Facebook Messenger Apps Now Have Voicemail |  |
- Facebook Messenger Apps Now Have Voicemail
- 5 Areas You Must Audit on Your Website
- Podcasting Takes Prominent Place In Content Marketing
- Microbusiness Economic Trends: Into the Future
- Grey’s Anatomy Star Buys Starbucks Rival
| Facebook Messenger Apps Now Have Voicemail Posted: 10 Jan 2013 01:00 PM PST Facebook just announced a new feature to its Messenger mobile apps that allows users to send social voicemails to their friends. The update for iOS and Android Messenger allows users to send voice messages up to one minute in length to their contacts within a message thread. To use the feature, you just need to press the "record voice" button on the message thread page, which is shown on the right of the photo below. Then you can record your message and send it to your contacts.
While there are already plenty of ways to reach others for voice communication, whether it be online services like Skype or Google Talk or simply sending a traditional voicemail message, this feature could still provide some value for both business and personal users, or at least one more option. Since there are certain things that are more easily explained or communicated through voice and other things that are more easily explained through text or visuals, having different formats available within one channel could certainly prove to be useful. So with this new feature, users have the ability to use text, photos, maps, and now audio to communicate with team members, collaborators, or others who might share business interests. You might ask what sets the Facebook Messenger app apart from others like Voxer or Whatsapp, which offer similar voice capabilities. Facebook's user base is clearly larger than what you'll find in most other communication apps. So while it might not be your first choice to use for daily internal communication, it could be a worthwhile feature to consider for communicating with all the other people you speak with over the course of running a business. In addition to this latest update, Facebook is also testing a feature that provides free voice calling to Messenger users in Canada. The feature is expected to become more widely available later in the year. The post Facebook Messenger Apps Now Have Voicemail appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 5 Areas You Must Audit on Your Website Posted: 10 Jan 2013 11:00 AM PST
Below, I have listed 5 of these areas for you: 1). Contact Forms One problem I see continually, and I hear a lot of complaints about, are website contact forms that do not function well on both computers and mobile devices. When people try to contact a business and the form doesn't work, trust is lost. Lost trust equals lost income. When you have a website made everything may work perfectly in the beginning, but with server updates and website code updates contact forms can break or function incorrectly. No business can afford to miss opportunities to pick up new clients/customers. So take a run through your website with a computer (preferably a Mac and a PC) and also test mobile devices to make sure all your forms are functioning correctly. 2). Truth in Content Often in business things like policy, services and services options change, but businesses often forget to update their website content and the wrong information is being fed to current and potential clients. When this occurs there is often conflict that arises and it causes problems on both sides. Take some time to review your home page, service pages, FAQ page(s) and policy pages especially. Make sure your site reflects what is current within you business and avoid confusion with clients and customers. 3). Payment Pages or Systems Many businesses offer options to make payments on their website. It is critical that you check and double check these areas often. Again, changes made to servers or website code could cause conflicts with payment options. Whether you have a payment system or something as simple as PayPal code, go through the entire payment process and make sure everything is working correctly. 4). Cross Browser Performance Not everyone uses the same browser. The most common are Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari, but there are others. Sometimes inexpensive website creation tool creators and inexperienced Web designers do not understand that they have to "cross browser check/test" websites to ensure they function and display correctly on each browser. Now, in addition to multiple browsers, websites must function and display correctly on mobile devices, too (smartphones and touchpads). Businesses lose potential clients when their sites don't work well for users. You can download browsers and check your site, but keep in mind that there are different versions of each browser as well. Sometimes it is helpful to ask friends and family to take a peak on their devices and let you know any problems they see. There are free cross browser testing tools on the net; one recommended tool is Adobe's BrowserLab. 5). Page Load Time Nothing is more irritating than a webpage that loads slow. Tests and studies have found that users typically do not wait for a slow page to load and they leave the site. Every time that happens, businesses lose potential income. It is important to check all of the pages on a website to see how fast or slow they load on different devices. Google offers a PageSpeed Insights tool that will tell you what issues they see when testing your website for page speed, but there are others out there that can help you as well. If you find that your site or page(s) are loading slow there are many possible reasons for it. Three of the causes I see often are images that are too large, bad coding/scripts, and servers that are over capacity. If you find a problem talk to your web developers ASAP and get the ball rolling on fixing this issue. Website Checklist Photo via Shutterstock The post 5 Areas You Must Audit on Your Website appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Podcasting Takes Prominent Place In Content Marketing Posted: 10 Jan 2013 08:00 AM PST
I have been a huge fan and supporter of the radio podcast since it emerged in the media mix several years ago. I spent twenty plus years in broadcast radio sales and management because I love radio and media that requires “listening.” There is something about listening that engages my emotions, thought process and comprehension, more than others. The popularity of podcasting over the past 18 months is a trend that has been building and growing steadily and this year the podcast takes it’s prominent place in the content marketing mix. I wrote an article on the growth of podcasting and was intrigued by the impressive metrics. I have been using the medium since 2009 and have seen more small businesses, companies and professional consultants embrace and use it. Whether your a big, small, mainstream or a niche entity, podcasts are easy to do, listen to, learn from and return to. There are so many sound and sensible reasons to podcast for business, learning and branding. Listening took a bit of a back seat to visual and video the past few years, but it is back as an iconic, mature effective way to engage people more personally to think and enjoy learning. Recorded audio and internet radio are growing in popularity and effectiveness, as evident in listening to e-books (Amazon), music (iTunes) and sportscasts (ESPN), which have put audio back on a growth track. What Are They Podcasting About? The mix of what people are podcasting about is limitless. You can find any podcast subject, topic or content including music, sports, medical, entertainment, business, marketing, professional services, science, cooking, political and kids to name just a few. Who is Podcasting? Rachel Ray on cooking, Ted Talks, NPR’s Fresh Air, Blogtalkradio.com on a range of subjects, ESPN on sports, and the Wall Street Journal on business are just a few. Go to iTunes, one of the largest podcast directories, and get some ideas about what you could be podcasting about. They have featured providers like the BBC and NFL and several featured collections on movies, music, gaming and fantasy football and much more. Download the Podcast App on your smartphone, get yourself a killer set of headphones and enjoy listening to podcasts just about anywhere you are or want to be: on your porch, in your car, on the train, in a plane, at the beach, or at your favorite café. I signed on to BlogTalkRadio in 2009 and radio podcast segments have over 160k downloads and page views and continue to grow nationally and internationally. This format has been an amazing way for me to share, inform and tell the story in my own voice, featuring some of the top thought leaders in small business, marketing, careers and media. Ready to make this the year you launch your podcast or take it to the next level? It’s on the rise, easy to do, requires very little equipment and integrates easily and seamlessly with social media, email marketing, YouTube and blogging. Podcasting as a content marketing vehicle can brand you for who you are and what you want to be known for in a very personal way. It’s you speaking to and about things you are knowledgeable and passionate about. Personal branding, charisma and magnetism in action. Consider these 4 simple guidelines to help you launch your podcast. Go for it and welcome to the family! Podcast Listening Photo via Shutterstock The post Podcasting Takes Prominent Place In Content Marketing appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Microbusiness Economic Trends: Into the Future Posted: 10 Jan 2013 05:00 AM PST
It’s not that there nothing left to be said about them. But, in order to get at that other stuff there is to be said about them, I’m going to have to do a lot more research and I’m going to have to do it from a different perspective. Otherwise, I’m going to start repeating myself — always assuming I haven’t started doing that already. Before I sign off permanently, I want to summarize, and at the same time offer you, my view of where the microbusiness trends of the last fifteen years seem to be taking us. The proliferation of microbusinesses has been variously ignored, trivialized and discouraged by many policymakers and economists. The policymakers don’t like microbusinesses because it’s too hard to keep tabs on people when they aren’t working for larger businesses, and preferably large corporations. The economists don’t like microbusinesses because, they say, microbusinesses are inefficient. The disapproval of the policymakers and the economists has had no discernible effect on the numbers. As the technology has developed to increase productivity beyond the wildest imaginings of the last century, barriers to entry in many industries evaporated. Microbusiness population numbers gauge reaction to the developing technology. Nonemployers led the charge: those single-person businesses increased in population by 29% between 1998 and 2010 (the most recent year for which we have complete numbers), compared with 2.7% growth in employer numbers over the period. There is relatively little research on small businesses in general, and even less on microbusinesses, so it has been difficult for anyone to get a grip on their evolving role in the overall economy. What little we know, however, seems significant. We have seen that they tend to weather asset-based economic downturns, like the 2002 recession, fairly well and can even reduce the impact on the labor market. That, in turn, causes the recession to be shorter and the trough to be shallower and easier for the economy to climb out of. In addition, to the extent that microbusiness owners (and, particularly, nonemployer business owners) create jobs for themselves whenever they launch such a venture, it can be said that they improve the health of the labor market. As a matter of fact, I think it makes sense to view the microbusiness phenomenon as a labor market trend. A large number of microbusinesses, possibly most of them, fall into the category independent contractors — part of the contingent workforce. It is a segment of the workforce that is gaining in size and strength, their increasing popularity a function of the cost savings they offer their client businesses. As governments demand more and more from businesses in an uneasy social safety net partnership, the contingent workforce will become more and more attractive to those businesses. The businesses will like the arrangement and so will the contractors. The governments won’t and it will be both interesting and instructive to note what, if anything, they decide to do about it. From the point of view of microeconomic theory, the microbusiness phenomenon makes little sense. So many of them (especially the nonemployers) make so little money that it seems doubtful they are even covering their marginal costs, even in light of how little it can cost to run a nonemployer consulting firm or virtual publishing company. And yet, these little businesses are not fly-by-night, ephemeral entities. A lot of them fail, but a lot of them last for 10 years and more. Clearly, people who launch and operate microbusinesses gain more from their enterprises than mere money. It may be difficult to quantify that fact and insert it into a production function equation but it also means that microbusinesses, as a firm size class, aren’t going anywhere. As nonemployers become a larger portion of the workforce, they will increasingly become of a force that must be reckoned with. As microbusinesses become a larger portion of employer businesses, as non-micro small firms grow ever fewer in number, and as firms of all sizes trend smaller, policymakers will need to rethink their fiscal policy strategies for job creation and retention. And economists are going to have to stop complaining about the inefficiencies of microbusinesses and start figuring out where they fit in the big picture. Even more fundamentally, microbusiness ownership is poised to have major impacts on life in these United States — not just economically but culturally and socially. This is a shift that, in retrospect, will be as huge as the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Microbusinesses are changing the way we work and that is changing the way we live. It’s difficult to overstate the significance of that. Leaving for the Future Photo via Shutterstock The post Microbusiness Economic Trends: Into the Future appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Grey’s Anatomy Star Buys Starbucks Rival Posted: 10 Jan 2013 02:30 AM PST Entrepreneurs and small business owners know instinctively that a smaller, scrappy competitor can thrive even in the shadow of a larger more entrenched market leader. The key is a loyal following of customers passionate about your products, services, or brand, and a strategy that takes advantage of your unique niche and what sets you apart. In this post we will look at how Davids beat Goliaths and how you can thrive in the face of your competition too. Latte LoveCoffee shop coup. A group of investors, including actor Patrick Dempsey of hit medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy”, has purchased “your friendly neighborhood coffee shop” Tully’s Coffee out of bankruptcy for $9.15 million. With 47 company-owned shops in Washington and California, the company is known as a popular regional rival of Starbucks, but its parent company TC Global Inc. filed for Chapter 11 in October. The Los Angeles Times Sexier than Starbucks. Some might question what attracts investment to a company that remains teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and living in the shadow of a giant multinational brand. Dempsey’s answer in a recent interview is simple. He sees Tully’s as “an iconic brand with deep roots in the community” and a very loyal customer base. Maybe most importantly, Dempsey likes the company’s coffee and brings some star power to the brand. Crosscut.com Competitive EdgeResearch realities. Whether you realize it or not, every market contains competitors you need to watch out for and the first step is to figure out who they are, according to a company blog from serial entrepreneur Chris Ducker. Once you’ve identified the competition, you’ll need to learn more about their products, services, and business model. Find out if their products or services are of better quality or if their prices are more competitive. Live 2 Sell That’s the spirit. The spirit of competition can be one of the most beneficial things for your business, writes Tom Ewer of LeavingWorkBehind.com in this guest post on using the competition to your advantage. Recalling an anecdote about his own experiences as a competitive runner, Ewer explains how competition creates benchmarks for a business and imposes an external influence that drives a company forward and helps it succeed. Competition is valuable in all walks of life, writes Ewer. MyWifeQuitHerJob.com Product DifferentiationLet’s get real. When identifying your business’s online competition, be sure your are realistic about your market. If you run a small, local IT business catering to small to mid-sized companies in your community, your competitors are probably not global multimillion dollar companies like SAP and Oracle, explains SEO expert Nick Stamoulis. Even if the Internet enables you to gain global visibility, you must still be realistic about your market and competitors, tailoring your online marketing for the right audience and customers. Search Engine Optimization Journal Bury the hatchet. You must know your competition in order to beat them at their own game. As the old saying goes, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but Thomas Ford, marketing director of www.123Print.com, explains in this guest post about another way to deal with rivals. One less conventional approach is to try working together for everyone’s benefit. Joining forces with your toughest competition can bring greater success than any of you can find alone. Noobpreneur Metamorphosis. Insurance salesman and content marketer Ryan Hanley suggests the real trick is not to compete with companies bigger and better funded than yours. Instead, it is to become the competition by changing the game on bigger rivals. Rather than using the huge budget, better brand visibility, and other advantages of larger, well-established companies, you can become their competition by refusing to compete on their level, telling your story, and establishing your brand instead. RyanHanley.com The post Grey’s Anatomy Star Buys Starbucks Rival appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
Your website is your storefront online. It needs to be flawless and be a selling machine for your business. There are some areas of your site that are critical that must be reviewed often to ensure your website is working for you.
I never thought I’d hear myself saying this — or see myself writing this — but I do believe I have reached the point at which I have said everything I have to say about microbusinesses … sort of.| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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