On January 20, 2010 a post entitled 9 Powerful Social Networking Sites for Women Entrepreneurs was published by A.Michelle Blakeley. It was quickly picked up by several other bloggers. Many twittered its, including me.

As it goes, it’s a good list. The problem for me is that [...]]]> Warning:  I’m probably going to ruffle a few feathers here…

On January 20, 2010 a post entitled 9 Powerful Social Networking Sites for Women Entrepreneurs was published by A.Michelle Blakeley. It was quickly picked up by several other bloggers. Many twittered its, including me.

As it goes, it’s a good list. The problem for me is that it primarily focuses on only one type of social networking site–membership, subscription sites (free and paid) focused on women business owners. Don’t get me wrong–there’s a need for these types of sites, and I’d one more for entrepreneur women, Make Mine a Million $ Business(which works 1000% better in Firefox than Explorer). The problem is if we only talk with each other, our vision will be limited.

And that’s what women business owners need–a vision bigger than the one they hold right now.  We need to understand how business has worked for centuries and at the same time bring our own stamp to it. We need to join together to focus on bigger issues, including making our voices heard. With the recent Supreme Court ruling on corporate spending the road is open for more corporate financial influence in politics. Whether or not you agree with the ruling isn’t the point, the point is that we, as women business owners have an opportunity. Unfortunately, we don’t have any money–our businesses substantially under-perform men’s businesses on a regular basis.

If we want to change that, chances are we’re not going to learn everything we need to know from each other.  We need to go beyond our comfort zone and learn new ways. The groups cited in  9 Powerful Social Networking Sites for Women Entrepreneurs are good groups–and there are many more out there. But let’s find the groups and social networking forums that stretch us.  Start with groups around your own industry, such as health and construction. Yes, join the women’s groups, but get involved in the larger groups as well.

I’d love to hear your suggestions! Comment below.

1.  Make it personal.  Let us know who is behind the company. Provide pictures. Why [...]]]> As a business coach, I routinely look at my client’s websites from a marketing perspective.  It’s prompted me to offer these tips for the woman entrepreneur. Take a look at your website and see if you have all of these covered!

1.  Make it personal.  Let us know who is behind the company. Provide pictures. Why should we “know, like and trust” you?

2.  Make sure all your fonts are the same.  Use a sans serif font, like Ariel, rather than a serif font, like Times New Roman.  It makes you look more professional.

3.  Make it clear who your target market is.  This is particularly true if you are afraid to define your niche.  The result is very fuzzy language that could apply to anyone and no one relates to.

4.  Make sure you are collecting good statistics.  Google Analytics is good and free.

5.  Know your keywords and use them…a lot.  Particularly in the first four paragraphs of your pages.

6.  Know what you want people to do when they come to your site.  Make it specific.  “Contact Us for a Free Coaching Session” as a link is much more effective than a generic “Contact Us” page with an email address.

7.  Make your site about your customers, not about you.  Is your site filled with “I” and “We” statements? Frankly, your customer doesn’t care. They are looking at your site with only one thing in mind…what can you do for me?

Those are just the top seven that come to mind.  Anyone have any others that they’d like to add?