SBA Opens Nominations for 2013 Small Business Week Awards |  |
- SBA Opens Nominations for 2013 Small Business Week Awards
- Small Business Owners Think Local For 2013
- What Does Your Social Brand Say About You Online?
- Be Loud On Twitter Or Don’t Bother Trying
- Online Sales Rise 30 Percent On Cyber Monday
| SBA Opens Nominations for 2013 Small Business Week Awards Posted: 28 Nov 2012 01:00 PM PST The U.S. Small Business Administration is now accepting nominations for its 2013 National Small Business Week Awards. In addition, it just announced the launch of a new online portal to accept and track all of the nominations for each award category.
Awards include National Small Business Person of the Year, Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year, Women's Business Center of Excellence Award, Veterans Business Outreach Center Excellence in Service Award, and more. Winners for each award are chosen based on different sets of criteria. For example, nominees for the Phoenix Award for Disaster Recovery must own small businesses that suffered physical damage due to a disaster during the previous year, and they must have received an SBA disaster loan. Then those businesses nominated are evaluated based on a number of related factors, including extent of the damage, resiliency, and speed of recovery. The National Small Business Person of the Year award is perhaps the most highly anticipated and coveted award in the community. Winners are selected from those who were named State Small Business Persons of the Year. A panel of judges selects the winners in each district and then each state. State winners will be announced on April 1, 2013. Winners of the awards will be invited to Washington D.C. to attend the 2013 Small Business Week events and compete for national titles in their respective categories. The online portal is now accepting and tracking nominations in all categories. In addition, nominations can be sent to SBA District Offices. All nominations need to be submitted or postmarked by January 3, 2013 in order to be counted. Nominations can be made by any person or organization dedicated to the support of the small business community in the U.S. These can include professional trade organizations or associations. Upon submitting a nomination, users are asked to either sign in or create an account on the National Small Business Week site. Small Business Week began in 1963 as a way to recognize the achievements and contributions of America's small business community. The events also offer networking and educational resources and opportunities for small business owners and professionals. The 2013 Small Business Week will be the 50th anniversary of National Small Business Week, and will take place May 19 – 24, 2013. The post SBA Opens Nominations for 2013 Small Business Week Awards appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Small Business Owners Think Local For 2013 Posted: 28 Nov 2012 11:00 AM PST As the year draws to a close, it's time for small business owners to take stock of what they can expect in 2013 – and most of them are expecting something good, according to the Fall 2012 Bank of America Small Business Owner Report. The semi-annual survey found more than half of small business owners expect their revenues to grow in the next year, with just 7 percent expecting sales to drop. Nearly one-third plan to hire employees in 2013, while 56 percent will maintain the status quo, and just 3 percent foresee having to downsize.
Despite these optimistic projections, small business owners do have some major concerns heading into the new year. Not surprisingly, the top five concerns (all cited by between 63 and 68 percent of respondents) were:
One reason small business owners may be so optimistic despite these concerns is their local focus. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) say their customers primarily come from the local community. Just 27 percent say that most of their customers come from outside the community (but still in the U.S.), and only 3 percent primarily focus on customers outside the U.S. As a result, 75 percent report the local economy plays a significant role in their businesses; for 59 percent the national economy does holds the most sway, and 28 percent say the global economy is the most important. Small business owners were also more optimistic about their local economies improving in the coming year than about the national economy doing so. Small business owners' local focus also came through loud and clear when asked about marketing. For 87 percent, "word of mouth" is the most effective marketing tactic; just 32 percent cite social media. In general, traditional marketing was more effective for the small business owners than digital marketing. Networking with other business owners (49 percent), advertising (41 percent) and direct mail (37 percent) were their other top tactics. (I wonder, though, if this is because they aren't sure how to use digital marketing effectively, and whether – if they truly tried it – it would end up surpassing those more traditional methods.) You might be surprised by the positive view small businesses in the study took regarding big business. Fewer than one in five (17 percent) thought of big businesses as their competition. In contrast, nearly four out of five (79 percent) have big businesses as customers. Finally, despite the popular belief, small business owners aren't going begging for capital. Au contraire, 70 percent have access to all the capital they need to run their businesses, and just 16 percent plan to apply for a loan next year. How does your business compare to what these small business owners are feeling? Are you equally optimistic? Why or why not? For more details, download the Fall 2012 Bank of America Small Business Owner Report. Local Shopping Photo via Shutterstock The post Small Business Owners Think Local For 2013 appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| What Does Your Social Brand Say About You Online? Posted: 28 Nov 2012 08:00 AM PST You know that social media marketing is here to stay BIG time, right? Are you still kind of fighting how essential it has become? Do you believe it will do nothing but grow in importance for business success?
Consider These Trends
We engage, convene, share, connect, market, help, research, buy, sell, rant, rave and riff online. It’s the other world, the parallel universe we live in when we are not in person and face to face with people. What Does Your Social Brand Say About You? How do you present who you are, what you do, whom you serve and why anyone should care on the web? This is your calling card and visual home that people will use to determine why connecting with you is viable and has value. Is your web presence active and relevant? Do you engage regularly on the social platforms where your customers, community and colleagues are congregating? The Illusion of Success It’s very easy to create an illusion of success and credibility online. People usually believe what they see if they don’t know you. The slick images, buzz words, promises of lot’s of followers, leads, sales and quick success are usually phony carrots people dangle online. Be careful, get referrals and get to know good people who are trusted in their circles and platforms. Most importantly, be exactly who you say you are. Online Image Your online image will usually get you one chance to make a great first impression. Are your sites and media platforms current, clean, easy to navigate and do all the links work? When someone pulls you up on LinkedIn or goes directly to your sites, are they seeing what you want them to know and see about you now? Online Messaging Check all your online copy and marketing messaging and make sure it is timely. Frequently update your pictures, services, testimonials, awards and activities, which show and tell people who you are in real time. Show people what are you doing NOW! Serving is the New Selling Trendwatching started talking about becoming a “Brand Butler” in 2010:
Visual + Visceral = Your Social Brand How you visually present yourself plus how you viscerally describe your who, what and why creates your social brand. Your social brand should inspire people to want to make an emotional connection to and with you. People need to like what they see and believe what you and others say. Your social brand helps them do that. Check out the 5 drivers, when reviewing or creating your social brand from Trendwatching, which talks about the “Expectation Economy:
Are you using these drivers? And what does your social marketing brand say about you now and what do you need to do to make it stand out? The post What Does Your Social Brand Say About You Online? appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Be Loud On Twitter Or Don’t Bother Trying Posted: 28 Nov 2012 06:00 AM PST For a brand with a voice and something to say, Twitter acts as a powerful communication medium allowing you to put your stamp on things and get yourself heard. But let's face it: Twitter is also kind of noisy. Your success on the platform rests on your ability to make your tweets stand out and gain visibility in your customers' eyes. But how do you do that? How do you make sure you're being heard and you're not just tweeting out into oblivion?
Use characters wisely Twitter gives you 140 characters to convey your message. And as short as that may seem, the truth is your message needs to be even shorter to be most effective. The average Twitter user is looking for quick nuggets they can click on for more information OR that they can ReTweet and share with their friends. You need to grab their interest early on in your message if you have any hope of getting them to act. And don't forget to leave some room in your tweet so that users can manually RT you, as well. By taking up the whole 140 character limit, you make them unable to add their own input into your message, limiting the chances they'll share your bit of wonder with their world. Personalize your content If someone is following you, they're doing it because they want YOUR take on life and the industry. So give them it to them in everything you put out. Want to share a link you found really useful? Great. But instead of tweeting [post title + link] personalize the tweet by adding personal commentary or by picking out a great line from the post and using that instead of the title. This not only shows you actually read the post, it gives your followers a meaty nugget to hold on to. Find your magic number How many tweets a day should you send out? It depends on your audience and their expectations! To find your magic posting number it will take experimenting to see how many updates your audience best responds to. Ultimately, you want to post enough that customers look forward to your updates and you give them a reason to follow you, but you don't want to post too much to the point where customers are ignoring you because you're bombarding them with too much information. Test out different tweeting patterns to help you find your rhythm. There are also tools and services you can use which will analyze your Twitter stream to show you when your audience is most "alert" to your updates. Find ways to engage Entering social media means being proactive about hunting down conversations and opportunities to speak on behalf of your brand. Just because your customers are lurking on these social channels, doesn't mean they're ready to start the conversation. You need to be prepared to do that.
There are opportunities everywhere to insert yourself into the conversation and be involved, but you have to find them. Don't expect them to come to you. Listen to your audience The good news is your customers will tell you if your Twitter strategy is working. They'll tell you through increased RTs, blog comments, site traffic, additional social media interaction, etc. So listen to them. If you see that certain types of content are doing better, it's a sign your audience wants more of that. Try wording tweets differently and taking on different approaches to your engagement until you see what works and what gets a stronger reaction. Use tools to monitor effectiveness By using tools to help you schedule your tweets and monitor engagement, it allows you to spend more time crafting the tweets and less time chasing around mentions. Depending on the size of your business, this may be as simple as setting up saved Advanced Twitter searches or using tools like SocialBro, SproutSocial or Buffer to help you increase the effectiveness of your account. Have fun If you're not enjoying your social media interaction, you can bet your customers aren't enjoying it either. Social media gives you a front row seat to the conversations happening around your industry, while also inviting you to host the show. Enjoy it! Find your customers and talk to them. Ask questions. Share resources you enjoy. Social media shouldn't be a chore. It's a new way to talk to your customers about your business. Above are some of the tips I'd recommend to help get your brand heard on Twitter. What's worked for you? The post Be Loud On Twitter Or Don't Bother Trying appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Online Sales Rise 30 Percent On Cyber Monday Posted: 28 Nov 2012 02:30 AM PST The results are in and the popularity of online shopping continues to rise. It’s a clear sign to businesses already expanding into online sales that they are on the right track. And for companies who do only limited online marketing and sales or…gasp…none at all, it’s a warning that you could be missing out big! We’ll be looking at the results of Cyber Monday, a day set aside to promote online shopping for businesses large and small, and at some tips we all might consider when bringing our A game to the new online business space. Check it out! The New Shopping ExperienceThe sky’s the limit. There seems no end in sight for the growth of online sales as total revenue rose by 30 percent on Cyber Monday. The growth was a bit below last year’s 33 percent rise, but experts think this may be due to the ever increasing window of online discounts, some extending beyond the designated online shopping day, causing some customers to spread out their purchases and not buy all at once. Either way, it’s a clear sign there’s money to be made online. The Wall Street Journal A mobile revolution. This was clearly the year for shopping via smartphone or tablet. In fact, PayPal, which tracks the kind of transactions passing through its service, says mobile purchases, distinguished here from online purchases in general, were up by an incredible 190 percent over 2011. There’s no doubt mobile shopping is becoming the norm. It’s time to make sure your Web presence is ready and able to handle the customers of the future. They’ll be visiting your store not in the flesh or on a PC, but from a mobile device while on the move. Quartz Social left behind? If you’re wondering what role social media played in all this hoopla, well, as Tricia Duryee reports, it’s a bit complicated. You see, while data shows that sites like Etsy, which reported its strongest sales in its seven year history, received most of its customers via mobile devices, it also shows that almost none of those visitors came from social media at all. But wait a minute! Before you count Facebook and Twitter out, remember that social traffic can be harder to follow. So some of those purchases may have started with social referrals from friends, though this can be more difficult to measure. All Things Digital Online Sales SurvivalAlways stay engaged. While data may indicate social media is not the prime driver for online sales, this doesn’t mean you should ignore social tools entirely when trying to improve your virtual store. Take page rank with search engines, for example. In a recent post, SEO copywriter Rachel O’Riordan explains how a recent study by Search Engine Optimization and digital design company Tasty Placement shows social media has very definite impact on page ranking with Google. But as it turns out, not all social media channels are created equal. Mission Imblogable How to beat Amazon. When trying to get your piece of the online sales pie, it seems obvious that online retailer Amazon is the one to beat. Many small online businesses may assume that trying to outrank an Amazon page on Google is an unrealistic goal. Online marketing expert Tom Shivers doesn’t agree. Watch a video about ranking against Amazon by Google’s Matt Cutts. Then, read Shivers’ ideas for doing Amazon one better with a simple strategy that should bring a better Google ranking against stiff competition. Capture Commerce Spread the WordLinkedIn leverage. And if you’re looking for one more place to highlight the product or service you offer online, LinkedIn can be another great option. You may never have thought of sharing your products or services on LinkedIn. If that’s the case, you’ll want to read this blog post and watch the video tutorial as new media strategist Jacob Curtis shows you how LinkedIn’s new products and services tab provides a whole new option for getting customers’ attention. Social Media Tutorials The real deal. You can’t develop better online sales without taking a look at your online marketing first. PR and marketing expert Marsha Friedman warns that the most important quality to keep in mind when doing this marketing is authenticity. Nothing will turn your online customers off faster than becoming part of the “fakeosphere.” If you want to know how to create more authentic online marketing to boost your sales, don’t miss Marsha’s full post. EMSI The post Online Sales Rise 30 Percent On Cyber Monday appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
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