Improve Your Business Presence During These Times

Steve Ripper and Dave Hodgdon from Portsmouth Computer Group (PCGIT) discuss improving business presence during COVID-19.Tips include using social media and creating the right messaging.

Mike: Our good friends, Steve Ripper and Dave Hodgdon join us via the remote locations, undisclosed locations, wherever you guys are. Let’s talk a little bit about businesses because businesses are in a tough situation. We know that, you know that, and you’ve been trying to work very hard to help these companies in these challenging times. Let’s talk about some of the ways that people can kind of improve their presence during these times.

I know some of these businesses are on limited hours now. I mean, the restaurants, of course, they’re just in the delivery and takeout mode. But, a lot of the other businesses are now even limiting the amount of people that can actually go into a store, like the grocery stores or like Walmart or Target, things like that. So, let’s talk about some of the new ways that companies can improve their presence during these times, because it is very challenging, guys, right?

Using Social Media to Improve Presence

Steve: Yeah, it really is. It really is, Mike. So, I mean, I don’t think this is news to anybody, but social media has never been more powerful or bigger than at this moment. You could even make the argument that it’s holding people together, it’s holding society together a little bit. So, social media, if you’re a company out there and you didn’t really want to get too deep into social media, maybe you didn’t really want to think about it or go near it, wasn’t worth your time, now it is the time.

Now, you can get in there and that’s a way that you can get your company’s name and your presence and your visibility out there for that. Right, Dave?

Dave: Absolutely. But, part of that technology, Mike, is you have to be careful and set a precedent for what you allow your staff to use or not use because they have a lot of free time at home. They could be online with friends, family, maybe some people that aren’t even sure and they’re saying, “Hey, I’m doing my payroll from home today.” That’s not a good thing to be saying because these bad actors that we spoke about here, now they’re finding access to get you.

So, just make sure you are careful what you do and say on your social media because I don’t think you’re on alert as high, as when being at the business you’re a little more lax being at home with everything going on.

Mike: Yeah, I was going to say that too. I wonder how many people are putting in full days at home working. I mean, I get it, I understand. We have the technology to work at home, but there seems to be too many other distractions at home sometimes.

Dave: Way too many.

Mike: Yeah, and I think that’s the downside of working at home. I mean, think about it. I mean, we talked about this last week. If we didn’t have any of the technology, say 10, 15, 20 years ago, I mean, it would be a total shutdown of business. Nobody would be to work at home, right?

Dave: The economy, it would be bad. I think the mental state of so many people would just be bad. We’re fortunate that we can do this.

Mike: Yeah. One of the things that you-

Steve: Yeah, I would jump in real quick though on the side of employees. I would say this to you, Mike, as an employee. I think every employee goes through the moment of when they’re at home and then they’re like, “Oh, I could just go upstairs and make a sandwich or go do something like this or play with my kid.” But then, pretty much every employee gets the idea, there’s a moment that you get where you’re like, “If I don’t do some work, if I don’t do my work, if I don’t produce, I could be home permanently.”

Mike: Yeah, good point.

Steve: So, every employee kind of goes through a moment where they go, “There are distractions, but I need to ignore those distractions and get things done the same way I do when I’m at the office.”

Mike: Yeah, that’s a good point. You guys have also mentioned the powerful use of podcasts during this time. Talk about that for a second.

Dave: I think, Mike, that’s one of the most imperative things any business should be doing. Personally, I’m doing two educational podcasts a week and really making it educational, making it insightful because there are many things going on. I think you should be putting those on your website, push those through your social media outlets. But, people are sensitive, so you need to be careful of what you’re saying and just make it useful information that they could use, “Oh, that’s a good idea. Oh, I hadn’t thought about that.” I think we’re finding that when we send out people, they’re thankful in a way we’re not trying to push things on, we’re just trying to educate them.

Mike: So when you say you’re putting out, say, two educational podcasts per week from Portsmouth Computer Group in your role from what you do, who are you directing that to right now?

Dave: A lot of it is going toward our existing client base of just things they need to be thinking about. Like, maybe we’ll talk about teams, talking about security, or working from your home, or what to do or not to do on social media, just as Steve mentioned, from working from home with your employee.

So, a lot of this is used toward your current customer base, but we’re also using it to throw email and campaigns toward potential prospects just to give them some education. If you give them tips and tricks, when there’s an opportunity maybe to earn their business, our name might be top of mind for them.

Updated Websites to Improve Presence

Mike: Yeah. Websites nowadays, I mean, with all the information that you need to do and keep your website updated, that has to be a very crucial part of someone’s business now, directing people to websites and making sure that information is there and especially updated and kept current.

Dave: Mike, that’s one of the bigger things I’d recommend to everyone out there and their website. So many websites are stale, have not been touched, their social media is not there, there’s no new landing pages. We are consistently changing content for our site almost every day.

That’s very helpful for the SEO search engines, that if you’re putting relevant data, relevant content that is a value to the people that are searching the web, you’ll rank better, you’ll get more visits to your site. Just think about it. If you’re putting good posts, you’re doing good videos, you’ll get a certain audience to start trailing your website.

Mike: Yeah, we’re speaking to Steve Ripper-

Steve: Yeah, and it’s…

Mike: … and Dave Hodgdon from Portsmouth Computer Group. They’ve got locations in Portsmouth and Dover, and now in Manchester and Portland, Maine. What were you going to say, Steve?

Steve: I was just going to add to that website. Now is a great time for companies to really think about their website because many of the website developers, the graphic designers, they’re perfectly positioned right now to also do the work. They can work from home, they’re doing these website designs, they can pretty much do it from anywhere.

So, it’s a really great time if you’ve been ignoring your website, kind of letting it slide and it’s got a little bit, maybe it’s 10 years, the design itself is 10 years old. Now is a great time to kind of update and get your data out there and get those web developers working for you.

Communicating with Employees and Protecting User Safety

Mike: Yeah. Well, the big thing that people are doing now and companies are doing now, they can’t meet and hold meetings in the conference room anymore. They can’t get together, so everybody who’s working at home, they log on to, whether it’s Facebook Live or Zoom conferencing, they’re holding these meetings and they’re holding their strategy sessions via conference calls, via video conference calls. This is the new way, the new normal now. Talk about that for a second.

Steve: Yeah, it is the new normal. There’s all kinds of new etiquette rules that are popping up in terms of when you turn your camera on, when is it okay to not turn your camera on? You’re seeing people who are in the meeting right away, you’re seeing some employees will struggle, “How do I do that? I’ve never had to do that. It’s changed.”

So, you’re seeing a lot of different new ways of working that companies are getting used to. Then, there’s this whole new concept of dealing with the security involved. Since we didn’t have to worry about really doing a whole lot of video conferencing for meetings with employees, maybe companies did it with other companies, salespeople for salespeople, but now you’re doing it across employees, and now there’s all kinds of security concerns.

We’re seeing in the news, Mike, a lot of these Zoom bombing where they’ll have a Zoom meeting and there’ll be all companies in there, and then people will just invade it. Hackers will just invade and put up inappropriate content.

Mike: Yeah.

Steve: So, there’s a lot of that we’re seeing on the news. That’s pretty much Zoom, the companies like Teams. Those big companies have to solve those security requirements, but we’re seeing a lot of that now. A few tips…

Mike: I was going to say that, so Dave, the Zoom company, they’ve got to do more to protect user safety. Is that correct?

Dave: Absolutely. I mean, it’s like anything. Microsoft Teams hasn’t had it, but you can guarantee people are looking for it, and you just have to have your swords up and be ready to pair this fight. But, some of the tips on the collaboration, Mike, is your users have to… I’ve seen many sessions I’ve been in where the mic doesn’t work, the camera’s not working, they’re not dressed appropriately. The background behind them is very messy.

Think about being in a professional presence. That if you’re having meetings. I’m encouraging my staff to dress like they normally would, make sure that you’re being professional and have that image of what you’re trying to protect, because there’s doing a call, you’re in your pjs, there’s a mess behind you. That’s not a good thing.

So, be prepared, make sure the mic sounds good, make sure the camera’s working. Some homes that are struggling with the internet connection. It’s very choppy. So, just test it out before you have a big meeting.

Mike: Yeah. We’re seeing there’s a lot of use on some of these internet connections in the bandwidth sometimes. I mean, sound dropping out, I’ve seen it before. As you say, some pictures are a little bit sharper than others, I guess.

Dave: Absolutely.

Mike: Yeah. All right.

Dave: A couple other, one more tip, Mike.

Mike: Yeah.

Email Campaigns to Improve Presence

Dave: Is on the email campaigns with your website, there are great companies out there. We’re personally using HubSpot, but look at Constant Contact, MailChimp. There are great services that you can use to get your message out there to your clients. So, build that database, get proper names and contacts, and start getting your name out there, right? Why sit still? You need to be proactive right now.

Mike: Absolutely. So if your company needs help or gunnish, call the guys. Call Steve, call Dave at Portsmouth Computer Group: 431-4121. That’s 431-4121, they’ll help you out. Go to their website, pcgit.com. Dave and Steve, all part of our broadcast today, all part of Tech Tuesday. Guys, thank you for joining me. Stay positive, stay strong, stay healthy. We’ll talk to you next week.

Dave: Have a great day.

Steve: Thank you, Mike.

Mike: All right, boys, take care.