Small business owners will have heard all the rave and buzz about Twitter, and how this microblogging site can help enhance their respective brands. But if you’re not particularly adept at social media, you might be hesitant to dedicate your time and spend all your efforts on something you’re unsure of. Don’t worry; it’s perfectly natural. It is indeed difficult to cut through all the noise and find out what exactly you’re getting from Twitter. How does it help your brand? What are people saying about it? In what ways can you manage the so-called “Twitter sentiment” when you don’t even know what that sentiment is? Below you’ll find a list of Twitter tools to help bring you closer to the answers you’re looking for. These are tools for tracking Twitter sentiment – or how people perceive your brand – in the popular social media site. Twitter Search: It goes without saying that the volume of Tweets that the world – Read the full article
All kinds and sizes of businesses can benefit from implementing an E-mail marketing campaign. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to do it properly. While for some, it can become the cost-effective marketing and communications tool needed to boost their business, for the inexperienced others it can become a costly mistake that turns their prospects and customers off. So how exactly do you go about launching an effective E-mail marketing campaign? Here are a few important tips. Know who you’re trying to reach out to E-mail marketing is about targeting an audience composed of prospects and customers with whom you might want to engage with – and vice versa. That’s why it doesn’t work to just compile all the E-mail contacts you have and barrage them with unsolicited advertisements and newsletters. Think about what you have to offer (in terms of products and services), and then determine who among your contacts may find it relevant or interesting. If you don’t have – Read the full article
In the book The Tipping Point the author, Malcolm Gladwell, describes it as the little changes that can have big effects; when small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or “tipping point” is reached, changing the world. I have been lucky enough to be involved with dozens of startups in the Chicago community through consulting, working for and starting a few of my own. It seems like the ground swell of entrepreneurship is finally reaching that “tipping point”. Chicago has been getting some much deserved press with the recent Fast Company article featuring Chicago as a great place for startups or the fact that Crain’s launched a section for small business. We are fortunate to have dozens of organizations in Chicago who have been supporting entrepreneurship for years. But, I am talking about the grass root efforts that are taking place under the radar, that is slowly changing the landscape. I – Read the full article
States have been trying for years to find ways to collect taxes from online sales, which continue to grow at a rate of about 10 percent a year. States are now losing out on $20 billion annually in taxes they would be collecting if all online sales were happening in physical stores. The Illinois Department of Revenue estimates that they could collect $153 million per year with an online sales tax as proposed in Senate Bill 3353. In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that states could not force retailers to collect sales taxes unless they had “nexus” — a physical presence in a given state. That doesn’t apply to operations such as Amazon that don’t run physical stores and do all their business online. What does this mean? There are approximately 8,940 affiliates in Illinois representing 4.47% of all US affiliates. In 2008 Illinois affiliate marketers earned $78.6MM and paid $2.35MM in state income taxes. As an active member of the affiliate – Read the full article
Many have said that the business world is a dog-eat-dog one, but at the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center in DePaul University, success is a thing that’s meant to be shared and taught. Founded in 2003 by Dr. Harold Welsch, the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center is a business outreach center and an extension of DePaul’s highly acclaimed academic entrepreneurship program. On campus, the Center helps students and aspiring entrepreneurs launch and grow their own ventures. In the entrepreneurial community of Chicago, it serves business owners with programs and consulting services that support their careers and professional ventures. With an advisory committee composed of DePaul faculty, students, and staff members within various departments and centers throughout the university, the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center is committed to supporting the entrepreneurial spirit at DePaul. Through guidance for young entrepreneurs in their social, non-profit, and business interests, through collaborations with academic and administrative groups, and through peer-to-peer programs designed to refresh business perspectives, the Coleman Center has become – Read the full article
An Internet marketing summit featuring the best talent from the Chicago and Milwaukee areas, and which focuses particularly on search marketing and social media, is poised to become one of the most talked-about events in Wisconsin this February. Dubbed “Think Tank Live!”, the summit brings together several of the most dynamic and talented Internet marketers this side of America, as well as C-level executives, small and medium-size business owners, top branding and communications professionals, and IT and web design experts. “Think Tank Live” will be held February 23 at Country Springs Hotel, Waukesha, WI. Sponsored by Biz Times Media and Mashable and organized by I.M. Think Tank (a collective group of integrated marketing professionals in Chicago and Milwaukee areas), the summit will focus on educating people on utilizing today’s best Internet marketing and social media practices to strategically drive business results, increase profits, and lower costs. “Think Tank Live!” will have a track on Internet marketing strategies that align businesses – Read the full article
Traditional radio, TV and print advertising simply don’t deliver the bang it once did. More and more, people are getting their news, entertainment and business needs from the Internet. Are your marketing dollars helping you find the people who really need your products and services? It’s not by magic or accident that a website ranks #1 on search engines. There are many factors that influence your websites organic search engine rankings. Our team of internet marketing specialists give your website the time and attention required each month to win in the website rankings. We work with dozens of small to medium size businesses to help them increase sales by using search engine optimization, social media, online advertising and e-mail marketing. Contact us today to learn how we can help you take your business to the next level. Give us a call today at (312) 229-0038 or complete the request form below. Lakeshore Branding Internet Marketing Services Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Read the full article
The trick is to find what you are looking for easily. More often than not, a good website will procure repeat business, but it needs to be very professionally managed and easy to maneuver for this to happen. Therefore, business owners who are tr…
