Facebook, the world’s largest networking site with over 500 million members, launched a new messaging system Monday, taking various communication platforms like E-mail, SMS, instant messaging, and chat and integrating them into what is called Facebook Messages. The system is a result of a 15-month engineering project, considered by many as the largest Facebook has undertaken. Facebook Messages is actually a revitalization of its current messaging system, and – despite industry observers and news media hyping the new feature as an “E-mail killer”, intended to rival Google’s highly popular Gmail – it isn’t technically a new E-mail platform. “This is not an E-mail killer,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “We don’t expect anyone to wake up tomorrow and say they are going to shut down their current E-mail accounts.” What Facebook Messages does provide are three unique communication features, which served as the highlights of Zuckerberg’s Monday announcement. Seamless messaging: Facebook users will be able to send and – Read the full article
If only we can search for restaurants, takeout menus, and food deliveries in the same easy, convenient, hassle-free way we can search for pretty much anything else on Google… Wait. Hold that thought. Because there is actually a way to do just that. Or ways, rather. Plural form. Search engines for restaurants? It is no longer just a possibility. It’s now a reality. It’s a pretty convenient reality, too. If you’re a customer, you’ll no longer have to keep calling the same old pizza place every Friday night. No more queuing up for half an hour at your favorite café, and no more getting frustrated by botched phone orders. Just click and eat. If you’re a restaurant, café, bakery, fast food company, florist, or caterer, then you’ll have a chance – unlike any other you’ve had – to leverage the Internet and tap into a new audience: people who stay in and look at your menu – not from the – 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
Ordering a pizza is a weekend tradition in many families. Pizza goes along with college football, study sessions, and – and the Internet? Yes, the Internet! These days more of the population are starting to find the advantages of ordering online – and by advantages, we also mean advantages for the pizzerias, restaurants, and other similar delivery businesses. That’s because ordering online offers a new way to market to the individual pizza enthusiast, or the bachelor ordering in for the weekend, or the bored, hungry online surfer or football score watcher. What makes ordering online such a potent marketing tool is the fact that, when ordering, say, a pepperoni thick with fries on the side, the system will normally have to ask for contact information to verify the order. This information typically includes an E-mail address. Once the address is obtained, the pizza company can start to send out specials about two to three times a week straight to the – Read the full article
Article marketing is no doubt one of the quickest and easiest way to promote your website. But most webmasters don’t look into this method of promotion because they think that it is difficult and time-consuming. The fact is, article marketing is probably the cheapest and fastest way to get free targeted visitors to your blog or website. Step 1: Keyword Research To start off your article marketing campaign, effective keyword research is a must. If you are after a specific niche, then the keywords you are after are probably researched already. If you have no idea how to do keyword research, don’t be afraid, here is the perfect place to learn. Some tools to help you get started: Google Keyword Tool (One of the Must-Use of any online marketer) Micro Niche Finder (My personal favorite, because it tells you exactly whether the keyword is good or not) Market Samurai (Another pretty cool market research program, and a bunch of other functions) Make – Read the full article
Tracking time and invoicing clients are important office tasks that you may often wish you don’t have to do. If only, right? But regardless of whether you’re a freelancer, a consultant, a small business, or a corporation, you just have to have some form of system to keep that income stream running smoothly – plus, of course, a staff member employed specifically for the purpose of managing that system. Enter FreshBooks, a web-based accounting, time billing, cost estimate, and invoicing application that has been dubbed “the leader in online invoicing”. It’s designed to help users save time and money in performing such accounting tasks as tracking income, managing estimates, creating and sending invoices, receiving customer payments, and generating accurate year-end financial reports. It’s definitely a great concept, but does FreshBooks perform better than if you just hired an accountant or a third party? Our answer: yes. A resounding one. We here at Lakeshore Branding have recently incorporated FreshBooks into our – Read the full article
Web analytics doesn’t sound like fun. The minute you see those charts, tables, numbers, and geeky acronyms, it will sound even less fun. But analytics – or the analysis and reporting of Internet data with the objective of understanding web usage – delivers information that is essential to all businesses with some form of presence or another on the Web. It helps you understand what you’re doing right, what you’re not doing right, and what you can do to improve. Enter Clicky at GetClicky.com. Used on about a quarter of a million websites, Clicky is a web analytics tool that is, at the very least, on par with the biggest and most comprehensive analytics tools out there right now. But it’s not that which makes Clicky unique, for what really sets it apart is that it makes analytics fun. Easy to understand. Easy to manage. Oh, and unlike the traditional favorite Google Analytics, Clicky measures data in real-time. You won’t – Read the full article
One of the most exciting milestones that can be achieved by any business owner or retailer is a product or service launch. It marks the fruit of all the hard work that had been done. A launch, however, can also be one of the most terrifying, stressful, and expensive projects that you, as a business owner, will ever have to take on. So why not do it via social media? Traditionally, product launches feature a mix of advertising and PR efforts, pushed by a huge corporate event, media banquet, or some kind of conference. Yes, these still work. But what if you ran a business that was Internet-based? What if a great deal of Internet usage is critical in your day-to-day operations? What if you want to test the waters of Web 2.0 and use social media as your platform for launching a product or service? Don’t think it’s not possible. While many perceive social media as something that only – Read the full article
