Social Media Marketing for Small Business Entrepreneurs

What Can Practical Social Media Do For Business?

Your social media campaign should be guided by solid business goals, just like your company. This will ensure that everything you do in social media provides a direct return on investment to your business. What is surprising is that only two goals (Search Engine Rankings and gaining more Visibility) make the list for most entrepreneurs.

Getting into Social Media Communities: Blog and Forum Seeding

It is no secret that one of the key points to Social Media is community. People in real life, like to affiliate themselves with affinity groups based on racial and residential origin, interest, activity or occupation. Some social media platforms where communities aggregate are blogs and forums. Most successful blogs produce content on a given [...]

Redefining the Press Release in the World of Social Media

Who knew? Who knew that a press release could be short, personal, interesting or even specially constructed for small business?  Social media changes everything, and in this case, social media drastically changes the feel and purpose of a press release and how it suits your marketing efforts.
For many, the idea of a press release was [...]

Are you a Twitter Quitter? Four Common Mistakes Made by Twitter Newbies

60% of new users leave Twitter within the first month. This is no big surprise, because Twitter doesn’t make sense at first: it’s hard to understand the point. A lot of folks think everyone is posting inane comments to their friends, like: “I just ate and enormous bowl of broccoli!” or whatever. But that isn’t the point. Nowadays, Twitter offers you a chance to connect to valuable information and potential clients. You won’t realize this at first, because it takes a while to build the community, so give yourself a bit to figure it out.

Social Media: The ‘New’ News Front

Have you ever noticed the amount of news reported on your favorite national news station that actually comes from Twitter or Facebook? Or how about news stories centered around a You Tube video or noteworthy Tweet? Social Media is not only creating news, it’s disseminating, delivering and providing news. Apparently, social media is our future in more ways than one.

The US Loves Social Media

It’s everywhere – every website you click on, every profile you visit, even most emails you receive – social media is present. From “live-streaming” events to Twitter feeds on websites, most companies aren’t bashful about putting their social media marketing front and center.
Why? Because the United States (and the rest of the world) is going [...]

Social Media on the Go: Smart Phones

It is estimated that by 2012, 60% of cell phone users will be smart phone users. And with over half of social media now being utilized on mobile phones, it is impossible to ignore the important role that the smart phone is playing in our social media marketing efforts and how we connect with our target audience on not only a daily basis, but a an hour by hour basis.

Keeping Your Eye on the Target: Focusing on Your Most Important Audience

It’s no surprise that business marketing can sometimes feel like a juggling act. With every ball sometimes up in the air, it can be difficult to know which to focus on and how it will affect the rest of your act and business performance as a whole. And because your time and effort is worth so much in the grand scheme of things, it is undoubtedly important that you make sure your efforts in social media marketing are reaching the right audience in the right way.

How Social Media is Changing Customer Service

What once often resulted in 30 minutes of bad hold music, or 15 minutes spent in a line at your favorite store, has nearly become a thing of the past. Companies’ of all sizes are changing customer service efforts and the ways they help you.
It’s been a long time since we’ve had to be patient [...]

When Should You Start Using Social Media For Your Business?

The process of starting up a small business is definitely a meticulous one. Developing a marketing strategy, alone, is a feat. Is there a “right time” to begin using social media to build a web presence?
The answer is: NOW.
The quicker you can establish yourself, virtually, the wider your market will be.  Putting your business into [...]

Creating a Space of ‘Welcome’. Inspiring Your Visitors to Take off Their Shoes & Stay a While

All of us can relate to the idea of feeling welcome. Whether it is our own home or someone else’s, an office space or a hotel lobby, there are distinct features of a space that compels you to remain where you find yourself. Be it comfort, familiarity or a pleasurable ambience, environment is everything.

When thinking about your online space, these same ideas apply. It begins with a first impression and carries over to whether or not your space is inviting and appealing. Does it engage the visitor, or stimulate their senses? The following are some ideas to consider in order to keep that visitor at your place, feeling welcome, comfortable and happy.

Maximizing The Value Of Twitter As A Lead Generation Tool

Twitter has over 75 million users and 2 billion tweets a month. With a traffic spike of 1,100%, and total tweets up 1,400% in 2009, the one trend that is undeniably Twitter is growth. This is why, at the cost of ‘free’, you cannot afford to ignore the value of Twitter.