Posts Tagged: smb

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22
Oct 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between September 22nd and October 22nd

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between September 22nd through October 22nd:

  • 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
  • 5 Winning Post Ideas for Your Small Business Blog : Technology : Idea Hub :: American Express OPEN Forum – Keeping content fresh is one of the most important things you can do on your small business blog. Consistently putting out quality posts accomplishes two important goals: it turns visitors into repeat visitors and it creates a community around your content. Further, good content builds on itself over time and will slowly increase your blog's traffic as it becomes more discoverable in search engines. However, blogging regularly isn’t easy, and while it's true that almost anything can be turned into a blog post, generating ideas for fresh, original, high quality content is difficult, especially for those new to blogging.

    In this post we'll take a look at five different types of posts that you can use on your business blog. We'll talk about what these posts look like, explore why each variety of post works especially well for business blogs, and look at examples of each type of post from actual blogs around the web.

  • Working Less Means Working Better, Says Study – Productivity – Lifehacker – It's no surprise that cutting back on work and taking regular breaks is beneficial for workers, but a four-year study from the Harvard Business School found that less work also benefits workers—and workplace productivity—in less obvious ways.
  • The Beginner's Guide to Tricking Out Your WordPress Blog – Blogs – Lifehacker – Nice overview for Wordpress newbies
  • HOW TO: Set Up a Winning Facebook Fan Page – Nice, simple overview of how to set up a Facebook Fan Page
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26
Aug 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between August 18th and August 26th

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between August 18th through August 26th:

  • NYT: Who's Driving Twitter's Popularity? Not teenagers – Another reason that teenagers do not use Twitter may be that their lives tend to revolve around their friends. Though Twitter's founders originally conceived of the site as a way to stay in touch with acquaintances, it turns out that it is better for broadcasting ideas or questions and answers to the outside world or for marketing a product. It is also useful for marketing the person doing the tweeting, a need few teenagers are attuned to.

    "Many people use it for professional purposes – keeping connected with industry contacts and following news," said Evan Williams, Twitter's co-founder and chief executive. "Because it's a one-to-many network and most of the content is public, it works for this better than a social network that's optimized for friend communication."

  • Teens Don’t Tweet, Or Do They? –
  • Marketers and SMBs Disconnect over Online Tactics – As a source of information about products and services, SMBs rely most on newspaper and magazine articles (43.6%) and direct mail, including letters, postcards and catalogs (43.5%). Ranked last are phone calls (27.4%) and radio/TV ads (32%). Online, referrals from friends and peers rank first (71.9%) among SMBs, followed by search engine marketing (57%), educational websites (44.5%) and email newsletters (38.2%). Last are ads to cell phones (8.1%), videos/podcasts (19.2%) and forums/chat rooms (20.2%). SMBs rated social networking at 27.8%.
  • Dell, Moonfruit Claim Twitter Campaigns Effective – Dell's Twitter account has driven $3 million in sales since it began operation in 2007, Dell said.

    Moonfruit, a website builder, also said Twitter campaigns have helped the brand. Moonfruit said it spent around 10,000 pounds ($16,400) on prizes for the campaign, and that it brought in more than twice that amount in a single month in new subscriptions

  • Stupeflix – Video production made easy – Simple mashup tool that promises easy remixing of photos, video, music and text.
  • A call for "marketing with meaning" – iMediaConnection.com – "Many marketers have realized that, at long last, when all forms of interruptive advertising have failed, the only decent thing to do is create marketing that people find valuable. " – Amen.
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31
Jul 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between July 28th and July 31st

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between July 28th through July 31st:

  • Social Media Best Practices – eMarketer – In late 2008, MarketingSherpa surveyed social media marketers about the effectiveness of their practices. Large majorities rated social media marketing effective at influencing brand reputation, increasing awareness and improving search rankings and site traffic.
  • Managing Your Small Business’s Online Reputation – NYTimes.com – Local review sites are reshaping the world of small business by becoming the new Yellow Pages, one-stop platforms where customers can find a business — and also see independent critiques of its performance.

    How do you manage your reputation when everybody is a critic?

  • B2B Marketers Latching Onto Social Media : MarketingProfs – Most B2B marketers have begun using social media and more of them are planning to use "newer media" than ever before, according a new study by BtoB magazine and the Association of National Advertisers, reports BtoB Online.

    Nearly two-thirds (66%) of polled marketers said they use social media, up from 20% from two years ago. Among B2B marketers, 57% said they now use social media, up from 15% in 2007.

  • MediaPost Publications Study: Who's On Which Social Nets 07/28/2009 – More than half of social network users have associated their profiles with a brand, company or product. While much has been written about negative nature of Web 2.0 and blog posts, social network users are more likely to say positive things about brands, companies or products.
  • The Importance of Social Media Audits « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing – Just as brands conduct audits of inventory, employees, and budgets on an often annual basis, they should also survey the landscape to find out what customers, influencers, partners and employees are participating on the social web. Audits are key for identifying priorities, benchmarking previous efforts, and planning for future efforts; the same applies for social media.
  • Why People Use Twitter – eMarketer – Men and women both used Twitter primarily to keep in touch with friends. Secondarily, men were interested in finding news and women in updating their status.

    Users under age 35 were more interested in broadcasting their status than their senior counterparts. Older users were more likely to use the service for work-related purposes.