"Life's too short to hang out with people who aren't resourceful." Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon As a small business owner, your ability to be resourceful is one of your greatest assets. No doubt, since you're a multi-tasking maniac, you have the challenges of organization, task management, and communication with staff and customers. However, Alibaba cloud interconnect is one of many ways to connect to a cloud service. The world has gone digital, and to help you determine some resourceful ways to capitalize on this, here's an overview of several free (or nearly free) tools you should be using to grow your business – and help yourself become even more resourceful. From messaging services to cloud storage services to document management software, some items listed below could be of great use to your business. So whether you use Dropbox or FileCenter as a replacement, you know these tools will have you covered. Let's visit here to know more. Slack Touting itself as "Team Communication for the 21st Century," Slack is a common workspace for small to medium sized teams. On Slack, you can create channels, which people can follow, utilize direct messages, and take messages live with either video or voice calls. The free level is respectfully powerful and provides storage of up to 10,000 messages, 5GB file storage, and unlimited users for your team. Slack runs on your PC, Mac or on your handheld iOS or Android device – all synched and always up-to-date. It's messaging plus more. Wunderlist For the list maker in all of us, Wunderlist is the perfect tool to keep you organized. You can create folders to categorize your lists. For example, I keep a business folder, a home folder, and a volunteering folder. Features that I love include: The ability to send an email to Wunderlist and turn it into a to-do item. Sharing lists – I can share lists with colleagues, family or friends. It integrates with Outlook, Slack, and Dropbox. Available for free on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, Windows, Kindle Fire and the Web, Wunderlist works seamlessly across all major devices to keep your life in sync. DropBox If you're always on the run, and need to be able to access your files from anywhere. Or, if you enjoy peace of mind knowing that your files are living in a "safe place," you should use some type of cloud-based storage, then also make sure that if you are offering cloud-based services that youget the ISO 27017 certification as that's important. The most seamless is Dropbox, acting as part of your file structure, it allows you to barely notice that you're connecting to an offsite location. You can access all files, videos, photos, and anything you store on your computer from any other Dropbox login, either via browser or the mobile app. Should you ever need a tool to compare files and folders, you might wish to consider downloading Beyond Compare Portable software to help you find what you need efficiently. [...]

If you're managing social media for your business, you've noticed that there are tons of Facebook metrics to decipher. In the past, measuring the success of marketing campaigns was a bit like watching baseball – not really that interesting if you don't know how to keep score. Thanks to social media, the game has changed for the better. If you're not a "numbers" person, this could be overwhelming, but the great news is that once you've learned some key terms, and understand what you're looking at, you'll love to track your efforts. To measure success, it's important to periodically stop and look at metrics to confirm that the train is still on the track. Here is an overview of some of the various Facebook activity reports. Facebook Weekly Page Update If you manage a Facebook page for your business you receive a weekly email entitled "Your weekly Page update." This summary provides you with some solid basic information, about your general page activity, some of which may be driven from paid ads or promotions you ran.   Page Visits – This is the actual number of times a user has directly visited your Facebook page. Total Weekly Reach – Reach refers to the number of people who have had any exposure to various activity from your page, including seeing shared content, Facebook Ads, or promoted posts. People Engaged – This is how many people clicked, liked, commented, or shared your content. Message Response Rate – This is the actual percentage of messages to which you've responded, via the direct message feature on your page. Message Response Time – The average amount of time it takes you to respond to direct messages on your page. The far-right column provides a percentage change for the week; green indicating an increase in activity and red indicating a decrease over last week's numbers. Facebook Insights An in-depth review of your page performance, including advertising results, can be found across the top of your page; it's called Insights. This article covers metrics as they are listed at the time of this article, March 2017. Overview – This is an overview of key actions on your page for a selected date range. Promotions – This tab provides statistics on any recent paid promotions, boosts or ads. To see more ads or to see more detail, near the bottom, you'll see a prompt that says, "Go to Ads Manager." If you click there, you will have access to nearly every fathomable statistic regarding paid Facebook ads. Likes – This view allows you to see total likes, unlikes, net new likes, etc. over any period. Don't be frustrated by unlikes, unless it's a staggering number. Organic likes are people who liked your page for any other reason than a Facebook Ad campaign. Reach – The total number of people on whose feed you appeared, for any reason. Facebook explains, "The number of people your posts were served to." This is a combination of fans and non-fans (potentials). Page [...]

Social Media Success in Action Meet somebody who challenged the status quo – and benefited from the result. Kelly Keeler, the owner of Curves in Morrisburg, Ontario, had grown frustrated with the expensive and ineffective distribution of flyers to bulletin boards, front door ads, ad bags, newspapers, and just about any other form of print media that approached her in this “tough to reach” rural area. When Brian from Engage121 called her in November 2016, she was ready for something entirely new. Curious about the proposition of social media advertising, Kelly started with a small ad - $30 US. People started calling and dropping by, and most importantly, registering! Kelly decided to run another ad, spending another $50. The money was well spent, as she registered 22 new members in her first two months of advertising, “which is FANTASTIC,” Kelly writes. “I have not seen this much traffic in a very long time.” Kelly encourages fellow small business owners to jump in to social media and Facebook ads. “Engage121 helped me take the step into social media advertising.  This is the first thing that has worked for me in a long time. I’m so happy I’m learning how to utilize this service!” Kelly is a veteran franchisee, owning her Curves location for almost 10 years. This dynamo also runs a tanning salon. When not running between her two businesses, you can catch her making beautiful glass art. Join Kelly by getting started with free HOT!Content™, - daily hand-picked, professionally-curated content to build your online social platforms!  If you're already receiving HOT!Content, but would like to learn more about paid social media ads, send us a note, we'd be happy to help you.

If you are like most small business operators, looking for cheap or free ways to market your small business is an ongoing chore. Here’s a little motivation to get you thinking.  Small dollar doesn’t always have to equal small results. No matter how small your business is right now, registering your business name is a smart move. For a small fee, you get to brand your company, gain credibility, and gain more customers to get an identity of its own. This is vital in such a competitive marketplace. To know more about this just visit https://www.incauthority.com/blog/2020/09/24/3-simple-ways-to-register-your-business-name/. Know your competition Regardless of how “niche” you are, somebody is your competitor.  If you’re a specialty kids’ education center, there is likely a similar business the street positioned to sell a little differently.  What makes you unique and what do you think isn’t currently being offered to your market? Slight adjustments in packaging, pricing, business hours, or utilizing services like printing dublin may separate you from the competition. Cross promote with area local businesses Look for other area local businesses and figure out ways that you can benefit from supporting one another.  Do you provide fun events for kids?  Maybe there is a business that is selling fun events for parents – and they could benefit from putting together an “date night” package – drop the kids at one place and enjoy yourselves down the street for one price. Keep in mind, the benefit must work both ways, with both organizations benefitting from the relationship. This can be very successful if you can find businesses nearby who provide a completely different product than you do, but to a very similar target customer. Have a Facebook Page This seems basic, but pageless businesses are more common than you think. Whether you are a substantial local retailer or an independent agent of any kind, your business page should be alive and flying on Facebook. According to AdWeek: 81% of shoppers research products online before purchase 61% read product reviews prior to buying Facebook business pages give you great ways to provide much of this information to prospective customers, often from the mouth of your current customers – which can be very powerful. Post Interesting Info The quirky thing about social media is that an inactive social media presence can be a frightening place.  Having a channel or an account won’t cut it.  You must make that channel active. Otherwise, the pages will feel like abandoned cemeteries. Your social media presence should feel warm, inclusive, and inviting. The other challenge is that you need to post things that are actually interesting to your readers. You cannot only promote your business.  That would be equivalent to a TV channel that only aired commercials. You should post information about your industry, educational content, behind the scenes information, and then include information about your products and services. If you haven’t already taken advantage of our free daily HOT!Content™, tailored by industry, get yours now. Get free HOT!Content for your [...]

Developing your online presence is essential in today's digital age. That's why so many have turned to a web developer like this web development company in Sydney to engage online customers and draw them in. However, it's not just your website that needs to be at the top of its game. Your social media presence needs to be top-notch too. We love when we spot "customers being super" with social media. So, let's take a few minutes to celebrate excellent social media efforts of a few who are unique. Plato's Closet in Chicago https://www.facebook.com/platosclosetchitown/ First up is a Chicago presence of the hip resale franchise. Downright picky about what they'll purchase to resell, their groovy vibe makes us all want to buy used clothes, especially with their impressive social media presence. A TON OF FANS Three locations in Chicago team up behind one Facebook business page. Together, these stores have garnered over 10,000 fans, an impressive number for any small business. Learn more about how to get more fans here. VIDEO COMMERCIAL When you land at their Facebook page, the first thing you notice is a prominent "Watch Video" button. Clicking the button launches an educational video that explains how it works to sell your clothes to them. PRODUCT IS FRONT AND CENTER Plato's Closet in Chicago also does a spectacular job of putting their products on their stream. Why pay for stock photos when you can use photos of items right under your nose? CONTENT MIX The mix of content is interesting, informative and educational. Their topics include being beautiful & healthy, seasonal trends, and notes from the staff – all topics which they believe their target customer finds interesting. INSTAGRAM CONNECTION To make their life a little easier, they've also linked up their Instagram account to post automatically to their Facebook page -leaving no post unposted! TO DO FOR YOU Continue to work on building fans. (Request a complimentary help session here.) Use your camera to build photography of your product. Simple is acceptable. Mix up your content. If you haven't subscribed to free HOT!Content™, that sends you daily free content for your industry to share, get it here. Connect other social channels if you can. FASTSIGNS (Rochester, MN) https://www.facebook.com/FASTSIGNS2078/ If clothing sales is not up your alley, check out FASTSIGNS in Rochester, MN, who sells primarily to small businesses. BEHIND THE SCENES These gentlemen make the sign business seem fun. The first video that I came across was a short 10-second drone video showing how you can be a little "creative" when making signs for sign spinners. REVIEWS This business has some very nice Facebook reviews. The wonderful thing about Facebook reviews is that since you can see who posted the review, these reviews present a more authentic feel to your visitors, than reviews that you report about your own business. GET IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA It may be uncomfortable at first, but put your own smiling face in front of that camera. Remember, people ultimately [...]

Help yourself by simplifying your small business social media. You signed up to run a business and didn't realize you'd also be the person in charge of your small business social media strategy. Independent stores of large franchise brands, as well as mom & pop businesses, face this same challenge. When creating your small business social media strategy, there are many ways to approach it. It isn't always as simple as choosing to buy automatic Instagram likes monthly or buying Instagram followers, and gaining genuine engagement that way. You have to have a strategy in place regarding what you are posting, when you are posting and who you are posting for. What's important is that you design a plan to which you can commit and that you can measure. Understanding your small business social media approach will help you decide later whether you were successful. A simple and easy to measure approach is to manage your social media with one of two key goals: Community Building Business Building Get a complimentary social media help session. Small Business Social Media Strategy: Community Building Community Building is the creation of a digital presence – a place to be found – a place where your customers and prospective customers can stay up-to-date with what's going on at your business. In doing this, you create an engaging digital place, from which you can cultivate your marketplace - for both customers and prospective customers. You're creating, "Hey, the water is warm, get in!" Social media is uniquely positioned to do this, simply because of the nature of it. It's a channel of communication that people have come to prefer, in general. It provides a much more immediate and low-friction channel than the previous years of: Writing a letter Making a phone call Sending a carrier pigeon People can ask a question, comment, share, or even review your business, without a lot of effort. As a business owner, you can trust social media to do the work for you. For example, if your business does a lot of charity work, trust the social media process to promote you and your fundraising sites by viewers using word of mouth after seeing charity related posts. Over the holidays, more than once I wondered about the hours of a nearby business. Rather than going to their webpage, which isn't quite as "real time" as social media, I went to their Facebook page to ensure that they were open. There are several components to community building. Some include: Being on social media in the first place. Posting regularly. Sharing useful information on your social channels. Targeted advertising – the goal of which is to grow your social community. Responding to posts on your wall, comments, messages, reviews, etc. If you read our blog regularly, you know that we strongly suggest mixing up the type of content that you share on your social pages. This is what creates the "ambiance" of your social presence. Think about how you respond to people [...]

This video is an interview with EVP of Local Social, Brian Q. Smith, and he answers the most common small business social media questions. This interview covers: • Will social media help me grow my business? • What social platform is right for me? • How often should I post and what should I post? • Where do I get content? Transcript first 10 minutes - formatted for easy reading. We have a lot of questions that seem to come up again and again and we thought would be helpful to hop on the phone with our EVP of Local Social, Brian Q. Smith, to give us some of the answers to questions that seem to come up from small business owners and operators. Will social media work for me? Most people running a small business feel like they don't have time to commit to more "to do" items. They feel that they are preoccupied with upgrading the office photocopier and ensuring their team is productive. What would you tell them? When starting a business, it's important to publicize the brand as much as possible to try and increase people's awareness of the company. This is one of the best ways to grow the business. However, there are other ways of growing a small business. It might also be worth getting in touch with Exos Advisors - Business Growth Consultants, or another company similar, to see if they can help you improve your business operations to become more successful. Whilst that should have a positive impact on your business, it's still important to consider making use of the social media platforms that could get you many more customers. Social media success essentially means that you are able to build a community of individuals that have mutual interest and are interested and engaged with your product or service. In this day and age, you should think of your social presence (regardless of platform), as your face to the world – your calling card. In fact, it will be one of the first things that people will find when they research you - before they even reach out to you. Roughly eighty-three percent of all online users today will research your social media presence before they communicate with you directly. So social will work for you if you can create a robust presence, which includes a good number of followers, and that those are individuals in your target market, based on geography, age, education, or interests and other demographics. You'll want those individuals to be engaging, watching your posts, commenting, liking, etc. So social does work, but you have to devote a little bit of time and effort to do it. As well as social media, professional business websites have also been known to be an essential tool in helping the companies growth, as without a website, potential clients won't have all of the relevant information they need. With a website comes the possibility of being able to look into have some [...]