Recently, the Create Business Growth blog, a subsidiary of Unlimited Web Solutions, Inc., was named to the 2011 Top 50 Sales Blogs List by SalesCrunch.

Here, at CBG, we are honored to be a part of such a great list of top sales and marketing blogs; and we strive to provide our readers with the most current, up-to-date information related to the business and marketing world.

How the list was generated

The Top 50 Sales Blogs list was generated by SalesCrunch using a program featured in Hubspot called Blog Grader. As SalesCrunch stated,

The list is generated according to the “Grade” in Blog Grader and is updated daily so the list is always accurate and up to date. The bios below the list are for the Top 50 as rated at the time we posted the list, so you can track progress over time. [source]

After they imported approximately 200+ f their blogs into the Blog Grader, they narrowed the list down to sales-specific blog. Check out the entire list at SalesCrunch by clicking here.

About SalesCrunch

From their website: SalesCrunch brings transparency & collaboration to selling and engages customers, employees and community in the sales process to help everyone sell better and sell more. The SalesCrunch platform captures, measures, trains & tracks sales across your company and your customers with a suite of three tightly integrated, browser-based (no software) products:

• CrunchConnect
• CrunchTrainer
• SalesSchool

Most of what you think you know about the internet is probably wrong.

In 2011, posting quality content isn’t going to cut it. The challenge: make that quality obvious and compelling to readers in 3 seconds (and dropping). Just when you thought attention spans couldn’t get any shorter, 2010 shortened them even more.

The Information Age is dead. In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t need any more information. The challenge here is to help people find what they don’t know they’re looking for.

Google isn’t particularly good at solving these problems. Nor is anything else, yet. What’s a small business owner to do about this? Here’s where it gets simple.

Shift your communication strategy from talking-based to listening-based. This may not sound like rocket science, but there’s more to it than you might think.

For example, you might think it’s a given that collecting e-mail addresses and sending out a monthly newsletter will “keep you in front of your audience.” But what if you spend the same amount of time and energy reading other newsletters instead, making a point of responding to the good ones?

Instead of thinking of more ways to add noise to the already-cluttered information stream, think of ways to make full use of the best information that’s already out there. That doesn’t mean to stop creating content – it’s just about shifting some of your resources.

I assert that the businesses who make a priority of sharpening their listening skills will make the most money in 2011.???? ?? ???????Православни икони

Part 4 of 4: Time and Tracking Another common question from web networkers is “How do I know where I or my business are showing up on the web, and when something good or bad is being said about us?” The no-cost answer is to install the simple feature of Google Alerts. For more comprehensive reports there are paid services like Andy Beal’s reputation monitor called Trackur.

If you’re reading this and calculating the amount of time it might take to manage a number of on-line networking profiles, blogs and groups, consider the power and value of three little letters that you may have overlooked on many web pages– RSS– which stands for Real Simple Syndication. RSS has origins in the concept of big news agencies “syndicating” their information so others could pull it and use it. RSS gives all users the power of producing news or changing information that others can pull in, just like they would a national on-line newspaper. When you see RSS on the screen, it means that with something called a blog reader or a news aggregator you get to select the information that you want to keep up with, such as national news or news from your local social media site, and business networking sites like Linkedin, all in one location. With this method you are able at a quick glance to keep up with current news, new blog postings, or new connections your business allies are making on Linkedin at a quick glance. Then, if you want more details, you can “pull” more information as needed from your blog reader. Instead of being buried in email updates from sites, mixed in with news letters that you no longer follow, you can choose what you track and the degree you wish to follow it by only getting what’s new or changed.

You may think, how can I afford the time to use Social Media? If you realize that for many businesses this is where your current and future customers are, you can not afford to not spend time with it. Pick something and start small. You may choose to begin with Linkedin, on of the Inside Area Code sites (like inSide919.com),  Facebook, or Twitter.  Set aside a little time each day or week to “relate on-line”.

The new social media gives businesses the opportunity to be closer to their customers than ever before. Business networking brings us the ability to build alliances both locally and globally. The key is to not forget the value of the in-person connections which complement and enhance on-line relationships. Quality relationships still take time to develop—on and off the web.

Reprinted from Women’s Edge Magazine
by Martin Brossman - www.ProNetworkingOnLine.com
& check out Understanding Linkedin

See Part1, Part2 or Part3 of Professional Networking On (& Off)  the Web