Small business – Gabriel Catalano®

Twitter Generates 86% of Leads for B2Bs on Social Media – Thnxz to @B2Community

If you own a small business, you know it’s not always easy to figure out where you should or should not be spending your time on social media.

This is especially true for B2Bs, whose target audience on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn is much different than B2Cs or nonprofit organizations. The challenge for B2Bs is figuring out how to build an engaged audience when clients and prospects are trying to do the same with their own fans and followers.

It’s not always an easy task. But a new study this week, could provide insight into which networks are driving the best results for B2Bs when it comes to attracting new leads and generating new business opportunities.

Plus, if you feel like your Facebook Page reach has been higher than usual this week, it probably has—thanks to a recent fix to Facebook Insights.

Read about these top stories and much, much more in this week’s marketing news roundup.

1. Study: Facebook Page reach rises 31% after insight bug fix

If you manage a Facebook Page, you may have noticed an alert from Facebook in the last week explaining a bug in Facebook Insights. According to Facebook, the problem which was identified last week, has affected data for reach and impressions.

This week, a new study from EdgeRank Checker found that the fix is having a bigger impact than some may have expected. According to the study, which looked at 1,000 Facebook Pages before and after the bug was fixed, there was an average increase of 31% for total reach. Other key metrics like Organic Reach and Viral Reach have also seen big improvements—up 41% and 275% respectively.

Bottom Line: While it’s only been a week since Facebook resolved the problem, these early results are a welcome sign for Facebook Page owners.

Full article here 🙂

In the last year, Facebook has taken a lot of heat over its EdgeRank algorithm. On average, each post you share on Facebook will reach less than 16% of your total fan base. For a small business that’s invested months, if not years into building that fan base, it’s understandable that you may have some frustrations when it becomes difficult to reach your target audience.

That’s why it’s so important to extend the communication you have with your audience beyond Facebook and take ownership of your contacts so you can communicate on your own terms.

Last month, I sat down with Constant Contact Social Media Specialist Danielle Cormier to find out how small businesses can keep up with all these Facebook changes. Check out what she had to say.

2. For B2Bs, Twitter gets the best social leads

A new report from Optify, shows that for B2B small businesses, Twitter is the most effective social network when it comes to generating new leads.

According to the report, which analyzed 62 million site visits, 215 million page views, and 350,000 leads in 2012, Twitter accounted for 82% of all social media-originated leads, while Facebook accounted for only 9%.

When it comes to generating traffic, it was Facebook that outperformed all social networks—with 54% of traffic coming from Facebook Pages, 32% from Twitter, and just 14% from LinkedIn.

Bottom Line: Whether you own a B2B, B2C, or run a nonprofit—picking the right social networks for your small business starts with understanding where your audience is engaging online.

While studies like these provide a helpful benchmark to work from, they should not provide a cut and dry solution to which sites you should or should not be using.

For a better idea of what each of these sites has to offer, check out our free guide, Get Started Building Your Social Media Presence.

3. Foursquare opens up to non-members

Foursquare announced this week that it will now make it easier for non-Foursquare members to access information on its site and mobile app.

With the new Share button, Foursquare will allow its current members to share links to restaurants, stores, or other locations with friends who are not currently Foursquare members.

Bottom Line: Foursquare Pages are rich with the type of information consumers rely on when making purchasing decisions. Over the last few months, Foursquare has taken steps to make that information more readily available to non-Foursquare members.

Today, it’s more important than ever to make sure the information people find on sites like Foursquare is accurate and up-to-date. This is especially true if you own a restaurant and have a menu that’s listed different locations.

Find out how one restaurant makes sure every online menu stays the same, from review sites to social networks.

Full article here 🙂

Content marketing deserves a prominent place in your business operations

We know how important it is for small businesses to create killer content. For many small business owners, however, the idea of content creation is a daunting one. And why not? Blogging isn’t always easy, especially if you don’t have the manpower or in-house talent to help craft your content. When times are tough for small businesses and money is tight, allocating resources to content creation doesn’t necessarily seem like the smartest move, does it?

BY: BRENT BARNHART | chamberofcommerce.com

With this sort of mentality, it’s easy to let content marketing slide on your list of priorities. It may be more appropriate to think of a business’ content as an entity that does most of its work “behind the scenes.” While an article or two every few months won’t rake in the dough for the average small business, a steady stream of blogs and articles will develop a flux of new visitors and increased web traffic; such traffic ultimately leads to, well, leads.

Still, many skeptics continue to see the benefits of content marketing as somewhat of a fairytale. Where’s the proof? What’s the point? Where are the numbers?

The numbers do indeed exist, and here are some points for starters:

91% of business-to-business marketers are now using content marketing.
Businesses that blog actively generate 67% more leads per month versus those that don’t.
79% of businesses are using content marketing for brand awareness, 74% for customer acquisition and 71% for lead generation.

What can we take away from such statistics?

Nearly every business today is taking part in some form of business blogging or content creation.
The more a business blogs, the more likely they are to create new leads.
Businesses are creating content for multiple purposes, not just to draw in leads or sell a product.

In short, most businesses are blogging and they’re seeing results. If your business isn’t blogging, chances are that you’re part of the minority. Furthermore, there’s a good chance that your competitors are creating content and therefore leaving your business a step behind.

There’s plenty we can take away from 2012 in terms of content marketing that will put small businesses on the right foot heading into 2013. Whether your business has already developed a content marketing strategy or you’re just getting started, take the following four tips into consideration. The marketing world is one which changes rapidly; staying ahead of the curve will help maximize your returns in terms of content creation.

Diversify Your Content

Continuar leyendo

Latest Facebook Marketing Tools for Your Small Business

Social media marketing is becoming a necessity for small businesses. According to a recent survey, in 2012, 55% of small businesses had their own blog. Out of the 500,000 businesses interviewed, 43% say they spend 6 weekly hours or more on social media, and 90% of small businesses are on Facebook. That’s huge!

Not surprisingly, Facebook is the leading platform in the field of social marketing. They are well aware of the exponential growth and keep on rolling out new features that can help businesses reach more people and engage with a greater number of potential customers.

If you’re relying on social marketing as part of your business plan, it’s important that you keep track of the latest marketing tools released by Facebook. Here’s a brief introduction to the most recent tools you need to know about.

Facebook Fan Page App (Now for Android Too)

Managing a Facebook page? Performing this task on a mobile device can get pretty difficult. Facebook’s regular app is great if you want to stay tuned to your profile, but if you’re managing a Facebook fan page, your needs are entirely different. This is why Facebook launched the Page Manager App for iOS last year and for Android earlier this month. The Pages App is the optimal tool if you run a Facebook page and want to keep up with your fans’ activity while you’re on the go. Multitasking can get wild when you run your own business and the option to perform some tasks from your phone gives greater flexibility.

Here are some of the main things Pages app lets you do:

Post new updates and photos
Respond to fans’ comments as your page
View and reply to private messages
Get notifications about new activity on your page right away
View your latest page Insights

the Fan Page App

Extend Your Reach with Promoted Posts Continuar leyendo «Latest Facebook Marketing Tools for Your Small Business»

The Value Elevator Speech for your Innovation | innovationexcellence.com

by Stephan Liozu

Are you able to clearly articulate the value proposition for your innovation, your business model, or your startup? Can you recite in one quick minute this value proposition and two to three value drivers that illustrate its power and monetized differential value? If you are a business leaders in the trenches, a multi-tasking entrepreneur or a busy innovator, chances are that you have not gone through the exercise and are not ready for it.

I was recently participating in a top management conversation at a fairly large high tech start up and I asked leaders around the room if they were able to articulate the business model value proposition and their critical value drivers. The question took them by surprise and generated some interesting internal discussions. I was invited to speak with them about their potential pricing problems but we quickly realized that the problem resided in the business model fundamentals and the overall value proposition. The conversation uncovered internal disagreements, some frustration among the various executives, and a real need to take a step back and reflect.

Case closed! How can one have a creative and constructive discussion on pricing models without have a clear idea of what your innovative business model is all about and what types of differentiating features you bring to your customers? This is fundamental exercise that every marketing manager, business manager, innovator, and entrepreneur should go through to create a crisp value story that will create excitement and interest for customer, investors and partners.

There are three critical elements to work as shown in the figure below.

Continuar leyendo «The Value Elevator Speech for your Innovation | innovationexcellence.com»

Mark Cuban: What Entrepreneurs Need to Know Before Starting a Business

Mark Cuban is known for being outspoken and no-nonsense when it comes to business. This week, the billionaire tech entrepreneur, investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks participated in a question and answer session on popular social news site reddit where he discussed all things business, basketball and, of course, Shark Tank.

When starting a business, Cuban said every entrepreneur needs to know that it’s not so much about having a killer idea as it is about being completely prepared to take a product or service to market. «Everyone has ideas, most don’t do the work required to get the job done,» he wrote.

Another thing aspiring business owners need to keep in mind: Sales are the most important aspect of a small business, Cuban wrote. «No sales, no company.»

The Sydney Morning Herald

CLEAR and effective communication is key to winning business, so it’s important to choose your words wisely. But for some small-business owners it can just be too hard, and it keeps on getting put off … until tomorrow.

The head of the Australian School of Copywriting, Bernadette Schwerdt, says writing involves the fine crafting of words, and many small-business owners make the error of sitting down to write off the top of their head without giving their selection of words enough thought.

Ms Schwerdt, whose background in advertising and acting underpins her communication style, says there are common mistakes that people make when they write material for their business.

Before anyone ever writes anything, they should be able to answer three questions: »Why this? Why you? and Why now», says Ms Schwerdt.

Customers will be making instantaneous, often subconscious, assessments when they read the words on your website or in your e-newsletters, and answering these three »whys» will help your business maintain the interest of the right customers, Ms Schwerdt says.

They want to know why this product will make their life easier, richer, happier or healthier, she says.

Answering the »why you?» question addresses the difference between your own business and that of your competitors, and »why now?» is the urgency factor.

»People think I could do with a financial planner but I don’t really need one now, or I could do with a trip but not now. It’s about creating content or copy that encourages people to do something right now,» she says.

Five tips to cure writer’s block >>>> Continuar leyendo «Good copywriting, good small business»

entrepreneur.com | Stories

3 Tools That Can Take the Headaches Out of Hiring and HR

image credit: Shutterstock

Growing and managing a workforce is almost never easy. And when it comes to staffing up, business owners have to juggle issues such as tracking resumes, analyzing candidates and other human resources obligations. For smaller firms, the difficulties associated with managing these duties can often be amplified.

The good news is there are several useful toolsthat can help. Though they will not replace a physical HR manager, these three services should be able to help even the smallest company hire and manage employees more efficiently:

Small Business Job Growth Continues

image credit: Shutterstock

Small businesses continued to add jobs in October, but the question remains whether this will be a sustainable trend given growing uncertainty about the economy and looming fiscal issues.

Employment in private small business (companies with one to 49 employees) payrolls rose by 50,000 in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ADP Small Business Report released Thursday. This is the largest payroll increase since July and accounts for 32 percent of employment gains across all company size groups.

Within small businesses, 37 percent of the employment growth contribution was associated with companies having between one to 19 employees while 63 percent of October’s small business growth was driven by companies with 20 to 49 employees.
Many small businesses remain confident in the economy’s future growth despite and a recent study by Kauffman/LegalZoom Startup Confidence Index suggested that the credit crunch for small businesses may be easing.

Time & Follow Through on Your Goals

Manage time and follow through

Work Awesome | Pooja Lohana

Several years ago, I moved to Silicon Valley to pursue a healthcare-related postgraduate degree. The first six months or so of school was the most rigorous academic experience I’ve ever had. Forty plus hours in the classroom per week plus study time crammed into short quarters was much more than I could handle.

After things started lightening up a bit, I began expanding my horizons in the local area. I started meeting people who were young like me, but working at some of the local famous tech companies. It seemed like everyone was incredibly busy at work but were always making time to meet with other people to talk about startup companies.

I soon started attending some of these meetings because my background was related to the tech industry. It wasn’t long after that when I decided I too wanted to try a startup.

I didn’t know where to begin so I started making a list of the most important things a startup needed. I started asking questions around venture-capital, fundraising, software development, and all the other things which can go into a new company. All of these things were great, but without a rock solid idea I didn’t think I’d have a chance of succeeding.

I partnered with a local entrepreneur who had experience building and selling companies. He also had experience in the healthcare space so we decided to do a healthcare startup. On top of all my personal responsibilities at school I spent long hours trying to manage my time and develop our idea into a fundable business.

It’s been a few years since we set everything in motion but now after countless hours of hard work we’re finally seeing the company take off.

It’s definitely been an interesting journey through the wilderness to get to where we are. We’ve had to set milestones and goals and work diligently to achieve them. Business plans don’t write themselves. Strategic partners aren’t formed on their own. Software coding doesn’t happen out of thin air. These must all be accomplished by making a target and aiming for it. If I had to sum it up in two things, I’d say I only succeeded in starting up my business because I learned to manage time and follow through my goals.

Manage Your Time… Continuar leyendo «Time & Follow Through on Your Goals»

Expanda su negocio | ¿Cómo funciona Engage?

Ads | Engage

Participar en el programa Google Engage es simple, como también lo es aprovechar todo lo que ofrece. Complete su solicitud en cinco minutos. Una vez que obtenga la aprobación, acceda para realizar la capacitación básica y obtener los beneficios exclusivos para miembros.

Beneficios que obtendrá…. Continuar leyendo «Expanda su negocio | ¿Cómo funciona Engage?»

10 Reasons Your Business Needs External Advisors

See on Scoop.it – Gabriel Catalano the name of the game

Far too many business owners baulk at the perceived costs of engaging external advisors to assist them to improve the performance of their businesses.

In the long run, this reluctance to invest in external advice generally proves detrimental, to the profitability and sustainability, of their businesses.

As a questionable but understandable cost saving measure, many owners of established businesses tend to rely on web-based information sites or Government Small Business sites in preference to engaging external advisors.

Whilst accessing free advice from reputable online sites is a step in the right direction, the main problem with this approach is that often, the key link between the advice offered and the skills available in the relevant business to successfully apply the advice, is missing.

Sometimes, less experienced business owners, access information from sites where the business information on offer is not only of poor quality but is often wrong, and acting upon such advice, can create additional problems.

The other aspect which limits the value of free online advice is the assumptions made by the business owners or their managers, as to the actual problem that they are seeking information to help them to resolve.

It is often the case, that a symptom of a problem is being addressed, where a more complete, focussed and analytical investigation by an experienced external advisor, would establish the real underlying problem, one that must be resolved before the business can move forward.

Aligned to the perceived cost of external advisors being a barrier to greater engagement between businesses and external advisors, is a poor understanding by many businesses of the benefits that external advisors bring to any assignment, and the real return on investment that building a short term or ongoing relationship with an external advisor, can provide.

The real benefits that external advisors bring to any business which has the foresight to engage them include >>> Continuar leyendo «10 Reasons Your Business Needs External Advisors»

Herramientas para añadir tiendas virtuales a tu página de Facebook

Si quieres vender algo por Facebook, y no sabes muy bien como hacerlo, aquí teneis unas cuantas herramientas que os facilitarán la tarea.

Payvment E-commerce Storefront

Es quizás la aplicación de comercio electrónico más sencilla de utilizar. Dispone de gran variedad de opciones para montar una tienda online a medida de la compañía o el producto. Incluye un área de administración propia para gestionar productos y ventas. Por el momento sólo acepta pago vía paypal y Payvment.

Vendor – Free e-commerce Shopping Cart

Permite montar un carro de la compra en la página Facebook de modo que se puedan ir agregando productos y precios a través de la “store”. Esto permite que lo puedan ver los seguidores de la página pudiendo vender y cobrar usando PayPal.

InfusedCommerce Continuar leyendo «Herramientas para añadir tiendas virtuales a tu página de Facebook»

3 Ways to Get More Time Out of Less

HERDING GAZELLES | Karl Stark and Bill Stewart | inc.com

You can achieve more in a constrained market without running your employees into the ground. These three steps will get your team focused on the work that really drives growth.

Across the country, businesses are being pushed to do more with less. Typically this has taken the shape of longer hours, later nights, and a big group of unhappy employees. Achieving in a constrained market should not mean spending more time at the office doing less exciting work; it means that you should stop wasting time.

There are three steps managers and staff can take toward a more efficient, more productive organization. By 1) identifying and focusing on your biggest priorities, 2) completing two objectives every week, and 3) outsourcing work, you will find a smoother running organization that employees are happy to contribute to every day.

1. Identify and focus on your biggest priorities. Continuar leyendo «3 Ways to Get More Time Out of Less»

Reputation Management | creatinemarketing.com

http://creatinemarketing.com

Do you care what people are saying about your brand? Your customers sure do!

Reputation Management is becoming one of the most important components to operating a business, whether it is small or large, online based, or not. Having a website means that your business is always open, and never closes.

Most people are more apt to post comments about negative experiences than positive experiences and this can influence people’s perception of a business. Studies have shown that close to 80% of all consumers have been influenced by reviews they have read online when making a purchasing decision. This is the reason why managing reviews is another big component of the process.

It is thus vital to continuously manage your online reputation, and there are different ways to safeguard it. Creatine Marketing has the most highly skilled and dedicated team in the industry that will design a specific plan to ensure your brand and / or company maintains a highly regarded online reputation.

Understanding the fundamental importance of reputation management, it’s likewise significant to understand the process we use at Creatine Marketing that has earned us the reputation as the leader in our industry.

Our internal team of experts have designed our core process and we are pleased to say that our process has had a 100% success rate in improving the online reputation ratings of our clients.

Step 1: Analysis… Continuar leyendo «Reputation Management | creatinemarketing.com»

Blogs And Pinterest As The Most Influential Recommendation Engines [Infographic]

socialmouths.com

Kick-ass social media advice for the real entrepreneur.

One of the most important aspects of social media, specially for small business using it as a marketing vehicle, is its power as a discovery and recommendation engine.

Infographic courtesy of JumpThru.

But in order to get to that point, your content gets distributed and shared around the web. It gets in front of people as a recommendation from a friend. As digital word-of-mouth.We know people trust a recommendation from a friend more so than any other message they get bombarded with during the day. This is based purely on trust.Trust drives action. Now, can different media vehicles carry more trust and more influence than others? Continuar leyendo «Blogs And Pinterest As The Most Influential Recommendation Engines [Infographic]»

How to Measure ROI for Networking Events

Outspoken Media | businessinsider.com

Let’s face it—running a networking event is hard work. This morning, the rest of the team and I are attending Social Media Breakfast Tech Valley #11 (SMBTV), a bimonthly morning networking event featuring local and national speakers who present on a variety of social media-related topics. We’ve collaborated with several companies in the area, includingEnable Labs, LinguaLinx, andMedia Logic, to organize and run the event. In the midst of finishing client projects and dealing with end-of-month responsibilities, running a networking meet-up can seem like madness.

To be frank, we didn’t decide to take on more responsibilities strictly out of the goodness of our hearts, although SMBTV is a great way to give back to our community. We see return on our efforts in the forms of branding, authority building, and most importantly, visibility to potential job candidates. The agency-to-talent ratio in Upstate New York is pretty daunting from a hiring standpoint, so we are eager to find opportunities to highlight our company and identify potential team members. In short, we’ve justified the ROI for our involvement.

Creating, organizing, or hosting a networking event can satisfy numerous business development needs in addition to building your team and giving back to the community. Before you jump in, start with a plan that helps you measure the ROI on networking events.