5 Ways You Can Use Facebook Hashtags

5 Ways You Can Use Facebook Hashtags
Infographic: The Most Tried and Failed Small Businesses
9 Credit Card Sites To Help You Choose A Business Credit Card
March 26 is Last Day to Vote in Small Business Book Awards #BizBookAwards
Why You Should Target Moms When Marketing Content
Employment Situation Best at Smallest Businesses

Posted: 26 Mar 2013 02:00 AM PDT

Facebook hashtags will change the way your business interacts on the social networking site, if the feature is soon added as insiders have suggested. Flickr also added hashtags recently to its latest mobile app. Last week we reported why some businesses might want to rethink Facebook for their marketing and communications needs.

But it now appears that assessment may come with caveats.

Hashtags (a word or phrase prefixed with the symbol #), a feature up until now associated only with rival Twitter, could change the way business owners and entrepreneurs network, interact and share on Facebook. Reports have been unspecific about when the company may roll out the new Facebook hashtags feature. But until then, below are five ways suggested by Janette Speyer and Katrina McNeill of Web Success Team that Facebook hashtags may improve your business experience.

5 Benefits of Facebook Hashtags

1. Find Better Conversations

It goes without saying that conversations are still happening on Facebook, but they can be difficult to locate using simple Facebook search tools. Because you are often networking with people you know on Facebook rather than discovering new people who share your interests, hashtags may be a huge help in connecting with people in your niche or industry, just by finding their conversations.

2. Join a Chat

Of course chats have long been possible on Facebook, but hashtags could make them so much easier to start and follow. Instead of setting up chats on a particular fan or personal page, hashtags would make it easy to organize a chat around a topic, niche or interest. This would allow others to view that chat later through the same hashtag.

3. Do Some Research

You can do some simple searching to locate pages of interest on Facebook today, but the search may be difficult with some terms yielding literally hundreds of results. Hashtags, if incorporated on Facebook as they are on Twitter, might make it easier to monitor trending topics and to locate specific conversations built around the topics in which you are most interested.

4. Locate Tribes

Distinct hashtags may make it easier to locate specific groups of Facebook users. For example, those having discussions around very specific hashtags like #smallbusiness or even #BizBookAwards. Knowing these hashtags ahead of time would make it easy to connect with these tribes more quickly and join in their discussions.

5. Check Out the Competition

Obviously, hashtags on Facebook could give you the opportunity to see in a different way what audiences are saying about your competition (and, for that matter, what they are saying about you.) They would allow you to track conversations beyond your competitor’s Facebook page to see what messages are going out to other groups of users and what kinds of responses they solicit.

Share how you will use the new Facebook hashtags for your business and whether the new feature will change how you look at and use Facebook in the future.

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Infographic: The Most Tried and Failed Small Businesses

Posted: 25 Mar 2013 04:00 PM PDT

If you are running a small business and have been around for any length of time, give yourself a pat on the back. I’ve been running my small business for 16 years now and believe me, I’m thankful each and every day. I especially feel that way after coming across this small business infographic on some of the most tried and failed small businesses.

Did you know that recent studies have shown that 50 percent of small businesses will fail within the first year? How about the fact that a staggering 95 percent will close their doors before they hit their fifth year of operation? That one seems a bit hard to believe but in today’s economy, it could be true. Here are some additional stats that may surprise you:

40% of small businesses are profitable.
30% break even.
30% are continually losing money.
9% have a chance of surviving 10 years.

Now before you get discouraged, keep in mind that many factors go into the success or failure of any small business. A good business plan and strategic marketing and customer service can go a long way toward obtaining success. This infographic by Top Business Degrees seeks to explain why some businesses fail and others flourish.

[Click Image for Full Size Version]

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9 Credit Card Sites To Help You Choose A Business Credit Card

Posted: 25 Mar 2013 01:00 PM PDT

Finding the best credit card for your business can be a daunting proposal. With so many cards on the market, each offering different benefits (and drawbacks), which is right for you?

Several websites aim to make the selection process easier for small business owners, so that you can narrow down and find the best credit card for your particular needs.

The sites below cover business credit cards, and include consumer credit cards, too. The major banks are all listed along with some minor financial players. Most provide links that allow you to apply immediately after making your selection and for many, that is how they earn revenue. Some are advertising-based.

Choose the Best Credit Card Site for Your Business

GetRichSlowly has financial advice on many areas of personal finance, but under the credit card tab, you can select "small business." It allows you to sort based on the amount you expect to spend each month and whether or not you will carry a balance. But the details about rewards are prominent and you have to click "see more info" to view APR and annual fee information. This is a rich resource site and I have been a fan of it for quite some time.

Card Hub offers a direct comparison between different card rates, rewards and fees. It allows you to search for the best credit card for you based on what you find most important, as in points, cash back, and so forth. I like that you can compare foreign transaction fees and transfer fees.

Bankrate.com is a well known and reputable website. It gives you details about how each business card can work for your business. Introductory APRs, Regular APRs and annual fees, whether you can transfer balances and what kind of credit you will need are all laid out and easy to view. The site only gives the sorting option of "business," so the search is not as detailed as on other sites.

CreditCards.com gives you a summary of card benefits and rewards, but detailed APRs, annual fees and the credit rating are required to apply for the card. Its search items are limited. You can search by the type of credit card you would like or by your credit quality.

Billshrink gives you the option of looking for charge cards or credit cards. Frankly, this confuses many people and I found The Street's explanation helpful: Charge Card Vs. Credit Card: What’s The Difference? The service allows you to search based on what you spend and what your credit rating is expected to be. The card summaries focus on the rewards you can earn, which may not be as important for some small business owners. They also maintain a Billshrink for Business page, but I found the main service useful, too.

CardRatings.com gives you details about cards, but it does not have easy to find APR, annual fee, and credit facts. This site allows you to sort business cards by the amount you plan to spend each month and by whether you carry a balance or not. There are "editor's ratings," but these seem to vary between four or five stars.

CreditCardGuide allows you to sort cards by credit rating and issuer, like other sites. However, this website includes fuel and fleet cards as well as regular credit cards. Cards are listed with details, but APRs and annual fees are easy to find at the bottom of each listing.

CreditCardConnection.org allows you to compare the credit cards offered by credit unions in your state. Although the site only allows you to search for credit cards by state and then gives you a rather disorganized list, it links you to each credit union website so you can explore the opportunities offered for not only credit cards, but for other business accounts.

CreditCards.org allows you to sort cards by credit rating and issuer. APR, annual fees, and credit rating are all easy to find. This site has an additional benefit of telling you what the average rate for your credit rating is each day.

If you have a service that has helped you find the best credit card and we didn't include it, please share it in the comments.

Finding the best credit card for your business isn't easy, but hopefully this post can get you started.

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March 26 is Last Day to Vote in Small Business Book Awards #BizBookAwards

Posted: 25 Mar 2013 11:00 AM PDT

There’s still time to vote for your favorite business books. Visit the 2013 Small Business Book Awards page to select your favorite titles – and author resources — before time runs out. Voting runs through March 26, 2013.

The Small Business Book Awards, founded by my company, Small Business Trends LLC, are now in their 5th year. They shine a spotlight on books and resources for entrepreneurs, small business owners, CEOs, managers and their staffs.

Competition is stiff again this year. There are 160 books and 49 other resources nominated in 11 categories.

The awards are open and web-based, meaning anyone can vote. That way you, the readers, truly have a chance to determine the outcome. The awards are also socially connected, so you can discuss your favorite book picks with your connections on Facebook and Twitter.

Be sure to recommend the books you love to a friend and use our awards site, not just to cast your vote, but as a resource to pick out the next book you would like to read.

Meet Our Sponsor, Namecheap

We’d again like to acknowledge the generous support of Namecheap, our Presenting Sponsor for the 2013 Small Business Book Awards. Namecheap is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and Web hosting company, managing 3 million domains with more than 800,000 clients.

It’s because of Namecheap’s support that we are able to run the Awards without charging nomination fees of any kind. And it also helps us deliver our weekend book reviews (over 400 business books reviewed to date).

If you need a domain name and hosting services for your book or small business, we suggest taking a look at Namecheap. Thanks again, Namecheap!

Awards Details

Who: Anyone may vote for their favorite book or resource. Vote for as many nominees as you wish.

What: 2013 Small Business Book Awards.

When: Voting goes through March 26, 2013. You can vote once a day (every 24 hours).

How: It's a one-click vote, no registering! It’s easy and takes less than 10 seconds to vote.

Where: To vote for your favorite book or non-book resource, search the list of Book Awards nominees!

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Why You Should Target Moms When Marketing Content

Posted: 25 Mar 2013 08:00 AM PDT

marketing content

Consider This Equation When Creating and Marketing Content

Content + Social Media + Moms = Free Advertising.

Okay, maybe not free, since you have to pay for the content production and the time your social media strategist spends on the campaign, but that's the small print.

There's a huge network of moms on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter who want to share information about your business. So when marketing content, begin producing content targeted toward them and they'll begin sharing it.

Why Should You Target Moms When Marketing Content?

Generation Y moms (a.k.a. "Millennials") make up a huge portion of social network users and bloggers. Three in four moms use Facebook at least monthly, one in two moms use their smartphones to access social networks (compared to 37% for the non-mom population) and one in every three blogs is written by a mom.

That's all well and good, but that doesn’t reveal anything about real ROI (return on investment) when it comes to targeting moms.

Consider this: Half of those moms make recommendations about a brand or share brand-related content on a daily basis. Over three quarters of them follow at least one brand and over 90% of them say that they're influenced by other moms' recommendations (including shared content).

There's one other little mom statistic that certainly should not be ignored: Women, many of them moms, make upwards of 80% of purchase decisions in the United States.

Where Content Comes In

In order for you to take advantage of that huge ring of moms comparing and talking about different products and services, you need to produce content for them to share. I'm not talking about some cutesy ads with moms and kids being sentimental about family time—I'm talking serious content.

Moms want information when it comes to products. They want things like descriptions of multiple functionalities and features. They want to know how a product can be useful to them, in real life. They want to know how a product will stand up to use, and they want to know if a service is worth the money (hence the many, many blogs dedicated to moms' reviews of products and services).

Does that sound like content marketing to you? It sure sounds like content marketing to me.

Pulling It All Together

Really reaching the mom demographic requires two things:

Interesting, relevant and informative content.
Expert social media strategy.

With these two marketing aspects combined, you can harness the power of moms and gain huge exposure among the group of people who make more purchasing decisions than any other group out there.

Mom Photo via Shutterstock

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Employment Situation Best at Smallest Businesses

Posted: 25 Mar 2013 05:00 AM PDT

Employment is higher than before the Great Recession at only the smallest businesses, data from the most recent ADP Employment Report shows.

In conjunction with Moody's Analytics, payroll firm ADP produces a monthly report on employment at private companies of different sizes, using data on 416,000 businesses that use its services. While less accurate than the information provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ADP report is one of the best sources of timely data on employment at small businesses.

As the figure below shows, the number of people working at businesses with 20 or more employees remains below December 2007 levels. However, 193,000 more people worked at companies with one to 19 employees in February 2013 than did so in the final month of 2007.

Private Sector Employment as a Percentage of December 2007 Levels.

Source: Created from data from the ADP Employment Report

The better employment situation at the smallest businesses isn't the result of more robust hiring at tiny firms during the current economic recovery. Since the end of the Great Recession, employment has climbed the most at businesses with more than 500 employees—up 6 percent since June 2009 according to ADP estimates. At companies with between 50 and 499 employees, employment has climbed 5.3 percent. At businesses with 20 to 49 workers, it has risen 4.7 percent, while at companies with fewer than 20 workers, employment has increased only 3.3 percent.

The better employment situation at tiny firms comes from milder layoffs during the recession. As the figure clearly shows, employment at companies of all sizes shrank during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. However, declines were far shallower at companies with fewer than 20 employees than at ones with more workers.

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