Social Media

Spice Up Your Social Presence with Images: Avatars and Facebook Ads

By Anita Campbell - Dec 7, 2010 - 4 Comments

This post is part of the Inspiration series, sponsored by Veer.com. In my previous articles in this series, I've discussed using images for blog posts, for PDF downloads and for presentations. Today we're going to cover how to use images to jazz up your social presence online. … Read More

SMB Owners Still Not Sure About Social Media

By Lisa Barone - Nov 30, 2010 - 16 Comments

While your eyes were on Thanksgiving, eMarketer reported on a RatePoint survey from August 2010 that shared two pretty disheartening statistics about small business owners and their views on social media. Curious what they were? According to RatePoint: 47 percent of SMB owners either … Read More

Yelp Revamps To Give SMBs A Holiday Gift

By Lisa Barone - Nov 23, 2010 - 5 Comments

The holiday season is upon on and Yelp wants to make sure they do their part to help small business owners have a good one, giving them even more tools to connect with customers and help drive sales. Yesterday I had the opportunity to chat with Eric Singley, Yelp’s Director of Mobile and … Read More

Are You Attracting Facebook Fans or Driving Them Away?

By Lisa Barone - Nov 17, 2010 - 14 Comments

You entered the world of Facebook with all the best intentions. You wanted to use the social network as a way to connect with current customers, attract potential new ones, and share a little bit of your brand with those listening. So every day you take to the site to post new content and engage, … Read More

Checking in With Customer Reviews

By Lisa Barone - Nov 10, 2010 - 7 Comments

In case there was any confusion about the effectiveness of customer product reviews, eMarketer lets us know they’re still pretty dang important. In fact, they may be more important than ever before – for users and business owners alike. A recent eMarketer study shows business owners have … Read More

Facebook, Yelp Follow FourSquare, Launch Deals

By Lisa Barone - Nov 9, 2010 - 11 Comments

Last week both Facebook and Yelp announced they’d soon be offering deals to customers who check in at a particular location. Good idea, right? FourSquare sure thought so when they launched it months ago. On the Yelp blog, Luther Lowe didn’t give specifics but hinted that the review site … Read More

Who Should You Follow on Twitter?

By Lisa Barone - Nov 2, 2010 - 10 Comments

There’s a lot of talk about how to find Twitter followers. Though, you may have noticed, the conversation is typically about how to get people to follow you to help increase your reach, build awareness and make new contacts. But what if you’re a small business owner just now entering the … Read More

How to Add Transcripts to Your YouTube Videos

By Lisa Barone - Oct 26, 2010 - 13 Comments

Last summer I mentioned some YouTube optimization tips that small business owners can use to get the most out of online video. But that was a year ago! Today I wanted to share one more tip that can help video-savvy small business owners get a big leg up on their competition: Adding transcripts to … Read More

10 Ways to Increase Blog Readership

By Travis Campbell - Oct 24, 2010 - 24 Comments

Last week while attending BlogWorld I noticed a recurring discussion pertaining to increasing blog readership. These discussions were part of the session content, as well as informal conversations I had over a meal or at an evening gathering. I decided to share these with you because, after … Read More

How to Measure a Case Study’s Performance

By Lyndsey Frey - Oct 22, 2010 - 4 Comments

In this three-part blogging series, “3 Phases to Turn a Case Study into an Effective Marketing Tool,” we’ve discovered “5 Steps to Craft a Case Study’s Content Strategy” and “How to Build a Case Study’s Online Distribution Strategy.” For this last post, we’ll explore how to … Read More

4 Social Media Truths SMBs Can Finally Admit

By Lisa Barone - Oct 20, 2010 - 16 Comments

Earlier this week Anita shared 5 Trends Uncovered at BlogWorld, commenting on several blogging-specific trends she saw while attending the show this past weekend in Vegas. Like Anita, I, too, was lucky enough to be able to attend Blogworld and came back with my own takeaways. What I found was a … Read More

Want Customers To Friend You, Reach Out!

By Lisa Barone - Oct 19, 2010 - 7 Comments

One of the questions I get most from small business owners is, How do they get customers to engage with them in social media? For example, once they’ve taken the time to build and create their Facebook presence, what’s next so that customers find them and begin to interact? Often we talk … Read More