When running a small business, there are plenty of different tools that may benefit you. These may include social media sites, marketing features, or other platforms. This week, some members of our community discussed various tools that small businesses can use to grow. Read about those tools and other news in this week’s Community News and Information Roundup.
Make Email Marketing Work for Your Small Business
(Shared CxO)
Email marketing has been around for years, but some small businesses still don’t use it to its full advantage. If you want to get the best results from your email efforts, it’s best to keep it simple. Here, Daniel Rivera talks about making email marketing work for small businesses.
Changes in the Works for Twitter
(Marketing Land)
Twitter executives are working to make the site more user friendly, with potential future changes including improved search and maybe even a group chat feature. The company’s CFO shared some insights this week about how these changes might be made. Martin Beck wrote about Twitter’s new direction in this post.
Grow Your Audience Through Communities
(Rebekah Radice)
Communities are places where people with common interests can connect online. These are usually more specific than general social networking sites. Here Rebekah Radice goes into a bit more detail about how to use communities to grow your online audience. And another small business community, BizSugar.com, discusses some of the power these communities give to their members.
Don’t Neglect SEO
(Get Busy Media)
SEO is a particularly important tool for small online businesses. But there are several different ways businesses can use SEO, as the BizSugar community discussed. Here, Jesse Aaron explains nine areas of SEO that many small businesses neglect.
Build Trust with Your Web Design
(Zen Optimize)
As a small business, your web design is important. Of course, you want to put your best face forward for potential clients and customers. But did you know that you design can actually impact customer trust? Here, Ali Luke shares eight ways you can build customer trust with your website design.
Pinterest May Become a Paid Search Engine for Brands
(Iliyana’s Blog)
Pinterest has proven to be a powerful tool for visual brands, since users are more likely to make purchases based on pins than they are based on other types of social media posts. But could this mean that Pinterest is headed in the direction of Facebook and so many other sites where brands have to “pay to play?” Iliyana Stareva discusses Pinterest’s strengths and potential future changes in this post.
Use Google+
(The Savvy Biz Blog)
It is just one of many different social media platforms small businesses have access to. But Sarah Santacroce says Google+ is a social tool small businesses can no longer afford to neglect. BizSugar members also discussed some of the benefits of Google+ here.
Focus on Marginal Gains
(MarketingNate)
Certainly you want to see your business grow. But not all that growth has to happen all at once. Focusing on small growth can be even more effective in the long run. In this post, Nate Williams talks about growing a business 1% at a time.
Avoid Communication Breakdowns with Positivity
(Quartet)
Communication is hugely important in any work environment. But mistakes and breakdowns do happen, even when you try to communicate a message clearly. According to Kathleen Sales, being positive can lead to more effective communication in the workplace.
Use Your Website to Build Relationships
(The Strategic Marketing Group)
What’s the point of a website for small businesses anyway? Plenty of businesses consider their websites to be a virtual storefront or face of the brand. But if you only use your website to push products or services, rather then to build relationships with customers, you may be missing out. Art Remnet writes about the real value of small business websites here.
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The group chat for Twitter sounds interesting. I hope they incorporate it.
I’ve tried with Google+, but it just doesn’t do it for me.
Annie Pilon
I think it sounds pretty cool too! And I’m with you on Google+, I know it has value but I can just never seem to get into the habit of using it consistently. There are a lot of people doing well with it though!
I might give Google+ one last try, more because of ego and stubbornness than anything else. 🙂
Aira Bongco
I noticed one thing with Twitter and that is the fact that it is ever changing. I really don’t know what is with it and why it keeps on changing. As an old user of Twitter, I can really say that it is better in the old days when it is one united community.
Annie Pilon
I think Twitter and most other social sites feel the need to constantly change to keep up with new technology and compete with other sites and their offerings. Sometimes these changes make them better and other times it just seems kind of unnecessary.
I don’t use Twitter enough to notice the changes. However, I am aware that some of the changes they’ve been introducing have been Facebook-like.
I’m all for change, but constant change seems unnecessary, like a toy they can’t stop playing with.