Tag: Twitter

Small Business Guides

Posted by WFG – August 25, 2011

Small business guides are there to help companies find advice. But while you may come across one you like, there are several that offer different ideas and angles on the same topic. Some will offer news, others include business opportunities.But no matter what they offer, it’s always good to have a shortlist of the best, so you can compare what they all have to offer.

What to Look For In Small Business Guides

When looking online for a small business guide you’ll no doubt find a lot of websites offering a wide variety of advice. This can be overwhelming, but think about your position and what you need. Most articles are specific and will aim to help target companies. For example, you wouldn’t look for articles on running an eBay business if you were starting a coffee shop. Narrow your search down by using search bars, not by flicking through the lists of articles. Read the rest of this article

Small Business iPhone Apps

Posted by WFG – August 23, 2011

As technology evolves it’s important to find the best small business IPhone apps. It can keep you up to date with current events, can help you monitor your website and will also push you to be creative. So what are the best small business IPhone apps?

iPhone 4's Retina Display v.s. iPhone 3G

Image courtesy of Yutaka Tsutano

Communication With Your Small Business IPhone Apps

Every business person needs to communicate. So you’ll need something that can help you contact whoever you want, whenever you want. Though you can pretty much do this already, some IPhone apps enable you to make conference calls to more than one person. Read the rest of this article

Guerilla Marketing Campaign

Posted by WFG – August 18, 2011

A guerilla marketing campaign is both cheap and effective, which is perfect for small businesses looking to advertise their product. Regular advertising campaigns might get the message across, but how many companies can afford to place their advert on TV? Not many, so here are a few tips to create your own guerilla marketing methods.

The Location Of Your Guerilla Marketing Campaign

The first tip is to pinpoint your audience. While large companies will send out advertising everywhere, hoping to get takers in all walks of life. The chances are you need to focus your alternative marketing strategy directly on one particular audience. You’ll need to find this audience and target specific demographics, depending on the company you run. Read the rest of this article

Marketing Alternatives – Word of Mouth

Posted by WFG – August 15, 2011

With tough times ahead, marketing alternatives are a great way of advertising your company on the cheap. One of the best ways of doing this is word of mouth, despite many people believing this to be easy, it isn’t, and a strategy will need to be used.

With all new methods of alternative marketing, starting from scratch may help you put other campaigns behind you. It will give you a fresh idea on what to plan for and help with creating a strategy that is both fresh and innovative. Word of mouth marketing techniques aren’t about letting satisfied customers walk off to tell their friends. You have to push this yourself and consider the reasons why people talk to one another. Read the rest of this article

Will Facebook Follow MySpace?

Posted by WFG – June 29, 2011

News Corp, the parent company of MySpace, is closing the sale of the social network company for a sum in the region of $35 million. The California site was purchased by NewsCorp in 2005 for $580 million and has seen a massive decline over the past three 3 years, since it peaked at $900 million. It will be purchased by Specific Media, in the next few days,who are based in Orange County.

The social network site, around before Facebook, will be expected to make severe cuts to employee ranks. The site had already cut staff in January, after re-branding the site. But this failed attempt to bring the company back to life didn’t halt the decline in traffic. The site was once seeing 76 million users and has since fallen to around 35 million.

But will other social network sites, such as Facebook, follow in their footsteps? Facebook might be larger, but recent news has suggested that it might also be losing users. It may seem farfetched to think that a website as large as Facebook could lose its power. But where twitter offers news and connections with up to date comments, Facebook seems to be falling behind. Even MySpace was once had a media platform for musical acts, such as Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys.

Facebook won’t see a decline anytime soon. But with the changing market, if you compare it to sites such as Twitter, there’s no reason why it may also follow MySpace into oblivion.

The Important Skills for Legal Marketing

Posted by WFG – June 17, 2011

Every lawyer and legal firm in the country wants to market their practice. No matter if you’re a startup lawyer or an experienced business attorney, you’ll want to attract more business. So firstly you go to the legal marketing guru. They will help you with the basics and tell you to target your best interests, blog and use social media. But the problem is that they tell you what to do, not how to do it.

With social media there is only one thing that a lawyer needs to know to be successful in legal marketing. And that’s to stop writing like a lawyer, and communicate like a human being. When someone writes a blog entry it needs to help educate, not send people to sleep. Write things that people understand, and though some topics may seem easy, the regular internet user needs things explained properly.

But that’s not all. With all kinds of marketing you need to stay ahead of the game and legal marketing is no different. Legal companies are now looking into iPhone apps (The Torys app below) and Twitter accounts, because if they don’t, someone else will. It may seem like a never ending cycle of chasing with technology but everyone is part of the race, and though you personally don’t have to follow, you’ll need someone on your team that does.

Using RSS Feeds on your Small Business Website

Posted by Winflow – June 15, 2011

What is an RSS feed?

A Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed pushes content into other places like blogs or feed readers like Google Reader. Feed readers are a program where user can pick and choose the websites they want to receive feeds from.

Why is an RSS feed right for my small business?

RSS feeds are almost like company newsletters except readers have already opted-in to read your feeds. You can use feeds to promote products, auto-post to your company Twitter and Facebook and give customer incentives. It can also increase your web traffic, target market and overall sales.

How do I set up RSS feeds?

To set up an RSS feed, you must:

  • Decide which information to syndicate as a feed. You could turn your blog, company newsletter or product announcements into feeds.
  • Create an XML file for your feed. To learn about creating XML files for feeds, read this article.
  • Submit your feeds to search engines and RSS aggregators.

To learn more about creating RSS feeds for your small business website, read this Microsoft business article.

For your small business needs, contact the Winflow Financial Group.

 

Link Building and your Small Business

Posted by Winflow – June 15, 2011

If you are blogging and using social media to promote your small business but aren’t getting the results you want, it may have to do with your link popularity. Link popularity is how many times other businesses link back to your company’s website or blog. This will make your site seem more credible to search engines and propel your business up Google. Link building can be difficult, especially for new social media users. To increase link popularity for your small business, follow these tips:

  • The more interesting and engaging your content is, the more likely others will want to link to it. Certain social media platforms, like Tumblr or Twitter, allow users to re-publish blog articles with an automatic link to the original. So, when determining content, make sure it is interesting so others will want to link to it.
  • Use your business connections. You don’t have to do everything online. Call companies that you work with and get them to link to your business in exchange for a link to theirs.
  • Just like you need quality content, you need quality links. The more reputable a site is that links to yours, the farther up search engines your site is likely to go. 

For your small business needs, contact the Winflow Financial Group.

How Social Media Can Help your Small Business

Posted by Winflow – June 15, 2011

For small businesses today, social media is an important marketing tool. Not only does it provide, for the most part, free advertising but it gives customers a chance to be interactive with your business and will help your business grow. If you’re small business hasn’t started utilizing social media, start by:

  • Joining social networks! Create a LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter account for your small business. If there are specialty social networks catered to your industry join them too! The more your company’s name is out there the better.
  • Use social media to communicate with your customers. Use your Facebook page to have conversations with your customers. Find out what they like. Not only will it give you a direction to improve your business in but it will show new customers that you already have a loyal customer base.
  • Encourage other employees within your small business to open social media accounts. Have your employees Tweet about the latest project they are working on to build customer buzz.
  • Use Facebook to organize company events. This way every time a person accepts your invitation all of their friends will see which means more free marketing for your small business.

If you need marketing advice to grow your small business, contact the Winflow Financial Group today.

Small Businesses: Building your Online Presence

Posted by Winflow – June 9, 2011

It is important for small business owners to utilize every aspect of sales and marketing they can. The Internet is great resource for small companies to make business connections, increase sales and expand markets. Some ways you can expand your online prescence include:

  • Start a blog. Blogging is a great way to propel your site up search engines and make it more discoverable to business connections. Follow search engine optimization (SEO) techniques like incorporating categories and tags, using keywords and formatting your articles so they are easy to read.
  • Make sure your company’s website is professional and easy to navigate. Sites that are difficult to find information on turn visitors away.
  • Maintain your online prescence. Updating your website or your blog shows business and consumers that you are active.
  • Use mailing lists. Mailing lists are a great tool for ensuring customers return. Your newsletters should include up-to-date information about your products and/or business.
  • Use social media. Sign your business up for Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. You could also consider making a Facebook fan page or Youtube account. This provides free word-of-mouth marketing for your business.

For more information about enhancing your online prescence visit this guide.

For marketing advice customized for your business, contact the Winflow Financial Group. Our consultants can be reached through:

  • Telephone – 1.800.956.6897
  • Email – info@winflowfinancial.com
  • The free consultation requested form located on the website.