Invotrak: The Online Invoicing Blog

Are you using (or considering expanding) your social media presence to find customers?  There’s a lot of promise in things like Twitter, but making it work for your business requires a certain finesse and creativity that may require some thinking.

Invotrak could benefit from better social media exposure.  Of course, we’d rather spend our time building a better product than promoting it on Twitter (or regularly updating this blog!), but we recognize the need for a presence.  You may be in the same boat as us.

First, some words of advice.  If you’re considering outsourcing your social media efforts to an expert, beware of the pitfalls.  BusinessWeek’s article Beware Social Media Snake Oil has some great advice:

The problem, according to a growing chorus of critics, is that many would-be guides are leading clients astray. Consultants often use buzz as their dominant currency, and success is defined more often by numbers of Twitter followers, blog mentions, or YouTube (GOOG) hits than by traditional measures, such as return on investment. This approach could sour companies on social media and the rich opportunities it represents. “It’s a bit of a Wild West scenario,” blogs David Armano, a consultant with the Dachis Group of Austin, Tex. Without naming names, he compares some consultants to “snake oil salesmen.”

Next, now that you’re properly armed, start your own creative process.  Smart companies have found ways to engage customers using Twitter, and Inc Magazine profiles several of them:

Most business that use Twitter think of it mostly as a promotional tool, a way to announce new products, perhaps gain readers for a blog. But some smarter companies are actually using Twitter to sell products, such as Dell Corp., which recently acknowledged that it had made $3 million in sales in two years over Twitter, primarily by posting coupon numbers for discounts of 10 percent or more on Dell Outlet items.

One of the main goals I’ve been putting off is to make better use of our own Twitter stream.  Typically, we post short updates (like when we launch a new feature), but I’d love to have more useful general information as well.

Are you using social media for your business?  What novel, creative things have you tried?  Did something you try not work out as you expected?  Be sure to also let us know what you think we could do with the Invotrak Twitter account.

Does your business rely on big holiday sales?  Many do, and if yours is one of them you’re undoubtedly gearing up now.  This Friday is the (in)famous Black Friday sales day that often marks the official kickoff for the holiday buying season.

Inc Magazine has a handy set of tips to help you maximize your holiday sales (and profits).  Learn “how to distinguish your small business during the holiday season, how to develop a sales plan for the holidays, and how to use marketing strategies — including online — to boost holiday sales.”

With a down economy and high unemployment, anyone relying on holiday sales will need all the help they can get.  Hopefully this list helps you get on the right track.

There’s a good overview in the Wall Street Journal today on collecting overdue payments in tough times.  As the economy hits more people harder and harder, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get paid for your work.  In good times, it’s usually not difficult to get paid, but these days it’s much tougher.

The article suggests a few strategies I’ve pointed out in the past, starting with setting a policy before you begin working with a client:

This policy may include when payments are due — preferably, no more than 30 days after a service or good is provided — and how overdue bills will be handled.

Within a couple days of an invoice going overdue, you should begin the process of contacting the delinquent client and working out when payment will be received.  Starting with phone calls that ask for an ETA on payment, then following up with written notices in the mail (using “the big red-white-and-blue Priority Mail envelopes from the Postal Service … since they relay urgency and garner more attention than a regular plain white envelope”).

If a client still isn’t paying their bills, then the next step is to consider using a collections agency.

The Wall Street Journal: Better Collection Policies Are Past Due For Many