ricks laptop for about 10 minutes and immediately went to the admin consoles, to see what was in store for an advanced user.  In the process, I only had a UAC (User Account Control) popup window once.  Rick and Adam went on to explain that Microsoft has tuned the process, and that there are UAC controls to adjust how often you want to be alerted by UAC popups.  I was impressed by the finer control that users now have on UAC and the initial settings being very permissible.

The interface itself is a bit different,  and I think it would take a bit of getting used to.  The taskbar seems to have a quick launch and open programs buttons on the taskbar, but they don’t have a very good demarcation, and they tend to look all the same at first glance.  They also group things together, and create a sub-panel to choose which one you want.  So if I have two Word documents, it will put it into the same button, and display the two as a sub-menu popup when I hover over the button.  Might be fine for just two, but I often have 5 or more Word documents open at a time.  As I sit here after the fact, I have to wonder how 10 or more documents would look in that preview mode.

Another point they discussed was the release of Microsofts new Security Essentials anti-virus package, which is free, and talked about some of the other anti-virus packages, such as AVG ,  which is also free, but getting bloated, forcing upgrades to new versions, and pushing banners to upgrade to a paid premium package.  One point they made was that AVG is around 80 MB in size now, and the new Security Essentials is substantially smaller, and much faster as well.  I am surprised that they didn’t mention Prevx, which is a paid product, but is faster than AVG, requires no definition files,  is only a 800K download (4MB unpacked size on my HD), and takes only 3 minutes to scan my entire system.  Prevx saved my bacon years ago, so I am a bit biased.

The party was not only informative, but it was highly relaxing as well.  There were ballo0ns and streamers, coffee, drinks, and snacks to make everyone feel welcome and at home.  The final few minutes were filled with various questions about when and how to upgrade, and everyone left the party with a  new sense of things to come.

Great Job Rick & Adam!  You are my new Windows 7 Experts!

One of the things that’s The Moxie Maven and I finished, and is ready for the public, is her  Moxie Mafia Social Media Training System.  This site uses the Wordpress blogging framework with a slightly modified Revolution theme.

Included at the Moxie Mafia site are tons of videos, articles about Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and all your social media favorites.  And if you become a member, you get access to monthly lesson plans to get your business aligned with social media, expert interviews,  special reports, and member-only videos.

And if you’ve been paying attention to Moxie Mafia, you’d know that there was an entire blog there that that had The Moxie Mavens Blog Talk Radio show podcasts too… so what happened to it?  We moved it of course!

You can still find the same content as before, but at the new “The Moxie Maven” blog that is still an adorable site, with some very real social media content.

But what else is going on that’s kept me away from this blog?

For one, we’re in the process of finalizing our brand – us being me “The Dominator” and she “The Moxie Maven”

And part of this brand shift means creating a few extra sites, and getting the right content in the right places.  We’re breaking our Wordpress services off into a completely new realm at Blogging Emergency, where we’ll be taking our existing Wordpress offerings, and combine some how-to videos, discussions and articles with it.

We’re also going to break-out our seminars and training services into a combined Mox&Dom label.  We seem to do more seminars together, and the name has been really successful, so we decided to not push our seminar services separately, and combine them together, since we were rarely giving speaking engagements independently anyhow.

Neither Blogging Emergency nor Mox&Dom are ready for prime time yet, but I wanted to give everyone a heads-up on why our blogs have been silent for the past few weeks, and to let you know that we’ll be providing you with more avenues to learn what’s important to you.

And as always, if you have a question,  use our contact form, or leave a comment at the end of any post, and we’ll do the best we can to address it.  Likewise, if you’d like to see us writing about something specific, let us know that too, and we can write up special articles, just for you.

I have 4 advisers- a middle schooler, a kindergartner and twin pre-preschoolers, so I have a wide range of inputs of which to receive.   Sometimes they have so much to teach me, that I become quite overwhelmed, if you know what I mean.

One night in particular, I was serving a steak dinner to my family.  With the little ones, we  cut up the pieces of meat, and serve it to them in a “ready to eat” format.

My youngest daughter, one of the twins, likes her food to be cut up a little bit more than the others.  It’s a convenience for her really, but if we don’t cut it up small enough,  she’ll eat so fast that she can’t swallow her food fast enough before she adds more.

Before we know it, she’ll have a big wad of food in her mouth that she can’t swallow, and we have to help her get it into the trash, and start over.  The problem is that she becomes disinterested in eating, and thinks that she’s done. Not good for a growing little girl.

As parents, we do everything that we can to help our children grow, be successful, and get the most out of life.  Which is why we cut her food into really teeny tiny bites, when its something chewy like steaks.

When her food is cut up into the right size bites, she eats, and eats and eats… she consumes her dinner until she’s full.  And then some.  By taking away the distraction of eating, she focuses on the enjoyment of eating, and looks forward to it.  And then she feels like she’s earned the right to dessert!

Let’s think about the lesson she’s teaching.

Imagine breaking down your product or service into bite size chunks – the easiest most basic pieces that a client can use, making it as easy as possible for your customers to get what they want.  Enticing them, and giving them they want, all in a single action.

Let me give you an example.  One of our local Grand Junction news stations is semi active on Twitter.  They give updates on breaking news a couple times a day, but when they have an exciting story that they are Tweeting about, they give a link to the homepage.

Giving out a homepage link is great for the news stations own brand, but lousy for a reader that wants to  get right to the meat of the story that they were just told about.  This becomes an aggravation to the reader, and eventually, they may give up if the search for the article isn’t directly linkable from the homepage.

Specifically, I was trying to get a link to the online live coverage of President Obama at the Grand Junction town hall event.  I mean, it’s our own town, and I wanted to catch some of it while I was writing out some outlines for a project.

They tweeted a link to there homepage.  I went there, and looked around, but couldn’t find a link to the live coverage.  I even had the Moxie Maven help me out… nada, nothing, nil.

I tweeted a request to a direct link.  My response was the homepage.   Arrggggh!   Should I be thankful for a response?  Thankful isn’t what I was feeling.  I was annoyed, discouraged, and went to CNN.com.

There was someone on the other end of Twitter that knew the answer, but they didn’t help.  I even asked a very specific and direct question.

And the plot thickens!

CNN wasn’t streaming live for this event… so I was forced to go back to my Grand Junction news station to keep searching.  I did finally find the link (which mysteriously appeared in an article I’d read previously) but there was still a problem…

I couldn’t get it to connect to their video feed in FireFox.  I tried Internet Explorer.. I just upgraded it to version 8, so all should be good right?  I mean, there site says that they recommend IE 5 or greater.

But I still couldn’t view there live stream of President Obama’s town hall meeting.

I asked Moxie Maven if she could try it on her machine, which I knew was running Internet Explorer 7.  Voila!  It worked. Perfect.

Now our local news agency has not only urked me, but her too.  She had to stream the town hall meeting for me, while she worked on her own project.

The point is this.  Putting obstacles in the way of your customers isn’t the best way to build your business.  In fact, it’s a really lousy way to build a reputation that you can be proud of.

What could be done differently?  I’m not in the loop of what resources they have available, but there’s a few things from this article that I’d at least address.

First, I’d make sure that all links are direct links to the story itself,  and not the homepage.  Branding will happen no matter what page you land on for a news channel site.  I’m especially referring to Twitter here, since that’s where my interaction occurred, but all links (no matter the media)  should directly link to the story that’s being referenced.

Second, I’d take out the limitations of browser compatibility.  According to this W3C Consortium statistic on browser usages,  Internet Explorer (all versions combined) is no longer the leading browser.  Tying your site to a certain browser is a sure way to turn potentially loyal fans into raving critics.  Is this what you’d want for your business?  Especially if it’s the browser that’s not in the majority?

Browser incompatibility problems are so 10 years ago.  There are so many compatible systems now that a big business like a news station really has no excuse to not use them.

Third,  I was having problems, and expressed that on Twitter.  But they left me hanging.  No reply to help.  They alienated me, as a customer of theirs.  In business, customers are always number one.  No matter how large or small the customer is.  They should have replied and tried to help.  It’s a public forum, they could have been the hero.

They need better training on customer support.  Putting customers ahead of your own business is a sure way to build a solid relationship with clients that will grow your business for you.  Nothing is more important to a business than it’s customers.  Without customers, you don’t have a business.

My advisers…err my children, taught me even more about the way I serve dinner.

When I give my children large, unmanageable things, like perogi’s (potato filled pasta), they like them whole.  It’s a kid thing I guess.  They want the whole sandwich, or the whole steak.  They don’t want it cut up into bites or have half a sandwich.  They want the whole thing.

But the whole thing isn’t good for them.  It’s just simply too much food, and it goes to waste.

So after a few years of parenting, I’ve been able to figure out what foods are to be cut up, and what is given whole.

Now there are certain foods (like perogi’s) that if I give it to them whole, they’ll ask for me to cut it up.  They’ve seen the benefit of eating it after it’s already managable and easy to eat.

Let me repeat that, it’s important:  If I give it to them whole, they’ll ask for me to cut it up.

They like it this way. Just like a client can’t handle the entire contents of your business in one sitting.  They just want a piece.  The piece that fulfills their needs at the very moment that you met them.

And the next time you see them, they want only the piece that they care about at this new time.

Think of it this way – if you are a hardware store, and a customer comes in for paint, Would you take them to the lumber section? or just point them to the front door and say “There you go – it’s in there!”.  Of course not.  You’d take them to the paint isle, and help them pick out the right paints, paintbrushes, colors, etc.

Same thing online.  Take your customers to where they want to go, not to the parking lot.  Make it easy.  In today’s instant gratification world, it’s all too easy for potential clients to become clients of your competition, all in a matter of seconds.  And making clients happy couldn’t be easier.  Be their friend, and give them exactly what they want, and they’ll be there for you forever.

That’s right, in 3 states, Bresnan Communications is down for Internet and VOIP digital telephone.  Three States!!  How the heck did this happen?

With the worlds lessons of redundancy, how is it possible that a single catastrophic event can take out service in three states?

The answer?  No One Knows!  It took 12 hours, but look at the message that they leave us on there homepage:

Thanks for pointing out the obvious Bresnan!!

Several of the local news media tried to contact Bresnan, and they were in the same boat as us – the phone lines were so jammed up, that they couldn’t get through.

Absolutely no communication with customers is bad for business.  I first recognized the problem at about 8PM.  I decided that it was a glitch in the system, and I’d look into it in the morning.

Morning rolls around, and I have partial Internet.  Fortunately I was using a public DNS server so that I could browse without relying too heavily on Bresnan.  That’s all I needed.  It was enough for me to get on Twitter, and see what the heck was going on.  And they were just as clueless as me.

Bresnan made absolutely no attempt to communicate with it’s customers about what’s happened.  They had over 12 hours (and counting) and we’ve heard nothing from them.  I’ve gotten Internet, but mail is flaky and phones are still out (business phones mind you).

And no ETA on when service will be restored.

The lesson to you:  Always keep you customers informed.  Help them.  Love them.  They are your real stockholders.  They are the reason you are in business.  Treat them better than your employees and your family (which should already be super-duper).

Leave them in the dust, and they will leave you.  Treat them well, and they will remember you forever.

I still don’t know what’s really going on, and I have enough redundancy in my plan that I’m not overly effected, just inconvenienced.  But it would be nice to have an update as to when things will be back to normal.

With President Obama visiting our town this weekend, I’m almost bound to throw a conspiracy theory out there that someone cut the hard line in the name of national security….

Remember, I treat you well by keeping you in the loop… now if I could just convince you to remember me forever

Grand Junction, Colorado is finding it’s place on the map again with President Barack Obama headed to Grand Junction for a town hall meeting on health care.

Screen Capture on Twitter of CNN Breaking News Responding to BonnieRN of Grand Junction

What’s even more impressive is how CNN found us.  Look at the screen capture above.  See the #gjco?  This is a hastag that our local Grand Junction Twitterers set up to identify local traffic, and keep each other in the loop.  Do you see how CNN used the #gjco hashtag as well?  CNN recognized how we used the #gjco hashtag, and joined in on the conversation.

This is the power of #gjco, and hashtags in general.  It’s a way to localize your message to a succinct group of people that want to hear your message, or communicate with you and your friends.

So if you’re in Grand Junction, Colorado, or just passing through, feel free to add #gjco to the end of all your tweets.  We’d love to hear from you.

And remember to keep an eye on CNN for @BonnieRN’s interview.

]]> http://www.kettlewell.net/cnn-connects-grand-junction-twitter/feed/ 26 http://www.kettlewell.net/grand-junction-tweetup-success-picnic-style/ http://www.kettlewell.net/grand-junction-tweetup-success-picnic-style/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:18:42 +0000 Matthew Kettlewell http://www.kettlewell.net/?p=2135 Thank you to everyone that attended Grand Junction’s first (and certainly not last) Picnic TweetUp over at Canyon View Park.

There were about 10-12 adults with 6-12 kids ( OK, so there were exactly 6 kids, but it seemed like more the way they ran around having fun!)

Topics were extremely casual, some were technology/twitter related, but a lot of it was just relaxing conversation, and a time to get to know each other on a more personal level.

Our hostess (whom we shall leave anonymous and nameless – for now!) was a tad bit late to the event… but we cut her some slack because she works the night shift at a nursing facility    We razed her a bit, as any good friends would do when she arrived.

We even had a special Tweep arrive all the way from Rifle ( Thanks @absynthefaerie ).  We really look forward to seeing her again at future TweetUps!  Really goes to show the strong bonds that can be formed from online connections.

As the sun set to the west, the moon came up from the east, and before we knew it the end of the party had arrived.  It was another Twitter TweetUp Success!

Thanks to everyone that was able to make it, and feel free to join us on the next Grand Junction TweetUp!


–

Grand Junction Community Blog and Business Directory Discussion.

Twitter has been so successful at pulling together the Grand Junction community that I’ve decided to use Twitter as a starting point of pulling businesses together to get some feedback on a community online presence that will help promote the Mesa County area.

I currently have the website www.GJZone.com that I’ve been using to promote the Grand Junction area, but would like to give it a clean new look, add some functionality, and make it something that the community as a whole will use and benefit from.

Ideally I’d like to have members of the Chambers of Commerce from Fruita, Grand Junction and Palisade to attend to give some of their thoughts and feedback on what they’d like to see, and how they would use it best to help promote their own towns, and Mesa County in general.

I’d like to model after a Utah Business Blog, that includes a business directory, community news, events, classifieds,  and more.  But I’d like the format to be simpler, and not offer so much that it burdens any one.

It would be really nice to get local businesses that are willing to volunteer time to write up some articles about our community, and other happenings during the course of the year that will make this community blog stand out, and help the entire valley.

But I understand that volunteering is hard to get, so if I could just get some feedback on what businesses would like to see, that would be a tremendous help as well.

Please RSVP For This TweetUp

Because the World War II memorial was put into place so late in history, many never got to see the memorial that was built in their honor.  The Honor Flight Network is a non-profit organization that is on a mission… a mission to get as many WWII vets back to Washington DC to see the memorials that were built on their behalf.

The flight will be taking off on August 25, 2009 from Grand Junction Regional Airport with 110 WWII vets from Western Colorado, and 70 guardians will be accompanying them to the memorials.

They will be returning on August 26, 2009 and a public “Hero’s Welcome” is planned at about 5:15pm.  The return flight is open to anyone in the community that would like to welcome home their hero’s

Many have forgotten, or simply never knew, the dangers that our country faced during WWII – but there are those that simply can’t forget, because they sacrificed more than anyone can imagine.

The Honor Flight Network needs two things.  1) Letters to Veterans  and 2) Donations for flights, and medical supplies (like wheelchairs and portable oxygen tanks)

If you would like to give a donation to the Western Slope Honor Flight Network, please send donations to:

The other thing that we need more of are letters to the veterans.  These are thank you letters to our WWII vets for the services that they provided us, and the freedoms that the helped to guarantee around the world.

Letters to our World War II vets can be sent to:

Vet letters are needed before August 15, 2009

If there are questions about donations to Honor Flight Network, or on sending letters to the vets, please contact us directly ( 970-985-4192) and we’ll get you in touch with the right people.

I’m going to conclude this article with my own letter to our vets.  Let this letter serve as a template or guideline in writing your own letter to a World War II veteran.

It is addressed directly to my grandfather, since I have someone from WWII that is still with us, and whom I wish to thank.  To all vets, please insert your own name too, as I thank you all, no matter what war you’ve fought.

—

Dear GrandDad,

I want to thank you for the sacrifices that you made more than 50 years ago.  At a time when my mother wasn’t even born, and I wasn’t a thought in anyones mind, yet you went over seas and did what you had to to keep America safe.  For me, my children, and my grand-children of the future.

You knew that that any sacrifice you made, would have lasting impact, and provide a better life for future generations.

I have to thank you for all that I can do today…..

I can walk down the street, without fear of the Gustapo or secret police…

I can speak on any topic I wish, left or right, and do so without fear of repercussions.

There are freedoms that we have today, that wouldn’t have been possible if the enemy had won.

I’ve seen the footage and pictures of the horrors of war, so I have a small insight into what you were faced with… but I will never know the horrors and nightmares that you kept inside, shielding us from ever having to know.

And after it all, you seemed to come through it all, and you did OK.   You were able to raise your family, the values of which I was raised with, and still hold onto to this day.

In the 35 years that I’ve been around, I don’t think that I’ve ever taken the time to thank you for the services that you’ve rendered.  I’ve always thought it, but never written nor spoken of my praise for you.

So Grandfather, I thank you for our freedom and the services you performed and the sacrifices that you made, as does millions and millions of Americans around the world.

Your grandson,

Matt

—

]]> http://www.kettlewell.net/western-slope-honor-flight-takes-off-aug-25/feed/ 72 http://www.kettlewell.net/the-dominator-visits-womens-moxie-mafia-mastermind-group/ http://www.kettlewell.net/the-dominator-visits-womens-moxie-mafia-mastermind-group/#comments Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:37:04 +0000 Matthew Kettlewell http://www.kettlewell.net/?p=1827 I  made a guest appearance at the Moxie Mafia mastermind group yesterday.  Normally the Moxie Maven runs the show, but she took a trip to Denver with our children to visit family and friends on the other side of the Colorado mountains.

Moxie Mafia is the name that this mastermind group calls themselves, and is mostly (or entirely) comprised of women business owners here in the Grand Junction area.

Being a man, I’ve never had the opportunity to talk at a womens only group, so I wasn’t really quite sure of what to expect, or even what to present.  Jennifer (the Moxie Maven) said that I should present some Internet marketing stuff, but wasn’t real clear on anything specific.

So with that, I only came prepared to answer specific questions that the ladies had for me, and that proved to be plenty.

It turns out that there were 5 ladies at this event.  Two were brand new, so with 3 of us being first timers, I knew that they’d have to cut me a little slack!

The questions started about how to build a list.  Perfect – I know quite a bit about list building, so I discussed some of the ways that a list can be built, both for a retail / brick & mortar store, as well as how you’d build an email list for an online store.

We also discussed how a facebook fan page can be used to promote an online business, and did some email forwarding from one email address to another.  This was a very hands-on business meat & potatoes meeting where questions were answered as concretely as possible.

We also discussed the use of auto-responders, like Aweber,  and how to set up a series of follow up messages, and using free (and valuable) reports to get people to subscribe to your newsletter.

One of the most important messages that I tried to portray was the art of  “Selling without selling” – the idea that if you can describe the benefits of your product or service, without even talking about your product, and you will gain their trust, and form a genuine relationship with your fans and visitors.

You will eventually sell to some of them, but it takes time, practice and patience. It is truly an art, just as most aspect of business are.

The Moxie Mafia mastermind group meets weekly at a Grand Junction business, which is currently Main Street Bagels.  If you’d like to join the weekly Moxie Mafia mastermind  event for women business owners, I recommend that you checkout the Moxie Mafia blog or contact Jennifer directly by calling her at 970-985-4192.

The Moxie Maven also wrote a step by step book on how to create your own mastermind group with social media.  Checkout the social media success book information,  it’s chock full of Social media tips

Great way to advertise your presence on Twitter!

We had another highly successful Grand Junction TweetUp at Main Street Bagels this morning, and I must say, there was a ton of energy, and a lot of happy faces.

Some of the energy could have been from the coffee and Americanos that folks were drinking, but whatever the reason, we had a high turnout and lot’s of participation.

All in all, there were 13 people in attendance, which included 11 Twitterers and 2 welcomed guests. This was roughly what we had at the last TweetUp, but this time we had some new faces, and a few of the old faces were either on vacation, or had other obligations (like work) to deal with first.

The attendees were (in no particular order):

• @DesertShaman
• @Cllecr
• @HelpMeRick
• @GJChamber
• @GatorGoddess
• @LibraryBecky
• @JunctionByrd
• @Kettlewell
• @NightShiftNurse
• @TalkingDigital
• @Scotti

And Guests were:

• Scott (@cllecr’s husband)
• Inira (@desertshamans daughter)

Twitters gathered around at about a quarter of 8, with most everyone grabbing a coffee or a bagel to munch on while the conversation began.

We didn’t have a pre-destined theme with today’s TweetUp,  but we started with just casual talk about Rick’s upcoming class on TweetDeck, and what he’d be teaching there.

Then we moved on to the uses of social media in the schools.  There were 3 teachers in our TweetUp,  so it was a natural evolution of conversation.  It started with a firewall at the school blocking Twitter, and meandered through the talks of the fine lines of censorship and freedom of expression.  The conversation did get a little bit political, but nothing too dramatic.

I think that the next TweetUp (TweetUp IV I think) should entertain the idea of a “theme” that is broad enough that a lot of extra conversation can flow around it.  Something like “Do you use Twitter for business, pleasure or both?” or “How often do you tweet?”  or “Do you tweet & drive?”…. something loosy goosy, and open for fun conversation.

I think Becky was Tweeting while Talking!

Today’s TweetUp was organized through on online application called TwtVite (Twitter Invite) that really makes the process of organizing a TweetUp a snap.  Anyone can start one, and then Tweet about it.

Just remember, use the #gjco tag at the end of your local Tweets, and the Grand Junction community will see your messages more ofter.

There isn’t another TweetUp scheduled yet, so go ahead and start one.  It’s fast, easy & fun.

As you browse through some of the pictures in this post of Dr. Greg Haitz of RimRock Chiropractic, I think you’ll get the idea of one Grand Junction business that really gets it.

What is it that attracted me most to RimRock Chiropractic?  They like to have fun. And it shows from all the effort that is put into the almost party like atmosphere.  When’s the last time you’ve gone to the doctor, and they threw a party on your behalf?

I don’t know about you, but this is a “stand out from the crowd” marketing plan if I’ve ever seen one.

And look at the pictures of Dr. Haitz, he is in the action 110%.  That is the sign of a true leader.  He doesn’t expect his staff to dress up, but leaving him in a suit. Nope. He’s “Staying Alive” with the rest of the crowd, or “Mooing” around the office as a COW!

Now,  just because they like to party like it’s 1999, doesn’t mean that’s all you get – you get 1^st class Chiropractic care and Massaging – fit for any king or queen, and even your mom and dad.

And the parties are always built around an educational theme.

This week’s “Water Days” theme, is educating on the importance of water to the body.  And with a big sign in the front that reads “Water you telling your friends about chiropractic?”, it’s hard not to pass along the message – a form of viral, or customer passed message.

The office was decorated in a semi-tropical way, with a hundred blue balloons lining the floor, water drops hanging from the ceiling,  watermelon to taste, and, of course, lots of bottled water!

Normally they would have a watermelon seed spitting contest, a tradition in many parts of the world. However, with the advent of seedless watermelon, the event was canceled, but a great discussion point all the same.

The office staff at RimRock Chiropractic gets together once a week, and discusses plans for marketing efforts and gets new ideas out there for the staff to think about.

And those of you that know me know that planning is the number one pitch that I present to all my seminars and clients.  Without a plan, there is no need for action, because failure will most certainly ensue, no matter what you do.

So how are they getting these messages out? Online marketing of course. They use traditional efforts as well, but the online presence effort I really have to commend them on their concerted and consistent effort on the many social media avenues that are available to them.

You can find RimRock Chiropractic on FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger, and even a very impressive Google profile for Dr. Haitz. I highly recommend that you take a peek and follow them online, to see an example of great marketing in real time.

I really like the way that they use FaceBook.  There is consistency, meaning that their aren’t huge gaps of time.  They are relevant.  They give a lot of great “non-sales” messages.  Information that is general purpose educational on health and wellness. 

There is also a personal side to the great doctor that shows that he has a life and a personality – one that is warm and charming.  There is also the responsiveness to replies.  Relevant responses, and interaction is what “Social media” is all about – being social.

I have to say that Dr. Haitz, and the RimRock Chiropractic team really gets it.  They use social media the way it was intended, to be social, and they use marketing approaches that stand out from the crowd.

I look forward to the next great event –  I heard rumors of a “What Ale’s you … “ event, but somehow I don’t think that beer and a doctor’s office will go together quite as well as water… Follow RimRock Chiropractic to find out what the next great event will be.

The problem that most businesses have is the growing big part… and the building a reputation part.

There are two primary parts to reputation: Quality and Quantity.

Quality addresses what you say and how you say it.  Do you finesse your words, or do you prefer to say it like it is?  No matter how you say it, you’re setting up the quality of your message.

Quantity addresses where you say it, and who says it for you.  Do you write only on your blog, or do you write articles in magazines, and trade journals?  Do you write once a month, or once a day?

So if you can find a way to have a positive reputation with high quality and sufficient quantity, you’ll be building on your company’s reputation in no time.

Does a good reputation guarantee growth?  No.  But you have a better chance of growing if you do.

So if building a reputation is a matter of quality and quantity, is there a way to combine them?

I mean to really get the word out in lots of places and with high quality that customers would like to see?

Well, sure, there’s lots of ways to get your message out there, and to get build your reputation.  You can write articles every month and submit them to article directories.  That is one way, and has a reputation for being successful.

However, I’m proposing an entirely new system of building trust with your clients and reputation for your company.

Do you happen to remember the old web-rings?  They were fairly tacky, and unprofessional, but they did serve a purpose of promoting sites. It was common in several industries in the 90’s, but none of the professional industries that I can remember.

And, before I lose your trust in me, I’m not recommending that you join one a web-ring.

They were designed to band categories of web-pages together and have a link on everyone’s page that would point to the next website in the group.

I refer to this as the website on your right, since there was often an arrow pointing to the right indicating that it would take you to the next website in the web ring.

In today’s online world, link exchanges are still popular for linking sites to one another, but they are done mostly for search engine rankings, and doesn’t help promote your reputation.

There’s also the idea of asking someone to write a review of your service or product, but tends to be limited in scope and doesn’t portray your business to it’s fullest.

So how else can we build our reputations quality and quantity, in pursuit of establishing business growth?

Well, here’s the idea that we’re putting together….

We’re pulling together several of our local social media experts (4-5 is about right), and we’re asking a common question that we all have to answer on our blogs.

This can be as simple as “What’s your favorite online social networking tool” or it can be more restrictive, like “What single online social media tool do you use to promote your business, and why”.

The kicker here is that each of us will link to each other’s blog post that is answering the same question, but giving a potentially different view or opinion.  This is a great advantage to your readers that want to get a different perspective or insight into specific topics.

Not only will this build your reputation, it will build the reputation of those that you banded together to power post with.

From an SEO and SEM perspective, each author gets extra exposure from shared readership and an increase in backlinks, which can only help in search engine rankings.

Set a schedule to do this every week, and you will get to complete the reputation cycle by combining quality with quantity.

Over time this enhanced reputation will build trust, and eventually growth in your business.

Because of the efficiency and effectiveness of this idea, and it’s Win-Win strategy for everyone, I’m honestly surprised that it’s not implemented more often.

You can bet that Kettlewell Enterprises is going to be utilizing this mechanism a lot in the near future.

Go ahead and try power posting in your industry, and let us know how it works for you.

Many of you already know that I reside here in Grand Junction, Colorado, which is halfway between Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah. Grand Junction has less than 100,000 people in the county, and can be classified by most as being a small town.

I’m a big fan of our small town, with all its beauty, and I support Grand Junction in any way I can.

As with many small towns, Grand Junction is a little bit behind the technology curve (though not as much as some), and needs a little boost at times to get things kick started. Because I’ve noticed a bump in Twitter traffic from our community, I decided to put together a blog post that can be used as a booster pack to get more Grand Junction residents and businesses started with Twitter.

If you just want the list of Grand Junction Twitter users, scroll down to the bottom and start following

I want to explain a little bit about Twitter, what it is, and how it can benefit your business.

For starters though, you need to have a Twitter account. Go here to sign up with Twitter to get your own account. Every business should have one (well, just about every business).

Twitter is what is referred to as a ‘micro-blogging’ social networking service… it’s micro in the sense that you are limited to 140 characters that you can write at a time… and it’s still available to anyone that wants to follow your messages, so it’s not private like an email is.

Twitter is a free service, so there isn’t any extra cost that your business has to contend with (unless you count the time it takes to participate, which is valid). You just have to sign-in and start “tweeting” (that’s jargon for sending messages through Twitter).

But if you have no one following you, then no one is going to hear your message, so it’s important to say things that are interesting enough that they will follow you…

Followers are the key to getting people to listen to your message. The more followers you have, the more people that can hear what you have to say. Just make sure you’re giving them something worthy to hear, otherwise you risk losing your followers.

I have over 10,000 followers… that’s 10,000 people that feel that what I have to say is important enough that they elect to listen to my tweets. I can send them any message I want, including both personal and business, but the real goal is to build a relationship with them all, and build their trust over time so that they will buy from me in the future.

Let me stress that last point – social networks like twitter are relation building tools. Don’t use it as a hard sell tool. Just be everyone’s friend, and occasionally mention that you’re having a super special weekend sale, or simply mention facts about your industry. But hard-selling is the fastest way I know of to lose your followers on Twitter.

My wife Jennifer runs Moxie Mafia, a social media blog that focuses on the ins and outs of using social networks most effectively. She also has a book on social media, so she really does know her stuff. Go check out her blog for detailed tips on how to use Twitter (and other social networks) effectively for business.

But I still haven’t addressed one critical question – Why should Grand Junction Twitterers band together?

Think of it this way…. When you have a community (in the physical sense), you attend gatherings together to share ideas and promote each other’s products. The local Farmers Market is a prime example. Look around. Do you see all those people? They are followers (in Twitter parlance), and are the ones that would be listening to your messages, or seeing what you have to promote or service to provide.

A lot of side chatter also happens at the Farmers Market, just like it will on Twitter that will provide for other opportunities… like more events (think Palisade Peach Festival).

I think you get the idea here – that Twitter is an online community, very similar to a physical community… but the online communities are becoming just as important as the physical ones, partly because of the tremendous growth, and the shift in users habits of where they visit.

Below is a list of Grand Junction Twitters that I know about, and gives all Grand Junction businesses a place to start gathering up online connections.

Think of this as your “Twitter Starter Pack” to get you a list of credible Twitterers here in the Grand Valley.

And without further ado…. Here’s the list.

Please leave your twitter address in the comments below for other Grand Junction residents to follow as well…

This only works as a two-way street!

• Matt Kettlewell (Me)
• Jennifer Kettlewell (Moxie Maven)
• Grand Junction Weather
• Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce
• Mike the Headless Chicken
• Bananas Fun Park
• Grand Junction Symphony
• Down Town Grand Junction
• Down Town Colorado
• Enstroms Toffee
• Grand Junction Colorado
• Western Slope Tickets
• Andrea Haitz
• KJCTNews8
• Kyle (Virtual Assistant)
• Heather Turnbow
• KAFM Radio
• Talking Digital
• Mike Daniels (Reporter)
• KKCO Channel 11 News
• Western Slope News
• 93.1 Magic FM Radio
• CanyonRat
• GhostOfKeywork
• NightShiftNurse
• Visionary
• FuzionMuse
• JaybirdDesigns
• HelpMeRick
• KylesSC

That’s a good list to get you started… I’ll add more as I find them, and you do your part and add your twitter name in the comments below… see you around

More GJ Twitter Updates :

• Colorado Wine Country Inn
• DesertShaman
• TalkingDigital
• SavorEachGlass
• LibraryBecky
• BimboBaggins
• Visionairey
• GJFreePress
• KBM407
• DreamTimePress
• JuliaWiddop
• WestWriters
• LisaLingo
• Cllecr
• AnniePayne
• 2MorrowsMusic
• LarchWoodInns
• MesaPartners
• CravenLovelace
• RandyFay
• SirkiTree
• WndTxn
• mesacountynews
• Karen Loughman
• Patty Bray
• LokiSeth
• mesacountywfc
• TheGrandValley
• GJEconDev
• creddin
• catherinemayer
• Renee Gibson
• Cristine Strickland
• raealea
• DoctorMerkel
• Socialbflyco
• KEKBCountry

Comment below to let me know if I left your name off the list, or to tell me of a Grand Junction Twitter user whose name should be on this list.  Some even got clever and Tweeted me that their name was left off – I encourage that too!

As long as they are semi-local – Mesa County, Western Slope, Fruita, Delta, Palisade, etc – I’m happy to add them to the list!  Be sure to check out the comments for any names that I missed.