A local business has its own challenges and pluses. While the market is small, the advantage is that one can easily plan and market their services. Local businesses have to take a slightly different path to reach social media success.

Here are some NEW techniques that can be useful for marketing a local business on social networking site:

Find Out The Most Popular Sites

It’s important to know where your local crowd is. Facebook and LinkedIn may be very popular on records, but is that where your TG is?

For instance: There was a time when Facebook was extremely popular in Turkey and Canada while Iran was living on Orkut; similarly Twitter was a Japan thing and LiveJournal was a Russian favorite.

This simply means, one has to know where the local crowd is before making wild jumps in to social networking sites.

Make A Genuine Profile

Whether it’s a Gravtar or profile, in either ways keep it honest. Pick things of your choice, list interests and start connecting with people.

Once you build genuine bonds, people will know you as a person. Slowly build on this genuine connection and share products and services. Of course this can be your company profile; you can have your company name as well, but don’t forget to be a “human being” first!

Take interest In Local Activities

If yours is a local business, you need to be close to the locals. Where are they going, what activities are they participating in, what are their reviews and other such things are going to be of relevance to them. If they are interested in this, so should you be! After all, local businesses run by local buyers. Take interest in their lives – interact on social networking sites and participate in conversation.

Create Interesting Activities

Create fun games online!! Yes! Do that.
You don’t have to go out and hire a software engineer to design games but you can design activities around your locality.

For instance, keep contests on social media sites related to your city or state. Your page can have activities that give away freebies of your products. These activities could have a local flavor. Something like – post a picture of the most beautiful park in our city and win free coupons to the amusement park fair – something of the sorts.

Be Casual With Promotions!

Last, but not the least, be casual! Since you are a local person on the local forum of social networking sites, chances are that most of the people who might be your buyers, already know you! Perhaps you have crossed roads, or are in neighboring cities – no matter how near or far you are, every person has aa slight idea about who you are already. Hence, the best deal is to be casual. You aren’t like Apple Inc. or Dell Computers – the companies that are so huge and so far. You are a local businessman, and people can get in touch with you. Your promotions should be causal, as though not letting them know that THIS is promotions!

So, keep it simple, be casual and enjoy social networking while improving your companies’ virtual presence. All the best!

Author Bio: Divya, working with an SEO Company, has experience as a consultant and professional Content Writer . She blogs regularly on topics of e-commerce, SEO, SMO and enjoys research and web development.

Ahrefs, a new marketing research tool, is necessary for webmasters. Ahrefs currently supports 9 countries and over 45 million keywords. These numbers are growing and their index is refreshed every thirty minutes to keep data fresh and up to date.

There are four main tools offered by Ahrefs; 1) Site Explorer, 2) SERPs Analysis, 3) Reports, and 4) Tools. Within each there is a multitude of options available which will be discussed in further detail below. The tools are comprehensive with all the necessary information needed to help run successful SEO campaigns, manage keyword rankings, and see when websites are lacking.

Site Explorer

Ahrefs Site Explorer is similar to Yahoo’s old Site Explorer, but on steroids. There is so much more than just the standard YSE links. You do not need to input special coding in your results to find .gov or .edu links as they are displayed as well as .net and .org. Manage your backlinks to ensure that you do not lose backlinks with their graphs. Look at your anchor text and so much more. You have to try the free trial today!

Ahrefs gives an excellent competitor analysis so you can know exactly what your competitor’s off-site search engine optimization strategy is and how to compete with them. You can enter an exact URL, a domain without subdomains, or a domain with all the subdomains.

You are able to check the referring pages, total backlinks, referring IP addresses, subnets, domains, .edu, .gov, .com, .net, .org, backlink types, nofollow, redirects, images, frames, and much more. These are all shown in an easy to read chart as well and can be exported multiple ways. In addition to the external links tool there are many other tools available such as new links, lost links, anchors, crawled pages, referring domain, and search engine positions.

New Links

By using the new links tab you are able to view your current links at any point in time. Select a day and view the type of link, source URL, anchor text, crawl date, and more.

It is nice to be able to go back in time and review inbound links and keyword rankings to see what may have caused an increase or decrease in your SERPs. Ahrefs has a rating scale next to each link based on traffic estimations.

Lost Links

The lost links looks exactly the same as new links, but rather shows exactly when a website lost inbound links. Use this tool to track links to the exact date and see when they were lost. Then contact the webmaster and see why the links were dropped off.

Anchors

Here you can see what anchor text is used and how often it is used. Even has a drop down off example linking domains to see who is linking to you and whit what anchor text. View 50 anchors per page, but you are able to export all results to CSV.

Crawled Pages

View page URL’s with the exact crawl date. All URL’s are shown with the page title. Look at the page size, internal and external link count. Explore your linking structure and spy on competitors linking structure and popular pages within their website.

Referring Domains

When viewing the referring domains you can see the number of links from that website and its Alexa tanking. They links have a dropdown that shows the exact domain location and what page it is linking to.

SERP Positions

View keyword positions in Google and Yahoo/ Bing which are merged together. View the results in other country search engines. View keyword current positions, daily changes, rating, cost per click value, estimated cost, URL, US and global traffic volume, competition level, and the date last updated. Very thorough and easy to read and explore. Export all your results to CSV for deeper analysis.

SERPs Analysis

The SERP (search engine results page) analysis from Ahrefs is a comprehensive tool that displays PayPer Click Ads, keyword position with analysis, along with a way to monitor daily stats and changes in keyword rankings. Enter a URL to get data from Google, Bing, and Yahoo search results. All the data is exportable to CSV.

Position Analysis

Simply enter your URL and you will get a full depth analysis of your domains position, keyword, rating, CPC, cost, URL, site explorer, SERPs analysis, US volume, global volume, competition level, and date last updated.

Daily Stats

An excellent report that breaks down multiple data points such as; new and lost keywords, total keywords that moved up and down, total positions up and down, rating change, and the cost of change. Rating change is the number of visitors per month and the cost of change is rating multiplied by cost per click. Within the daily stats are multiple charts to make analyzing data easy comprehend.

History Of Changes

View the changes keywords go through in daily, weekly, monthly, and custom date ranges.

Ads Analysis

With the ad analysis from Ahrefs you can view paid advertising data from Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Look at ad text, volume, CPC, competition level, and date last updated.

Reporting

The reports offered by Ahrefs are very thorough and complete. I have used their domain reports and have received more than I could have expected. The Analytical standpoint was beyond my expectations with more information that I thought I could have used. This has led me to new ideas and marketing techniques to use on my own sites.

You can run reports on your website or any other website. Each domain is counted as a separate report, so look at your monthly subscription. You are allowed as many reports as your monthly subscription allows. This is extremely powerful and allows multiple ways to find good links and ignore bad links.

The report has multiple tabs and filtering options available to analyze websites and export the data. Filters are able to be layered as well for more flexibility.

Filtering options include: URL’s, backlinks type, pages, subdomains, counties, anchor text, referring domains, IP addresses, subnets, top level domains, and dates when the pages were crawled and indexed in the SERPs.

Here is a screen shoot of how to register your domain for the reports.

Tools / Labs

Ahrefs is constantly pushing out new products and services for their subscribers. As of how there is a backlink checker, domain comparison / analysis, batch analysis results, and even top rated SEO toolbars to streamline your daily workload.

Ahrefs Top Backlinks

This shows the top million domains by the number of backlinks. You can also search the list for a specific domains exact position.

Domain Comparison

Compare and analyze up to 5 domains at once for an in-depth competitor analysis. This is excellent when starting a new site or trying to outrank a tough website.

Batch Analysis Results

You can easily analyze batches of domain with a report stating total backlinks, referring domains, and IP addresses for each link. You can export all the results to CSV.

SEO Toolbar Integration

Ahrefs is compatible with SEO Doctor and SEO Quake, excellent SEO plug-ins for Firefox and Chrome. This integration allows for in depth analysis that the add-ons do not offer. This is just an added bonus to all of their tools.

Plans & Packages

Their packages are competitively priced and well worth it. The basic plan starting at $49 monthly allows for daily limits set at 2,500 results per query, 500 queries, and 20 standard reports that are exportable to Excel or CSV. This package includes an additional bonus of 5,000 API’s. Larger packages are available depending on the amount of data you want to use. For an individual managing a few websites the basic package is more than enough.

Overall, I am very impressed with this tool and its capabilities. I really like the fact that the data is updated every 30 minutes to give you real time numbers. The functionality and ease of use is very nice. There is not a steep learning curve like other tools. Try it out and let us know what you think of Ahrefs below.

There is a lot of talk regarding the best way to structure a link building campaign and how to put together the perfect link building strategy. However, there doesn’t seem to be enough resources regarding how to effectively manage a link building team working on multiple projects and how to get the best out of your team members.

This is why today I’d like to share what are my top tips for SEO managers and Link building team leaders on how to best manage the link building process:

Establishing Roles within the Team

Especially when working with a large link building team over a number of different clients, establishing who’s focusing on what has got to be the starting point of any campaign management. As well as splitting the clients so that each member of the team has the chance to focus on a handful of keywords, establishing definite roles will allow link builders to take more pride in their work as they see exactly how their hard work has affected the client website’s rankings.
Delegating precise responsibilities will also allow the SEO manager of Link building team leader to use the team members’ skills to their full potential and therefore increase the overall productivity of the team.

The Importance of Targets

I’ve come across many SEO managers who are not keen on setting link building targets as they think this will transform the link building team into some kind of sales department. However, in my experience, I have found that agreeing realistic link building targets with the team before the beginning of the campaign actually has a very positive effect on the team’s morale, productivity and ultimately rankings.
Not only link builders, juniors especially, will know exactly what is expected of them, but SEO managers and team leaders will have the opportunity of monitoring the team’s progress and tweak the processes accordingly should things not quite work as planned.

The Importance of Update Meetings

Following on from the point regarding targets made above, I cannot stress enough how important having regular catch up meetings is. I find that a weekly meeting is a very good idea in order to discuss progress in terms of acquired links, their effect on the rankings, as well as any other requirements or issues.
In order to avoid spending hours in the boardroom, have a recurring agenda, keep the meetings brief and to the point and ask all team member to bring in a quick report on their progress.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences on the management of a link building campaign as well as any other tips you might want to share with the community so please leave a comment below.

Guest post by Sara G, online marketer and co-founder of Curiously Digital, a UK based venture offering web design and SEO services in Leeds and West Yorkshire.

Smartphones are quickly taking over the mobile communications market, with more and more customers adopting high end phones. Nowadays, smart phones allow users to access the web, as well as take photos and videos and effortlessly share them with others. As more users adopt smartphones, companies are also taking note of this shift by adjusting their marketing campaigns. In order to effectively market to this changing audience, it is important that businesses utilize smartphones to its full potential.

5 Ways to Connect Smartphones and Marketing

Marketing to smartphone users has taken a number of different methods, oftentimes in unique and creative ways. The following examples are ways in which companies have made the connection between smartphones and marketing:

1) Online Searches

More than ever, customers are relying on local, online search in order to find and review the best product for them. As a result, customers are incredibly likely to make a purchasing decision before they actually see the product. In order to stay ahead of this trend, many companies are using utilizing the power of smart phones in order to market their products. For example, businesses create mobile-friendly ads and websites optimized for smartphones, in order to stay relevant in local search.

2) QR Codes

QR codes are a barcode image that can be embedded with a variety of information, ranging from URLs, videos and other content. In order to read a QR, the user needs to utilize a smartphone that can scan and analyze the data. Many businesses are using QR codes for their marketing endeavors, ranging from retail stores, museums and restaurants. QR codes are used in a variety of ways, including scavenger hunts and giveaways, allowing businesses to engage and interact with their audience.

3) Social Media

Nowadays, it’s hard to find a social network that is not optimized for smartphones. Furthermore, there are a number of social network platforms that completely rely on smartphone use, such as Foursquare. Foursquare allows users to “check-in” in a variety of locations, allowing them to score badges based on how often they register at a venue. It is vitally important that businesses understand which social networks have the most potential for their smartphone customers.

4) Emails

A common activity among many smartphone users is to check their email. Given this trend, it is critical that businesses tailor their emails specifically for their smartphone audience. Aside from the practice of optimizing emails for smartphones, there are a number of creative ways in which businesses can utilize email marketing. One way is to use coupons that do not require any printing, instead simply requiring the users to present the coupon in-store.

5) Advertising

With the increasing number of smartphone users, it naturally stands to sense that advertising would follow the similar trend. Mobile advertising appears in a variety of different forms, such as video ads and banner ads in mobile games. According to a Google infographic, roughly 82% of smartphone users take notice of mobile ads. Businesses would do well to take advantage of the high impression rate and utilize mobile advertising.

Many businesses, especially small, local businesses, may be skeptical of the potential of mobile marketing. However, it would be foolish to ignore the increasing numbers of users who are purchasing smartphones every day. Stay abreast of competitors and gain an edge in the market, by using the connection between smartphones and marketing.

Author Bio: Rachel Hyun Kim is a writer on topics ranging from electronic medical billing software to payroll services. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including telemarketing services for small business owners and entrepreneurs at Resource Nation.

The Social Media market is already fraught with different social networking websites. So, how can Google Plus even be able to compete with the networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. But, it seems that with the introduction of the Google’s announcement of Search Plus Your World, a revised search experience, it may be able to gain a place with millions of users. So, it would be better for most of the website owners to get social bookmarking done so that they get increased number of visitors to their website with Google’s search Plus.

What is Google Plus About?

The Google Plus world has brought in almost a phenomenal change in the social marketing industry. This is advantageous for the both the researchers and users and the website owners. The Google Plus can help you gain good ranking of your website. In fact, Google Plus is seen to be growing at a phenomenal rate of 625,000 users per day. So, Google’s claim to reach to at least 400 million users by the end of this year (2012) seems to be quite a real possibility.

If compared with Facebook, Facebook had not even been able to get 400 million users within January, 2008 though it had been operating for three years at a stretch. However, after so many years of popularization, it has now reached the benchmark of 800 million users all over the world.

According to many entrepreneurs and SEO analysts, if Google continues to bring in such changes as is the case with Google Plus, it will be able to bring in better content quality and relevancy. According to them this is a watershed – Google Plus is going to show up on most of search engines throughout the world while Facebook Like shows up only on people’s personally owned pages.

So, these characteristics may be able to help most of the business owners to connect easily with others – other business owners, clients, the market and so on. This is going to make social media sharing easier and beneficial for the companies.

Then, Google Plus has Circles, which is another great aspect about the same. This allows you to have a proper control on the things and events or items that you share – where and with whom. In addition, Google Plus has also added the other Google products onto this, like the contacts, the photos from Picassa Web Album, search results. These have all been listed in the Sparks and thus through this Google Plus has been able to achieve the height of an all en-compassing hub that helps the people online – individuals and corporations.

Other than this, Google Plus also provides better privacy than other social networking websites. In addition, it also provides a better platform for discussion. You can have the option to view the conversations in a totally different way; for you will no more be required to watch the conversations in a linear way. You will be able to view the same on a prioritized basis.

In an era of technological innovations, many businesses are embracing the trend of online marketing as a tool to augment their business model. That is all well and good but there are many common misconceptions businesses hold about online marketing.

Apart from the understanding that online marketing requires creativity and technological expertise, time, effort and money need to be devoted to the cause. Search engine optimisation is also integral to the success of an online marketing strategy. Here are five various misconceptions businesses hold about online marketing and myths that may be stopping them from achieving success in the cyber arena.

This will take no time at all

Success does not come overnight – ask Steve Jobs or any successful entrepreneur. The same principle applies to online marketing. It is not a quick method to make large amounts of money. There are many a people enjoying hefty profits and reaping the rewards of online marketing but it is important to note that they had a long term plan and followed it strictly.

You may have to spend several hours each week or employ a designated person to manage your website and your internet marketing campaign. Good SEO, an attractive yet functional website and consistency throughout your website are good starting points and will give you the solid foundation you need to position yourself highly in search engine results and entice visitors.

I am a market leader, my product will sell

You may be the industry leader in your field but to establish a strong online presence, it is crucial that viewers find you in search engines. Word-of-mouth advertising is not sufficient in this day and age and search engine optimization is vital. To increase your site’s chances of success in the online realm, you should have a concise yet descriptive website title that aptly describes what services your site provides. The title appears in a search engine’s result page. Content of the website has to be relevant and has to repeat specific keywords throughout for SEO purposes.

Avoid Flash as generally HTML increases search engine optimization. As Flash sites often take a longer time to load, the lack of speed may also deter certain customers. Internal lining within the website is a great way to get your website noticed by search engines and to increase the ranking of internal pages.

My site looks great therefore it’ll be profitable

Your website may have an aesthetically pleasing homepage and funky graphics that would captivate visitors but all count for naught if your website is not being clicked on. Websites do not sell themselves and if they are nonexistent on search engines, they won’t generate traffic and your products and services will not be known to anyone. Invest in proper search engine optimization to ensure this is not the case.

Social media is a fad

Many people talk about SEO, rankings and traffics when they discuss online marketing campaigns. The phenomenon of social media however beckons forth its integration into online marketing campaigns, despite naysayers who insist it is a trend.

There are many opportunities for business to tap into the emerging trend and use it to augment their business. If used properly, social media has limitless opportunities for customer growth, it is cost-effective and it is one of the most effective ways to promote marketing campaigns to a target demographic.

I’m successful, I can stop now

Never be content with what you have. Your site may be getting plenty of clicks and unique visitors, it may be selling product and services at an escalating rate everyday but always remember – competitor companies are not far behind and you can never rest on your laurels.

Constantly keep your website relevant, fresh and up-to-date because online marketing is all about perseverance, commitment and diligence. Businesses suffer when they start to neglect their websites as new concepts enter the online realm every day. It is your job to stay up-to-date with these developments.

When social media took flight in the days of Myspace, nobody expected it to be the way it is now. MySpace introduced the world to a new way of communication that seemed to change the life of every person. Then Facebook came along using the basics of MySpace while adding new features to enhance the social media experience.

As Facebook rose to the top, many new companies came along searching for a piece of the pie. Those who were loyal to MySpace kept their profile but Facebook gave them so much to get familiar with. As they seemed to forget about MySpace the increased competition sent MySpace to the grave and led to the rise of Twitter and LinkedIn. As Twitter stepped on the scene with its 140 characters and unique look, people who frequently communicate on Facebook, created a Twitter account to see what it was all about. The birth of these new websites still couldn’t slow down Facebook but Google + was in the background with a secret of their own.

Facebook continued to shows its hand and unveil new products not knowing that Google was working on Google+. While Facebook spent most of its time trying to keep it users happy, platforms like Google+ continuously look for ways to generate new users. People love options but the generic friendships on Google+ do not seem to have the same appeal and sustainability when compared to Facebook. With over 800 million users it is safe to say the 40 million Google+ users are more than likely already on Facebook. Many celebrities like Britney Spears and Pit Bull are fan favorites on Google+ but there is not any real communication. It is actually more of a promotional page that seems to be ran by publicist.

Google entered the social media scene and tried to control the amount of users who could sign up by making it invite only. That actually had a negative effect because it took away the interest for those who wanted to sign up right away. While Google built its social media brand to overthrow Facebook it looks like it will be many years before the search engine giant will reach the number one spot. The buzz surrounding Google+ and its hangout feature was supposed to be big selling point but it has not worked as a way to excite social media users.

In this era of digital technology, shared information and social media you can not go a day without hearing somebody claiming they have been hacked. Athletes, celebrities, politicians and average citizens are the target of hackers who make a living by making our lives miserable. We could blame this on the hackers and those who educated them but some of the responsibility lies with us.

The skill of so-called hackers has reached new levels with the expansion of technology and the use of online websites to pay bills and store priceless information. Online passwords are used to secure emails, social media accounts, information at work, bank accounts and access to online medical records. People who frequent the internet and use many different websites typically use the same password for all accounts. This may seem convenient but you are taking the same risk as somebody who has a list of passwords written on a piece of paper sitting next to their computer.

In 2010 Justin Bieber complained of a fan hacking into his Twitter account and releasing the teen idol’s phone number to the public. Bieber responded to this not-so-serious threat by releasing the hackers phone number to all of his Twitter followers. Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York tried to blame hackers for releasing explicit pictures from his Twitter account. His use of the blame game did not go over very well and consequentially led to his resignation. The most recent and notable situation involving hackers was the group LulzSec who used their expertise as a way to breach the cyber security of AT&T, PBS, the CIA and many others. This malicious attack led to the release of 62,000 emails addresses, passwords and documents of those who represent these major companies.

Some of these attacks by hackers can pose a threat to a whole community and sometimes it is nothing serious at all. Most people believe they have a secure password that only they can figure out. Hackers look at these people as a challenge they are willing to face. There are simple things you can do to protect yourself from these threats. Instead of using the same password for every website, pick a password that has a direct correlation to the website. Another way to secure your passwords are by changing them every couple of months. If you need to write the passwords down, make sure you have them in a safe place where you keep other important documents.

Social media has exploded in recent years due to sites such as YouTube, Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, and thousands of other social marketing websites. What really stared the trend was in 2004 at a web conference the term “Web 2.0” was coined by Tim O’ Rilley. Web 2.0 is a way for internet users to directly interact with other internet users on the web via social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, social media sites, blogs, etc. When internet marketers realized the potential of these social media sites is as a way to gather customer information they began to join social and actively participate in these networks. There is a goldmine of information that customers share on social media websites.

All these new means on communication created new jobs in the internet marketing field. There are now companies desperately seeking out designers, programmers, internet marketers, and social media gurus to maintain and grow the company’s presence on the web. Businesses even have entire departments devoted to social media marketing specialists that spend all day interacting with others on the web. This has become a full time job and if your business is not participating in social media marketing strategies then they are falling behind and losing customers to their competitors.

What does all this mean for you? It means there are many job opportunities available in the field of social media marketing due to the influence of the internet and the trillions of websites that have emerged. All these websites are potential employers and many of these businesses are very lucrative; while the majority is unfortunately failing. This is where internet marketing, specifically search engine optimization and social media marketing techniques come into play. If you are looking to get a job involving social media there are endless opportunities out there; from start ups looking to make a name for themselves to established businesses that are looking to boost their presence on the web.

Most social media jobs do not require formal schooling or college degrees, but rather prefer to see that you have had hands on training and experience in the field of social media. You have to love internet marketing and always stay up on the latest trends and topics because what works today may no longer work tomorrow. The internet evolves at a rapid pace so formal education does not play a role in the hiring process; although it is always a good idea to get a college degree in Business Marketing. If you are looking for upper level positions you may want to inquire a MBA program in your local area.

MySpace was once the largest haven for marketers, musicians, and people to visit. That lasted for a few years and then Facebook emerged. Facebook changed the game completely with the live stream, chat features, image and video tagging, and many other innovative features. A few years later Twitter emerged as a micro-blogging platform and has become a favorite site for most internet users. And do not forget about YouTube, which is the second most popular site on the web. All these changes happened so quickly and unexpectedly that to be a successful internet marketer you need to always be reading social media news.

Many job boards have emerged in recent years such as Monster, Indeed, Career Builder, Craig’s List, and many others. These are like social networking websites that allow employers to post jobs and employees to seek out jobs related to their expertise. Another useful way to find a job I to go to the website and search for employment opportunities or a contact us page. This will lead you on your way to finding out who is hiring and how the selection process works.

There are so many different social media platforms these days and tons of trends in each of those channels. As a small business, in the face of such overwhelming information, it can be difficult to determine where your time and efforts are best invested in social media. Here are five of the most promising trends in which for small businesses to invest in 2012.

Go Beyond the Most Popular Social Media Sites

Though Twitter and Facebook at presently the most widely used and well known social media platforms, targeting your niche demographic in a successful business marketing campaign may require you to look beyond the big social media sites. In fact, for many smaller businesses, taking advantage of more local and geographically appropriate platforms like Yelp and BuyLocal is extremely important. The time investment for building and maintaining a presence on these more local social media sites is minimal, but the return on that investment can be substantial.

Invest in Geo-Social Media

One of the best ways for small businesses to get their name out there and build a strong and positive business reputation is to invest some time and energy in geo-social media like FourSquare, a free service provider that has by more than 20 million users at present. Such mobile social media applications allow individual users to “check-in” at, and review different retail, dining and other establishments via their mobile devices with GPS and internet access. The feed from geo-social media not only appears to other users of the application, but can also be shared on social networks like Facebook, allowing a small business to tap into and gain the attention of potentially hundreds of social network members for each geo-social media user.

Integrate Social Media and Other Communications

Up to now, you may have been sending out business-related promotions and communications via multiple means, like email marketing, direct mail and social network updates. Increasingly, the trend is moving to a more integrated and time-saving method of communication. Consider the benefits of sending a single communication to all members of your mailing lists, social networks and website account holders through more efficient methods. Build a single announcement and upload that information to a service provider website or software program like Vertical Response or iContact, which allows you to distribute the communication by email, social media and other means, as well as to track responses and related data.

Take Advantage of Social Media Surveys

The ability to create, distribute and track surveys through social media gives small businesses many strategic information gathering opportunities. Use surveys for gauging customer satisfaction, interest in new products or services, or to gather feedback on any range of business-related topics. Such surveys require minimal investment in terms of time and no direct monetary expense, making them an exceptional value for small businesses in particular.

Incorporate Customer Service in Social Media

Quality customer service has the ability to drive higher revenue and improve business reputation. It can also build brand recognition through satisfied customers sharing their customer experience with their friends, relatives and social media networks. Including customer service topics in your social media information sharing is beneficial, as is incorporating direct customer service contact through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. It will take some doing to establish and to maintain, but the benefits for a small business in particular can be substantial.

This post is written by John Lewis and he works at PriceCollate. You can checkout the blog of website here.