21 Feb 10 Social Media Got Small Business Acceptance
Social media is increasingly being used by Small businesses as found in a Small Business Success Index study. It was found that the low cost of attracting and retaining the target audience using social media was the impetus behind the doubling down of the adoption rate. Social media adoption grew by 24% in compared to 2008 when it was 12%.
Key findings
Positive Indicators
- 45% hope to reap rewards (profit) from social media spending in next 12 months
- 57% have built online network using LinkedIn or similar websites.
- 61% uses social media to identify and attract new customers.
- 75% small businesses surveyed had a company profile page on any social networking sites.
Things that make them scowl
- 6% of survey participants said that use of social media has hurt them
- 17% of them said using social media left the companies vulnerable to consumers’ criticism.
- 50% thinks it takes more time than expected.
These findings (See image for complete detail) indicate that to be successful in the new socially-connected economy, the company has to be caring. “Meet deadline and bottom line” oriented company will have a hard time persuading its customers. The concerns that small business owners that participated in the survey talked about had more to do with their business and its operation and less to do with the nature of social media. They will grow and get accepted, if only they accept this fact and make required changes in their businesses.
Tags: 12 Months, Adoption Rate, Bottom Line, Company Profile, Consumers, Economy, Hard Time, Impetus, Nature, New Businesses, Oriented Company, Rewards, Small Business Owners, Small Business Success, Small Businesses, Social Networking Sites, Survey Participants, Target Audience
19 Jan 10 Writing When You Don’t Want To Write
Just like a lack of ideas can really stifle your writing ability, a lack of desire to write is just as bad, if not worse. When you don’t want to write, but you have to for work, you can be facing an uphill battle. Writing requires so much creativity that you really have to be in the proper place of mind to write. When you find yourself feeling less than up to the task, pushing through those times can be a long and arduous process. But here are a few tips to help you along the way.
-Make sure that you have a good schedule, and that you stick to that schedule. If you’re a writer that works from home, the biggest part of making that transition is remembering that this is still a serious job. Just because your environment is the comfort of your own home, doesn’t mean you can slack. Schedule out your projects and stick to them, in the long run this will help you feel like you’re in more of a professional environment, and you’ll be more apt to get your writing done.
-Know when you need to take a break. Because writing is so creative, sometimes you need to take a break to keep the creative juices flowing. Give yourself 5-10 minutes when you’re feeling especially unproductive. Take a moment, go outside and get some fresh air, then go back to work. You should feel calmer, and more willing to resume normal duties.
-Don’t get down on yourself, or bully yourself into writing. Everyone goes through phases where they don’t feel like writing. You just have to stay confident and positive, and keep plugging away. The feeling will pass, but don’t give in and stop working because of it.
-Finally, try making a reward system for yourself. If you have a lot of articles to do, map out the articles and make up rewards for completing a certain amount. Like if you desperately want to take a break, set a goal to finish four of those articles before you do. If you’re hungry and really want to eat lunch, make sure you complete another two beforehand.
Tags: Break, Creative Juices, Creativity, Fresh Air, Home Doesn, Job, Lack Of Desire, Lot, Lunch, Map, Professional Environment, Resume, Reward System, Rewards, Transition, Uphill Battle
09 Dec 09 Improve Your Website’s Google Ranking
Getting more traffic to your website means improving your site’s Google ranking. If you don’t rank well with Google, chances are your site is going to be buried behind thousands of others that have higher rankings. The only way to get your ranking higher, is to play by the rules, and satisfy all of Google’s requirements to the best of your ability. Here are a few ways you can do just that.
One of the key factors in how Google ranks a website, is how many other websites link back to your site. That means networking. Networking is an long established tool to build website traffic. The more websites you find that are similar to yours, that are willing to exchange links, the higher your traffic is going to become. Google ranks how well you are networked, and rewards those who network effectively.
The IP addresses of websites linking back to yours also has an effect on Google’s ranking system. The more different IP’s that link to you, the better. Multiple links from the same IP aren’t really factored in, as they could be considered duplicates, or falsified links.
Keyword density is also of high importance. You want to use as many keywords as possible, without letting the quality of your content suffer. The more keywords you have that relate to common searches, the higher Google is going to rank you. As long as your content applies to what searchers type when searching, the more Google is going to be partial to ranking your site highly.
Make sure that you properly format your page titles to incorporate keywords. Google puts a huge importance on what sort of keywords are in your title. So make sure you use the important keywords that are specific to the topics you are touching upon. Don’t be too generalized, and use specific terms that relate to your website, and what readers would be searching for.
Tags: Build Traffic, Build Website, Density, Google, Google Ranking, Improve Ranking, Incorporate, Ip Addresses, Keywords, Networked, Networking, Page Titles, Rewards, Tool, Traffic Website, website traffic
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