Businesses are struggling with exactly how to use social media effectively to nab customers. But at least many business leaders are smart enough to realize they’re having a difficult time figuring out our new age. That’s the word from Erik Sass in The Social Graf,� a fine web site that comes with the catchy—and appropriate, especially in this case—tagline of “connecting through the chaos.” Sass reports on a recent survey of marketing executives at 2,100 companies. The polled execs were part of a report from the Harvard Business Review Analytics Services. The bottom line: there’s plenty of chaos through which to connect. Poll: We’re clueless “The most remarkable finding:… Continue Reading

At the start of 2011, if you’re not actually on Facebook, then you’re probably reading about Facebook. Late last month, there was the Time magazine Man of the Year cover. This week there was the chatter about how Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor will pour $500 million into the site. Or you might step away from the Facebook long enough to go to the much-heralded Facebook movie, The Social Network. It’s a Facebook world, and we’re just living in it. That absolutely includes small businesses, who are using Facebook in a big way. And many small businesses are expressing their affection publicly. Especially in a recent post at PCWorld.com, appropriately labeled “Small… Continue Reading

It’s a New Year’s resolution for a lot of small businesses and solo practitioners: get up to speed in the digital realm. And as part of that, many merchants and service providers are eager to find more followers on social network sites. Thankfully, some smart experts are tackling the topic. The first thing to realize is that when it comes to finding more followers on social media sites, it’s really not about ego. It’s about survival in our modern age. Over at one of our favorite blogs, HubSpot,� Diana Freedman puts together a list of 25 ways to get more social media followers. She certainly gets us thinking about a multifaceted approach, but some of her simplest advice seems… Continue Reading

For the lowest-tech among us, they become scary words with unknown meanings attached to them: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. Even those who use social media every day might wonder how to put it to work for their business. At every level of familiarity with the sites and the technology, it can be daunting. Now there’s help. Ross Kimbarovsky at Mashable, among others, has some timely tips for using social media. Kimbarovsky comes up with 10 small business marketing suggestions, guiding independent businesses and solo practitioners through the minefield that’s as near as your smart-phone. The story pretty much starts, as millions of people do every morning, with Facebook. First tip:… Continue Reading