Is Your Mobile Web Presence Costing You Sales? [INFOGRAPHIC]

mobile web presenceHave you viewed your company’s website on a smartphone or tablet lately? If not, you should. Your mobile web presence could be costing you sales if it’s not easy to use. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to use a website on my phone, only to give up in disgust because I had to keep sliding my finger around the to make the content fit my phone’s screen. I’m not alone in my frustration, as this new infographic from BlueStout marketing manager Jenna Compton points out.

Here are two key points to ponder:

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3 Reasons Why You Should Stop Sending Emails to Your Customers

sending emails Still sending emails to your customers?

STOP!

Here are 3 reasons why it’s not necessary:

1. Your customers already follow you on social media.
You have a big following on Facebook. Ok, so you have to pay for ads to make sure your content is seen, but so does everyone else. Big deal. Besides, it’s super easy to monitor and respond to conversations across all your social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. There’s no chance you’re going to miss a complement or complaint! Anyway, no one checks email on their mobile device, right?

2. You don’t care about ROI. Social media makes it easy to keep track of trends, tweets and demographics, so there’s no need to know who’s opening your email and clicking on your links. It’s too much trouble to segment lists to make sure your customers are getting the information they need anyway.

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Which Social Media Platform is Right for Your Small Business [INFOGRAPHIC]

small business social media
Does your head swim when you think about social media marketing? If you’re a small business owner, and in particular, a solopreneur, I suspect it does. There are so many social networking sites available: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, and don’t forget about Vine! How can you be expected to maintain a presence on these sites and still run your business?

The short answer is, you can’t. Not well anyway! When I work with clients, I recommend that they focus on one social network first and master that one before starting a presence on another site. But not every business is suited for every social networking site.

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How a Facebook Page Can Like another Facebook Page

A Facebook Page administrator recently asked me how she could “like” her customers’ Facebook pages. She didn’t want to personally like these pages, mind you. She wanted her Business page to “like” them. The only way to do this is to use Facebook AS a business page. In the following video, I walk you through just how to do that, and how to then, go about liking another page.

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Why Your Social Media Strategy Must Include Video [INFOGRAPHIC]

sm video infographic

When was the last time you watched a YouTube video? If you’re like most people, it was within the last week. If you have a product or service to sell, video must be part of your social media strategy. Gone are the days when you needed a high-priced camera to shoot a video. Now, anyone with a smartphone or tablet can shoot a video, and upload it to YouTube in a matter of minutes. The resulting video can be embedded on your website, blog and included in an email marketing campaign.

If you’re still not convinced, QuickSprout has put together an infographic with some compelling statistics including:

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Top 5 Twitter Management Tools

Twitter management tools Ever wonder why small business owners and entrepreneurs join Twitter, only to stop tweeting? My guess is that one reason they give up is because they lack the necessary tools to manage their presence. If you’re in that same boat, and are thinking about jumping ship, I’ve got a life preserver for you – in the form of some handy Twitter management tools.

ManageFlitter – This is one of my favorite tools for identifying and removing fake Twitter accounts. When you log in with your Twitter id, ManageFlitter evaluates your followers and allows you to see who’s not following you back, which accounts don’t have a profile image (potential spam account), and inactive accounts, among others. You then have the option of unfollowing fake accounts, or other accounts that don’t add any value to your Twitter experience. The basic service is free, but you can pay extra for analytics.

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How to Grow a Successful Business – Profit First

What do a website, social media and email all have in common? They are marketing tools that a business can use to generate sales.

That’s all well and good. But how do you grow a successful business and generate a profit?

The traditional GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principle) formula is:
Sales – Expenses = Profit.

That’s what I’ve been following since I started my business in 2009. There’s just one problem with this principle. Even though I’m making money, I don’t have much to show for it.

That’s because I’ve been making the mistake a lot of other small business owners make. I’ve been reinvesting my profit back into my business. I’ve spent money on courses to improve my social media marketing skills. And I’ve been working with a coach to improve my speaking and marketing skills.

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How to Increase Google+ Engagement [INFOGRAPHIC]

Does your business have a Google+ presence? If not, you may want to start one. Since it’s getting near impossible to reach Facebook fans without paying for ads, Google+ presents an opportunity for businesses to actively engage their target audience.

According to Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2014, Google+ is the social network marketers want to learn most about. 54% of marketers currently use Google+, 65% want to learn more about it and 61% are preparing to increase their activities on the site this year.

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Business Lessons from Courageous Women

business lessonsThe following article is from a good friend of mine, Wendy Pitts Reeves, who has a unique business model. She is a business coach who conducts weekend “Secret Adventures for Courageous Women.” I loved the lessons she and her crew learned during a recent trip, and thought you’d get some value out of them too. Without further ado, here’s Wendy:

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…

And that pretty much describes a good portion of our Courageous Women’s Summer Camp last week. 🙂

We packed up in the afternoon sun, and headed north for what I hoped would be four days of peace and beauty, with a healthy dose of good old fashioned fun. After weeks of hot sunny days with scattered afternoon thundershowers, we were eager for the cool green of the mountains, and it was just fine if we got a little rain.

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