With little time left before Santa arrives and many of us caught up in the hustle and bustle of gift giving, I’m making a special exception to my guest blogger guidelines and posting an amazing article by Maggie Keenan of givingadvice - You’ll find resourceful strategies to Give Back while doing some last minute holiday shopping. Enjoy! ~MaryPat

5 Steps to Give Meaning to Giving this Holiday Season

As the holidays approach once again, we fret and frantically rush and fight traffic to get presents for family, friends and co-workers. We make our list, some people are a lot harder than others to buy for—so we wind up with last minute shopping. Although, some of us have gotten a bit wiser and shop on-line right from the comfort of our home. Nevertheless, we still feel obligated to attend holiday cocktail get-togethers, progressive dinners, office parties and other functions, leaving little time to reflect on what we are buying or why we are REALLY going to parties.

This year, dare to do things a little different. Make this year’s season with all your giving of presents and time more meaningful. Here are some ways to do things different and make a difference at the same time.

1. Think about your Holiday gift giving list and the individuals on it and ask yourself, “What are some of the issues each person cares about?  What is important to them? Maybe someone wants to see a world without hunger, or another is concerned about literacy issues or finding a cure for a disease. Take a moment to create a list where each person is matched to a cause that you know they are passionate about. For the past few years, I’ve stopped buying presents for a few friends who I know are agriculturally-conscious. Instead they get a Share of Sheep, a Flock of Chicks from Heifer International. It feels great to give a gift that my friends like, that provides a better life for a family, and makes me feel like I helped to make a difference. You can visit them at www.heifer.org.
2. Send only holiday gift cards that benefit a charity. Most nonprofits have special holiday donation cards.
3. Skip out on the office party this year or forgo the progressive dinner.  Suggest to co-workers or friends to take that time and volunteer to wrap presents for a local organization that will give families in need gifts or perhaps, offer to deliver a meal to seniors, or help to serve at a holiday breakfast. Better yet, if you enjoy the festivities of holiday parties, consider making your office party one that  makes a difference and gives back to a cause.  There’s a great reason to attend!
4. Shop on-line for gifts that support a cause. I mentioned in a previous ezine about Up Town Liz.  I love this website as it offers special products that are great for gift giving while giving back at the same time. Visit www.uptownliz.com.
5. Lastly, resolve to make next year one that you will give a little more than you did this year. Increase it by just two percent. A company can have staff volunteer as a group at a charitable event—and wear your company t-shirts. If one of your resolutions is to take up exercise, consider training for a run that supports a charity. A few friends of mine recently took golf lessons— we wanted to learn golf and enter next year’s 24 Wishes in 24 Hours for Make A Wish Foundation.

Remember, the season is about giving.  Make this year one where you give meaning to it.

Maggie F. Keenan, Ed.D. is the Owner & Chief Giving Strategist of givingadvice^TM dedicated to providing strategic philanthropy services to small business. Through givingadvice^TM, Maggie guides businesses through a Six Step Giving IMPACT Strategy model^TM to provide a blueprint and giving strategy that is unique for each client.  She knows that businesses can make stronger and synergistic connections between their business and causes. Clients are most attracted by her passion and vision for what she sees possible for their contribution to the world.  With an uncanny ability to connect ideas, people and causes, Maggie sees opportunities all around for anyone that desires to be a force for change and businesses can play a role in that change.

Posted with permission. Copyright ©  2007. Maggie F. Keenan, Ed.D.  All rights reserved.

As a JV expert and someone who cares about the relationships, I like to know what drives you in different situations. So here is my quick question of the month:

What’s your #1 motive for sharing someone else’s promotions? 

This survey is only one question so it will only take 15 seconds of your time and will really help me out! Feel free to answer here or click through the link above and answer anonmously!

Thanks a bunch!

Now that we have covered the top 2 goals that most entrepreneurs have set this year for their social media activities, what’s left?

Goal #3: Leverage my relationships to build my business!

If you are like most of my friends, you completely understand that building relationships is the #1 key to success. You know that one relationship can increase your visibility, build your credibility, drive tons of targeted traffic to your site, and even bring you happy people who buy your services-over and over again. 

But you have reached out, created some partnerships, and left feeling like you got the short end of the stick.

It doesn’t have to be that way. When you have the right pieces in place, have the right conversations with the right people, you can create wonderful relationships with people you love and who love you-even after your “promotion” is completed.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

Here are three tips to get you on track for creating happy, profitable relationships:

1. Make sure the partnership and the opportunity “feel” right. I don’t know how to say it any other way, but use your gut! Even if you love the person, it may not be the right opportunity at this time. Trust yourself!
2. Get your entire agreement down on paper. A conversation is not enough when something goes astray. You need to discuss all the “what if’s” before you start building a product or promoting an event.
3. Communicate! Yes, this may be basic, but when partnerships start to go haywire, people quit talking. Don’t fall into this trap. Make time for your partner and always be respectful. This is like a temporary marriage of sorts.

For more information about JV management and consulting, including JV Crisis Management and Mediation, let’s talk. Call or email me at (877) 716-1469 or marypat@queenofmarketing.com and we can schedule a quick consultation.

The first goal that many people active in social media right now have is turning your network into revenue-generating traffic. For tips on how you can achieve that goal in the next 10 weeks, catch our last post.

And here’s the #2 Goal:

Goal #2:  Spend less time social networking and more time making money!

Here are five tips to save tons of time on your social networking:

1. Block out 15 minutes each day for this activity
2. Know what you are doing: posting on walls? Making new connections? Sending birthday wishes? This will help you target your time and not get distracted.
3. Create a system for what to do and when: accept friend requests on Mondays & Thursdays, respond to messages on Tuesdays & Fridays, build new friends & post on walls on Wednesdays.
4. Don’t do it yourself! If you have a system, why can’t your VA or even your teen help out?
5. Turn your virtual friends into real friends! Pick up the phone at least twice each week to talk to some of your new friends. Build those relationships now before you need to sell something. Promotions will be much easier later on.

For more assistance with your social networking to save time, build relationships and start making money, check out the KickStart Coaching program. This program dives into a different topic each month to help use social media to build relationships and even offers private coaching as well.

Did you set goals for 2009? Where are you at? Here are 3 popular goals with some tips to help you achieve these goals in the next 12 weeks!

Goal #1: Turn my social networking friends into buyers.

Here are 5 steps to social media success that work for everyone, no matter your business or your personality!

1. Build a profile that ATTRACTS the right people.
2. Build your network with quality, not quantity. Make sure you know who you want to connect with. It’s about strategy and it’s not random.
3. Build your visibility through activities like wall posts and comments and having conversations.
4. Build your credibility through sharing good information-yours and others.
5. Build traffic by blogging, integration and good conversations (yes, conversations warrant being listed twice)

It’s not too late to participate in my “30 Days to Create & Automate a Traffic Generating System” This is a 4 week bootcamp where I teach you my step-by-step proven system that takes your social networking, builds relationships and drives massive traffic to your site to buy your products and services.

Yes, this program started last week and we are recording all of the calls, so you won’t miss a thing if you can’t clear your schedule! For more information, check out the sales page now!

Blogging is a foundational tool in your online marketing campaign. And you should be blogging everyday if you can. This will build quick visiblity, credibility & traffic to your site. It can also drive traffic from your social networks into your marketing funnel when you do it the right way. In fact, if you need a kick in the pants for your blogging, it’s not too late to jump into my good friend, Sandra Martini’s 30 Day Blog Challenge–and it’s free!

But are you using your blog to build relationships?

Here are 3 simple ideas to take your blogging to a new level:

1. Live on the edge! Ask pointed questions that will inspire people to respond to your thoughts and your topic. When your readers respond, always acknowledge their responses–even when you don’t agree. These conversations may be the first steps in new connections.

2. Talk about others in your posts! I don’t want you spamming, but feel free to share other experts opinions on your blog. Add your own commentary, of course. Make sure to include a link to her original post or social media page for quick reference and then let her know you just mentioned her on your blog (sent her a Tweet or post on her Facebook wall/page).

3. Invite upcoming experts to be “Guest Bloggers” on your site. Make sure they are either writing original content for you or repurposing at least 30% of the content for your readers. Allow them to incl ude a small bio box and their photo at the end of their articles with a link. Quickly, you will have other experts promoting your site and thanking you for the opportunity to build their own audience! And we haven’t even gotten into the time-savings opportunities…

Do you see the win-win-win in each of these ideas? When you are leading from a place of “shared abundance” and you value your community and relationships in your business, great things will come!

StumbleUpon is one of the best-kept secrets in the social networking world. Probably because it’s not really a “networking” tool. SU is a bookmarking tool that was designed to sort and tag favorite sites. It has evolved into a great resource to drive traffic to your site and to build fantastic relationships.

And you get start using this tool in just a couple of easy steps:

1. Go to www.StumbleUpon.com and download the toolbar. It takes a few minutes and will make bookmarking the easiest social media activity you do.

2. Take your “hot JV” list and visit their blogs and web sites. You are looking for valuable content that is relative to your expertise and your audience. When you find a good article or post, give a “thumbs up”. If you are the first person to rate the page/post, then you will also be able to add your commentary.

3. Spend 2 minutes each day reviewing blog posts, articles and videos from your friends and mentors (you should be doing this no matter what social media tools you are using to build your visibility & credibility) and “Stumble” your favorites. Then you can tweet about them and/or share them on Facebook as well.

This “secret” really only takes a minute for each site/article/post you bookmark. The best part is that everything that you rate will also be kept in your account for future reference! The theory is that you will bookmark your “friends” great content and add your commentary and they will do the same for you. Please note your friends may not be active on StumbleUpon, but other great people are. This is a great opportunity to increase your cirle of influence and circulate in new groups!

We have spent the last month discussing how to build content that drives traffic. One of my favorite, high-ranking social media sites is Scribd.com. This is a document hosting site that Google and Yahoo LOVE. In fact, when you upload your press releases, articles, power-points and even excell spreadsheets, the search engines will start scouring and assessing your document for good content almost immediately.

Scribd is a content sharing site that utilizes some bookmarking and networking features to maximize the reach and build credibility & visibility much faster for you than some other sites.

Scribd is also in the process of adding a sync feature with Twitter and Facebook that will definitely build exposure for them and your content on the site.

Best of all, it only takes about 2 minutes to login and upload your weekly ezine article or your latest free teleseminar presentation to start building quality traffic back to your site.

Have you ever partnered with a friend thinking that you could combine your efforts and really leverage your relationship to create more traffic, exposure and even more money in your pockets? But afterwards you felt like you got the raw end of the deal?

This happens all the time. I was talking to a close friend the other day about a “partnership” that she had recently entered into. At first glance, it seemed like a great deal because she was adding benefits to a program that she didn’t think she could offer herself and she got to partner with a really cool friend.

But afterwards, she felt like she was the one doing most of the work without the recognition or the benefits while still splitting the profits 50/50.

Can you relate?

Well, there are 5 steps that I recommend that all potential partners must discuss, come to an agreement and write down before making the “partnership” official.

Step 1: Know Your Purpose: What is the point of the partnership/JV? What do you want to create together? Know what you are doing and why so that you can stay on track. Otherwise, entrepreneurs often get caught up in the potential of what “could” happen if only….

Step 2: Who is the driver? Usually, people come together, brainstorm and create great ideas and think that everything is 50/50. But almost all the time, this is not the case. I strongly suggest that you decide who the driver is, and allow the others to be passengers. Even if the partnership feels even, you must decide who gets what in a worst-case scenario.

Step 3: Who is doing what? Know what everyone’s responsibilities are and be clear about what each person brings to the table. Lay out who is in charge of the creative, the promotions, setting up the event on Facebook, Tweeting, etc. Evaluate these items regarding before, during and after the event and/or promotion. Include what each person will do during the relationship: promotion, creation, expenses, etc.

Step 4: What’s the Win? Be clear about the win (motivator) for each participant. Remember that often the best JV’s are motivated by more than just money including list building, visibility, credibility and even “new pools of influence.” Note that these are the tools used to evaluate a successful partnership in the end.

Step 5: How will I be compensated? If the “win” for each partner is money, then who gets how much? But if the “win” is list-building, you must be clear from the beginning who will host the list, how/when it will be forwarded to the partner, etc. Whichever the “wins”, be clear about the compensation on all levels. Always compensate appropriately and respectfully.

Step 6: OK—so there’s one more step here and this is the most important one: Write it down. After you have had a conversation and made decisions together on each of these steps, write them all down. This is really the most important step since our memories are just not perfect. This also allows for confusion to be  cleared up at the beginning of the relationship instead of the middle or the end.

There are so many great opportunities for all of us to connect and create wonderful collaborations for ourselves and for our collective audiences. And when you take these six simple steps at the beginning of a joint venture, partnership or any similar business relationship, you are sure to have great success, profitability and happiness together!

To access my Partnership/JV Agreement template, click here to download it now for free!

Interested in building your business through Joint Ventures, but not sure how to structure the relationship, or put an agreement into place? I’ve decided to make available to my readers the template I use when putting together Partnership Agreements, so enter your email below and grab them now!