Christmas is fast approaching. It’s time to start making those wish lists. Sure, family and friends will have their usual go at giving and receiving, but small business owners, Internet marketers, technology professionals, and entrepreneurs are entitled to have their own holiday fun, too. So, in lieu of technology and Internet marketing coming together in the most wonderful time of the year, Lakeshore Branding presents its Holiday Gift Guide 2010 – Small Business edition. An Android mobile device: If you’re tired of hearing how awesome the iPhone is, but still want to experience what it’s like to be part of the ongoing smartphone revolution, then an Android-powered mobile device is an equally viable alternative. The Android app marketplace has over 100,000 apps, so you’re not really going to miss out on a lot should you decide to shun Apple. Android phones, moreover, are available on most major U.S. carriers. Check out our top picks: HTC Droid Incredible: Launched last spring, – Read the full article
A business today needs to be mobile. Your customers are using their cell phones to access business information. If you aren’t easily accessible on their mobile phones then they’re going to start overlooking you in favor of businesses that are. Here are the tools that you need in order to go mobile with your business: Reinvent your website for the mobile platform. You may have a really amazing Flash website with a lot of interactive features that looks terrific on a desktop computer. However, that’s not going to work correctly on most mobile phones. You need to also have a mobile version of your site. (Lakeshore Branding has a list of really sweet tools here.) Each different mobile platform offers a browser WebKit to help optimize sites for the web. It’s worth it to work with a professional who is knowledgeable about making your website ready for mobile devices. Do local search engine optimization. Doing SEO for your website means taking – Read the full article
Twitter has become an incredibly popular social media darling, such that every time we talk about it, we can’t help but gush about how the microblogging service/social networking tool/greatest-thing-since-sliced-bread might positively impact our business. (We know; we’ve been guilty of this gushing, too. Look at our Twitter articles.) But what about the other end of the spectrum? The other side of Twitter’s double-edged sword? Or is it even possible that this acclaimed social media tool for business is indeed a double-edged sword? What if Twitter isn’t going to be – shucks! – good for your brand or business? Let’s look at the ways that this can happen. Ladies and gentlemen, your top six reasons NOT to use Twitter. Your targets don’t tweet. Just because everyone else is using Twitter doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Wait: is everyone really using Twitter? Maybe you’re in the industrial vibrators and compaction tables business. Or maybe you’re into diesel calibration or something. In – Read the full article
Foursquare sounds like fun. We’ve said it before: as a location-based social networking platform, it is able to engage mobile users to explore neighborhoods, do “check-ins”, find friends, play social city games, unlock cool badges, win “Mayorships”, and earn points and rewards. And thanks to its innovative social mechanics, Foursquare is making city after city a social media playground. Let’s admit it, though. Foursquare doesn’t sound business-y. It doesn’t exactly have the feel of a traditional corporate strategy – and if you had to present this in the boardroom to your marketing director or CEO, you might be disposed to think you’re speaking in a language that they can’t understand. Here’s some good news. Foursquare – if leveraged properly – is as viable a marketing tool as any, perfect for boosting your business. Foursquare users check-in at all kinds of places – cafes, bars, shops, malls, hotels, restaurants, parks, homes, offices, recreational areas, day spa, and events, among many others. – Read the full article
Finding the right funding at the critical time can be a crucial factor in a firm’s success, and many developing businesses go through several different rounds of investment as the business develops. On some occasions an initial owner’s capital investment of perhaps just a few dollars to give birth to an idea will eventually lead to a listing on a stock exchange. Along the way, however, the business may need to source several different types of funding, with each type requiring its own unique approach. Finding any source of funding will be reliant on the owner having an accurate understanding of the finances, and being able to project these to potential investors. Thanks to a plethora of modern affordable apps and solutions on the Internet – such as new accounting software for small business that makes bookkeeping easy – what was once a huge stumbling block is no longer such a concern. Many businesses struggle due to receiving inappropriate or inadequate – Read the full article
Not long ago we published a blog post with essential tips on how to use LinkedIn for your small business. Since then, Facebook and Twitter continued to rise and flourish under the social media spotlight. But it doesn’t mean that LinkedIn had not gone through its own evolution, because it did. Just check out the stream of activity on the official LinkedIn blog. Or take numbers as proof: today, 80 million professionals – and counting – have signed up to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities through the social networking site. After all these new LinkedIn features and developments, we thought it would be a great time for an update. Here’s a list of tips on LinkedIn for small business – tips that may not have occurred to you just yet, but which will certainly give your online presence a huge boost. Upload that picture. Okay, we did mention this in that previous article – “brand your profile” – but judging – Read the full article
A number of the world’s biggest businesses and brands are using Twitter. Chances are, they’re also using Facebook. And their employees are using LinkedIn, to connect with other professionals. How do you, as a small business owner, set yourself apart from the competition? Obviously you’ll have to be more creative with leveraging social media, and with finding alternative platforms where you can engage with customers. You’ll have to seize overlooked opportunities for marketing, or create these opportunities where none exist. Start by knowing there are other social networking tools in town. Like Flickr, for example. Okay, so we can almost hear you say it. Flickr? Really? How do you use that for marketing? Um, isn’t Flickr a picture community for hobbyists and photographers and artists? Just like Vimeo is a video community? And doesn’t Flickr explicitly say that you can’t use the site for commercial purposes? All of the questions above have a point, but that doesn’t mean you can’t – Read the full article
Financial and environmental pressures are mounting up on today’s businesses, regardless of size. That probably explains why we’re all moving toward a paperless economy, where nothing that isn’t necessary is printed. (Hey, ink is quite expensive, too!) Not only is this movement a friendly way to reduce our impact on the environment; it’s also a way of streamlining business processes and maximizing the efficiency of our resources. In keeping up with these trends, we here at Lakeshore Branding have been reviewing products, tools, and technologies that are designed to enhance our productivity – online and beyond. In this post we’ll check out DocuSign, which takes paperless technology to another level. DocuSign is an electronic signature service that enables you to send, receive, sign, and manage all kinds of documents electronically – contacts, sales agreements, letters, invoices, financial records, etc. – so that you waste no time or paper getting things done. According to the company’s official website, DocuSign caters mainly – Read the full article
