You are here: Home / Archives for Business

Tapping into the Power of Facebook

These days if a person hasn’t heard of the social media giant Facebook, they’ve likely been living under a rock. While this business idea would be difficult to duplicate in terms of popularity and complexity, you can use the Facebook platform to propel your business to a new level. With over 500 million active users on Facebook, there is no better place to promote your business.

  • Build Your Profile

The first step in using Facebook to promote your business is to create a unique profile for your business. Many businesses have already taken advantage of this, in every sector from photography to acupuncture. Once you’ve got a profile, you can customize your profile to include information about your business, such as location and business hours. Facebook also allows you to put pictures on your profile so that you can show off your business or examples of your products or services.

  • Network

After finishing your profile you can add friends. It would be wise to add people you know first who are likely to support your business efforts. As you gain popularity and show quality products or services, your friends can link to your page or suggest friends who might also enjoy your business.

  • Promote

Once you’ve built up a solid network of friends, you can keep your friends up to date on what’s happening with your business. You can post promotions or specials happening now or even provide special deals only available through Facebook.You can also create groups tailored to your business that friends and customers can join.

These ideas are just the beginning of how you can transform your business using Facebook. Tapping into the massive amount of Facebook users can earn the loyalty of current customers and the ability to reach more people, quickly. With a little creativity, there is no end to the possibilities available in growing your business on Facebook.

Filed Under: Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

Telecommuting: What are the benefits?

Telecommuting is a growing trend among businesses today. New technology allows for businesses to utilize the internet, video conferences, email and im chats to conduct business. There are lot of benefits to allowing workers to “telecommute”, or work from home.

Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is a major plus of the telecommuting trend. Employees can work according to their schedules and tend to their home needs better with telecommuting. Additionally, families with two working parents have more time to devote to their families with no commute time. Employees will also be happy to be able to live where they like and have less worry about relocating for family or their spouses’ job.

Diverse Employment Field

Businesses that take advantage of telecommuting can cast a wider net when looking for talented employees. With location-independent employees companies can also enjoy a more diverse and knowledgable staff. Employees from various parts of the country, or even the world, can offer an interesting and helpful perspective to the company.

Lower Costs

Another benefit to telecommuting for businesses is the lower costs of maintaining offices. Working from home means less office space and lower electrical costs to the company. Telecommuting has also been shown to increase employee productivity, which means less wasted time and money for the company.

Growth potential

With all the money saved from lowered costs businesses have the potential to grow larger when taking advantage of telecommuting. Companies can add staff and new departments without worrying about office space or budgeting for increased office costs.

Employee Retention

As well as other benefits, technology friendly companies will have the benefit of retaining employees that might have been lost due to relocation. Employees with the freedom to live anywhere are more likely to stick with their jobs. The company can enjoy the benefits of retining these skilled employees and save on new employee searches as well as training.

The benefits to telecommuting are vast and growing all the time. Technology-savvy companies can take advantage of these benefits and others to create a working environment that is beneficial to both employee and company, while cutting costs.

Filed Under: Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Top Benefits of Software for Small Business

Software can help to improve the way day to day business tasks are conducted. Not investing in software can keep the business at an unknown disadvantage. Unsecured office networks can leave the computer systems open to receive viruses. There is no reason to experience having to buy new computers due to security breaches from non effective security software. Here are some useful ways to stay current with business software.

Access to the right type of software can shave hours of time off your daily routine. Many people shy away from technology if they do not understand all of the details. Hiring someone who knows more than you is important. An IT specialist that has certifications in a number of different areas. Examples are setting up the networking systems so everyone in the office can access the new software.

Ask exactly which software would be beneficial for the office. Talk about the tasks you want to make faster and more organized. Ask your IT specialist for a few different options that offer the best value. This does not always mean the cheapest software. Short training meetings can help quickly bring everyone in the office up to date on how to access the new software. This may include any security protocols needed to access certain sensitive databases.

Reducing paperwork through software can eliminate the amount of storage space necessary for saving hard copies of files. Choose software that makes the jobs of your employee easier. Many businesses hire too many entry level employees to perform the same task. Software is a tool to help distribute work loads to get more done in less time. If you are technically savvy start upgrading your computer software. An IT professional can help relive you of any headaches you encounter. Use these tips to improve your office with software.

Filed Under: Business, Small Business Tagged With: , ,

Finding Your Business Niche

Captioned: "A. B. Cole, E. E.". The ...

Image via Wikipedia

A business that has found its niche has found a steady sales stream. Not every internet business has yet to find their niche. In a sense, your business niche is dependent on who uses the product. Sometimes, it isn’t easy to figure out where your business fits in. Products have multiple uses. Multiple products present multiple niches. To ease the overload, you want to narrow your focus to the products that are selling best.

Once the best selling products are chosen, determine the types of people who are purchasing the items. Usually, they fall within a type of category such as homemaker or a guy who drives cars. Once you determine this category, you have the beginning of your business niche. The next two steps involve locating the hangouts of the people in that category and establishing a really appealing site that niche people will love.

The hangouts are pretty easy to find. They can be found one of two places on the internet. You can either find them on specific forums or under certain groups on a social networking site. Once you have found them, you have to appeal to them. Build up a relationship in those forums and in the groups. Spamming is not going to generate sales. It will get you kicked out of most forums who have no tolerance for such a tactic.

It is fine if your products fit into more than one category. You can develop a strategy for each category. Each strategy should be individualized for the category. For multiple niches, you want one employee focusing on one niche at a time until it is established. Don’t try to have too many niches spread out between one person. Otherwise, you will lose that personal connection you need with each niche. Finding your business niche is key to maintaining a steady stream of sales.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , ,

Finding The Keywords For Your Internet Business

Just because a business is on the internet doesn’t mean that it automatically generates sales. In fact, many internet businesses are simply not getting the visitors they need to their site. Generating traffic means tapping into the many aspects of your business that people might be looking for. In other words, your potential customers are using a few keywords to find you. To catch this traffic, you have to know exactly what those customers are inputting into the search bar.

There are a couple of ways to do this. One is to set your self as the customer. Then do a search with the words that would define your internet business. This type of search gives you two pieces of critical information. The first is where your business shows up on the pages. If you can’t find yourself within the first three pages then you aren’t getting much traffic. The second thing it tells you is what your competitors are doing to get to page one. Both pieces of information will help you refine your webpage.

The next thing you can do is to use a keyword analytical tool. They are free to use and give you information on the type of wording people are using. You can use them to analyze the amount of traffic and determine which combinations work best. Then you can incorporate that into your web page content. The important thing is not to overload your page with just one keyword but to use a number of variations that direct visitors toward your site.

Keywords are a part of your advertising campaign. Once they are set, they invite visitors to click your site without any effort by you. Thus, this passive advertising method is crucial to generating sales even when you are not focusing directly on your business.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Using Internet Radio to Reach Out to Your Customers

WLSOFT LIVE INTERNET RADIO 3.0
Image via Wikipedia

There are plenty of ways in which you can draw customers to your site. What you really want, though, is for customers to seek you out, instead of you needing to go after them. That’s a mark of business success, and it can seriously improve your bottom line, as well. Don’t assume that you can’t find a way to get customers even more interested in you than they might already be. There are always options for getting them to come to you. Social media works well, but there’s also Internet radio. If you haven’t tried it yet, it could be the logical next step for any business that wants to get its name out there and start becoming more relevant in the lives of a lot of people. It can really put your business on the map and help you out a lot, whether you’re just starting out or interested in growing.

Places like DrJays use Internet radio to bring more people to their sites. The hip hop apparel that DrJays offers is popular already, but business has increased ever since Internet radio has started to be used. That’s good news for the company, but it’s also good news for other companies. The reason behind that is based on the fact that, if it works for one company, it will work for other companies. That’s something you’ll want to consider if you’re still toying with the idea of Internet radio, and whether it’s the right choice for you.

It ultimately doesn’t matter that much what your company is selling. What matters is how you market what you’re selling. It’s important to have a great product, but even mediocre products have sold well if they’ve had great marketing behind them. Your business, with its already great products, could do much better than it is if you’d get involved with Internet radio to truly connect with your customers and their needs.

Filed Under: Business, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Internet Revenue Makes the Recession Seem Unreal

Internet giant Google Inc. has opened more office space in their Cambridge branch that already employees 300 people. Google is growing and plans to hire across the board, planning to fill 6,000 positions.
Brian Schmidt, at the Cambridge office says that Boston is a wealth of promise and talent, and they’re excited to continue growing in the Boston area. Google.com is putting out word that it’s looking for more employees, listing positions in every aspect of the business, including one to take care of new hires.
The bulk of Google’s Cambridge employees are working in the fast-paced advertising business that is Google. Engineers are working the Internet search engine and the Android OS for cell phones, tablet computers and manage the world-wide network of high-powered centers littered across the Earth.
By the end of 2010 there were over 24,000 employees strewn around the world. By hiring over 6,000 more employees in the next year, Google’s workforce will have grown by 23% in a single year.
Money is Rolling in, see 2010’s Growth Rates

In Sydney, Australia, James Schramko (owner of SEO Partner) knows that even small businesses can compete for the highest rankings in search engines like Google. He applies a system he considers smart search engine optimization, and it works very well. It’s a little complicated and Schramko banks on unknowing businesses to hire his company to put their website on the map.
Business has been so good (growing 66% in 2010), even in a downed world economy, that Schramko has added two new levels of service at this company, and made further reaches around the world. One package is for small business owners just starting out and another package is for the well-versed Internet business owner.
Online businesses have gone much further than anyone thought, in the beginning. In this recession, some of them are making the best money they’ve ever made. Instant gratification is tops, and that’s what Schramko offers his customers.
Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Comcast Comes in at Number One for Fastest ISP in the US

Netflix has been looking around to see if popular ISPs can keep up with movie-streaming on their computers. They’ve looked all over the US and Canada, and in the US (not Canada) the fastest service goes to Comcast, hands down.
Remember the commercials for Clearwire? How they dumped tons of candy representing their coverage compared to another company with only a few pieces of candy? The commercials were good, but the company didn’t deliver what it promised. That commercial made people think that Clearwire would landslide other companies with that kind of coverage and speed.
At best, Clearwire has been called hit or miss on forums discussing ISPs. Most people talk about how slow it is and how disappointed they were with the service. Customer service reps were very nice and tried to be helpful, but there’s nothing they can do about download time or streaming video.
Clearwire or Comcast?

Netflix tested all the major ISPs in the US and found there was only one that lives up to it’s promise and could stream movies without interruption, and that is Comcast. However, there are two drawbacks for going with Comcast.
The first thing is also something talked about in the forums online; price. Comcast is one of the most expensive providers out there, and we aren’t talking about just a few dollars. It’s a lot more expensive, but it’s so consistently fast that people love it and find that they can’t change to a slower ISP, so they pay. Also, customer service at Comcast seems to suck. Many threads in the forums are about this, and as far as customer service goes, Clearwire wins.
Sometimes the old saying, “the customer is always right” is just that; an old saying. Many large companies don’t treat their customers well. However, the product they sell is so good, that this is one instance where customers will pay extra and accept less friendly customer service.
Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Building Your Business through the Internet

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

The most common method of expanding business in the past often had a personal factor that involved face-to-face interaction. Now though, with the world wide economy emerging through the Internet, it’s becoming increasingly popular and necessary to use the internet as a catalyst to boost your business.

As a business owner, it is to your greatest advantage to exploit the tools of the Internet to help increase your customer numbers, keep your current customers happy, and to simply advertise and inform the public. Learning and developing an expert computer-sense is definitely worth your while. If you want to stay in line with your competitors or, better yet, stay a step ahead, you must take advantage of the many marketing methods the internet offers.

For example, have you spent sleepless nights wondering why certain products aren’t selling? Wonder no longer. Through a survey, you can receive feedback to your burning business questions within minutes. Customer satisfaction survey is simple and to the point. Customers are more likely to answer one or two questions quickly rather than a lengthy list that takes up their precious time, so design the survey to be short and last only a few minutes. Then in no time, you can discover why or why not a particular product is selling at its current rate. You can learn what makes your customers happy. It is that simple.

Another means of quickly acquiring customer feedback is through social networking. Create a profile on Facebook or use Twitter to inform the public about your business or merely keep your customers posted on updates. Research validates the fact that a friendly, informative approach as used in social networking, gains more clients then an overzealous one.

As you learn to use internet tools such as surveys and social networking, you will be truly taking advantage of the endless opportunities out there.

Filed Under: Business, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,
Newer Posts »