I’m defining the term “event” broadly — if you are a small business owner who is meeting with customers or prospects online or in real life (IRL); you are probably managing events or could shift your approach to include more people and make your “event” more productive and profitable. You can produce micro-events, business networking events, or social events, but the best ones are educational and not sales heavy (or sales-y at all).

Tyler Garns (fellow contributor here on Small Business Trends) and I planned a well-attended marketing event last summer and used a combination of Eventbrite and Biznik to pack the room. Biznik has an awesome event “do and don’t” list that includes some advice to leverage Eventbrite when you plan an event as well.

Event management is no easy task, that’s why you need a tool like Eventbrite. Here’s what I really like about it:

• You can create a customized event page (with its own distinct URL).
• If your event is recurring, you can manage that easily.
• The tool generates name badges automatically. A time saver, for sure.
• You can poll your attendees as they register to learn more about their likes, dislikes, shirt size.
• I love that you get a big SEO (search engine optimization) boost from listing your event properly.

Some of the things I’d like to see:

• You can link to Facebook and Twitter, but I’d like the option to link to LinkedIn, too, as that’s where a ton of my (and probably your) business contacts reside. And while it is part of the “My Profile” section, linking to your social profiles is not as obvious as I think it could be. Again, a small point for an otherwise terrific service to small business owners. Once your event is created, they do make it easy to share your event.

If your marketing efforts do not include events because of the logistical hassle, then Eventbrite is worth a close look. The service makes it easy to create, promote, and manage free and paid events.

The pricing is pretty simple: 2.5% plus $ 0.99 per ticket. Now that might seem a little steep at first glance, but let’s do some fast math: $ 10 event will cost you $ 1.24 to use Eventbrite. Most important, if your event is free, well, then there’s no charge by Eventbrite. That’s pretty hard to beat.

Learn more about Eventbrite.

From Small Business Trends

Online Event Registration with Eventbrite

Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Boosting Your Social IQ

The time suck of social media. We all know the value of social media for small business. This said, learning about social media has become a real time suck for many small business owners, especially the learning curve required to gain skill and a competitive advantage in this new field of marketing. Here are some tips to help. The Sales Lion

Creating engagement on your blog. Writing posts isn’t enough, of course. You’ll need to create engagement and community to make your small business standout, attract fans and eventually customers. If you’ve have trouble building your blog in the past, see these suggestions for improvements. Small Business Trends

Thoughts On Social Media Marketing

Has social media helped your business? An online poll is collecting the answer one vote at a time from small business owners just like you. Have you shared your thoughts? Participate in this measure of small business owners’ experiences with social media success then check the results. WSJ

Creating brand evangelism. Social media is about much more than ”likes” and ”clicks.” It’s about finding customers crazy for your brand who want to tell the world about you, your products and services. Here’s how to take your social media presence to a whole new level. Fast Company

Following the Pinterest Revolution

Pinterest: The next big thing? In case you’re wondering, the time has come! Time for all self-respecting social media gurus to fawn over the latest social media business tool you must be using. Forsake all others and follow! ReadWriteWeb

Social media hijinx. Not everyone goes crazy for the latest technological trend. This business blogger has even thought of a creative project that “pokes gentle fun” of a social media site he hasn’t yet found a use for. Want to join in? Darren Barefoot

Linking To A Brave New World

Not your average social media links. This collection of curated content comes to you from a top copywriter. We hope you find it useful, entertaining, inspiring, and unique. Now those are great adjectives that should describe your content too, right? Copyblogger

How much are your followers really worth? As much as $ 42,500, or $ 2.50 a month for every follower in the case of one man’s Twitter account. Before you sell your social media following short, consider the dollar value some people put on this important fan base. CNN Tech

Tracking SEO and App Innovation

Don’t forget about SEO. If you think social media negates your need for good Search Engine Optimization strategy, think again. SEO is still very much alive and very important to your online business even in the age of social networking. Brick Marketing Blog

Facebook apps for fan building. Creating fans on any social media platform remains essential for your small business, but here are some to help you improve communications with your fans on what may remain the most critical social network of them all. MyBeak Social Media

From Small Business Trends

The Time Suck of Social Media

Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

However, after attending a series of small business classes filled with artists and shop owners in the home and decor industry, it was easy to see that this social network is a mainstay for this creative group of entrepreneurs. And I wanted to know why.  So I finally signed up.  And quickly became addicted.

Something About Pinterest: Organic, Easy to Use

If you see something you like, then you “pin it” to one of your boards. Uou can come back to it whenever you need or want to.  It’s fun. It’s mesmerizing. But is it business relevant?

Well, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then Pinterest is really on to something.  It’s like an online scrapbook but better than that. It’s a little haven for the “neat freak” in some of us and perfect for the messy creative types too.

According to social media strategist, Kathryn Rose, “Pinterest is a great way to create interest in, and drive traffic to your blog posts.” Remember, traffic is the potential for conversion. Casual visitors to your website can become loyal subscribers and eventually paying customers (if you’ve prepped your site for the traffic but that’s a different post).

Kathryn uses the second half of her “in-depth look” to give you some specific things you can do to maximize the SEO benefits and in turn get more traffic.  Reb Carlson, Founder of NY Creative Interns, provides four tips to help you enjoy and add to the Pinterest community.

If You Fall in Love With Pinterest

Decide to make it your next social media hang out.  Consider Reb Carlson’s advice:

“Brands need to be creative in order to fit with the environment without being disruptive.”

It’s a creative space so be sure to honor that.  Have fun at Pinterest and start pinning some pictures or videos, including ones from your own website, and check out the pin boards of others, too.

Push Pin Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

A Picture Is Worth A 1000 Words: Pinterest Is On To Something

Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

As a business owner, it’s important to consider every opportunity that can help you build your business online and connect with the customers who are looking for your products and services. One of the ways you probably stay connected to friends, family, and business associates is through your smartphone. More and more people have smartphones attached to their hands every waking hour to access directions, post on social media sites, send emails, manage their schedule, and do just about anything else you can think of!

Mobile phones are changing the way we access the Internet and use technology in our daily lives. Smartphones also make us demand that information be delivered fast . . . or we move onto something that is easy to find and easy to access. You only have a few seconds to entice new customers to do business with you or to engage them in analyzing your business products or services.

One of the ways to enable your business to reach more customers who are on smartphones is to make sure you have a mobile website.

Why is a mobile website important? With a mobile website, you can be sure your site is accessible and viewable on a smaller screen. It gives people searching for your business a fast and easy way to find you wherever they are! 77% of local information seekers call or visit a business after looking up local information on their smartphone.*

Three-quarters of smartphone shoppers report purchase decisions were influenced as a result of using a smartphone.*

Customers viewing a mobile website can:

• Access a map to your business location—if they can’t find you, how can they do business with you?
• Research your website for more information about your business.
• Use the click-to-call function that allows someone on a mobile phone to call you in seconds—no typing needed and no room for errors!

What does a mobile site look like? A mobile website is a smaller, simpler version of your company website that is built to be viewed on a mobile device. Standard Web pages often load slowly, have technology that is not viewable on a mobile phone, or require scrolling to view on a mobile device. A mobile site provides a quick snapshot of your product or service in an easy-to-navigate format for smartphone viewing.

How do I get a mobile site, and what does it cost? There are many providers for mobile sites, and they range from custom developing a new site to simply optimizing your existing website for mobile viewing. The costs range from a low monthly fee such as $ 5.99 with no setup fees to $ 35 per month with a $ 99 setup fee or more. Some providers require a domain name issued or managed by them, and other mobile services allow you to create a mobile site with no existing domain name.

The Web.com mobile website product enables your existing Web.com domain to be versioned as a mobile website and displays the mobile website when viewed on a mobile device. This makes it easy for your customers to remember your domain, and automatically view your mobile site when they’re using their mobile phone. The mobile website is developed quickly for you by pulling information from your existing website.

What do I do once I have a mobile site? As a next step, you’ll want to make sure you’re appearing in mobile search listings. Because people on computers use different sources to search online than mobile users, you need to make sure you have your business listed in directories, map and review sites, and other applications that are already popular with mobile users. You can list basic details like your location, contact information, and a short description for free on many sites and apps. Some key listings include Google Maps, Google Places Mobile, Yahoo!® Local, Bing™ Local Listings, Yelp, and Foursquare.

It’s not hard to set up a mobile website. We can guide you through the process, set one up for you, or help you find a solution that fits your needs. At Web.com, we’re always here to help you succeed online. Just give us a call at 800-932-4678 to get started.

*Source: Google.

Does My Business Need a Mobile Website? is a post from Web.com | Blog

Web.com Blog

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Growth

Great tales of entrepreneurship. If you’re seeking inspiring stories of entrepreneurs who rose from nothing through sweat and sacrifice to build meaningful and valuable companies, look no further. These tales tell the true story of what small business can do and become and why small has become the new big. Yahoo! Finance

Telling your story. Telling your company’s story and the story of your product or service is an important part of marketing your company. But it’s even better when you can get someone else to do it for you. One camera company did just that with an army of fans who are changing the world. Inc.com

Sharing

What’s your Pinterest? It’s new way of looking at social media that’s sweeping the Web, and it makes Facebook look so yesterday. If you really want to understand what Pinterest is all about, start creating a digital bulletin board around your business. Crows Feet Cupcakes and Cellulite

Giving is the new marketing. If you’ve always thought business was about getting something back for every bit of giving you do, it may be time to rethink that strategy. Here’s a look at how lending a helping hand can be the best branding for your business. New Horizons 123

Events

Telling your story in book form. Another way to tell your small business story may be in book form. Do you have something trully unique to say that you believe could help other small business people just like you? Join our Twitter chat today to learn how to get started. Small Business Trends

Nominate your small business favorites. It’s the final day to nominate your favorite title in the 2012 Small Business Book Awards. Nomination ends officially Midnight Pacific time January 31. Please drop by and nominate your favorite title while there’s still time. Small Business Trends

Online

Content that really helps your marketing. An important part of marketing your products and services effectively these days has to do with your ability to create interesting and enlightening content for your community with a sense of what it takes to optimize that content for search engines. Noobpreneur

Internet marketing requires patience. One reason that marketing your product or service in a new world of marketing especially online is so difficult is that it is difficult to place Internet marketing on a exact timeline. You may want to think about this the next time an online marketer makes extravagant claims. Brick Marketing Blog

Tools

A whole new way of marketing. If you haven’t been using QR code to market your products or services, you’ve missed an emerging new market that opens many new opportunities that may not have occurred to you before. Crack the code to marketing success here. The Small Business Playbook

What kind of newsletter service do you use. As important as your social media channel might be, it’s important to keep in touch with members of your community via newsletters two. In this post, two possible newsletter service are compared. Ryan Hanley

From Small Business Trends

Great Tales of Entrepreneurship

Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Get a Higher Goal

We all know how hard it was to start our company, get the product out and get those first 10-20 customers. Now, you are sitting at 65 customers and there is a little bit of money coming in. There is hope for more. You would be at a super comfortable income at 200 customers. Make sure you aim for a 1000 this year. If you don’t plan for a large enough target, you will find it a tough hike to 200 as well.

Get in Deeper

What can you do different for this higher goal? Let’s say you have certain marketing channels to promote your site/product. You are spending on online advertising, have a part-time sales person, are sitting on Twitter and have your web designer helping you with SEO. It’s time to become proficient at some of these things yourself. If you know that getting your site showing on Google will make a much more accelerated impact than making cold calls – learn some basics on SEO (search engine optimization). Take a course, ask people, see what your competition is doing. Sites like blekko give you detailed insights into what makes your competition rank higher on Google.

Get Some Uncle Scrooge in You

Are you still spending $ 500 per month on those banner ads? Have you calculated conversions on these particular ads to your site? Or is it just a black hole? Those customers you got last month could have come from word of mouth, not those ads. Make sure you measure every dollar that you spend on marketing. Early on, you might not have the cash to splurge on “brand building.” Spend the money if you know you are getting something out if it. I know, it’s hard at times, but you have to be a hawk – don’t give in to sharp sales pitches and good looking sites.

Get a Physical

When was the last time you checked in with your old customers? I know they are still paying you and hence happy, but make sure you know if something is hurting them, or if they are missing something that you could add easily. Also, keep an eye on Twitter, Quora and LinkedIn on what people might be saying about your product or the competition. You can also post questions on this forum to learn more about what you could do better. For the customers that left, send a gentle, personal email asking them what was missing.

Get Some Rest

Thinking of quitting? This might be because you are burnt out with all the effort and hours you are putting in the business. The only reason a business fails after getting to 100 paying customers is because the primary driver (you) did not continue long enough. Make sure you switch off for a few hours in the evening, go to the gym, take a trip or a vacation – you need a reset button. Come back and kill it!

Setting daily goals will convert some of the above ideas into habits that will ensure you hit your targets for this year.

Rest Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

5 Habits Small Businesses Should Adopt in 2012

Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

So you think your business is unique? Better reserve judgement until you check out some of these. We all know that part of branding is that initial impact your business makes on customers. And, of course, on creating that one unique product or service no one else has. Yahoo! News

How not to handle business reputations. When looking at the way celebrities and gurus handle their small businesses, we are sometimes treated to a view of how we hope our businesses someday might be. Not in this case. Here’s a look at what can go completely wrong when managing your reputation.  David Leonhardt’s SEO and Social Media Marketing

Video tips you should ignore. There are so many tips around on managing your small business including your business online that you be surprised hearing someone advocate ignoring tips in one of the most popular online marketing tips around: online video. Work At Home Woman

What separates great entrepreneurs from all the rest? David Siteman Garland shares this simple thought after time spent interviewing some of the most successful small business leaders on the Web. There is no secret formula for success and no substitute for paying your dues. The Rise to the Top

Steps to better e-commerce success. It’s called the empty shopping cart syndrome. What happens when you set up that online store only to have nothing happen? Nothing at all! Don’t loose hope. As with any problem there is a solution. Learn more about how to turn e-commerce failure to success. Buzz Small Business Magazine

So you want to do business with China. S mall businesses have better odds than ever before even as exporters and certainly the Web and other technology will help you if you have the products, services and marketing to be a success. But hold it! This infographic suggests some obstacles. High Street Partners

What a city in Spain can teach the world about branding. Plenty. Let us tell you! Check out this post on how one city has promoted itself to incredible heights and how the techniques are things you should already be trying in your business. Bloggertone

Bring your employees into the game. You know that your employees are the key to your businesses success. So it shouldn’t come as a shock that giving them a stake in the outcome is far more likely to lead to success. But when looking at compensation, how can you find the equation that works the best? You’re the Boss

From Small Business Trends

Do This, Don’t Do That: A Strategy for Unique Business Building

Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Google's Superior SEO Strategy

Notice anything odd about your Google+ profile? Does it rank incredibly well in Google’s search results for your own name?

Colleagues grumble that their G+ profile now outranks other online identities that they’ve worked for years on. My own Google+ profile, just 5 months old, ranks #2 for my name. It now ranks higher than both my Twitter and Facebook profiles, even though I use those services far more often.

Profiles aren’t the only thing ranking. Individual Google+ posts frequently appear in search results as well.

Ranking for people’s names is one of the Holy Grails of search, like Amazon ranking for every book in print. With 7 billion people in the world, ranking on the first page for even a small portion of these is lucrative territory.

As search and social focus more on the individual, the war over names has begun.

How has Google won so much real estate on their own search pages in such a short period of time? Do they cheat? No, not really – more on this later. Google wins by employing really smart Search Engine Optimization techniques – the same SEO practices available to any online business.

For Facebook especially, this is a sensitive issue. Facebook actively prevents Google from crawling most of its content, allowing big G to access “Fan” pages, but limiting information from regular profiles. Now that Google+ has entered the social game, this policy puts Facebook results at risk of dropping in rankings and losing search real estate.

I often work with websites and startups wanting to build SEO features into their platform. If I were to build a social media service for SEO domination from scratch, I would build it exactly like Google+.

Here's the takeaway: Use SEO to your competitive advantage, no matter your niche.

1. Incentivize Inbound Links

Not long ago, Google started displaying author photos in its search results. In order to display a photo, Google asks authors to add links from their webpages to their Google+ profile. This creates potentially millions of high quality links from the world’s most influential online publishers, all pointing to multiple Google+ profiles.

Twitter and Facebook both benefit from similar links, but never before has a social media service offered such an incentive.

Google's SEO Tactic: Require Authors to Link to their Google+ Profile

2. Internal Linking

One thing noted about Google+ when it was released was just how easy it was to be in lots of circles, or add lots of people to your own. People who struggled on Twitter for years to build up 1000 followers, suddenly found themselves in 2000 or 3000 Google+ circles, seemingly overnight.

Google’s strategy to connect everyone on the planet also makes for good internal linking. Following more than 1000 people may not create a practical social experience, but it creates a great SEO opportunity. The more your content is shared in other people’s streams and profiles, then the more your content is crawled, indexed, and deemed important by search engines.

Google's SEO Tactic: Encourage Large Circles Counts

3. Lots of Indexable Content

My public Google+ profile contains a wealth of information, all visible to search engines, including:

• Biographical Information
• Full Text of Public Posts
• Photos
• Links to people who have added me to their circles
• Everything I have ever +1’d

Compare that to my Twitter account – limited to 160 characters of biographical information, or my Facebook profile, which reads like an auto-generated pamphlet.

Consider how a search engine sees these pages. Take a look at the source code of any Google+ profile or use a tool SEO-browser (a search robot simulator) to see how many words appear on each profile.

• Facebook – 275 Words

• Twitter – 491 Words

• Google+ – 2621 Words

Google structures content to provide a wealth of information for search engines, to index and serve in search results.

Google's SEO Tactic: Search Engine Friendly Profiles

4. On-Page Optimization

Google+ makes it easy to share posts from others – a feature much like retweeting on Twitter or reblogging on Tumblr. These Google+ posts frequently show up in search results as their own entries.

As the title tag is one of the most important aspects of on-page optimization, Google wisely choose longer, more descriptive title tags. Compare these to the shorter title tags offered by Facebook and Twitter, which often run no longer than three unique words.

Here’s the title tag to 3 different posts, all by Rand Fishkin. Each of these posts is indexed by Google.

• Facebook – Yesterday, I…
• Twitter – Twitter / @randfish: Running test of Google+’s …
• Google+ – Rand Fishkin – Google+ – Shocking how many of the folks featured in this post form…

Which do you think ranks better for a query with “Rand Fishkin” in the search?

Google's SEO Tactic: Descriptive Title Tags

5. User Generated Content

Every post I’ve ever written on Google+ has been public. As a result, every post has been crawled and indexed by Google search. The privacy settings on the profiles are simple, intuitive and encourage openness.

The big green button screams, “Pick me! Pick me!”

Most Twitter posts are public by default, although unless a tweet becomes famous the 140 character limit prevents most tweets from reaching the definition of “rich” content. Facebook, in contrast, only shares posts from fan pages with Google, and not posts from regular profiles.

Google's SEO Tactic: Encourage Public Sharing

6. Show Google+ Author Profiles in Search Results

The first 5 items on this list represent SEO tactics that anyone can use, but in a way #6 belongs to Google alone. By linking to Google+ profiles in search results, they create an advantage that no other social media service can duplicate.

Is Google “cheating” by favoring it’s own property? Some say yes, but on the other hand, is there a more relevant result? To me, it makes more sense to connect the author profile with the website that actually hosts the content, such as my profile on SEOmoz.

This demonstrates is the power of rich snippets. Since Google introduced author photos in search results, webmasters have scrambled to get their mug included – the idea being that rich snippets of all kinds increase click-through rates. The question is, are we increasing the CTR of our own website, or Google+?

Google's SEO Tactic: Creative Rich Snippets

What Can You Do?

Except for #6 above, most of these techniques are available to any online business. Google has found a way to create large amounts of search engine friendly content, and do it at scale.

Unfortunately, the lack of diversity this creates in Google's search results is troubling. Google risks turning into McGoogle, where every result and every page looks the same. With any luck, more companies will adopt strong SEO strategies to raise themselves in search.

Now that the adoption of Google+ has hit 62 million users and growing, expect to see far more Google+ in your search results soon.

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SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

Tips & Trends

Founding a company comes with many challenges. Though the work may change as your company grows, it never really goes away, says Lisa Pice, CEO of Carol’s Daughter, a beauty company she founded 18 years ago. Inc.com

Here are obstacles you’ll face this year. Whether you realize it or not, some experts say 2012 could be a good one for many entrepreneurs. The trick will be to overcome some of the obstacles that may remain in your path. Bloomberg Businessweek

Marketing Basics

Are you in love with marketing? Certainly any small business owner must have a good familiarity with the subject, but for this Australia-based blogger, entrepreneur, author and Web branding expert, marketing isn’t just a necessity. It’s a passion. BizSugar Blog

The relationship between marketing and SEO. Which comes first, good SEO or good marketing? Or are they so closely related in online marketing as to be inseparable? Here’s a look at these two closely related tools of the online entrepreneur. Capture Commerce

Marketing mistakes that should be set right. No matter what kind of business you operate, spreading the word about your products and services is obviously important. Here are some things you must consider. Small Business Trends

Management

Avoiding cash flow problems. Cash flow is critically important to your business and while managing this aspect of your company may be a bit less glamorous, it is critical to keeping your venture healthy for the long haul. Angel Business Advisors

Another key challenge: inventory. If you own or operate a business with a considerable amount of inventory, managing that inventory can be another significant challenge. It can also have significant impact on your cash flow and profits. CFO Wise

Entrepreneurship

Five key questions you’ll want to answer. Before you even start your business, some important decisions must be made. Looking at some of the key questions you’ll face will help you clarify the challenges you face before your business even gets rolling. Youngentrepreneur

Protecting your personal brand. More than your company’s brand, your personal brand as an entrepreneur can help you make connections and open doors and, while social media has made the maintenance of this brand easier, it has also created problems. Personal Branding Blog

Great first impressions. Of course, one way to mitigate challenges your business can face from the start is to make great first impression. A first impression will set the bar for all future interaction with customers, clients or partners and can be critical in avoiding trouble before it starts. Carol Roth

From Small Business Trends

Small Business Founders Face Many Challenges

Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Success Stories

Unexpected opportunities turn to thriving business. This entrepreneur didn’t begin her career as a makeup artist with the knowledge she would be building a multi-million business from her efforts. But a new career led to unexpected opportunities. Shine

Creating a business from writing talents. Stephanie Chandler built a business based on her passion for marketing and her ability for writing translating her talent and interests into a business featuring non-fiction business books for entrepreneurs. BizSugar Blog

Operations

Why you should launch more often. Some people argue that introducing products too often will mess up positioning and message in a highly competitive field, but serial entrepreneur Prasad Thammineni argues just the opposite. Small Business Trends

What are the benefits of a deadline? Deadlines are a part of life whether you own and operate your own business or work for a traditional employer, but facing one has its positive aspects. Here’s how to make the deadline work for you. Main Street Chamber

Marketing

Mistreating your customers? You may not realize it, but if you treat your best customers poorly, even without realizing it, the result could hurt your reputation and your brand. Focus on seeing your business the way others may and do the best you can for customers. Jonathan Fields

Analytics boosts small business. It doesn’t matter how small your business may be. Analytics can provide an edge that will transform everything. Understanding the benefits of analytics for your small business is the key to moving your business into a whole new world of competitiveness. Zimana Blog

Startups

Does your small business need a staff? In some cases staff may be necessary to attract investment these days, something many startups may need to consider in the current economic environment even though it may run counter to the idea of keeping your operations lean. WSJ

What can we learn from failure. This recent post focused on five small businesses that failed this year. But let’s not focus on the negative. Behind each of these failures is a lesson to be learned about what could be done better next time. You’re the Boss

Tips & Trends

There is such a thing as bad publicity. Here John Sternal talks about the overall impact of bad PR on your business and company and also what to do to improve matters for you and your brand. Understanding Marketing

Automating SEO for Ecommerce. If the importance of e commerce to today’s small business market does not need to be stressed, perhaps the need for SEO as a method of enhancing e commerce performance does. Here are some thoughts. Capture Commerce

From Small Business Trends

Her Success is Frightening

Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends