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5 Infographics For SMBs to Check Out
Jan 18th
If a picture is worth a thousand words, than an infographic is practically it’s own book! Marketers and brands alike have been turning to infographics pretty heavily over the past 18 months to help them turn their data into a compelling story that they can use to inform and sway consumers. And who can blame them? Sometimes seeing it can help drive home a point far faster than simply writing about it. I thought today we’d change things up a bit and instead of using words and paragraphs to comment on the state of small businesses, we’d take a lot at some popular local search infographics and see what insights they have for us.
Below are a handful of my favorite infographics for small business owners to check out. They share a lot of great data, takeaways, and visualize the data we sometimes have a difficult time trying to wrap our head around.
1. A Brief History Of Google Places
For a service as young as Google Places, it sure has gone through a lot of iterations over the past few months. In fact, David Mihm, the wonder boy of local search, felt like there had been SO many changes since April of 2011 that he wanted to see whether he was losing his mind or if Google really had kicked its Google Places product into overdrive. The result of his wondering is this killer infographic documenting the brief (but busy) history of Google Places. If it was a Places announcement, initiative, interface update or even an algorithmic change, you’ll find it noted in the above graphic. Small business owners will want to give this one a look to remind them of everything that’s happened and even introduce themselves to some updates they may have missed. And if you have missed some, we certainly can’t blame you.
If you want to go really crazy, there’s even an interactive version that lets you toggle things based on feature releases, SERP/interface changes, etc. Check it out!
2. Web Equity: Owning Your Local Search Presence
This infographic was created by local search expert Mike Blumenthal and I think it’s arguably the most useful infographic available for small business owners. It’s an incredible resource and something all of us could benefit from printing out and tacking up next to our computer. Mike’s infographic details the elements that go into really owning your Web presence online, breaks down all the terms, and gives SMBs a clear action plan for how any SMB can own the SERPs. I somehow get a “thank you” in the footer, but this is all Mike’s brilliance.
Web Equity by Mike Blumenthal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.blumenthals.com.
3. Local Search Evolved – MDG Blog
This infographic was created by the folks over at MDG and does a great job showing the evolution of local search and what that means in terms of the actions of local consumers and local search revenue. If you’re looking to build a local search campaign, this infographic offers numbers and behavioral data to help you see not only how lucrative it is to build your search presence, but some of the untapped areas that you may not have thought to optimize for.
Infographic by MDG Advertising
4. The Rise of the SoMoLo Shopper
SoMoLo was identified as one of the hot Internet marketing trends for 2012 and this infographic depicts how current technology trends are creating a new breed of shopper, one that uses different tools, and shows different behaviors and expectations. SoMoLo shoppers know how to use social media and apps to complement their shopping needs. First this infographic created by Commerce in Motion gets you up to date on the trend, and then it provides some tips for how to use it to your advantage.
via 
5. BizSugar Asks: What’s Your Startup Style?
Okay, this one falls a little more squarely on the just-for-fun side of things. 
BizSugar, the business networking sister-site of SmallBizTrends, put together this infographic to help SMBs and entrepreneurs identifying their “start up style”, while also paying homage to the 110 million people who were in the process of starting a business a few years ago. In this one you get to learn a little bit about the people who call themselves “entrepreneurs” and then determine which style matches your own
To learn more about entrepreneur statistics and trends, visit BizSugar.com.
Those are some of my favorite small business-inspired infographics. Has your company made one? Is there one that you always point people to? Drop it in the comments.
5 Infographics For SMBs to Check Out
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
5 Reasons Google+ Is Worth It For SMBs
Jan 4th
In case you haven’t heard the news: Traffic to Google+ jumped 55 percent in the month of December and is expected to hit 400 million users by the end of 2012. I know, it’s almost impressive, right? But many small business owners are still completely ignoring the platform, either because they’re not sure how to use it or they don’t think it’s any different from more-established networks like Twitter and Facebook. For SMBs not sure how to get started or how they can leverage Google+ in their day-to-day business, below are five jumping off points to help you get started. When it comes to Google+, you may not even know what you don’t know.
Ready?
1. Share content with the right audience
As a marketer and blogger, one of the coolest things about Google+ to me is how easy it makes segmenting your audience through the use of Google+ circles. Circles are how you’re able to “organize” the people that you choose to invite into your network. You can create as many circles as you deem necessary, label them whatever you’d like [Customers, Vendors, Friends, Bloggers You Read, etc], and add users to as many as make sense for your purposes. Then, when you post an update, you can decide which audience segment(s) you want to see it and which you don’t. What this gives you is a breathtakingly easy way to bucket your audience and share content based on those buckets. Now you can account for different time zones by posting the same content at different times without appearing redundant or post questions to only a certain bucket of your audience – perhaps those who have bought from you vs those who have not.
2. Host a hangout
We’ve talked a lot about Twitter Chats and Facebook contests, but Google+ goes one important step further with its Hangout feature. What Hangouts allows you to do is have a video chat with up to nine of your friends, colleagues or customers. As a small business owner, Hangouts can be used to talk to remote employees, hold business calls, answer customer support questions face-to-face, have events or even record presentations that you can use later. It’s a powerful feature that allows everyone to connect, regardless of where they’re located.
3. Create saved keyword searches
Of course, at it’s core, Google is still a search engine. And it stays true to that by allowing users to search Google+ based on keyword, brand terms or anything else they may be interested in. By doing a search for [Outspoken Media], I’m able to easily find everyone who has been talking about Outspoken Media or who has shared blog content.
I’m then able to save the search so that I can quickly reference it and look for new updates. As a small business owner, you may want to create save searches for brand terms, industry keywords, hot topics or anything else you want to keep an eye on.
4. See how your content spreads
We create content to share with our audience with the hope that they’ll like it enough to share it with theirs. So any tool we can use to visualize how our content is being shared, who is doing the sharing, and who it is being shared to is really valuable. Lucky for SMBs, Google+ makes it pretty easy to help us see just that. By clicking to the right of any Google+ post (yours or someone else’s), you’ll see a link to view ripples.
Once you select that link, Google will populate a graph so that you can watch, in real motion, how your content was shared, what was said by whom, and what circles it became part of.
This is a really neat and functional feature.
5. Create a business page
Want another way to share content with your audience and keep them up to date on what’s top of mind for your business? Well, you can now create a Google+ business page. Use it to post relevant blog posts, to promote your own content, to poll your audience, to share company photos, to post (appropriate) videos from your holiday party, etc. Below you’ll see the Google+ page for Pepsi.
The soda giant is using it to host conversations with fans, to share photos, and build out a new presence. As we’re starting to see these brand pages rank in the search engines, creating a presence is only going to become more important in helping customers to find you.
Above are five ways for small business owners to find value in Google+. How have you used it for your business? Or, if you’re avoiding it, what’s causing you to hold back?
5 Reasons Google+ Is Worth It For SMBs
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
SMBs Up Email Marketing, Social Media Spend
Dec 14th
Last week StrongMail released the results of its 2012 Marketing Trends survey [PDF] and gave us all a quick glimpse into where marketers are looking to spend their marketing dollars in the upcoming year. Four areas were highlighted as the biggest points demanding more attention and dollars in 2012. What were they, you ask?
- 60 percent of respondents will raise email marketing budgets.
- 54 percent will invest more in social media.
- 37 percent will increase mobile and search budgets.
If you’re a loyal reader of Small Business Trends, seeing those four take top honors probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. They’re four of the areas we talk about most here on the site. Glad to see we’re on to something.
Something else that didn’t come as a surprise: seeing small business marketers investing more dollars in email marketing campaigns than in social media campaigns. Because email is still easier for most SMBs to understand, track and associate ROI to, it is an investment they’re more comfortable with.
When it comes to the types of email marketing campaigns SMBs are looking to invest in, 44 percent said they would increase batch promotional programs, 39 percent will increase newsletters and 35 percent will spend more on lifestyle programs.
Interestingly, it seems SMBs are looking to combine their two favorite marketing programs, with an impressive 68 percent of respondents saying they will look to further integrate their social media marketing directly into their email programs to increase their bang for their buck. As we often refer to social media and email as marketing’s Batman and Robin (read that post for tips on how to integrate them), it’s encouraging to see SMBs looking for ways to use them together. It’s a sign that SMBs are moving attention and dollars in the right direction, combining what’s always worked with newer marketing options.
What are SMBs looking to get from their email marketing efforts? Topping SMB goals are:
- 48 percent: increasing subscriber engagement
- 44 percent: increasing segmentation and targeting
- 32 percent: increasing email opt-ins (subscribers)
Of course it won’t be all email marketing in 2012. When it comes to social media, 39 percent of small business owners will be looking to strengthen their Facebook campaigns, 25 percent will focus on going viral and social media management technology, and 24 percent will increase their Twitter marketing.
One area that won’t be getting as much attention as I would have imagined is mobile. Only 37 percent of respondents will increase their mobile spend, with 29 percent saying they’ll look to invest in apps.
Overall, StrongMail’s survey of 939 executives gives us a good look at some of the areas that will see the largest investment in 2012. It is worth noting that, according to the survey, an overwhelming 92 percent of businesses plan to increase or maintain their marketing spend in 2012. So there are no shrinking budgets here. Business owners understand that the way to increase profitability is to build awareness, be present and go after the customers they want to sell to.
What do you think of the StrongMail survey results? Does it mirror how you’ll be spending your marketing dollars or are you skeptical of their data?
Sound off in the comments.
SMBs Up Email Marketing, Social Media Spend
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
5 Internet Marketing Trends for SMBs to Watch in 2012
Dec 12th
In just the blink of an eye it will be 2012. And with that comes the opportunity for us to focus in on the hottest trends of the upcoming New Year, and maybe even those that eluded us in years prior. While you’re putting the finishing touches on your action plan for 2012, let’s dig into some of the hot Internet trends for SMBs to watch over the next 12 months. After all, you want to kick off the New Year on the right foot, don’t you?
Of course you do.
SoLoMo
It was during November’s PubCon Vegas show that distinguished Google engineer Matt Cutts stood in front of a packed room and encouraged search marketers to focus on three areas over the next year:
- Social
- Local
- Mobile
While these areas were certainly hot in 2011, the data shows they’re only going to heat up from here.
The year 2011 saw a 400 percent increase in the number of mobile searches, with 74 percent of people using their mobile phones to search while running errands. For Black Friday this year we even saw advertisers attempting to lure customers away and steal competitor sales while they were waiting on line to make a purchase, as The New York Times reports.
Piggybacking off the explosion of mobile are social networks trying to get in on the action. Mashable reports Facebook just bought Gowalla’s management team to help them tie proximity to intent, while SearchEngineLand reports FourSquare recently released the new FourSquare button to add your place to their ToDo lists to help customers find you before they even realized a need was there. It’s awareness through relevance and, if you’re a small business owner, it’s a fantastic way to appeal to new customers.
In the face of the SoLoMo revolution, SMBs must not only adapt to new screens but also to new ways of reaching customers.
Using Online Reviews As Social Signals
Focusing on online reviews is not new, but in 2012 its continued importance will be driven by two impressive factors.
1. A Shift in Buying Behaviors: A study from NM Incite showed us that 63 percent of social media users list “consumer ratings” as their preferred source for getting information about a business, product or service. Data shared by Gregg Stewart during March’s SMX West event told us that 32 percent of all searches expect to find ratings and review information. And when they don’t, they wonder:
- Why aren’t you visible in search?
- Why aren’t people naturally reviewing your product/service?
- Why has no one used you before?
- Why don’t others trust you?
Once they’re done with the “why” questions, they simply go search for a business that does have this information available. They go to your competitor.
2. Social Brings Accountability: It’s not just consumers who love online reviews; so does Google. Google looks at reviews as just one of many social signals that will bring accountability back into their algorithm. Google is so serious about accountability and social signals that they even built a new social network around it called Google+. Here consumers are forced to interact on the Web using their real names and identities. That changes the types of interactions that are taking place. Search engines want to return the best possible experience, and an increased focus on social signals is one way they’re looking to do that.
The combination of users looking for this type of social data and Google wanting to display it is a clear sign that SMBs need to invest in this area. In 2012, the SMBs that will be left behind will the ones who have not developed a strategy for how they’ll solicit online reviews, how they’ll manage them, and how they will respond to negative reviews that pop up around their businesses.
A Move Into the Cloud
Cloud computing alternatives will continue to go mainstream in the upcoming year, RingCentral says, as SMBs look to save money and gain access to resources they wouldn’t have otherwise. If you’re not familiar with the term, cloud computing refers to using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store and manage data instead of hosting it on your local server.
For example, instead of hosting your email on your personal computer, if you use Gmail, they host it for you. Or maybe you use DropBox to store your media instead of putting it on a local server at your office. The benefits of moving into the cloud are obvious:
- Low barrier to entry: All you need is an Internet connection to take advantage of most cloud computing options.
- More accessibility: You can log in and edit your data from anywhere.
- Easier scalability: You can add storage or licenses as your company grows and as you need them.
- Reduced costs: You’re only paying for what you use and you are responsible for none of the overhead.
Through the use of cloud computing, SMBs can run their businesses more smoothly thanks to established infrastructure they don’t have to build (or pay for) on their own.
Of course, moving into the cloud does pose some issues. For example, check out the next big trend for 2012…
Site Security
Yes, with more businesses using Web-based services and with hackers shifting their attacks to smaller firms, site security is a major issues for SMBs in 2012. Hackers are setting their eyes on small computer users who they know will have weaker security systems in place and who, The Huffington Post reports, still think hacking can’t happen to them.
Only it can. And it is.
If you think your SMB is safe from hacking because you have nothing “worth stealing,” think again. Even a local pizza joint that delivers will have access to tens of dozens, maybe hundreds, of street addresses and credit card numbers. And that’s all the hackers are after. Protect yourself by putting basic security measures in place like changing default passwords often, setting up strong firewalls, and not falling prey to the kinds of phishing scams or malicious emails that Security News reports.
Going App Crazy
What else has the proliferation of smart phones done besides make us all mobile-crazy? It’s also driven us app crazy. And it’s not just Facebook, Twitter and Angry Birds, either. We’re turning to apps to help us run our businesses and be more efficient and, we hope, more profitable.
For example:
- Apps like Shoeboxed and Expensify help SMBs keep track of purchase history and create expense reports.
- Quickbooks Mobile (Android, iPhone) and Freshbooks MiniBooks help SMBs create invoices, access customer data and manage balances while away from their computer.
- Payment processing apps like Square or Intuit’s Go Payment make sales easier, allowing business owners to accept payments on the go.
- The Iconosys Tax Deduction Tracker allows a business owner to document tax-deductible items in real time.
The adoption of business applications will allow SMBs to streamline tasks and do more faster and easier.
Those are the five hot Internet trends I think small business owners should be aware of in 2012. Are you ready?
Binocular Photo via Shutterstock
5 Internet Marketing Trends for SMBs to Watch in 2012
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Contest and Awards Roundup for SMBs
Dec 4th
This list of contests, competitions and awards for small businesses is brought to you every other week as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.
Also, if you’ve entered and won a contest or award listed here, let us know so we can share your news.
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2012 Business Excellence Awards
Enter by December 15, 2011
The Business Excellence Awards serve as a conclusion to the two-day Business Excellence Forum, and honors those business owners and their companies who have taken their companies, teams and results to “the next level” of success. The award will recognize businesses for outstanding results in any service category. Any service business is eligible for this award, provided their results were outstanding and measurable. Sponsored by ActionCOACH.
The Experienced Dreamers Contest
Enter by December 16, 2011
Pittsburgh is looking for Experienced Dreamers – people with a bit of experience under their belts and a desire to do something different with their lives. If that sounds like you, this is your once-in-a-lifetime chance to win $100,000 to move there and realize your dream! The Experienced Dreamers™ contest is all about getting you to think about your dream – whatever it is you believe you were born to do – and asking if you have the courage to pick up your life, move to Pittsburgh and make it real. See website for details.
Women in Business
Enter by December 17, 2011
There are many outstanding women who are senior level executives, entrepreneurs and CEO’s that are celebrated at the Annual Women in Business Luncheon. These women have mastered their industries and are admired by the business community.
Join the Hartford Business Journal in celebrating the feats of these strong and remarkable business women; eight outstanding women will be showcased in a special section of the Hartford Business Journal and recognized at the Annual Women’s Business Luncheon. These women are senior level executives, CEO’s and entrepreneurs in the Hartford community.
LegalZoom Free Commerical Contest
Enter through December 31, 2011
Contest participants are asked to create a 25-second commercial featuring their business, and upload the video to the LegalZoom Facebook page, where the contest winner will be selected through a voting system. LegalZoom will purchase a minimum of $20,000 of airtime for the winning commercial to be broadcast to a national audience. That translates to a minimum of 50 free spots for the winning business owner.
2012 DREAM BIG Small Business of the Year Award
Enter by January 6, 2012
Nominate an outstanding business from your community or submit your own application for the 2012 DREAM BIG Small Business of the Year Award, sponsored by Sam’s Club.
All award winners will be honored during America’s Small Business Summit on May 22 in Washington, DC. Blue Ribbon Award® winners will receive one complimentary registration to attend the Summit, courtesy of Sam’s Club. Nominations are due January 6, and applications are due January 13. The winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize, courtesy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
MacMall Medical Office Makeover Contest
Enter by January 16, 2012
The Medical Office Makeover Contest features a prize for larger offices with 11 or more employees valued at nearly $17,000, and a prize for offices with 1-10 employees valued at over $6,000. The highly sought after products featured in the contest include Ergotron carts; HP workstations, monitors and digital signs; Fujitsu scanners; Wasp time and attendance tracking; Nuance medical dictation, and other high-value hardware and software from Xerox, Plantronics, Fellowes, ioSafe, Meraki, and Dymo.
Vision 33 Small Business Makeover Contest
Enter by January 31, 2012
This holiday season, one lucky small business will win the SAP Business One Starter Package, 40 hours of professional services and maintenance from Vision33 for a year! There is no charge, no expectations and no purchase necessary to enter the Small Business Makeover Contest – all you have to do is fill out an online form and tell why you think your business deserves to win.
The Amazing Entrepreneur
Enter by February 29, 2012
The 2nd Annual Amazing Entrepreneur Business Plan Competition is an initiative by Gwinnett Chamber Economic Development and The University of Georgia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to foster new business development in Gwinnett County, GA. The contest is open to individuals who own or manage a small business, which has been in operation less than 36 months, in Gwinnett County.
The Grand Prize winner will receive $2500 cash to be used solely for the business entering the contest, a trip to Sage Software’s Customer Conference in Nashville, TN (airfare, hotel stay, conference fees), one-year membership to Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, one-year participation in the Chamber’s Gwinnett Business Institute program ($180 value), a consultation with an attorney from Arnall Golden Gregory ($2500 value), and research assistance from Chamber’s economic development department
To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit our Small Business Events Calendar.
If you are putting on a small business contest, award or competition, and want to get the word out to the community, please submit it through our Small Business Event and Contests Form (it’s free).
Please note: The descriptions provided here are for convenience only and are NOT the official rules. ALWAYS read official rules carefully at the site holding the competition, contest or award.
Contest and Awards Roundup for SMBs
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Matt Cutts Reinforces Hot Google Trends For SMBs
Nov 17th
There are a lot voices for a small business owner to listen to. There are the people in your niche who are telling you the best way to do something, there are industry blogs, there are forums, and there are the other marketers whose success you’re trying to emulate. Sometimes, in all of that, it can be difficult to know which voices are worth trusting and who really knows what they’re talking about. However, there’s one voice whose advice is hard to argue with. And that’s the voice of Google.
While I was at PubCon Vegas last week, I had the opportunity to attend a keynote conversation that took place between Googlers Matt Cutts and Amit Singhal. During that talk, Matt outlined the key areas he believed business owners should be focusing their attention.
What three hot spots does Matt think SMBs should particularly be spending their time?
Mobile
During his talk Matt defined a cell phone as “a computer you carry with you everywhere” and that seems to be the growing trend. Our phones are no longer intended simply to help us make phone calls on the go. We use them to discover things – restaurants, mechanics, supply stores, etc. This is why it’s important that as a business owner you make sure your Web site loads properly and is functional via a mobile device. You may assume that your customers will be searching for you solely via their desktop but we can’t make that assumption anymore. Because more and more it’s proving false.
Social
You couldn’t walk anywhere during PubCon without hitting a conversation about social media, and that’s why Matt named it one of the top areas for business owners to watch. With the recent launch of Google+ Pages for Businesses it’s clear that Google wants to move to a more social Web. A Web that is less based on anonymity and more based on reputation because that’s how Google believes they’re going to make the Web better and add more accountability. You don’t necessarily have to optimize social for search engines, says Matt, but make sure you’re giving off the right signals both with your content and your social influence. Participate in discussions, share content that is relevant to your audience, make it easy for others to share your content. These are all things that will be becoming more important in the future. Social is not going to die.
Local
It should make small business owners feel good to know that the head of Web spam at Google sees small business owners and stressed this as an area of priority. Matt said that local is where the vast majority of purchases take place and that you need to create a strategy for promoting your business online. As a small business owner, you start promoting your business by building awareness through findability by claiming and verifying all your online listings.
Related to covering the basics and claiming listings, Matt also recommended that business owners sign up for Google Webmaster Tools to get email alerts about the health of their Web sites. If you’re not familiar with Google Webmaster Tools it’s a fantastic resource for businesses of all sizes to learn more about their sites and understand more about what Google sees.
With so much noise out there about what’s important and what direction small business owners should be looking in, it’s nice to hear Google give us some cues, even if they’re things we were already doing. Who doesn’t love confirmation that we were on the right track all along?
How do Matt’s comments line up with your site strategy? Do you feel like you’re on the right page or will you be shifting any of your efforts?
Matt Cutts Reinforces Hot Google Trends For SMBs
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
6 Ways SMBs Can Benefit From LinkedIn
Nov 9th
We talk a lot about how small business owners can use blogs, Facebook and Twitter to aid in lead generation, build awareness and grow their audiences. But one social network that doesn’t get quite the same love or attention is LinkedIn. Because of that, you may be surprised to know that LinkedIn has more than 1 million members, according to TalentHQ. Combine those numbers with LinkedIn’s reputation for being the ultimate professional social search engine, and suddenly SMBs start looking at LinkedIn the way they should be – like a social media goldmine.
How can you use LinkedIn to grow your SMB? Here are just a few neat ways.
1. Dramatically Grow Your Network
Unlike the other social networks, people swarm to LinkedIn for one reason – to connect with others for business-related reasons. They’re looking for future vendors or job prospects or a way to build a resume they can cash in on later. Because the mindset of a typical LinkedIn user is much more focused than, say, that of a Twitter user, LinkedIn is the perfect platform to reach out and connect for business reasons. As a small business owner, you can use LinkedIn to find vendors you can outsource things to, connect with others in your industry you can partner with down the road, and more. People are on LinkedIn with the sole purpose of connecting for business reasons. Take advantage of it.
2. Do Market Research
One reason to focus on building your network is so that you’re able to leverage it in the future for tasks just like this. Instead of spending the time and money to poll your customers or organize an in-person focus group, do it online. Poll your audience via LinkedIn Q&As to get their opinion on new product ideas, your current offerings, what they like about your brand, where you could use some improvement, etc. By taking advantage of LinkedIn Q&A or even posing questions via your LinkedIn status message, you’re able to pick your audience’s brain without spending a lot of money to do it.
3. Find New Hires
While you’re keeping tabs on people in your industry and using LinkedIn’s Advanced Search to track down people with the skills and experience of interest to you, keep your eyes open for potential new teammates and hires. I’m a really big fan of using LinkedIn to find hot local talent. If you haven’t used LinkedIn’s Advanced Search functionality before, you may be surprised to know that you’re able to search a number of criteria like keyword, years of experience, previous employers, etc, and then narrow that down by just a few miles from your location. Because of that, LinkedIn becomes the ultimate recruiting tool for business owners. If you have a position you’re looking to hire for, give LinkedIn a try.
4. Check In On Your Competitors
You’re looking into LinkedIn because you’re trying to build your network and keep potential prospects updated on what your business is up to. Guess what? So are your competitors! By keeping an eye on who they’re connecting with, who they’re leaving recommendations for and the projects they keep talking about in their status updates, you can actually learn a lot about what they’re working on and where their focus may be. You can also watch your competitors’ LinkedIn Company Page to stay updated on who’s been hired, who’s been fired and what job openings they’re currently showing.
5. Spot Industry Trends
Though it doesn’t get much attention, the Skills & Expertise search function on LinkedIn can help bloggers and business owners stay up to date on trends that may be happening in their market.
For example, by doing a search for [SEO], you can see who LinkedIn views as relevant to this niche, but you can also find interesting demographic and growth information located in the graph on the right side of the screen. You can see how quickly the area is growing compared to related fields, the average age of someone in that field, and how large it is. As a blogger, this helps me find noteworthy topics to blog about, but for business owners, this may alert you to changes in the market or new areas you may want to look into.
6. Build Your Online Reviews
You know how important it is to build up reviews of your business to show authority and relevance in the eyes of users and the search engines. But are you taking advantage of LinkedIn reviews? Because of how well LinkedIn pages rank, it’s likely that users are finding your LinkedIn profile when they do a search for your brand. And when they do, they’re looking for referrals and recommendations from people who have worked with you. What are you doing to make sure they’re finding the right information? Use the network you’re building to help create those positive referrals. Ask customers, vendors, partners, previous employers, etc., to recommend your business and share their experience with others.
Though LinkedIn may not be seen as the belle of the social media ball, it still provides some huge benefits for small business owners who take the time to explore it. Are you using LinkedIn as part of your social media campaign?
6 Ways SMBs Can Benefit From LinkedIn
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Branding and Web Marketing For SMBs
Oct 14th
Branding and Web marketing go hand in hand these days. Are you using both for your small business. Below you’ll find resources in these topics and a variety of other issues for SMBs.
Web Basics
The simple way to avoid social media failures. With all the new emerging technology especially in the area of social media, it has become difficult not to make mistakes and have those mistakes exposed. The only real way to avoid failure in your social media exposure is to openly admit you mistakes. In the end you and your business will be judged by your transparency, honest, and credibility. Harvard Business Review
Plan Website improvements for the holidays now. With the holiday season rapidly approaching, your website will experience far more traffic which can translate into higher sales volume. The secret is in keeping you website up to date. The small business owner must recognize the seasonal changes in shopping patterns and also the changes in interests as customers begin their search for gifts. This article attempts to organize steps for the small business owner to take. Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Branding & SEO
Base your brand storytelling on perceived benefits. In marketing there is an old saying, “facts tell, stories tell.” This is just as true today as it was years ago. Customers do not purchase your products or services based on all the figures and facts you throw at them. What sells them on your product is being to identify with the product. You accomplish this by getting the person to see themselves using and enjoying the product through a story. Marketing Zeus
The 9 best SEO tools for small businesses. To drive traffic to your site, you must find a way to get to the top of the search engine results page. When operating on a tight budget, you don’t have the money to spend on the best SEO tools. There are good offsite and on site optimization tools that can be utilized within budget restraints. Small Biz Bee
Innovation & Influence
Overcome fear of failure and spark innovation. Do you recognize the fear of failure? Do you see it in yourself? Have you allowed it to become prevalent in your small business? Are your people too afraid of failure that they fail to take any risk that might lead to innovation? Cultivation, even at the risk of failure, must be cultivated for an organization to grow and prosper. Corp!
6 tips to build inbound links. A website may be simply to create an online presence or its use may be to build a small online business. Regardless of its desired use, it must be found before it serves any purpose. to accomplish this goal, you must have a sound SEO plan. The use of off-page SEO , attracting inbound links to your site, can yield benefits, but it is difficult since to a large degree it is out of your control. The article presents six tips on building inbound links. Technorati
Leads & Engagement
6 lead generation strategies for local businesses. Many small businesses mistakenly believe they can rely on their reputation and referrals for their local market sales. In today’s marketplace, with Internet sales, good marketing, and people no longer putting loyalty and service ahead of price, small businesses that fail to take a new approach to marketing will not grow. There are ways for local small businesses to increase their leads and sales without spending a lot of money on marketing. Small Business Trends
Navigating the best path of success in engaging customers. To attract customers and then to hold on to them under these economic conditions and with all the new social media options can be challenging. Communications must be user-friendly and be flexible enough to satisfy the individual needs of each customer as well as being informative for the entire customer base. Corp!
Closing Thoughts
Information overload: what do you really need to measure? In today’s small business world with all the available technology, we have been able to provide more information and statistics about the business than ever before. This presents a difficulty in deciding which information you need or don’t need, and which information needs to be looked at in more depth. Three tips are provided to help you analyze the data. Open Forum
Is e-mail marketing still better than social media? Social media is the most popular online marketing tool these days, but is it really the best. Some out this post about wy e-mail marketing may still belong in your small business tool box. What do you think? Are you still a big e-mail user when it comes to spreading the word. FixCourse
Branding and Web Marketing For SMBs
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The SBA Reports Record Lending Volume, So Why Are SMBs Having A Hard Time Securing Loans?
Oct 12th
The Wall Street Journal reported in a widely read article that a number of banks used Small Business Lending Fund disbursements not for lending to entrepreneurs, but rather to repay TARP loans.
The story also includes findings that lending at local banks is up, but large banks are approving fewer loans than they have in years. Small banks approved 45.1 percent of loans for small companies in September. (In August, the figure was 43.8 percent and at the beginning of 2011 it was 43.5 percent.)
Meanwhile, big banks approved only 9.2 percent of small business loans, down from 9.35 percent in August. (In January, big banks approved 12.8 percent of small business loans.)
Additionally, the Small Business Administration (SBA) reported record loan approval volume in fiscal year 2011, spurred in part by the disbursement of money from the Small Business Lending Fund. Small business loans backed by the SBA reached the highest mark in the agency’s history: $30.5 billion (61,689 loans) to small businesses and startups. The FY 2011 figure surpasses the $28.5 billion mark established in FY 2007 before the recession and represents an increase from the $22.6 billion (60,771 loans) in FY 2010 and $17.9 billion (50,830 loans) in FY 2009.
The first quarter of 2011 was the most active single quarter ever ($12 billion) for SBA-backed loans — more than four times the dollar volume of Q1 2009 and more than double the volume of any quarter over the past four years. The catalysts were the loan enhancements provided under the Small Business Jobs Act, which allowed SBA to raise the guarantee on its 7(a) loans to 90 percent and waive fees on both of its popular 7(a) and 504 loans.
So if SBA lending has been so plentiful, why are there gaps in the marketplace and entrepreneurs who still desperately need access to capital?
1.) Big banks have tightened credit because they are more influenced by the weak global economy (while smaller banks think on a more local level and have increased their approval rates).
2.) Some Small Business Administration (SBA) figures are deceiving:
- The robust lending amounts represent a backlog. Banks had up to one year to close on SBA loans. They applied for fee-waivered funding with 90 percent loan guarantees for applications, but naturally some loans did not close. Banks’ figures were approved and they continued to grant loans under the SBA 7(a) program after the expiration date of March 31, 2011 (extended from Dec. 31, 2010). In essence, they stockpiled and are continuing to grant SBA loans (with fee waivers and 90 percent guarantees) well after the deadline.
- Big banks are misleading regulators. The larger banks are under pressure from the government to grant small business loans. They are counting renewals of lines of credit as new loans, but they are not giving money to startups. Since lines of credit often go unused, banks haven’t made much outlay at all! Banks are earning renewal fees, however. This is income with very little risk.
- Banks categorized loans of $2 million to $5 million under the SBA rubric. Meanwhile, small loans (under $250,000) have been hard to get. The smaller figures are likely being requested by startups. This explains why loan amounts are up, yet entrepreneurs still maintain that it is very difficult to get loans.
There are several lessons to be learned:
1.) The record volume of SBA loans illustrates a government program that is actually working. Although there are some issues, overall the agency is effective in getting funding into the hands of entrepreneurs.
2.) While it is always tempting for politicians to want to create new programs that they can call their own — President Obama’s so-called Infrastructure Bank, for example — we are better off encouraging and renewing initiatives that have proven to work, namely the fee waivers and the 90 percent loan guarantees.
3.) If you are a small business owner seeking capital, you are much more likely to receive funding from local or regional banks or alternative lenders such as credit unions, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) such as Seedco Financial, and nonprofit microlenders, such as ACCION.
As we approach 2012 and the upcoming presidential election, expect to hear a lot more about the topic of small business lending in the news. Just how important is small business to the U.S. economy?
According to the SBA Office of Advocacy’s Research and Statistics, firms with fewer than 500 employees:
- represent 99 percent of all employer firms and provide jobs for over half of the nation’s private workforce;
- have generated nearly two-thirds of the new jobs over the past 15 years;
- pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll;
- hire 40 percent of high-tech workers (scientists, engineers, computer programmers, etc.);
- comprise 97 percent of all U.S. exporters; and
- produce 13 times more patents per employee than large firms.
The SBA Reports Record Lending Volume, So Why Are SMBs Having A Hard Time Securing Loans?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Should SMBs Blog to Customers or Colleagues?
Oct 6th
It’s a question that I’ve seen come up a lot: When you’re blogging for SEO, who are you writing for? Should you be aiming your content at your colleagues in the industry, or are you blogging for your customers? Obviously, both are worthy approaches, but which gets the best results?
Over at GeoLocalSEO, Steve Hatcher recently offered a strong opinion for why SMBs should be blogging for their peers, not for their customers. Today I thought I’d bring the other side of the argument, because I do think it’s a worthy discussion.
That said, I respectfully disagree with Steve. For a small business owner, I think your blogging investment is far better spent producing content for your customers, not for your colleagues in the industry.
Why? Below are a few reasons.
Your customers are performing searches.
When we encourage small business owners to start blogging, we talk to them about keyword research. We offer them advice on how to find out what types of queries their customers are entering as a way to understand what they want, what they’re looking for, and what types of needs the business can fill. Once you know what your customers need and what they’re looking for, you can make yourself the answer to their problem. For example, if you know that 300 potential customers a month are searching for [product name battery life], you can create content that addresses that concern or problem. You make it so that when they’re looking for authoritative content, they find you. That’s not keyword stuffing. That’s solving a problem.
You need to build authority with customers, not colleagues.
We know that there are more businesses blogging today than there are businesses not blogging today. And one of the main reasons so many companies have made the leap is because they know with more competitors, more noise and a tougher fight for visibility, small businesses need to differentiate themselves by establishing an authoritative voice in their market. While people looking for a locksmith may not spend all day trolling blogs about locksmiths or hanging out in locksmith forums (those exist, right?), they are going to do their due diligence before hiring someone. When they get a recommendation from a friend or when Google shows them the nearest locksmiths in their area, you’d better believe that user is going to do their homework and check the company website, the blog, the Twitter account, etc. This happens. This is how we vet companies now. And by creating that authority via your blog, you put yourself in a better position to get that customer.
You want to start conversations with customers, not colleagues.
Steve makes a worthy point in his post when he says that the people who comment on his SEO blog are other SEO experts, not people looking for services. And that’s often the case in the world of SEO and Internet marketing, but when you venture away from this circle I’d argue that it changes.
- Do you know who comments on blogs related to cooking and recipes? People who are interested in cooking and possibly buying your cookbook.
- Do you know who comments on active lifestyle blogs? People who may be in the market for a new kayak or a six-person tent.
- Who comments on blogs about cars and automotive issues? People who love cars and often spend their weekends working on theirs.
Those of us in the marketing world live in a very incestuous bubble. But “normal people” do not.
Your customers are checking for your pulse, no one else.
The Web is changing customer buying behaviors. Today customers go online to research companies on their own before they ever attempt to contact them about their product or service. They’re looking for signs of a pulse when they do this–signs that you can give them what they need but also that your company is human and relatable. One of the great things SMBs have been able to do through their blogs is to tell their stories and show their human side to an audience that’s waiting for it. They’ve been able to talk about how they got started, share what drives their passion, and introduce their customers to people on their team. This has helped them find customers and differentiate themselves from everyone else in your industry. Your colleagues probably don’t care why you love what you do or what drives you to get up every day. Your customers absolutely do.
As a small business owner, there are many different approaches to blogging that you can take. You can blog for your customers, the people you’re trying to attract to your website. Or you can blog to your colleagues. In my opinion, your time is better spent appealing to the first group. They’re the people searching for you, evaluating you, and coming to your site (and the search result pages) looking for helping solving problems. Speak to them.
What about you? Who is your blog content aimed at?
Should SMBs Blog to Customers or Colleagues?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
