6 Benefits of Social Media for Small Businesses

6 Benefits of Social Media for Small Businesses
Finally, Share Files on Skype for Windows 8
Infographic: Top 10 Time Killers Online
6 Data Tracking Services For Your Small Business

Posted: 26 Feb 2013 11:00 AM PST

The social media revolution has changed the way that successful small businesses interact with customers and reach out to new markets. These six benefits will show you how important it is for your small business to start using social media.

Social Media Increases Website Traffic

web traffic

Web Traffic Photo via Shutterstock

Whether you prefer to tweet or post messages on Facebook, your small business can use social media platforms to increase traffic to its website.

In fact, 72 percent of small businesses find that going social boosts website traffic. Once customers visit your site, they can learn more about your products and services. If you’re really tech-savvy, you can even have an online store that will seal the deal without even asking customers to leave their homes.

Social Media Helps You Create a Personality for Your Business

Lego Lego Photo via Shutterstock

Advertisements don’t give you much time or space. At best, you get to tell potential customers about your products.

With social media, you can create a likable personality for your small business. Big companies spend thousands of dollars on branding. All you have to do is be yourself, post frequently and respond to your customers online.

Social Media Can Reward Your Customers With Discounts

Mobile Discount Photo via Shutterstock

Social media makes it easy for you to reach out to your customers. If you’re having a slow day, you can use your Twitter or Facebook account to get more people in your store.

Just send out a message announcing a special discount for that day only. Ask your Twitter and Facebook followers to use a password to get the discount. That way, you know who pays attention to your posts and you make them feel special.

Social Media Makes it Easier to Generate Buzz

Online Buzz Photo via Shutterstock

Small businesses usually can’t afford to pay for big marketing campaigns. Social media gives you the chance to generate buzz without spending much money. It becomes even more important for small businesses who show off their products and services at trade shows to generate foot traffic to their trade show display booth. Social media sites like Twitter have the ability to amplify pre-show buzz with these 7 simple tips to build traffic to their space.

A lot of business owners find that it helps to use online videos. You could make tutorials and post interviews or review products. Spread the video with your social network channels to get more people interested in your business.

Social Media Brings in Customers With Geolocation

Crowded Cafe Photo via Shutterstock

Location-based social media apps can focus on followers in your area. Use these options to tempt them into your store. If someone uses FourSquare to check into a cafe down the street, you might send them a coupon for one of your services or products. Even if the person doesn’t take advantage of the offer, it still reminds her that your business is there and going strong.

Social Media Helps You Connect With Other Businesses

Mobile Devices Photo via Shutterstock

Social media does more than just help you find customers. It can also help you connect with other businesses and entrepreneurs. Make a profile for yourself on LinkedIn. This will permit you to connect with businesses and professionals there. Making those connections now could benefit you in unexpected ways, so accept requests from reputable professionals on social media.

What are other ways social media has impacted your small business? Do you think it has had positive or negative effects?

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Finally, Share Files on Skype for Windows 8

Posted: 26 Feb 2013 09:00 AM PST

If you use Skype for Windows 8 to connect online with voice, video, and chat for your business, you may have been frustrated by the inability to share files on the new app thus far.

However, all that changed Friday as Skype finally rolled out file sharing as a supported feature for its Windows 8 application.

In an announcement on its Garage & Updates blog, Skype said the new feature, missing from Skype for Windows 8 since it was introduced five months ago, was added in response to customer demand.

Raul Liive, Beta Program Manager for Skype, wrote:

We're listening to our users, and file sharing has been one of the biggest features they've been asking for in Skype for Windows 8.

The photo below shows how a file transfer appears within a Skype for Windows 8 chat window. To send a file, users select someone to share files with, tap their icon and tap "send files." Then select a file to share and it will appear in the other user's chat window.

skype file sharing

Skype's desktop software already allowed for users to share files with their contacts, but those who use Windows 8 and its applications have had to wait for this feature to become available. Skype for Windows 8 is an app that is specifically optimized for Windows 8 touch screen devices and is always on, so that users can send and receive messages. However, Windows 8 users still have the option to use Skype for Windows desktop if they so choose.

Certain versions of the product are loaded with features like screen sharing and other collaboration functions, but others are still catching up.

Skype for Windows 8 works basically the same as the Skype desktop software does, so users can send documents and other types of files while chatting with or calling contacts.

For the business owners and professionals who use Skype to keep in touch with clients and colleagues, this is a clearly useful feature that can make collaborating on documents and projects or sharing presentation materials much easier.

In addition to the file sharing feature, the new update also includes improved application performance and stability. This means that the start up and loading of content should take less time.

Skype has said that it is working on adding all of the features available on Skype's desktop versions to Skype for Windows 8, and that users will be notified when the new updates become available.

Microsoft launched Skype for Windows 8 in October, 2012, shortly after the release of Windows 8. The new Skype represents a completely redesigned product in order to work with the Windows 8 system on both computers and tablets, not simply a tweak of previous versions. Skype 1.5 for Windows 8 can be downloaded directly from the Windows Store.

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Infographic: Top 10 Time Killers Online

Posted: 26 Feb 2013 07:00 AM PST

Are you a production monster or do you, like me, find that certain things you do throughout the day end up being time killers online? Maybe Facebook is the culprit? Or possibly all that time spent looking at eBay auctions is cutting into your productivity? You might even be one of those who constantly checks email which can be one of the all time worst time killers online.

No matter how efficient you are, the fact is that we all waste time, at some point or another. This infographic from OfficeTime examines the top 10 ways we kill time every day. Follow the flow chart and see how you can change the way you work.

[Click here for full size version]

Are there ways that you waste time that are not included in this infographic? By all means, share them in the comments below.

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6 Data Tracking Services For Your Small Business

Posted: 26 Feb 2013 05:00 AM PST

Big data is a big thing nowadays. Big data here represents the number of posts to social media sites, the use of digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction records, sensors used to gather climate information and cell phone GPS signals to name a few. For the business owner, big data is an opportunity to find insights, to make your business more agile and to answer questions that were previously considered beyond reach.

Why?

Well it been found that owners and/or marketers who leverage data make better business decisions, increase customer engagement and produce higher return on investment (ROI). How high? Well:

A recent study shows that an incremental 241% ROI can be generated by applying data to business decisions.
91% of chief marketing officers (CMOs) believe that successful brands make data-driven decisions.
However, only 11% of marketers use data to make business decisions today.

You might be thinking how unethical this is – sifting through the buying patterns of customers and prospects. This might rub some moral bone in your body the wrong way. But understand that your customers want you to do this. They want you to anticipate their buying signals. They really do.

There was a recent study by Accenture that profiled over 2,000 consumers across the United States and United Kingdom. In this study, it was found that most people are willing to have trusted retailers use some of their personal data in order to present personalized and targeted products, services, recommendations and offers.

In fact, according to the study:

Despite the fact that 86 percent of those surveyed say they are concerned about websites tracking their online shopping behavior, 85 percent are aware that such tracking goes on – but they understand that tracking enables companies to present offers and content that matches their interests.
Nearly half of all respondents – 49 percent – are receptive to their favorite stores or brands using their tracking data to inform their future purchases and make them aware of product availability.
When asked to make a choice, 64 percent of total respondents say it is more important that companies present them with relevant offers against only 36 percent who say companies should stop tracking their website activity.
At the same time, however, 88 percent strongly agree that companies should give them the flexibility to control how their personal information is used to tailor their shopping experience.

Your customers want relevant offers. And I think – and this is just me – that you should be giving it to them.

6 Data Tracking Services to Crunch Big Data

But small businesses have shied away from big data thinking it was too expensive. And unlike a Xerox, which collects “terabytes of data daily" they may feel they don’t have the resources to crunch the numbers. But the field is changing and many small businesses are now able to capitalize.

Below are 6 data tracking services any business owner can use to get the most out of big data:

Kaggle

A platform for predictive modelling where companies post their data and statisticians from all over the world compete to produce the best models. At the end of a competition, the competition host pays prize money in exchange for the intellectual property behind the winning model. It’s a crowdsourcing approach and it turns data science into a sport.

Custora

Helps online retailers know which of their customers are most valuable and suggests actions to keep them. Custora determines where the repeat customers are coming from and also recommends specific incentives the retailer can use to reclaim lost customers. The Custora software analyzes order logs and distinguishes between customers that simply haven't ordered anything for a while and customers who have left the site.

RJ Metrics

Provides tools for database analysis, enabling its customers to extract data from their business and transform it into a more suitable format for analysis, providing them with the means to turn it into beautiful, actionable charts.

Size Up

The Sizeup tool is provided on the Small Business Administration (SBA) website, and also here at Small Business Trends (see Benchmark Tool). This shows all small businesses across the United States and can help decide where to locate your new business. For instance, you can search for where restaurants are located and see where there may be an opportunity to locate a new one.

Swipely

Sells payments, analytics and marketing tools to local merchants. Unlike Square, it shows things like what percentage of customers are new versus repeating, and how much each group tends to spend. Swipely can even tie in social media deals and weather reports into past sales so retailers can get an entire picture of what might have caused a surge or drop at any given time.

SumAll

A Web based, real-time e-commerce analytics tool that allows store owners to identify patterns in their data and better serve customers.

Data Photo via Shutterstock

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