Tag: small business

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The Truth about Twitter, Trending Topics and Your Business

Are Twitter trends fixed?
Twitter Trends - fixed?

The wikileaks fiasco has revealed an ugly truth about social media marketing via Twitter – their top trends may not be ‘the top trends‘ after all.  Marketers assumed that top tweets and trending topics were based on actual Twitter user activity, but according to Twitter – this is not true. When users raised questions about the omission of tweets about wikileaks in Twitter’s list of trending topics and top tweets, the company was forced to admit that “Twitter favors novelty over popularity…” and that the company is  in full control of what topics make their lists. Continue reading “The Truth about Twitter, Trending Topics and Your Business”

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Location-Based Mobile Ads – Advertising’s Next Cash Cow

iphone, location based advertising - what's nextIf you haven’t considered a mobile based advertising campaign for your business, perhaps these numbers will get you started. The latest BIA/Kelsey U.S. Mobile Ad Revenue Forecast (2009-2014) is predicting that mobile ad revenues will grow from $491 million in 2009 to a whopping $2.9 billion in 2014 – that’s right!

So what are businesses spending this money on? Here are some products that were included in the forecast that your business should Continue reading “Location-Based Mobile Ads – Advertising’s Next Cash Cow”

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What’s Next for Facebook? Games!

What's next for Facebook? Games
Next on Facebook? Games!

How do Facebook’s 500 million users spend over 700 billion minutes each month in that social network? The typical drill is that they log in, skim the ‘latest updates’, browse their friends’ profiles, read emails and follow up on a few leads from people and businesses they ‘like’, then interact with one or more of over 550,000 active applications currently on the platform – i.e. mostly to play games. Continue reading “What’s Next for Facebook? Games!”

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Social Networks: Free R&D for Small Business

How do you keep your products and services fresh? Three words – “Research and Development”. True, R&D can be expensive and time consuming, but without it you could be wasting money trying to convince your target market to buy your products when you should be providing the products and services that they actually want.

Most small businesses think that they have to get to ‘big’ before they can afford R&D – not true. Here’s our quick guide to using social networks for research and development (R&D) on a shoe string budget: Continue reading “Social Networks: Free R&D for Small Business”

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Stop Your Email List from Shrinking

Businesses that depend on email marketing to engage customers will notice two things about their email list every year; 1. Your email list will shrink by at least 15% before the end of the year, 2. Your bounce (email return) rate will be greater than it was the previous year – but does this mean you are losing your subscribers? That depends on your Website.

Customers no longer depend on emails to keep up with the latest news from their favorite marketers – thanks to SPAM (the worst kind), your recipients have grown tired of wading thru emails to decipher which ones they really want to read. Continue reading “Stop Your Email List from Shrinking”

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Why Twitter is Good for Small Businesses

twittering

Small business operators and educators are sometimes too busy to keep up with latest greatest social media tools. It’s hard enough to decide which one to take on, much more learn how to use them to boost your business. Well we’ve got a tip for you: start with Twitter! It is one of the best gateway social media tool for small businesses and here are 3 reasons why:

Realtime results: Start off by using Twitter as a search engine. Unlike Google, Twitter’s search results are delivered in “realtime” so you get the latest feedback and information on any request, in every subject area and in just about any language. Twitter limits the number of characters per post, so your results are “straight to the point”. Continue reading “Why Twitter is Good for Small Businesses”

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Lead Conversion: How to Keep Your Fish

A solid marketing plan must include a budget for online marketing regardless of the product or service being offered. If a potential customer calls, it means your marketing campaigns are working; but the best online marketing campaigns can be derailed by lousy offline sales. Here are three rules your sales rep should keep in mind the next time your phone rings:

Demo, not promo. Your potential customer has already seen the promotion on the Website – that is why they are calling so there is little need to re-state it. Move on to the next step of demonstrating how your product or service can meet his/her needs. Scheduling a Web or in person demo Continue reading “Lead Conversion: How to Keep Your Fish”