Can Pinterest Benefit Your Small Business?
At first glance, Pinterest seems like just yet another social media site. The neatly-designed grid allows users to “pin” and “like” visually-appealing images. They appear on virtual bulletin boards that users can rename and edit into categories such as “favorite places and spaces,” “products I love,” and “for the home.” Many people share recipes and organize wedding plans on Pinterest. They also showcase their inner tastmaker, hobbies and artist. Essentially, the Pinterest platform is a collection of “best kept secrets” and beloved retail items. Conveniently for the loved brands, both big and small, Pinterest users have voluntarily agreed to promote products and services for free. The professional possibilities...
Why You Need a Professionally Designed Web Site?
Virtually anyone can quickly concoct a web page in an editor such as dreamweaver without much knowledge of web design. However, a site that suffers from poor code, design, functionality, bad content etc. can turn search engines away. This means they may not include it in their database of web sites. Your web site is your shop window onto the world. Just as you would never consider printing your own advertising literature because it would look home built, a web site built by an amateur will appear just that to visitors and search engines. Remember, just because your site is on the web it doesn’t mean that people who don’t know about your services can find you. Make sure your site is ‘search engine friendly’ so that it can easily be found on...
Why Most Websites Fail & Five Easy Fixes
There are lots of reasons websites tank. Typical non-performance issues include poor layout, disastrous design, ho-hum content, missing meta data and inbound links, confusing navigation, buried info (too many clicks required to find what the browser is looking for), Las Vegas theatrics (think way too much Flash), etc. The good news? There are LOTS of entrepreneurs who have winning websites churning serious sales, and you can too! The starting point is to understand that your website must be all about 2 things: getting found by more prospects and converting more of those inbound leads into customers. These five easy fixes will help transform your website metrics (and grow your sales)… Get Organized Great websites are intuitive. They reflect serious back-end...
5 Reasons Why Small Businesses Need Social Media
The Nielsen group recently came out with a fantastic report on social media usage in 2011, and the findings were a bit surprising. Sure, there were a few no-brainers like “U.S. Internet users spend more time on Facebook more than any other site,” but buried in the report were some interesting nuggets that may have a major impact on your business. These are five of the most interesting facts the study uncovered about how we use social networks. 1. Americans spend most of their time online on social network and blogs We all knew that Americans spent a lot of time on Facebook, but to put this into perspective, we only spend about 7.6 percent of our time checking e-mail. We spend almost three times (23 percent) more time on blogs and social networks than checking...
How To Successfully Manage Your Online Reputation
Everyone’s life is an open book today, even if they don’t want it to be. It doesn’t take much for someone’s reputation to get tarnished by bad publicity from an inappropriate comment, a past indiscretion, or a private photo that made its way onto the Web. In the world of small business, one’s professional name and personal reputation are inextricably linked. That’s why it’s more important than ever to learn how to protect your image and ensure that your identity— and the reputation of your business—remain unharmed. “The biggest mistake people make is failing to realize that there’s no distinction between their personal and professional reputation,” says Andy Beal, co-author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations...
Could Your Business Survive Without Social Media?
Could your business survive without social media? If the answer is “No,” you’ll be just as surprised as I was to discover that in a recent survey by small business insurance provider Hiscox, a mere 12 percent of small business owners surveyed described social media as a “must.” In comparison, a whopping 50 percent said word-of-mouth was essential to their businesses. These two figures reveal a strange disconnect. Aren’t “social media” and “word-of-mouth” pretty much the same thing? Word-of-mouth has always been a major marketing tool for small companies. Social media hasn’t changed that; it’s just amplified the power of word-of-mouth. Instead of your customers sharing their experience with a few people they happen to run into over...