LinkedIn is not Facebook. It’s not Twitter, either. You don’t use LinkedIn to post 140-character statuses about your business or to officially like someone’s new online video. What you can do, however, is use LinkedIn to grow your small business and make it more profitable. And isn’t that your priority? As a business-oriented social networking site with more than 50 million registered users spanning 170 industries, LinkedIn is an online real estate for professionals big and small. It is truly a business networking site with the average user having $109K in income and 41 years old. If you’re unsure how to use your LinkedIn profile to gain a business advantage, you can follow these tips below: Brand your profile: As a small business professional, you want to be easily found by the people who matter – as well as by the most frequently used search engines. Make sure that you customize your LinkedIn profile by changing the default link into – Read the full article
When I come across articles like the one posted on TheStreet.com last week, I can’t help but get excited. Titled “Business Owners Question Social Networking” the article quotes some research that finds that a majority of small business owners haven’t seen value from social media, and that most don’t even use it themselves. A key section of the article reads: Among the 500 small-business executives surveyed, 76% said social networking hasn’t help them generate leads or expand their companies in the past year. And 86% said they don’t turn to these Web sites for business advice or other information. The majority, 61%, depend on big search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, for business advice and information. Only 13% use social networking sites and only 10% rely on expert blogs. So why on earth would I be excited that small businesses don’t use social media and haven’t seen value from it yet? Opportunity. Plain and simple. For me, there is – Read the full article
For as simple as twitter is, the complexity of using it is nothing short of astounding. Many people strictly update twitter via the web with nothing more than an account of their daily activities. Some “power users” have people that tweet for them, and some even have bots set up that removes the human aspect altogether. Then there’s the issue of the auto-dm. Many users rely on scripted messages to be sent when someone new follows them. Often impersonal and down right cheesy, the auto-dm makes many of us cringe upon receiving them. An extension of this inhuman activity is the use of TwitterFeed, a service that connects RSS feeds to twitter accounts. Users can pull feeds related to their interests and audience and auto-post them on Twitter. TwitterFeed is great when used to pull in your company’s blog posts or entries from your personal site. The problem is that many users rely on this entirely too much and will – Read the full article
“Companies that maintained or upped their advertising during the 1981–82 recession, had gains in sales in the short-run as well as the long-run. The McGraw-Hill Research study analyzed 600 companies from 1980 to 1985, and found those that advertised aggressively throughout the recession had sales 256% higher than ones who cut back on advertising.” The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has confirmed that the U.S. economy has been in a recession since December 2007. Many economists believe the current recession will be the worst since the recession of 1981-82. Times are rough, but that doesn’t mean you should lower your advertising budget; you actually should maintain or raise it, or just advertise smarter. A recent study by McGraw-Hill Research showed that companies that maintained or upped their advertising during the 1981–82 recession, had gains in sales in the short-run as well as the long-run. The McGraw-Hill Research study analyzed 600 companies from 1980 to 1985, and found those that – Read the full article
“Right now, your customers are writing about your products on blogs and recutting your commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipendia and ganging up on you on social networking sites like Facebook. These are all elements of a social phenomenon- the groundswell- that has created a permanent shift in the way the world works.” This is written on the book jacket of the book Groundswell, a national bestseller. The social media revolutions is upon us. Several experts claim for it to be the biggest shift in business since the industrial revolution. The change in how we communicate with the public, potential and existing customers is evolving at a pace that has not been seen before with adoption of other technologies. Its a social media revolution. It used to take years to build new media platforms, for radio it was 38 years, television 13 years, the internet 4 years, and the iPod 3 years- each respectively to reach 50 million – Read the full article
Do you hire great employees, no matter the position? Yesterday I went to Potbelly in Bolingbrook with my girlfriend and 5-month old puppy, Jack. I stayed outside with Jack and sat at a table while my girlfriend went inside to order. While sitting with Jack, a Potbelly employee comes out the side door and asks if my dog needed some water. No thanks, I told him, my girlfriend would be bringing some with our lunch. That’s pretty thoughtful, but what happened next really made me impressed. A few minutes later, the same employee came back out with a bowl I assume they use for salads. “Here you go, figure this would work better than a cup,” he said. What a guy. Going out of his way to make sure my dog was cared for. Do you hire people like this? If you’re not sure what that answer is, then you have the wrong people working for you. This guy had – Read the full article
Flint Online Marketing Company Building a successful presence online takes much more today than merely putting up a website and waiting for results. Lakeshore Branding, with a team of experts who know what it takes to succeed on the Web today, can make it happen for you. The company’s web design and development solutions are catered to clients who would like to get more from the Web, like higher search rankings, increased web traffic, better conversions, and more opportunities for growth and expansion. Our web designers, SEO consultants, and Internet marketing experts combine creative ideas, technical expertise, industry-leading tools and platforms, and passion for results in order to deliver effective websites that are more than just pleasing to the eye. Interested to learn more? Contact us or fill in the form below. (Please complete all the fields marked *) Your name please. * Your Company / Organization Name What’s your phone number? * What’s your e-mail address? – Read the full article
Disclosures Making money is a necessary element for any business. You have to support yourself and your family if you’re to successfully escape the daily grind lifestyle for one of awesome nonconformity. It’s a fact. If this fact doesn’t sit well with you then we’ll wish you on your merry way. No harm, no foul. And definitely no hurt feelings. Thanks for stopping by! But for those, like us, sweating away in the trenches of unconventional living, what follows is how we make money. Integrity is a core principle of Lakeshore Branding. So we’re not holding anything back. This is how we support ourselves, pay the Lakeshore Branding bills, and keep the lights on here. Our No Shenanigans Promise What you need to know upfront is that we value your trust above all else. Hence, we go to great lengths to only endorse products/services or create our own that are of incredible value and overall awesomeness! And although we do – Read the full article
