Small Business Shift

I’ve written previously about why your business should and should not use Twitter. But a recent report from Exact Target really pins down one of the great things about the social network. As the report states: Twitter users are the most influential online consumers, and their influence spreads across all areas of the internet. It says […]

When you make an update to your Facebook Page, not all your fans will see it. For some pages, it can be so bad that less than 10% of your fans see the news. And it’s mostly because of Edgerank. What is Edgerank? Facebook users have many friends, and they may like numerous pages as […]

Facebook can be tricky. You get a whole bunch of people liking your page and content, but this can easily end up buried in their friends’ feeds. To give companies a way around this (and, of course, to make some money), Facebook created sponsored stories. These are a nice addition for existing Facebook advertisers as […]

About 2 weeks ago, Google announced their new social network, Google+. This has been covered ad-nauseum all over the internet, and I was reluctant to write about it. It’s in a limited beta, mostly filled with geeks, and no one knows if it’ll ever have great significance. And you all have plenty of business profiles […]

With the recent announcement of Google+, it looks like the number of social networks businesses have to deal with is going to continue to grow. In light of this, I’m going to review Hootsuite, a web & mobile app that makes social media account management easier. About Hootsuite Hootsuite provides a dashboard for managing social accounts. […]

In the past two days, Twitter has announced a Follow Button and Google announced a +1 Button. These come shortly after Facebook’s announcement of the Send Button in April. The 3 new buttons, of course, can be added on to the Facebook Like, Facebook Share, Google Buzz, Twitter Tweet, Stumbleupon, Digg, etc, etc, etc. They truly […]

You run a business. You’re busy. Handling your company’s social media presence takes time. So what do you do? The Problem Social media is still relatively new, and many companies don’t have anyone deemed responsible for it. No responsibility = it’s not done well, or even consistently. Some businesses haphazardly allow an employee to setup […]

Groupon has brought a revolutionary advertising model to the local business market, and is making a fortune in the process. The company has a website, Groupon Works, which details successes companies have achieved by working with them. But there are also numerous horror stories describing how using Groupon was a disaster for small businesses. So […]

There are a variety of ways to market on Facebook – today we’re going to look at the company’s paid advertising system, Facebook Ads. This can be a great venue for small business marketing, as it’s relatively simple to setup, can accommodate small (or huge) budgets, and provides options for precise regional or demographic targeting.

Facebook introduced its new Places feature last week. Designed to compete with the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla, Places allows Facebook users to “check-in” wherever they are at. I’m going to take a look at what Places is and how to claim your business’s Places page.