Social Media

How to Blog Effectively to Market Your Small Business

By Shashi Bellamkonda - Jul 6, 2010 - 22 Comments

On Thursday 24th June 2010 Beth Schillaci, President and Founder of VillageWorks Communications, an entrepreneur was the guest for a small business Tweetchat. A tweetchat is a conversation on Twitter where participants connect the conversation by searching for keywords known as hashtags and … Read More

Twitter’s New Advertising Will Be Franchise Friendly

By Joel Libava - Jul 1, 2010 - 12 Comments

Sometimes, franchise (and non-franchise) company executives get a bit stuck on the value proposition associated with social media marketing. To illustrate what I mean, I've decided to take on the role of a franchise company executive, who's a little frustrated with this whole social media … Read More

Entertain Your Readers When You’re Not There

By Lisa Barone - Jul 1, 2010 - 9 Comments

It's hard balancing a blog with your small business. Even though you know the importance of having fresh content, sometimes life gets in the way. Things get busy at work, you go away to a conference, you have a new baby in the house, or the unimaginable happens and you actually take a vacation. … Read More

5 Dos & Donts For Getting Blog Coverage

By Lisa Barone - Jun 30, 2010 - 19 Comments

As a small business owner, you know the importance of blogging. You also know how important it is to get coverage from other blogs. But getting blog coverage means knowing how to pitch. It's about making your email to that blogger stand out and make them want to hit the Reply button instead of … Read More

9 Things to do Before Entering Social Media

By Lisa Barone - Jun 29, 2010 - 25 Comments

You're going to give this social media thing a solid chance. You've heard that social media delivers leads, connects you with customers and you're confident that you can avoid falling victim to the many social media myths. All that's left to do is create the accounts hop in. Wait! Not so … Read More

6 Tips To Instantly Improve Your Blog

By Lisa Barone - Jun 24, 2010 - 13 Comments

It doesn't matter how long you've been blogging, how many subscribers you have or even if you're still waiting to get your first comment -- we're all want to become better bloggers. You want to continually increase your reputation as someone who knows their stuff and set yourself as valuable to … Read More

How To Save Your Brand On Twitter

By Lisa Barone - Jun 22, 2010 - 5 Comments

It's not really that uncommon. You head to your favorite social networking site, read what people are saying, and you stumble across that one tweet or status update that makes you wince a little bit. You have a reaction because the content they're putting out, well, it doesn't do much to show … Read More

Something To Watch: Twitter Places

By Lisa Barone - Jun 16, 2010 - 8 Comments

On Monday, Twitter revealed that they'll soon be giving users the ability to give context to tweets by allowing them to tag tweets with specific locations via Twitter Places. Once tagged, users can click the location cited in the tweet and see a list of ALL the tweets coming from that particular … Read More

How Does Social Media Aid Lead Generation?

By Lisa Barone - Jun 3, 2010 - 19 Comments

If you're still not sure social media is worth the investment, try this one for size: According to a May survey by virtual events provider Unisfair, social media is now the number one emerging channel for lead gen among technology marketers. And while that could seem somewhat skewed based on … Read More

5 Social Community Myths Hurting Your SMB

By Lisa Barone - Jun 1, 2010 - 20 Comments

I've learned quite a bit in my dealings with large and small companies in social media. Mostly that there are still some pretty dangerous misconceptions about the best way to build a community. While companies may understand the importance of getting involved, they're still not getting what it … Read More

8 Must Haves For Your Twitter Contest

By Lisa Barone - May 26, 2010 - 13 Comments

Spend ten minutes on Twitter and you're likely to find someone giving away an iPad, iPhone or iSomething. Contest marketing is everywhere on social media and it hasn't escaped SMB owners looking for new ways to gain followers or build awareness. And it hasn't for one important reason - it … Read More

Facebook Takes Away, Gives Back Landing Tabs

By Lisa Barone - May 25, 2010 - 19 Comments

In case you missed it, there was a lot of discussion last week regarding Facebook, small business owners, and customized landing pages. First SMB owners could have them, then they couldn't and now they can again. So what happened? And can SMB owners really trust that they're back for good? In … Read More