Google Buzz: 5 Opportunities for Small Businesses

by Carol Cole-Lewis on February 26, 2010

Just when you thought you had your social media campaign all figured out, here’s a new tool from Google that’s sure to become a major player: Google Buzz.

The following article appeared in today’s Mashable and highlights how this new tool could be useful to Small Businesses:

Google Buzz: 5 Opportunities for Small Businesses.

And, here’s a video about Google Buzz:

(hmmmm….not too sure about the world revolving around Google. Monopolies usually are not healthy for society – what do you think?)

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HOW TO: Build a Facebook Landing Page for Your Business

by Carol Cole-Lewis on February 22, 2010

A few months ago, I did a presentation to the Lake County Chamber of Commerce on how to set up a Facebook Page for your business.  It was a step-by-step process on how to sign up and set the paramaters for a basic Facebook business page.

This post from today’s Mashable, takes my presentation one step further and teaches you how to customize your Facebook landing page so it’s essentially a mini-website within Facebook (rather than the usual wall feeds and tabs)

Two warnings before you read the post:

  1. You’ll need to be at least a beginning nerd to understand the instructions. If not, get a nerd to help you.
  2. Make sure setting up a customized landing page for Facebook is a part of an overall social media strategy. Don’t set up this page if you’re not going to lovingly tend to it like a garden, or else the effort you put into development will be wasted.

Ready to move forward? OK, here’s the post:

HOW TO: Build a Facebook Landing Page for Your Business.

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How to Create and Distribute Effective Online Coupons

February 11, 2010

Customers are looking for deals, and they’re going online to find them. Today’s Mashable has a great article on using online coupons to grow your business. The strategies mentioned in this post will work well when combined with a new program the Lake County Chamber of Commerce is developing for local businesses at http://shopstayplay.com.
Read the [...]

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A Few Tips For Mastering Your Social Media Life

February 10, 2010

Feeling a bit of overwhelm keeping up with all your Social Media accounts? Here are a few simple ideas from Fast Company:
Work Smart: Mastering Your Social Media Life | Fast Company.

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Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box

January 20, 2010

As you look at ways to improve your business, your research may reveal a need to significantly change the way you do things: who your customers are, what products you sell, how you sell what you sell. Just because nobody else is doing it doesn’t mean you can’t make the leap. In fact, leaping before [...]

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Add an Email Newsletter to your Facebook Page: Nutshellmail

January 19, 2010

Believe it or not, I’ve found a useful Facebook application! Nutshellmail allows Facebook Page owners to put a tab on their Facebook page that gives visitors and fans the opportunity to sign up for e-mail updates.
Actually, Nutshell mail is more than this…it’s really a summary of user-selected Facebook “streams” (e.g., status updates, wall posts, tagged [...]

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Taking social media local

January 5, 2010

Are you a franchisee or do you sell a national brand locally? You’d do well to consider social media to promote your product. Why? You can be more creative and appeal more directly to your customers. And, you can adapt national marketing campaigns and make them more relevant to your local market.
This could be just [...]

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Quick Marketing Tip: Make Your File Names Meaningful

January 1, 2010

Did you ever download a .pdf file from a website that had an almost meaningless filename? For instance, I just downloaded a signup form for a conference I want to attend. The document is titled “register.pdf”. In a few days, I’ll be asking myself when I look at that file “Register for what?”
When you create [...]

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5 Ways to Grow Your Local Business With Social Media

December 22, 2009

Here are some useful ideas from John Jantsch, award winning social media publisher, on how to use Social Media tools for local business.
Regardless of what tools you choose, make sure you take a planned approach. Know what you want to measure, and how you’re going to measure it so you can quickly determine whether your [...]

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6 Important Points To Remember When Designing an Email Campaign

December 1, 2009

There’s more to writing (and designing) a effective email campaign that meets the eye. I got a few “a-ha’s” from a document I downloaded from Lyris.com today I thought I’d share with you:

Realize most recipients won’ t ever see your beautiful graphics
Most browsers default to “images off”. Make sure your email looks good [...]

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