Let AFP build your Facebook Brand Timeline … for only $99!
Facebook has opened the power of Timeline to business, industry and nonprofits.
Act now – 0nly $99!
You may have noticed something new with your Business Facebook Page. Facebook is now allowing businesses to change to its Timeline design – similar to what it already rolled out for personal Facebook pages.
Whether you’re ready or not, the changes will automatically go into effect on your page on Friday, March 30. Read more
Upcoming AFP web, marketing classes
Augusta Free Press will offer two classes in its Building the Machine 101 web-marketing series this week.
On Wednesday, the topic will be Setting Up a Business Facebook Page 101. The 8:30-9:30 a.m. class goes into the basics of setting up a Facebook page for businesses and nonprofits. Read more
AFP sponsors 2012 Business Showcase
Augusta Free Press LLC is a major sponsor of the Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce 2012 Business Showcase.
The Showcase will be held at the Best Western Inn & Suites Conference Center in Waynesboro on Thursday.
The event is free and open to the public from 1-5 p.m. Read more
Debut: AFP Web TV
Augusta Free Press debuts AFP Web TV with a segment featuring owners Chris and Crystal Graham talking about the 10-year anniversary of AFP, details on the upcoming Building the Machine 101 classes being offered by AFP Business and the premieres of several new AFP web TV commercials.
AFP produces TV spot for 2012 Business Showcase
Augusta Free Press produced the TV commercial spot for the Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce 2012 Business Showcase.
The spot will air on WHSV-TV3 and Comcast. The 2012 Business Showcase is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 9, from 1-5 p.m. at the Best Western Waynesboro Inn & Suites Conference Center. Read more
Chris Graham: This song is about you
“I hate hearing myself talk.” “I don’t like to talk about myself.” “I don’t want people thinking I’m too vain.”
Got it. Just because you own your own small business, you don’t want people thinking that you think the world revolves around you.
Or maybe you’re just, well, shy.
Whatever it is, you need to get over it.
Me personally, I’m painfully shy. (Those who know me but don’t know this about me can stop snickering … eventually.)
And when I say painfully shy, I mean that I make my wife call in pizza orders and meet the driver at the door – yeah, that kind of shy.
I overcome being shy in a very public job by tricking myself into doing what I need to do to be successful.
1. I hate hearing myself talk. My voice is too nasal for my liking when I hear it on a recording. I also sound a lot more Southern than I think I do in the course of a normal conversation. So yeah, I hate the sound of my voice, too. Funny thing – nobody likes hearing their own voice played back to them. That’s normal.
2. I don’t like to talk about myself. Great, but if I don’t talk about myself in a business context, why should I expect anybody else to talk about me?
3. I don’t want people thinking I’m too vain. You probably think this song is about you, right? I love that song. (It’s not about me.) Talking about yourself, touting your skills, selling your business to potential customers and clients, is not vanity. Consider it a necessary evil.
It’s not enough to be good, damn good, the best at what you do. If you believe in yourself, your confidence will show through in conversations with people, in your business website and in your direct-mail, newspaper, radio and TV marketing.
One other way that I trick myself into being able to do this is by convincing myself that I need to play the role of Confident Chris. For years, Confident Chris was the one able to interview U.S. senators and governors and Division I college coaches when the other Chris had a hard time buying stamps at the post office.
It’s Confident Chris telling you now that if you’re not comfortable selling yourself to the world, nobody else will.
The other Chris says a little more quietly that if I can do, most certainly you can.
Chris Graham is the president of Augusta Free Press LLC, a full-service web-design, marketing and public-relations firm based in Waynesboro, Va. He is the editor of AugustaFreePress.com, The New Dominion Magazine and a former radio and television host. More on Augusta Free Press LLC at www.AFPBusiness.com.
