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Monitoring Customer Feedback on the Web

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 by Nikolas Severidt

As more and more businesses look to acquire customers via the web, it is equally important that businesses are communicating with their current customers on the web. But how do you keep up with all the comments people are making on Facebook, Twitter, your Blog, and more? It can become pretty overwhelming to try and monitor everything on your own, or even have someone do it for you.

Recently a new customer engagement platform was launched to help with this very problem. Bearhug is a web-based customer service/feedback system that emphasizes building a collaborative relationship with customers rather than just managing support and feedback.

Bearhug’s dashboard consists of five different feature groups:

Pulse
Answers
First Rate
Overheard
Thinktank

To learn more about Bearhug, check out the video below. If you are unable to see the embedded video, click here.

via Mashable

Tags: bearhug, customer feedback, customer service
Posted in Business, Small Business Tips, Social Media, Tech | No Comments »

The Importance of Social Networking for Business

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 by Justin Severidt

If you realize just how many people are using sits like Facebook and Twitter these days, then you will understand the importance of social networking for business. There has never been a better or easier time to get brand awareness and get visibility than now. Considering that just about everyone uses at least one social network and puts their personal information on it, it’s not hard to understand exactly why this is the case. However, some companies have not yet realized the necessity for following the crowd. The process is not even that difficult, and it’s worth it to build an online presence.

Whether it means getting a Facebook page or a Twitter account for updating people on special promotions, social networking for business is becoming more and more standard. Not only is it a great way to get people to start talking about you, it’s a great way to communicate with your customers and see exactly what they like and don’t like. You can also use the social networks to advertise to potential customers that fit into your targeted clientele. In other words, social networks are making things easier for savvy companies that are willing to utilize them.

One great thing about using social networks is the fact that you can build relationships with current and future customers. You can use the social aspect to build trust with your customers and offer them free, useful advice or coupons. They will begin to trust you like a friend and then you will have a customer for life. This is how social networking for business works and that’s exactly why it’s so effective. This is the direction most, if not all, markets are going to eventually start heading, so you would be wise to get in on it while it’s still relatively new.

In the end, you’re going to find that social networking for business is one of the easiest, most effective ways to add money to your bottom line. You will build relationships and trust with both current and future customers, and they will like you. This is the key to long term customers.

Tags: Small Business, Social Media, social networking
Posted in Business, Facebook, Small Business Tips, Social Media, Twitter | No Comments »

Is Social Media Advertising Effective?

Monday, July 12th, 2010 by Nikolas Severidt

The key to successful advertising is getting your product or service in front of people that are interested in it. This can be difficult, especially when you consider how eclectic some people are. However, with the increasing popularity of social media networks like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, people are willingly giving away their personal information. With this information, you can effectively reach people that are in need of what you have to offer. This is social media advertising, and it’s one of the most effective new ways of reaching potential customers in the least invasive way possible.

This extremely effective form of advertising is about to become the new standard. Think about how untargeted and ineffective television and magazine ads are. There are so many different types of people that will view your advertisement and each one of them has different interests. You still have to pay for each and every view though. However, with social media advertising, you can make sure that your ads are only seen by people that could be helped by your service or interested in what you are offering. That way you’re not interrupting their daily lives and you’re not getting in their face. You’re making yourself known and getting visibility where you need it.

Companies that are switching to social media advertising are starting to see how effective it truly is. Not only can you effectively control who will see what you have to offer, but you can also track whether or not the ads are effective as well. You can test out different advertisements and use whichever is the most effective. You might even be able to figure out what time of the day is the best time to advertise. Doing any of these things with traditional forms of advertising would be very difficult or next to impossible.

Overall, you will find that companies are going in a new direction and social media advertising is the reason. Basically, you have to do what is effective and what brings you more business. There has never been an easier, more effective way to do this that you can actually track and test than with social media networks.

Tags: Small Business, social media advertising, Social Media Marketing
Posted in Advertising and Marketing, Business, Expanding Your Business, Small Business Tips, Social Media | No Comments »

Choosing the Best Website Design for Your Small Business

Thursday, July 8th, 2010 by Nikolas Severidt

If you’re the owner of a small business, hopefully you understand the value of getting seen by people looking for what you have to offer them, whether it’s a product or a service. If no one knows that you’re there, how can you help them? Now that the internet plays a more prominent role in our lives than ever before, it’s important that you have a presence online, as well as access to all the social media channels. That’s where small business website design comes in. By doing business with professionals just like yourself who are experts in getting you the branding and awareness online that you deserve, you will be fortifying your business.

When you think about the current trends, you will realize that most people go to the internet to find what they are looking for more than anything else. They are much more likely to go online to find a product or service than they are to look in the phone book or newspaper. Since that is the case, it is more important than ever before to have a website where they can see what your company is about and what you have to offer. By getting a small business website design firm to take care of this, you will be able to help all those people looking for you now.

One nice thing is that a lot of your competitors have probably not started trying to build a presence online. That should give you enough time to find the best small business website design and start getting found by people that need your service or product. Of course, even though your competitors might not have any presence right now, they will eventually. If they already do have a website, then your company desperately needs one, because they’re probably getting the lion’s share of the business that you could be sharing.

So while it may seem like a large expense, finding and doing business with a good small business website design company could really make a difference in how well you do this year. It’s about getting visibility for your company and showing them how you can help people with your product or service.

Tags: local website, Small Business, website design
Posted in Business, Expanding Your Business, Small Business Tips, Social Media, Website | No Comments »

LinkedIn Continues to Lead the Way in Professional Social Networking

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 by Nikolas Severidt

As social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter get most of the attention for their astonishing growth, the one that sometimes gets overlooked is LinkedIn. LinkedIn now has over 70 millions users and according to HubSpot, executive from all Fortune 500 Companies are represented on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the undisputed leader in social networking for business.