Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
Social Media and Search Marketing News
Jun 28th
Social media and search marketing are critical to many small businesses these days. This is not just because so many small businesses are located online, but also because social media and search marketing have become such a cost effective and powerful way to build brand identity. Compared to more expensive and, in many ways, less effective traditional media marketing, social media and search marketing allow you to target niche customers and promote your company like never before. Here’s the latest on this expanding field!
Search Basics
Keyword research in the cloud. Clearly one of the most important aspects of search marketing is keyword research no matter what form your online marketing initiative may take. With the rise of cloud computing, Travis Campbell gives us his video review of SE Cockpit, a new cloud application that goes beyond volume and competition on your search terms. MarketingProfessor
PR with search and social media in mind. When creating PR for your business or for a small business client online, it’s helpful to remember that while some things stay the same other things are very different. Beyond the differences between online and offline readers, let’s not forget about the importance of search and social media in the equation. Here’s how to craft a message that considers both. E-Marketing Performance
Social Media
Why you should be ware of social media experts. Rachel Strella talks to small business people as often as she can about the services she can offer in the world of social media. But one thing that often makes her uncomfortable is when people refer to her as an “expert.” Here are three reasons why you might be skeptical when people start throwing the e word around in reference to social media. Central PA Webster
Why the social media lamdscape keeps changing. Don’t get too comfortable with the latest titans of social media marketing, sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It turns out that while social media marketing may remain viable for a good long time as an online strategy, any one site or location may not. Here’s a look at how quickly things can change and why following, even anticipating that change could be critical to your marketing efforts. Bloomberg Businessweek
Social & Search Trends
Social media continues to influence search. And one marketing agency believes it is a trend that is here to stay. Not so long ago, social media and search marketing were very different animals, but this may not be the case in the near future. From Google +1 to the partnership between Facebook and Bing, there is evidence of an ever narrowing gap. Is your marketing ready? SFGate
Building your backlinks. They are an important part of search engine marketing, to say nothing of SEO, but what makes for a good backlink and what considerations should go into a link building strategy? In the world of search, certainly all backlinks are not created equal. How should you go about planning the best backlinks for your small business site? Small Business Computing
Why you need a real network. Though link building can be a viable strategy, it should not be relied upon simply as a way to gain a “high score” from search engines. When Google and others change the way the game is played, some Websites may be left out in the cold. Instead, look at links as real connections with people: customers, partners or fans who might give us referrals. Then no game change will make a difference. SEO Book
Marketing Intelligence
Is Twitter a waste of time? It’s one of the most talked about social media platforms around, but certainly some would question the value of spending endless time entering messages of 140 characters at a time to friends and followers. For a better feel of the effectiveness of Twitter and whether it could be right for your business, read on. ProBlogger
What comes after traffic? Got a lot of traffic coming to your site? That’s great, but if those visitors take one look at your site and click back from whence they came, you’ve got a problem. If you’ve done your marketing well, they should want to stay a while and maybe even take a look at your products and services. If this isn’t happening despite a good amount of traffic, what could be going wrong? SEO Book
Conclusion
Search or social media: Which should you choose. A recent study by Google insists search still retains a higher credibility with users than social media. We can take these results with how ever many grains of salt we wish given the interests of the company releasing the findings, but Frank Reed insists it’s still a good reminder that no platform has a corner on the market. Marketing Pilgrim
Social Media and Search Marketing News
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Small Business Twitter News
Jun 25th
Does your small business use Twitter? Well, whether you market celery or software, it’s probably a good idea to stake a claim in the microblogging space. Enjoy the tips and trends below and retweet this resource if you get the chance.
How To
Twitter is about communication. OK, marketing too at times, but the key to understanding how to use social media channels so they work for your business is to be sure you’re using the right tool for the right job. Take the way Rakuten Inc. decided to communicate displeasure with the Japanese Business Federation, Keidanren. We’re not suggestion you shoot from the hip. Remember the gravity of what you say, but let your Twitter feed be your voice. WSJ
Making microblogging work. Just like any other business tool, Twitter works best when used in the right way. If Twitter isn’t working for your small business, maybe it’s because you don’t have a clear idea in mind of what you want to accomplish with it. Here’s Jason Kienbaum with more. Business Done Now
Things you definitely shouldn’t do. Though many of the worst things you can do in the Twitter universe are matters of degree, the fact is that bad actors can and do have their accounts suspended. Don’t let this happen to you. Used correctly, Twitter can be a powerful resource for your business. Here are some tips to keep you on the straight and narrow. Ray Vellest
Branding
Avoiding the antisocial brand. The real reason that good behavior is so necessary on Twitter, and really on every other social media site, is not the threat that your account will be shut down, though this is always a possibility. It is the fact that if your social media campaign is nothing more than a traditional marketing effort in new digital trappings, your audience will spot it in no time. You can guess the results. Fast Company
Is Twitter’s impact for real? You might think, reading the title of Roisin Bell’s post, that she’s not a big fan of the platform. In fact, Roisin’s only point is that measuring and quantifying the affect of any tool upon your business remains first priority. Can you measure the affect of Twitter on your business? Is it worth your effort? Bloggertone
Trends
Twitter vs. Facebook. Like other classic rivalries, this one probably has devoted fans on both sides…and plenty undecided. But, truth be told, both social media giants have their benefits and very different audiences. Read the post at the link above and then share your opinion. We’d really like to hear what you think in the comment section below. Technshare
Five tips for getting followed. In the outside world, stalking is a crime, but on Twitter, getting followed is what it’s all about. Check out these 5 tips that should have a flock of people way too interested in your every tweet. 
Don’t say we didn’t warn you! If you’ve worked out your strategy, it’s time to get started. Remember to target the followers that can be most helpful to your business. Ray Vellest
Twitter boosts international sales. This survey shows that social media, the big three at least, are having a positive impact on sales internationally. The other two big social media sites, Facebook and LinkedIn, are also part of the equation. Check out the survey to learn about how Twitter and other social media services could be improving your bottom line today. eWeek.com
Conclusion
Even chambers harness the power of Twitter. Even more traditional business organizations are seeing the value of Twitter as a networking tool. Here’s a story about a local chamber that decided to theme an entire business expo around the microblogging platform. How can you use Twitter to build relationships in your organizations and communities. Las Vegas Review-Journal
Why businesses without Twitter are conspicuous. If your businesses doesn’t use Twitter, Facebook or other social media marketing, you may stand out in a way you didn’t intend. Customers today expect a place on the social Web. If your competitors have a presence and you don’t, who do you think your customers will be buying from? louisville.com
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
News About Your Small Business Social Media
Jun 23rd
What do you have to say to your customers and what do they have to say about you? You don’t need social media to reach out to your customers and clients but it doesn’t hurt to stretch your brand in a way others in your field can clearly see. Social media is about more than just marketing though. It’s about learning from those you engage with. Here are some ideas to help your business use social media more effectively in the future.
Getting Started.
Blogs are still tops. Think Facebook and Twitter are sexier than your run of the mill old business blog? Well maybe they are, but the fact remains that blogs remain important and an imparative in any good social media marketing campaign. Not only are blogs and other social media compatible, but here are some things your Facebook account cannot do that your blog certainly can. smallbiztechnology.com
Does every small business really need social media? Though the post is framed as a series of “social media myths,” Mueller stops short of suggesting you don’t use Facebook and Twitter at all for your small business. Bottom line: there are no magic bullets that guarantee success and social media can certainly be hyped sometimes by those who promote it. Like eveything else, use common sense. You’re the Boss
Extending your brand with social media tools. Perhaps the biggest problem small businesses and entrepreneurs of all sizes run into with social media is having unrealistic expectations. Perhaps the second biggest problem comes from this first one, a tendency to use social media in the wrong way. Fox Small Business Center
Tools
Don’t let Twitter ruin your life. You’ve got to tweet for business. We get that. But being tied to a laptop, tablet or even smartphone every hour of the day is just no fun. Schedule your tweets, already! This post gives you a wide variety of tools to help you do it. Small Business Trends
Delegating your social media campaign. One of the facts about social media is that it takes time to do effectively. The result of this simple fact has already led to an increase in the numbers of businesses that delegate this important function to a full-time or part-time social media manager. But what qualifications make someone an effective social media manager and how do you know you’ve chosen to delegate to the right employee? Karriann Graf
Is video part of your social media mix? It should be, says blogger Billy Strawter Jr. With the increasing amount of video on the Internet and the increasing number of viewers watching it, using video for online video marketing seems a no-brainer. But social video sharing sites like YouTube et al make it a very social activity as well. Consider the possibilities. Envicare Consulting
Tech
Social media meets business intelligence. If you’d like to track what’s most important in your small business social media results and analyze those results away from the clutter, welcome to Trackur, very likely the future in social media intelligence. Read the full product overview here to see whether this tool could work for you. Small Business Trends
Resources
25 awesome social media blogs. We mentioned near the top that blogs remain an important part of social media. We’ll mention now that they also are a great place to learn more about it. Check out this list of the very best in social media coverage no matter what you’d like to learn. Enjoy. Flowtown
Tactics
A needle in a haystack. Social media represents an unprecedented amount of information probably never available before all in one place. Leveraging this information in addition to sharing content of your own is what makes social media such an awesome tool. But there’s a lot of din out there too. So how do you get to the good stuff? Bloggertone
What are they saying about you? Writer and blogger Cendrine Marrouat suggests a list of 10 tools that can be extremely useful in monitoring what others have to say about you and your brand. You’ve leveraged social media for marketing and gaining information. Now, use it to listen to what others have to say about you. examiner.com
News About Your Small Business Social Media
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The Latest News on Small Business Intelligence
Jun 21st
Being able to understand how your business is performing and where it is headed are both key benefits of the use of business intelligence in small business. A gift of the business software age, business intelligence takes a million tiny bits of seemingly meaningless data and transforms them into a meaningful whole. The result is an overview of your business’s past, present and future that can be used to make tough decisions and alter course, if need be. But what is involved in using business intelligence and will it really work for your small company? Read on and learn more. The BI world has arrived.
Introduction
(Editor’s note: While we usually bring you the very latest in online updates on all small business topics, because of the complexity and growth seen in the business intelligence field, we thought we’d start with some brief introductions. Even though these posts are a bit older, they’re a great way for readers to get up to speed on business intelligence, if you’re new to this topic as it relates to your SMB. Then fast forward with us into the next section as we look at how BI is affecting small business today.)
Business intelligence for small businesses too. You don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company with revenue in the stratosphere to benefit from the application of business intelligence. Would you like to know which of your products fared best last year and which cost the most in relation to return on investment? We thought so! A simple analysis of data your business may already be collecting could hold the answer. Small Business Computing
So what’s all this BI stuff about anyway? Here’s a closer look at the intelligent approach to your business and why you should care. Want to make more informed decisions about your business today than you did yesterday? What if you could harness the information your business may already have about what works and what doesn’t and use it to make more educated decisions in the future? Meet business intelligence and learn how it can change everything. Small Business Computing
Where We Are Now
It’s about to get a lot more important. A report suggests a 25 percent growth in opportunity for business analytics services through 2015 especially in offerings bundled specifically for small to medium sized businesses. That’s businesses like yours! “Many SMB business decision makers (BDMs) and technology decision makers (TDMs) are looking for data-driven business analytics and intelligence beyond spreadsheet-driven charts,” says Donald Best of AMI-Partners which authored the study. How about you? Business Wire
Tools & Products
New products bring business analytics to SMBs. Here’s a brief product preview of one particular offering from SAP. Take a look at this brief overview with basic functions, capabilities and pricing. Then for a more detailed look see the full press release at the link below. PC World
SAP announces business intelligence for small business. Here’s the full company press release on the latest generation of business analytics software that brings high level data analysis for multiple users within the grasp of smaller firms. How would you use fully featured business intelligence software at your small business? Small Business Trends
More business intelligence tools for your small company. Whether offered as SaaS solutions or more affordable stand-alone software, page through these cool selections that can deliver high powered analytics to your small business. How will these data analytics tools help you make decisions in your business tomorrow? Information Week SMB
BI for Lenders
Small businesses are not the only BI users. Lenders too are making use of Business Intelligence systems to evaluate credit histories of small businesses with whom they do business. Is your lender using business intelligence to make decisions about lending to your business? How could small businesses use similar tools to identify business partners and clients of concern in the future? Market Watch
Reality Check
Make sure your business intelligence solution delivers. Despite increased investment in business analytics solutions, a recent survey by the UK’s National Computing Centre suggests that 53 percent of IT decision makers considered the overall performance of these systems ”no more than average.” Though the promise offered by business intelligence may be great, small business owners have always been a pragmatic bunch. Use the tools that work. Don’t be swayed by the flavor of the week. Accountancy Age
The future of business intelligence? Richard Herschel, Chair of the Department of Decision & System Sciences at Saint Joseph’s University, attempts to give a profile of an emerging field and the problems it faces on the way to becoming the kind of useful tool that businesses can rely upon regularly for information to help make decisions at every level. What is the main area of your business in which you could benefit from greater data analysis today? BeyeNETWORK
Tech
BI goes mobile. An announcement by a business analytics provider signals a trend toward business intelligence on the go. Do you need all the data your business has produced with you where ever you go allowing you to make that next important business decision? The future is here. A mobile analytics solution allows you to make business decisions based on all available data no matter where you are. Yahoo! Finance
The Latest News on Small Business Intelligence
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Who pays for the news media?
Jun 17th
It’s easy to act as though the news media is something that is done to us. Some alien force, projected onto all of us, pushed out by them.
Of course, that’s not true. It’s something we buy, something we pay for.
We’re paying for superficial analyses, talking points, shouting heads, *****gate of the moment, herd journalism and silly local urgencies instead of important international trends. We’re paying for fast instead of good. We believe we’re paying for hard questions being asked, but we’re not getting what we’re paying for.
We might pay with a dollar at the newsstand, but we’re probably paying with our attention, with attention that is turned into ad sales.
Too often, we fail to stop and say, “Wait, I paid for that?”
Almost everything else we buy is of far higher quality than it was twenty years ago. The worst car you could buy then was a Yugo… clearly we’ve raised the bar at the bottom. Is the same thing true of your news?
As the number of outlets and channels has exploded, media companies have faced a choice. Some have chosen to race to the bottom, to pander to the largest available common denominator and turn a trust into a profit center. A few have chosen to race to the top and to create a product actually worth paying for.
I fear that the race to the bottom will continue, but it’s hard to see how anyone could be happy winning it.
Their civic obligations aside, it’s up to us to decide what to buy.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Small Business Sales: Latest News
Jun 17th
In small business, sales is the key. Make no mistake, until you bring money in the door from clients or customers, you’re really not in business. You just have an office and a stack of business cards. Nowadays, you’ll probably hear many small business people complaining about lousy sales and the poor economy. That’s not our style! We’re here to empower small business owners because, you know what? You have the power to change things for the better. We’re hoping by the end of this roundup, you’ll have committed to boosting your small business sales too! Let’s get started and don’t forget to share this post with a friend!
Outlook
Are you making excuses for poor sales? One online small business expert thinks we all may be. Lower sales, misguided government policies, higher health care costs, rising deficit, sure we all face these things. But in the end, have you stopped to figure out why maybe your business doesn’t work as well as it used to? When you figure it out, fix it! In the end, small business owners are masters of their own fate. So stop complaining and take control today. About.com
DON’T listen to the media! Hey, reports like this one depress everyone, but if you really dig down you’ll start to understand where all this negativity is coming from. Citing the same NFIB survey as the previous post, HuffPo proceeds to draw the dreariest picture of small business recovery possible even though “the percentage reporting poor sales has now declined from its mid-2009 high of 34 percent.” The story goes on to report that only “a slim majority of the small businesses sampled planned on decreasing their payrolls in the next three months.” Not good, but never as bad as the headlines make it sound. Huffington Post
Self-development
DON’T settle for the status quo! Here Tibor Shanto is talking about the perception too many businesses have of a group of potential customers who are either not ready to buy or have selected a competitor’s product. His advice? Accepting and ignoring the status quo can be a mistake. Many businesses, Shanto argues, have too little knowledge of this group to really know whether they might be potential customers or clients. Are you ignoring a huge market and accepting the status quo? Renbor
Improved sales and marketing could grow your small business. A UK-based small business advocacy group says a survey of 1,700 small firms shows almost half believe training in sales, marketing and PR would improve their business and help them grow. Sales and marketing outdistanced other items like employee training, customer service and basic communications as things that would help businesses improve. Federation of Small Business
Tips & Tricks
Selling to women vs. selling to men. If you didn’t know there was a difference, here’s your first primer. Understand that knowing your customers is the first key to better sales. Do you want to grow your business? Then learn the demographics and the preferences of the customers you serve. The rewards will be better sales and more growth. AllBusiness
How Internet opportunities change the sales equation. This team of crafters in Southern Maryland have banded together using the online platform of Etsy to create a community of small businesses around their handmade products. Though the individual revenues of these small businesses may not be much, the efficiency and cost effectiveness of delivering their products to customers online is a radical departure and something every small business owner should be watching. Southern Maryland Newspapers Online
Training
Reasons why sales training fails. We all know the benefits of training to improve your business, and this is especially true of sales. But what if your sales training fails to be effective? Like any other product or service, sometimes training fails to deliver the promised result. Sometimes this isn’t just the fault of the trainer or the company providing the service. Here are five possible reasons why the sales training your small business received may not have been all you had hoped. BNET
Teaching your marketing department to deliver more sales. Is your marketing department a part of your sales process? Are they engaging customers, qualifying leads and pushing your sales department to the next level of success? If the answer is no, then you may not have the marketing department you need, says Maura Schreier-Fleming. And that means you’re not getting your money’s worth from a part of your company that should be leading your sales. Want to know how to change things? Read on. AllBusiness
Research
How does your small business rank in effectiveness? Imagine if there were a tool that could assess your company’s sales approach, compare it to the best in the business and then tell you where your business ranked compared with competitors? What if that tool could even give you tips on how to improve your sales effectiveness and your competitiveness with others in your market? There’s no need to imagine. Watch the video and start taking your online survey on sales effectiveness from the Aberdeen Group today. Sandler Training Blog
Book Shelf
How to outsell yourself. Here’s a book review of Kelly McCormick’s new book from our friend Ivana Taylor. Ivana gives a detailed overview including main takeaway points and even a new acronym you can use to start improving your sales right away. Ivana recommends the book and we’d like to recommend Ivana’s review. This very cool post can give you a peak at the new book to decide whether its message might be right for you. Small Business Trends
Small Business Sales: Latest News
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Entrepreneurship Tips In The Small Business News
Jun 16th
Tips on entrepreneurship can come from anywhere: the Internet, a friend or colleague or even a conversation with someone who knows nothing about your business. Those tips might run the gamut of subject matter from marketing to financing to management to technology. This roundup looks at top tips available online today. Share a few of your own recommendations in the comment section below. We can’t wait to hear from you.
Basic Tips
8 Tips for attending business conferences. They are great resources for entrepreneurs, but getting the most from the experience at business conferences is a big part of making these events pay off for you. Lauren Gray shares some tips she uses when trying to squeeze every drop of value out of that next awesome small business conference. Epic Launch
Tips about online sales tax.. If your business model involves online retail sales, it’s important to understand the regulations when it comes to online sales tax. Check out this post to learn more about the rules you must follow to sell your products online. Learn more about collecting sales tax at your online store. Open Forum
Market Research
Sleeping with your customers? No, it’s not what you think, but marketing consultant Martin Lindstrom does suggest that spending time with your customers, including a couple of days in their homes, may yield massive results when it comes to figuring out how to market your next big product. Fast Company
Leadership
10 great videos for every entrepreneur. From Muhammed Yunus to Steve Jobs, some of the videos in this collection of must-see’s have been around for a while, but the collection is still among the most popular on Inc Magazine Website. Every video is packed with insight and with some new lesson to learn for your entrepreneurial journey. Inc.com
Five steps to great business mentoring. Do you need a mentor in your entrepreneurial adventure? Are you trying to figure out whether you are on the right track and how to proceed with your business venture? Consider these tips for finding a guide to help you move forward with your small business. Have you discovered other ways of finding a mentor in your business? Entrepreneur.com
Self-development
Running the marathon of your business. How is entrepreneurship like running a marathon? Here is an insight shared by one small business person preparing to compete in the Chicago Marathon to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Entrepreneurship is a great challenge just like running a race. What other insights can you offer to help fellow small business leaders cross the finish line. Angel Business Advisors.
Innovation
Great innovation comes in small steps. If you are concerned as an entrepreneur about creating the next big thing in your company, maybe you should take a step back. Breakthroughs may not be the huge events we expect them to be and sometimes the greatest innovations come from a whole flurry of small steps forward. Duct Tape Marketing
Finance
An entrepreneur’s guide to funding. Fred Wilson, who ought to know a thing or two about financing, shares these ideas about finding the money for your startup. Entrepreneurs don’t necessarily need capital to get their next big project up and running. Fred is quick to point this out. For those who do, here’s a simple place to start. A VC
Engineering the lean startup…beginning with board meetings. Investor Brad Feld is sick of board meetings and, worse yet, is convinced they do little for either entrepreneurs or those investing in their companies. How could you reinvent your board meetings…and the rest of what you do…to make your startup more efficient? Feld Thoughts
Human Resources
How to interview for an entrepreneur. Lastly, if you’d like to work for an entrepreneur, here’s a post with some strategies you might consider for the interview. If you are an entrepreneur, this might give you some insight into what could be going through the minds of potential employees. Have anything to add? Contribute a comment below. Working for Wonka
Entrepreneurship Tips In The Small Business News
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Legal and Policy News for Small Business
Jun 16th
Here are some legal and policy issues small business owners should be aware of this week. Be sure to check through this legal and policy news roundup for the issues directly affecting your small business or entrepreneurial venture.
Trends
No-match letters a new headache for entrepreneurs. No-match letters from the Social Security Administration are back. The letters are issued when an employee’s name doesn’t match an existing social security number. The implications are obvious. But what should you do if you get one of these in the mail? 365 Days of Startups
Wage and hour lawsuits the lates threat. There were 40,000 of these in 2010, up 15 percent over the previous year. And one expert says they’ve replaced discrimination lawsuits as every small business owner’s worst nightmare. So what about you? Are you one of the small business owners out there who’ve experienced one of these? Grow Smart Biz
Tips
Does your business need a non-disclosure agreement? Many times your ideas, including business model, are the only true capital you bring to your company. So obviously failing to protect these important assets is the same as failing to protect your business. Noobpreneur
The law and your social media campaign. Yes, there could be repercussions even for something as seemingly benign as social media. Issues that might arise range from Federal Trade Commission issues to employee conduct. Being deliberate about your social media efforts is an important part of the equation. Here’s more. Get Busy Media
Policy
Would a payroll tax break help your business? The topic is apparently being discussed among members of the administration’s advisory team as worries about the economy continue. Of course, small business leaders would support any tax cut, but general tax breaks for all Americans, giving them more disposable income to spend on small business, would help even more. Bloomberg
Cap on debit swipe cards a victory for small business? It is being hailed as a victory for both small businesses and the consumer. The U.S. Senate has rejected efforts to delay the caps that will be put on debit swipe fees as of July 21. Will this new change help your business? Fox Small Business Center
Our two cents. Small Business Trends has been closely covering the issue of “swipe” fees since 2009 and while everyone can understand the benefit of limiting these fees for small retailers, the question remains whether more regulation is ever a good solution. Here is Small Business Trends founder and editor Anita Campbell with another view of the “swipe fee” issue. Small Business Trends
Finance
How to lower legal fees for your small business. As important as good legal help can be for your business, curbing expenses is another key consideration for every entrepreneur. The key is to make the most out of what you are paying for in legal fees. Here are some examples of maximizing the benefits. Noobpreneur
Branding
Legal steps to protect your brand. We may not always think first and foremost of branding as a legal issue in small business, but here we see the importance of legal steps taken to protect your small business’s brand. Consider these steps when beginning your business. Remember the importance of a strong brand to promote your business into the future. 365 Days of Startups
News
A Michigan law firm donates $1 million in legal services. In an effort to encourage business growth in the state, including startups, a law firm will donate $1 million in legal services associated with starting a business over the next five years. Businesses will need to apply for the services and they will be awarded on a case by case basis. Watch the video. ABC News
Legal and Policy News for Small Business
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Startup Advice in the Small Business News
Jun 16th
What are some of the best pieces of advice you could give to a fellow small business owner during startup? Starting a business can be a very stressful but also a very exhilarating experience. We’re always aiming to help the Small Business Trends community with the best advice for both starting and running a small business. Read the links in the roundup below and, if you can think of anything we’ve missed, be sure to share it in the comments. Enjoy!
Basics
Ways in which a blockbuster action movie is like a startup? What do rebooting a sagging motion picture franchise and launching a magnificent business offering have in common? Both should offer something new and different to the world. And both require imagination, vision and leadership to achieve. Fast Company
Out of Africa. Here is a look at the hottest and most innovative incubators across the African continent, from Nigeria to Ghana to South Africa and beyond. What can the rest of the world learn from these startup ideas? How can they change the way you think about your startup today? memeburn
The truth about women entrepreneurs. According to a recent Australian study, women launch twice as many new businesses as their male counterparts these days. But perhaps more important than this statistic is the reason. The numbers also may suggest a greater desire for work-life balance. Why do you want to start a business? StartupSmart
Tips
Important tips for mompreneurs. Even though many women small business owners, and others, may have lifestyle goals as their motive for creating a startup, the fact remains a business is a business and there are some things you should never do if you want to keep your clients or customers happy. The Work At Home Woman
Mending partnerships after a startup. Partnerships can make a lot of sense in the beginning of a business. More people to spread the work around can sometimes bring increased productivity, new ideas and growth. But after the honeymoon is over, you may wish you had set better ground rules. Bloomberg Businessweek
Deciding whether you need a partner in the first place. Perhaps the best way to avoid trouble with partners beyond the startup phase, problems that may only grow worse over time, is to take a better look at whether a partnership is really necessary at all. This post from a series on startup basics may help you ask the right questions to avoid painful problems later on. Talan
Success Stories
Teen sells cloud startup. What can you learn from other successful startups? We may not all be programming genius’s who mastered HTML at age six. (In fact, some of us may not have even had HTML back in those days ) But Daniil Kulchenko’s story does provide an important pattern for creating a new business. What key elements help a startup take off? The Register
Smarterer key to success: creating something useful. Don’t under estimate the importance of creating a business that fills a need. Does your business provide something useful? More particularly, does it provide something useful that no one else is offering now? If so, you may indeed have the makings of a successful startup. Mass High Tech
More Advice
Business disagreements can be worse between friends. While many startups are founded by friends or family members, the simple disagreements that tug at any partnership can be worse when a personal relationship is superimposed. See the list of misunderstandings that can occur during startup. How much worse could any of these be with a friend or family member? Fox Small Business Center
Tips on selling your startup. It’s all anyone in the startup sector can talk about these days, especially after reading success stories like the ones above, but selling a startup takes some careful consideration and should not be rushed into without careful planning. Here are nine things you should remember when thinking about finding a buyer for your company. Washington Post
Startup Advice in the Small Business News
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Search Engine Marketing
Jun 10th
If you’re not depending on social media alone, you probably rely on search engine marketing (SEM) to bring customers and referrals to your Website. Actually, you’re probably using some combination of the two. That’s good! It means you’ve got a good grasp on what it takes to get attention for your business in the global online marketplace. Our first link in today’s Small Business Trends roundup looks at the common ground between the two approaches. Enjoy!
Overview
Why your business needs the best of both worlds. In the era of Facebook and Twitter, the importance of search engine marketing can often be overlooked. One reason business blogs have remained popular despite the repeated reports of their demise is that they stand with a foot firmly in both worlds, able to be easily shared through countless social media formats yet also strong tools for SEM. BizSugar Blog
Tools
Using the Google Keyword Tool. When approaching Search Engine Marketing, your first step will be an application that should be in every search marketer’s tool box and will put your online business ahead of the game when it comes to attracting customers and referrals. Chris Hamilton’s video is a great introduction, but you’ll want to experiment with the tool yourself to harness the real possibilities. A Sales Tip A Day
New search marketing from the cloud. Software tools like this one allow an “organic search management” approach to marketing on a global scale and are easier to leverage than ever before as they become part of the suite of software applications available through cloud computing. How difficult will it be for your small business to compete with global giants in this landscape? Sys-Con Media
Strategy
What SEM is not. Search Engine Marketing is many things: a great way to drive traffic to your site, a great tool for reaching customers seeking your product or service and a great way of targeting your market and tying it to your brand. What it is NOT, argues Josh Shatkin-Margolis, is advertising. Here is a new approach to thinking about search marketing for your business. Ad Age Digital
SEM and social media both important tools. Both businesses moving into online marketing and those already there know the importance of a search engine marketing approach to develop targeted search engine traffic. This approach is different but in many ways just as important as social media marketing. Here, digital chief operating officer Kalli Purie of India Today Group talks about her company’s focus on both “Facebook and SEM.” Shouldn’t your business do the same? techcircle.in
Human Resources
How to hire a Search Engine Marketer. Seriously, this might be one path you might wish to consider if your small business is looking to start maximizing search engine potential. The truth is that if your business needs to reach customers online, it will be a consideration sooner rather than later. Here Kelly Gillease, vice president of marketing for Viator, gives some no-nonsense advice. Search Engine Land
Trends
Investing up for marketing on the Net. Spending for both SEO and paid search are up, say a recent report, demonstrating a greater interest on the part of businesses with an online presence to invest in SEM. For those involved in Search Engine Marketing this is good news, of course. If your business offers SEM services, it’s time to get out there and market what you do. If your business needs more search engine traffic, it’s an investment to think about. Vertical Leap
More on SEM investment trends. Here’s a sample of the 2011 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report referenced in the post above plus info on how to purchase a copy of the complete version. Suffice to say that what is true of the UK search market can probably be assumed to be more broadly true as well. What are you doing to make SEM work for your business today? Econsultancy
SEO
How Google changes affect strategy. After the latest update from the world’s largest and most influential search engine, search marketers should again be rethinking their strategies, improving the quality of their efforts and learning how to avoid trouble that can cost them big in the long run when it comes to search. Here are five tips that can help an online business owner or marketer, no matter how small, to cope in an every more complicated search environment. Inc.com
SEM goes social? After all this focus on search in a social media and social networking landscape, it is possible the twin worlds of search and social will collide again, this time with reports that search engine Google is planning a “social search” option marrying the two concepts once and for all. How would you add a social dynamic to your search marketing campaign? Stay tune as this story develops… WSJ
Small Business News: Search Engine Marketing
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