Is Your Public Relations Strategy Outdated?

In the past, public relations required a client to pay a large retainer in order to be mentioned in a sidebar or get quick features published, promoting a service or product. Today, the future of PR is online, and it includes a combination of content marketing, SEO and thought leadership. Times are changing, and there are some things you should take into consideration when you’re making decisions about your startup’s PR.
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Long Forgotten? Use Customer Service Skills to Stir Old Accounts Back to Life

When accounts go quiet, don’t assume the customer is going away. Use excellent customer service skills to find out what is going on. They may be waiting, occupied with something else, or have simply forgotten where you are or how to reach you! One effort at reactivation can make the difference between a customer who comes once and disappears forever, and a customer who comes once, is invited back and stays with you forever.
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8 Ways to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Want to improve customer satisfaction? Be sure you know the best ways to make it happen! Here are eight proven ways to improve customer satisfaction by finding out what they value, what they care about, and what they really want.
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3 Steps for Evaluating Your Service

Your ability to build customer service success must begin with an honest self exam of how you are doing right now. These three steps will give you a snapshot of where you are and where you need to improve in the months and years to come!
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Focus on Key Performance Indicators

Successful people look for the signs. Small business owners are no exception.The signs are reality. It’s true in business the same way that it is true in sports, relationships, or any other part of life. But what does it mean to see the signs in business? What should you be looking for?
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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?
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Building an Information Security Plan

Do you know what sensitive data your company has, or what you are doing to protect it? An Information Security Plan is a document outlining all this information in a clear way so that everyone in your organization understands potential risks, precautions, and protocols for data breaches.
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2 Golden Rules of Small Business Security

Keeping your data secure can be an intimidating task, especially as you hear about all the possible threats. But don’t be overwhelmed by the task. These are the two most important tips for small business security. Whatever else you do, make sure these are part of your strategy.
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Bad News Doesn’t Get Better with Age

Small business owners have to deal with reality. You cannot solve a problem by ignoring it. Bad news will not get better with age. An open culture means being open to honest feedback of any kind, whether positive or negative. Mistakes are ok, but you have to recognize them and move on.
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Marketing for Repeat Business

The Holy Grail of marketing is getting people to come back more often to buy more. It is a very simple concept, but very difficult to achieve. If people use your product long enough and have a great experience using it, they will keep coming back to buy more and love your brand.
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