This guest blog was written by Kristie Galvani, Senior Vice President at HJMT COMMUNICATIONS, the full service public relations, social media, event planning and graphic design agency located in Manhattan, Long Island and Rochester.

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I recently conducted a seminar on Strategies For Increasing The Success Of Your Business In These Challenging Times. Every day, we hear the news of another company that needs a bail out or is shutting its doors. However, if you can stay focused and positive, companies have a great potential to seize market share from competitors and achieve tremendous growth.

Here are the six tips I gave to help ensure business success:

Tip #1: Reflect & Reposition
Most companies move quickly through each day going through the motions. However, now with a little more down-time it is a great opportunity to reflect on your company. Look at your business and how it is being run. Make sure it is following your value and mission statements. If not, reconnect with your passion and reposition if needed.

Tip #2: Collaborate
More than ever, we need to work together and help each other out. Take this time to build and strengthen your relationships and make sure you have partners that will help bring your business to the next level.

Tip #3: Reconnect
CONNECT WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS, SUPPLIERS, and EMPLOYEES! This is always important, but in a down economy it is crucial. Make sure your relationships with your customers are stronger than ever and that they know they are getting value from you. Make sure your suppliers are doing everything they can to help you and your customers succeed. Make sure your employees are happy and let them know they are appreciated.

Tip #4: Hold Your Brand
When Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart was asked what he was planning to do about the recession, he replied “We don’t plan to participate.” A down economy is one of the most important and rewarding times to continue promoting your brand through public relations and advertising. A Dow Jones study showed that companies that continue to market will see a 275% sales growth over the next 5 years compared to companies that cut back who will only see a 19% growth.

Tip #5: Be Creative
When it comes to marketing, be creative. Make sure you have a strategy before diving into a bunch of random tactics. You need to be consistent and strategic. Have a plan. Use cost effective ways to market including social media, publicity, newsletters, events, speaking engagements, and networking.

Tip #6: Become Inspired
This is the most important. Make sure to continue to feed your passion. This will help you keep a positive outlook. Try reading motivational business books or read positive case studies about what others are doing. Do things to remind you of the possibilities….

This time I spotted one in Fort Lauderdale, Florida! Check it out….

Just wanted to post a quick blog entry to wish everyone a wonderful holiday and a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

The Biggest Loser is one of the most popular shows on TV today. A couple of weeks ago, the reality TV show held it’s live finale. The majority of the folks lost more than 70 pounds. How did they do it? They ate healthy and exercised for several hours each day.

Did you know that 2/3 of Americans are considered overweight? Of that number, 1/3 are considered obese? These statistics are startling! And I predict they will get even worse as the economy keeps slumping. Instead of eating healthy, people will continue to eat at fast food restaurants and diners where the salt and fatty content are high.

Lately, I’ve been struggling with my weight gain too. I can’t believe that I have to watch what I eat after all these years. I never even thought about dieting until recently.

Tonight, we went to Sweet Tomato Restaurant in Coral Springs, Florida. Sweet Tomato, for those of you who have never been there, is an all you can eat salad restaurant. In addition to “yummy” salads, they also have an array of soups, baked potato and baked sweet potato and serve three different types of pasta (pasta with red sauce, pasta with Alfredo sauce and mac and cheese). They also have baked muffins and rolls. For the dessert, they serve apple crisp and ice cream. The food is really good and it’s relatively cheap. A family of five with one child under 12 cost us $56.

As I was sitting there munching on my salad and sweet potato, I noticed a bunch of folks walk in. They were all severely obese — at least 200 pounds. It was upsetting to see so many overweight people. My daughter said, “well at least they are trying….” But were they really trying or just telling themselves that it was okay to eat as much as you want because it’s basically a salad place? They each took at least two heaping plates full of salad, bread, pasta and more pasta!

Statistics are against us. If we don’t watch ourselves and start exercising regularly, then we will all be candidates for the Biggest Loser!

With so many social networking sites out there, it can be a little overwhelming just knowing the difference between twitter and flickr! Some people are scarred to “expose” themselves online and other people just don’t know which sites to join and what information to include. As The New Media Director here at HJMT, as well as an avid social networker, I thought I could offer a quick primer on the different sites and where to begin if you’re a beginner!

Start simple, setup a Linked In account at www.linkedin.com. You only need to enter professional information, no fancy designs or pictures and it takes about 5 minutes to join. This will get your feet wet in the land of social networking if your not ready to tell the world what you ate for dinner and what you are watching on TV just yet…
Be open-minded…Facebook isn’t just for college students, Twitter is actually quite useful and professional, and people do want to read your personal blog and view your photos. Try it out and see for yourself the benefits that await you!

Divulging personal information is ok, even encouraged, but know where to draw the line. Pictures of you at work are great, pictures of you and your husband (or wife) are cool. Pictures of you doing inappropriate things —are not. Rule to live by—never post anything on line that you wouldn’t want your mother, brother, boyfriend, wife, boss, etc. to see.

Send a consistent message. Link up all your sites and microblog (send out short messages or “status updates” of 140 characters or less) using sites like Hello Txt and Friendfeed to send out constant and consistent messages. Brand your name/company by constantly posting concise and interesting information to the online world.

In my opinion, the three most useful sites are Linked In (www.linkedin.com), Twitter (www.twitter.com) and Facebook (www.facebook.com). I visit these sites everyday and also use Friendfeed, Tumblr, and my personal Blogger account to share my RSS feeds from these accounts.

Enter as much information as you can and update the sites frequently to get the most out of them. People want to connect on a personal level, even it’s a business exchange. Search for people with similar interests or people in your field. Join groups and take part in online conversations. Let people see the real you, and utilize these sites for all they’re worth. You will be amazed at the network of people you will discover and the wealth of knowledge and opportunity that awaits you!