Better Business Blog

7 Tips for Networking

Networking goes hand in hand with running a successful business.

But many of us dread walking into a room and introducing ourselves to a bunch of strangers.

I've been asked to share my best networking tips at a meeting today of the National Association of Women Business Owners in Philadelphia. Here are the most valuable tips I've come across – and put to work myself – over the years:

1. Resist the urge to arrive late. It's almost counter-intuitive, but showing up early at a networking event is a much better strategy than getting there on the later side. As a first attendee, you'll notice that it's calmer and quieter – and people won't have settled into groups yet. It's easier to find other people who don't have conversation partners yet.

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10 Blogging Tips for 2012

Are you getting the most out of your blog? With the explosion of social media sites and a whole range of blogging and content sharing platforms at your fingertips, you should take another look at your blog. Is it still serving its purpose, reaching your customers and making the most of available resources? Here's a checklist of questions you should be asking and things you should be considering when evaluating your blog and planning for 2012.

1. Is blogging the best platform for your business? By now you probably already know about the success of new, highly visual online outlets such as Pinterest and Instagram. If your business depends on people seeing big, beautiful photos of your product or location, maybe these are a better fit. You could also look at blogging through Tumblr, which supports multimedia sharing well. And if you have the resources and manpower, you can always do both, using a photo-sharing site to showcase your visual appeal, then integrate these into longer traditional blog posts.

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Ever gone through PayPal reports hell? You will love SlowPal

 

PayPal claims over 100 million active user accounts, but a lot of people hate the company, for a variety of reasons. Love or despise it, it has become hard to ignore and avoid the e-payments juggernaut whether you are an online seller or buyer.

Enter Shoply, which aims to democratize online retailing of goods and services for small businesses worldwide. They hate PayPal too, but they realize that it’s become too big and powerful for them to sidestep the online payments giant.

One particular frustration of the Shoply team with PayPal is its slow and tedious transaction reports system. If you’ve ever used PayPal to peruse though and search for transactions in your account history, you will know that it is prone to crash and is often as slow as molasses in January.

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How American Express Found Its Social Media Groove

American Express went from virtually zero social media presence in 2009 to being hailed by Advertising Age as the “real winner” at South By Southwest this year.

How did AmEx do it? Leslie Berland, SVP of digital partnerships and development at the company, attempted to retrace the brand’s steps during a talk at Mashable Connect, and then dispensed a few social media tips on Friday.

Berland highlighted two major inflection points in AmEx’s social media marketing history: its introduction of Small Business Saturday and its promotion of Sync at SXSW. The former started with a “lofty goal,” which was to “start a movement,” Berland said.

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Why Has New York Become a Paradise for Tech Startups?

Asking budding entrepreneurs where they’d like to build their next startup often elicits the same three-word response: New York City.

Over the past four years, there’s been a 40% spike in startup financing in “Silicon Alley” — a bigger increase than anywhere else in the U.S.

Cities around the world are increasingly looking at New York, rather than San Francisco or Silicon Valley, as a model for nurturing startup growth through policymaking and urban planning.

What’s New York’s secret to startup success? According to Brad Hargreaves, founding partner of startup co-working space General Assembly, the answer is twofold: it’s half the fault of the financial collapse of 2007/2008, and half the result of intelligent public planning and policymaking.

Thousands of the city’s brightest coders, says Hargreaves, were working for the finance industry when the bubble burst. As companies sank, those software engineers were either let go or abandoned ship — leaving some of them free to spark New York’s startup explosion.

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7 Tremendously Efficient Ways to Re-Share Content

There’s a really interesting thing that happens when you start writing a company blog. Suddenly you realize that you've managed to amass 50 or 100 posts. (If you're not quite there yet, don't worry; you will be before you know it.)

That many posts is a nice collection of thoughts and ideas, not to mention a lot of effort. So why not get the highest return for your work? This means getting that content out to wider markets, so that more people have access to your message. The trick here is re-purposing that content—and the possibilities are endless. Let's look at a few.

1. E-book, report, or white paper. Suppose your business is in interior decorating. You could grab your posts related to color mixing and create an eBook titled, Color for Interior Design Made Easy. You might sell this publication, or offer it as a free download.

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The 3 Essential Qualities of a TRUE Social Media Expert

No, really, I'm awesome with this social media stuff...

Right now, there are literally thousands of businesses out there in the world looking for social media help, advice, and guidance. And like any other industry, the social media realm is full of “legit experts,” “not-so-legit experts,” and “please-call-me-a-guru-even-though-I’m-not experts.”

Personally, over the last 3 years, I’ve seen many “experts” in this industry come and go. I’ve also seen many companies hire smart people and get huge results while at the same time there have been handfuls of others hire supposed “experts” that have done nothing but put a hurt on the company’s P & L statement with their false promises and frankly stupid social media strategies.

Throughout this process, I’ve seen definitive trends and qualities that dictate the most successful social media (including content marketing here) experts and the ones that might talk big but have very little to back it up.

3 Essential Qualities of a True Social Media Expert

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5 Lessons from an Unconventional Entrepreneur Who Raised Millions

Crowdfunding may be changing the rules of the financing game–witness the nearly $8 million plus that the Pebble smart watch raised on the site Kickstarter — but many entrepreneurs still want to raise venture capital.

And though seed money is flowing, as you’ll see in Forbes’ Midas List, it isn’t as easy as some news reports would make you think to raise equity capital. There’s a small universe of businesses that actually raise this form of financing. According to CB Insights, venture capitalists only invested in 785 companies in the first quarter. While that’s the second highest number in nine quarters, it obviously represents just a handful of all of the startups that are out there.

So how do you get your hands on some much-needed investment capital? You may get some ideas from Amanda Steinberg, founder and CEO of DailyWorth, an online community to help women build their net worth that now generates “multimillion” dollar revenue through advertising deals with companies such as ING Direct and OppenheimerFunds.

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Who Googled You? This Website Knows

After a date, a pitch or a job interview, there’s a good chance you’re going to get Googled. Online reputation manager BrandYourself now helps you figure out who is searching for your name.

The startup, which helps individuals control Google results for names through SEO, launched a new feature on Tuesday that shows users where visitors to their BrandYourself profiles work and where they’re located.

BrandYourself built a database of organizations’ publicly-available IP addresses in order to create the feature. They use it to match IP addressees of profile visitors with the companies that own those addressses.

Visitors most frequently reach BrandYourself profiles through Google, but the feature works the same way if visitors reach a user’s profile from another search engine or website.

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10 Tips For Keeping Your LinkedIn And Business Connections Fresh

Keeping connections fresh is entirely about giving. You are giving someone attention, and you are not asking for anything. It is a pleasant contact for them. And it makes a huge difference. If someone hears from you, even once a year in an email when you don’t need anything, then when you ultimately do need something, it is very comfortable for both parties. But if you haven’t connected with them at all in five years and suddenly, out of nowhere, ask them for something, it becomes very uncomfortable for you and potentially annoying or easy to ignore for them. You may recognize this situation from having been on one or both sides of the exchange.

If you have kept the connection fresh and updated, not only will it be much more natural and comfortable when you need to reach out, but the other party will be much more inclined to actually help you!

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12 Timeless Link Building Tips for Business Blogs

Link Building for Business Blogs Doesn't Need to Be Risky

As a key component of a hub and spoke online marketing strategy, blogs can be very effective for social media network engagement, online PR, customer service, and as search engine optimization assets. While there are numerous cases studies of business blogs (I like to think Online Marketing Blog is one) providing tremendous value, blogs are simply software tools and what you get out of them is in proportion to how well you know how to use them.  One of the common areas of lost opportunity with business blogs is link building.

Despite Panda, Penguin and maybe someday “Zebra?”, updates from Google to further filter out what constitutes useful content and links on the web, links will always be valuable for attracting traffic.  Some online marketers chase exploits, tricks or shortcuts only to get spanked by a black and white named-animal update from Google.  Why not spend that creativity on something of value and competitive advantage that withstands the advancing filters applied by search engines?

Here are a few timeless tips for building natural links that will attract and engage customers to your business blog:

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Small Business in a Tizzy Over Big Google Changes?

The latest Google shakeup, called the Penguin update, has some online small business owners scratching their heads. The purpose, experts say, is to punish over-optimization, but what does the change really mean in practice and what specifically does it mean for your business? Don’t panic! We’ve rounded up some of the best resources on the Web to help you understand things better.

Inside Penguin

From the horse’s mouth. Want to know what’s really behind the new changes at Google? Why not start with a post from Google’s Matt Cutts about what’s going on from the search engine’s perspective. Google Webmaster Central Blog

Overview of the latest update. So, what is the latest Google update all about? What does it mean, why do you need to be concerned about it and what will it ultimately mean to you? Read a detailed look at the changes in store. Business2Community

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7 Easy Ways to Speed Up Your Business Computers

 

Few activities are more frustrating than staring at your old computer, helplessly willing it to move faster. In business, and especially when it comes to small businesses, a slow computer will not help your bottom line. Equally draining are the costs of constant visits from IT consultants and technicians.

While age is a commonly cited cause of slow PC performance, there are usually additional reasons. Many users have no idea that their computers are bogged down with unneeded applications, adware, cookies, and massive amounts of background processes. Left unaddressed, these issues hinder PC performance, decrease productivity, and increase the amount of time spent dealing with IT problems. So what can be done? Here are seven things.

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20 Interesting Facts, Figures and Statistics Revealed by Facebook

Facebook is about to raise $5 billion from investors.

When you are ask for that amount of money then you need to produce some reliable evidence and facts and figures about the current state of play that are accurate.

So Facebook has recently revealed the latest statistics about its business in its S1 Filing for its upcoming IPO.

Facebook doesn’t appear to be struggling for cash as it has recently paid Instagram $1 billion to purchase its mobile photo app business and Microsoft $550 million  for 650 patents (that it recently bought off Yahoo)

In a knowledge economy that rewards innovators, patents are becoming increasingly valuable to protect your intellectual properties from potential imitators.

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12 Essential Tools for the Content Marketer

 

One of the questions marketers get asked most often starts like this. “I think I get content marketing, but what kind of content works best?” The short answer is that there are at least twelve types of content you can utilize as part of any content marketing plan.

In this case, the focus is on content that can extend your brand’s reach, beyond your website or blog. There’s no single type that works best for all companies. In fact, diversification and having a portfolio of content you can pull from is key. Here are the twelve types of content to focus on, and how they can be used.

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5 Simple Tools That Make Email Suck Less

The very first email was sent in 1971. In the four decades since, these electronic messages have forever changed the way we communicate. Today, we're an email-dependent society, preferring to pound away a quick response on a smartphone rather than picking up the device to make a call. While we might openly complain about adding quantity to our inbox, there's a trend among my business colleagues of leaving voicemail messages that promptly explain that email is the best way to reach them.

The inbox, for many, is not only an invaluable communications tool but also a burgeoning to-do list. There have been many attempts to better the email experience, but for now the inbox shows no signs of extinction. What we do have access to is a growing number of smart add-ons and plug-ins that can improve your email work flow. Here are some of the most useful.

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5 Ways to Build a Solid Email Marketing List

Email marketing is a powerful tool that can extend your reach beyond your website and create new salesopportunities. If you simply sell to customers when they happen to visit your site, you have an all-or-nothing chance of making a sale. Should they leave without making a purchase, there's no guarantee they'll return later.

But when you build an email list of current and potential customers, you can reach out repeatedly to your prospects with targeted messages.

Here are five ways to integrate email marketing into your website and stay in touch with your best prospects:

1. Build an opt-in form on your home page.
Perhaps the easiest and most common way to create a list is to integrate an email opt-in form into your home page. To get attention, place your form "above the fold," so visitors can see it immediately and don't have to scroll down.

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A Company With No Hierarchy Makes More Money Per Employee Than Google, Amazon Or Microsoft

Seattle-based game company Valve was the topic of much discussion on BoingBoing yesterday.  

The 16-year old company has no corporate hierarchy whatsoever, and yet - according to its employee manual - their profitability per employee is "higher than that of Google or Amazon or Microsoft". 

The company's team page proclaims at the top "We've been boss-free since 1996", and then proceeds to list every single employee (a bit over 100) in alphabetical order.  About the founder, Gabe Newell, the manual says, "Of all the people at this company who aren't your boss, Gabe is the MOST not your boss, if you get what we're saying."

How does this madness work?  Leaving alone the claim of incredible profitability, how do they manage to get anything done at all?  Is this not a recipe for corporate disaster? 

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Inside Harvard B-school's Startup Boot Camp

With $3,000 of seed capital from Harvard Business School, around 150 MBA teams were tasked with developing their very own micro-businesses in short order. Here's what they came up with.

By John A. Byrne

(Poets&Quants) -- The idea initially came as something of a joke.

Earlier this year, a team of six Harvard Business School MBA students was brainstorming ideas for a new startup business. They came up with a peculiar takeoff on all the online dating sites: a Facebook application for Jewish mothers to set their children up with potential marriage material.

When the team shared the idea with fellow students, they heard nothing but skepticism. "They said there were a lot of barriers to entry," recalls Jyll Saskin, 24, one of the team members. "Others said they didn't think the market would be that big for it."

The feedback led to some serious rethinking. "We said, 'What if we expanded the idea to leverage the power of friend networks?' adds Saskin. "Friends could serve as yentas to recommend dates for their friends."

With $3,000 of seed capital from Harvard Business School, Yenta was launched last week along with as many as 150 other new startups in what might well be the largest single experiment in entrepreneurship ever undertaken. The so-called "micro-businesses" range from a company called Kinsey that sells "premium undergarments" for men to another called 4n Friend that is creating an online network that matches language tutors with students all over the world.

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10 Top Trends in Social Media

I visited Italy recently and as we know the Italians are a very stylish bunch. They seem to know what fashion is really about.

They can wear a scarf with fabulous flair, choose the cool hat that sets off the outfit or select a pair of sexy shoes that make them look like a fashion model and that is just the men!

The Italians have taken “style” to a level that the rest of the world can only aspire to.

Trends in Shoes

Now on the topic of shoes it appears that there is a trend that if it doesn’t stop very soon, it is going to lead to many injuries and even possible death as fashionista women fall from great heights after stumbling in their 30 centimeter high heels!

This will lend a whole new meaning to the term “Fashion Tragics“.

I have to admit though that the shoes in the windows of the fashion brand stores of Rome and Florence were not just fashion items but objects of style, art and creativity. Just not very comfortable or sensible to wear but who said that fashion should be sensible.

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3 Slick Analytics Dashboards to Monitor Your Business Website

If you’re running a company website without an analytics dashboard, you may as well be stumbling around in the dark. Building a viable and sustainable web presence in any industry is all about understanding the needs of your users and tailoring your service to fit their needs — how can you do that if you don’t even know what your users are looking at or how they got to your website?

The good news is that analytics dashboards simple to implement, and they also come in a variety of shapes and sizes to suit the needs and goals of your small business. While some people swear by Google Analytics or the tracking plug-ins found organically within their specific web hosting or content managing service (think WordPress analytics), there’s a lot of information you may not be getting from these sources. For example, while Google Analytics does a great job tracking individual page vies, it doesn’t necessarily break down any meaningful social sharing or referrals. You may want to know why a specific webpage on your site garners major traffic, but Google Analytics will only note that it comes from Facebook.

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10 Video Tips for Businesses on Pinterest

Grant Crowell is a multimedia writer and marketing analyst who’s been covering the online video space since 2006. Connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him at @grantcrowell.

Since Pinterest was founded in 2008, it’s proven one thing: People love their visuals. And it looks like the site is becoming a hot space for online video marketing opportunities as well, with its recent integration of the Vimeo platform.

The video platform addition makes sense, given how video continues to grow on the network. For example, despite Pinterest’s “no-follow” links rule to third-party sites, videos on the site are being indexed by Google at a rapid rate. In late March, Google had indexed 1,170 Pinterest videos. By mid-April, that figure jumped to 5,870 video results — an increase of more than 500% in just three weeks.

What that should tell brands and marketers is that now is the time to start looking at Pinterest as a video marketing vertical. Here are ten tips on how to get the most out of using video on this site.

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A Quick Practical Business Guide to Google Plus

Is this you? Do you take Google+ as another network you need to manage? Someplace else to post and watch for business social media? As Guy Kawasaki says himself, in the early pages of the book I’m reviewing here:

“I need another social media service like I need more email or my dog to throw up on the carpet.”

Amen to that. I like Twitter best. I’m sort of the introvert version of social media — I like conversations at 140 characters a pop. And online. And via the keyboard. But of course, I’ve been watching Google+, trying to keep up there, because it’s Google, a lot of people I like are there, and I’m in social media for business. Plus already has more than 100 million users, and some business press is predicting more than 400,000 by the end of this year.

Which is why I like and recommend What the Plus, a short, practical to-the-point book on Google Plus by Guy Kawasaki. It’s all about tips, shortcuts, and step by step to taking more advantage of Plus, and doing it better. Don’t judge it by my presence on Plus, because I’m writing this fresh after reading the book, before implementing.

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How to Win in a Digital Economy

I suppose I would describe myself as a product of the digital age. One of my first jobs was working for the first Australian personal computer company in 1985 that sold the first IBM personal computer.

In the late 1980’s I remember installing and using my brand new mobile and chatting to my grandfather (who was brought up in an age of milk being delivered by horse and cart).

Ten years later I remember firing up my PC and connecting to the internet with a very slow modem and hooked into the web using one of the first search engines “Alta Vista”

It was about another decade later that I registered on Facebook for the first time and connected to people I had gone through college with, some looking considerably grayer and others with a lot less hair.

These technologies are now intersecting with high impact in an increasingly digital economy.

The Age of Disruption

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Which Social Network Should You Use — and When? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Want to make the most of the social web? It’s more complicated than just posting status updates at random and seeing what sticks.

When is Facebook most effective? When are you better off using Twitter, or LinkedIn? And what exactly is Google+ good for, anyway?

The business consultant network Zintro recently pulled research from more than a dozen sources including Mashable, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google and Quantcast to put together this nifty infographic, which will help you develop your social strategy. Check it out below for the full report.

Do you use different social networks for different purposes? Let us know in the comments.

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