Gmail keeps coming out with these new features and now they have something called Priority Inbox. Priority Inbox sorts all your important emails into one section so you can get to the important stuff first and leave the unimportant stuff for later.

With anything program, you can “train” which emails should be marked a priority. A simple click is all it takes to mark a message as important or not. A yellow marker means it’s important and unread, a grey marker means an important message has been read or archived and no market means it’s not important.

If you use filters, you can mark certain senders as “Always mark it as important” or “Never mark it as important”. You can even customize your sections by important, starred and everything else. For example, you can have a section for business, family and friends.

And if you prefer not to use Priority Inbox, you can go into your Settings and click on the Priority Inbox tab and choose “Do not show Priority Inbox” and don’t forget to click “Save”.

If you suffer from Gmail email box overwhelm, this is a great feature to use!

~Sophia

Like many things, using anything properly will only yield successful results. There are many right and wrong ways of using Twitter.

People who use keywords to find and follow people related to their niche must not just rely on their keywords or key phrases. It’s important to visit the person’s page and read their profile, maybe click on their website and take the time to read their Twitter stream.

I often wonder how people find and follow me and I’ve come to the conclusion it’s based mostly on their keyword search. I had mentioned a job lead called “Basketball Logger” and the next day NBANewsUpdate is following me. I could care less about basketball and it’s so not related to my niche. If I’m casually chatting with friends about dogs, there’s no reason why I should get a sudden surge of dog followers, but you know I do.

I understand using keywords is helpful when it comes to finding and following new people to connect with, but make sure you take the extra steps to ensure you are following the right people for the right reasons.

~Sophia

At times you are likely to encounter a stubborn customer or two. It is important to not give into customer demands…especially if those demands go against your Direct Sales Company Policy or Business Policy.

You want to be nice to your customer but firm with issues regarding customer policy. Don’t cave-in just because they threaten to go elsewhere. It is better to stay within your business policy guidelines than to step outside of them and get into trouble.

Shelly

I am constantly amazed at what people publicly post on their Twitter pages, Facebook pages and their personal blogs. However, people need to realize that people do read this information and it can shed a very bad light on you and your business if you are not careful about what you are posting. Furthermore, your posts will be archived and indexed by search engines for years to come…even if you delete it.

It is really inappropriate to use abusive language on these types of social media sites and when a potential customer or client stumbles upon your words…trust me, they will move on to the next person who can service their needs.

So our tip for this week deals with watch what you post & say on various social media sites…including your business & personal blogs.

Shelly

A great way to get your blog seen and your blog posts noticed is getting a social bookmarking or share button. If you use WordPress, there are many social bookmarking plugins you can choose from. For other blog platforms, you can use AddThis.com, AddToAny.com and ShareThis.com.

Another popular one to use with Twitter is TweetMeme.com. A simple click of the button retweets a blog post.

Plugins can be easily installed on WordPress blogs, but if you have Blogger.com you can also easily add any social bookmarking tool yourself.

To install a share button on your Blogger.com (Blogspot) blog follow these simple instructions. This will add the button at the end of all of your blog posts.

1. Click on “Design” and click on “Edit HTML”
2. Tick off “Expand Template Widget”
3. Scroll down till you find < div class='post-footer' > Copy and paste the code of your share button right after post footer line.
4. Click “Preview” and see where it’s on your blog and then click “Save Template” when you are satisfied with the placement of your button.

And that’s it! You and anyone coming across your blog can share your blog posts.

~Sophia

Today I would like to share a home business tip with you that I feel is very important…especially if you are networking and/or doing business online.

When online, you will come across many self-professed work at home experts and guru’s but you need to be careful in who you trust.

I have been networking and working online for 14 years and I can personally tell you that I have run into way too many to count folks who claim to be an expert in home business, business coaching, training, etc. Most of these times, these folks have had NO professional training and ‘think’ that after 1-2 years of running a home business, that it qualifies them to be an expert. As you can see…it is a big problem online.

My tip & advice to you today is this…if you are thinking about buying someone’s ebook, coaching or training services, you really need to check this person out. Ask them for references, educational/training background etc. You can not take their word on it nor can you figure out if they are legit or not.

Anyone can make a name for themself online…good or bad and when it’s bad…it takes some time to come out.

So always proceed with caution & ask for references and check them out before signing up or purchasing anything from home business guru’s or self-proclaimed experts.

Shelly

Customer satisfaction is everything or is it? I have learned that you can’t always bend over backwards and serve your customers. You have to stick to what you believe in.

I’m the kind of person who likes to please everyone and would do anything to make it more convenient for them, but it has its disadvantages because not everyone is going to accept your generosity for what it’s really worth. Some would take your kindness and say, “See ya later, sucker!”

Back when I had just started with my forum, I deleted a forum that I felt I was moderating too much because things were posted that didn’t belong. To make it easier, I decided that one forum for advertising would be sufficient and it would solve my extra work problem.

A member sent me a private message stating her disappointment in my decision. Being the pleaser that I am, I turned to my moderators for advice. Can you believe that? A member complained and I jumped. A moderator brought it back into perspective…

1. It’s my forum
2. You can’t please everyone
3. Who else has complained

The answer to #3? One.

The question to ask yourself is it worth it to change your decision for one or several customers? Yeah, it’s fantastic to be known as providing beyond your expectations customer satisfaction, but you also have to have enough respect and value for yourself to not let people walk all over you.

~Sophia

Twitter is an online popular social media web site that has become the flavor of the day in regards to marketing your home business, communicating with clients and customers and so forth.

A popular trend on Twitter is for home business owners to set up tweet later accounts. If you are not familiar with this, you can set up tweets to go out various times to your twitter followers whether you are online or not. There are several online sites that offer this type of tweet later application.

I believe that setting up tweets to go out when you are not online or too busy to tweet…however, you need to change them frequently. If you are tweeting the same 20 tweets over and over for days on end, it will irritate your twitter followers and many will quit unfollowing you.

Just like your web site and blog, your tweets need to include updated content often. If you are using a tweet later type of application, I suggest changing your content at least every 2-3 days if not more frequently.

Your followers don’t want to waste their valuable time reading and seeing the same handful of tweets from you over and over.

What are your thoughts?

Shelly

Customer service is so critical for anyone’s business whether you deal with customers solely online, offline or both.

There’ll be a time when the customer isn’t always right, but it’s best to hold your tongue lashing and keep your opinions to yourself. This is common business sense.

There are ways to diplomatically deal with problem customers and choosing your words carefully will make all the difference.

*When you say the customer is the only one that has complained about something, it makes you sound arrogant. Instead say something like you appreciate the feedback and are always looking for ways to improve.

*Don’t be vague on your information or use big words. Be concise when you’re providing information.

*Don’t make excuses for yourself. Your customers don’t care and why should they? Own up to your responsibilities and be accountable for your actions. Show them you are a professional and you take your business seriously.

*It’s a bit tricky when it comes to policies or terms of service. Depending on the situation, you may have to show some flexibility by breaking your own policies or TOS. Again, use your discretion.

*When you make things difficult for your customers to buy, return or contact you most times you end up losing the sale or referral. Keep it simple and pleasant.

~Sophia

Not a business tip today, but just a shout out to all the Moms everywhere

Happy Mother’s Day! Be good to yourself, enjoy what’s around you and don’t sweat it because there’s always Monday.

~Sophia & Shelly