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February 4th, 2010 
lance4hire And I am not immune
by Sara
Intuit isn’t dumb.In fact, they’re freakin’ brilliant.
They’ve got this thing going called the “Love A Local Business” contest. A local business can win a $35,000 grant – a dream for an entrepreneur. I mean, THINK what you could do with that money! All that’s needed is votes from people who know your business. Yes, it’s an unadulterated popularity contest.
My husband does amazing stonework, providing dreamscapes for homeowners and commercial applications. He also does water features and rainwater harvesting. We run the business together. We do a pretty good job. Well, he does an incredible job, and I just try to be a shortcut for him so he can concentrate on what he does best. On the side, I do writing gigs and drop into the Hot Tub whenever I can.
We keep overhead low. It’s just the only way we care to operate – and the only way we could operate in the current economic climate.
So when we come upon an opportunity to get ahead with little or no investment, we jump on it. We entered the contest and immediately canvassed our social media connections.
Like I said, Intuit isn’t dumb. Not only do they provide a custom URL to post in emails and on social networking sites, they provide web site banners and how-to tips for social sharing. Of course, the expected side effect, is with all our canvassing, we’re becoming a bigger name dropper than Hilary Rowland. I never in my life felt compelled to tweet about Intuit. I’ve never once mentioned the company in all my travels in Facebook, LinkedIn and Digg. Except today.
Even more brilliant, Intuit provided us with a site to monitor the comments our fans provide and our current ranking. The more we see happening, the more we think we actually stand a chance and naturally, the more ways we want to find to get the word out about – not merely a contest – an Intuit contest. I even joined networking sites I wasn’t on before. Yeah, like I really need MORE.
I heart Elemental Stone and Waterworks. Please vote for us. Please. No, really.
And consider doing a similar contest for your business. As far as viral marketing, it’s as organic as you can get. And it works.
Technorati will tell you it will take some time to investigate your blog claim – don’t worry, they won’t send a claims adjuster to your office or anything like that. You will, however, receive an email with your Secret Squirrel instructions. You’ll be given a “token code,” which you will put into a blog post. Then hit “publish.” When you tell it to go ahead, Technorati will crawl your site, find the code, and verify you are a human blogger who actually owns that blog. That’s it.
This whole social media thing is kinda crazy. I did it before I knew what it was. Years ago, I was at an open mic event in downtown Fort Myers in a hookah bar with cushions all over the floor. The emcee, now a good friend of mine, made an announcement asking for participants’ email addresses and MySpace usernames. It was the first time I heard about MySpace. I went home and tried it out. I spent far too much time. It was silly. But the most important thing is I was turned on to this easy and dynamic way to get in touch with people. 
I would posit another law that if you have whimsical keyword combinations tucked away in the archives, it can keep your stats from bombing altogether. The #1 search words people get to my blog with are “guerilla resume.” It’s interesting, but I’m sure those folks are disappointed when they get to my “old fashioned restaurant menu,” which is another popular search set. I also feel pretty bad for anyone looking for any type of “steamy hot tub action.” But if they’re searching “bad jokes” they might just be in the right place.
