Five Steps to Managing Complaints on Social Media

Social media is a customer service tool that has great potential beyond what most companies are currently using. Outlets such as Facebook and Twitter offer the opportunity for companies to enhance the customer service experience by posting value-added content. Often, however, their only involvement is to monitor what customers are saying about them on social media.
Read More

The Most Web-Savvy Cities in the U.S.

Which city do the most web-savvy small businesses call home? With the Radius database as officiator, we compared the small businesses in all major U.S. cities based on a number of web savvy behaviors, including social media activity, website presence, daily deal offerings, and more.
Read More

Pinterest Tips for Small Business

For a small business owner, there’s no marketing like word-of-mouth marketing. When your customers are talking about your business with their friends, and bringing new customers to you, that is the most effective form of advertising—and the cheapest! And social media have the potential to function like word-of-mouth advertising on steroids.

Read More

Building a Brand: How Three Successful Sites Did It

At the beginning of the year, AG Beat released a very cool list of 60 brands to watch during 2012. Not all of their predictions were correct—KeepSum, which many thought would be the Groupon of real estate, has been offline for a few months now—but many of them were spot on. Three in particular—OpenCongress, Klout, and Pinterest—did so well during 2012 that they have now become household names. But what did they do differently than the other 57 brands, and how did they do it? What stars aligned to bring these three to the limelight?
Read More

3 Simple Steps to Maintaining a Successful Company Blog

Chances are pretty high that if you run your own company, it probably has its own blog that more often than not serves as a reflection of the business itself. A company blog shows readers what sort of business you’re running and gives them an inside look at just how you run things. As such, the company blog develops a voice all on its own that’s often pretty conversational as well as informational, so it’s important that your customers are finding the answers to the questions that they have and keep coming back for more with your blog.
Read More

Surviving the Imminent Millennial Takeover

We are close to a major generational shift. While Baby Boomers have dominated spending for decades, Millennials will soon be taking the top spot. This shift is not just interesting in terms of demographics, however; it will require businesses to change the way they market, sell, and serve their customers.
Read More

Social Media Myths

Social media can put your business in front of a lot of new people thanks to viral content—but it doesn’t happen automatically. With all the voices trying to be heard, it takes a smart plan to make it work. Many small businesses miss out on opportunities to go viral by buying into social media myths.
Read More

Principles of Social Marketing

Today’s age of social media has created dramatic shifts in marketing strategies. If you get it right, social media can make it easier for small businesses to take advantage of their flexibility, local connections, and nimble nature.
Read More

Improving Your Website One Piece at a Time

A presence on the web is increasingly important, as more and more consumers look for information on businesses online before visiting in person. Improving your website can be a daunting task, so break it down into manageable items that you can accomplish one at a time.
Read More