Content Marketing for Small Business, Part 1

Effective marketing in the digital age mandates that you create engaging content for your customers, prospects, and social network fans and followers to consume.

First, let’s define what we mean by “content.”

Content can be anything – Facebook status updates, Twitter tweets, videos, images, or blog posts.… Read More

The Social Commerce Handbook Puts End to Social Media Hype

The Social Commerce HandbookThe Social Commerce Handbook: 20 Secrets for Turning Social Media into Social Sales, is now available for purchase.

Co-authored by the very smart Paul Marsden, editor of Social Commerce Today, and me, it effectively ends the hype over how social media can be used for sales.… Read More

Most Small Businesses Use Social Media But Few Do It Well

Small business social media

The Los Angeles Times reports on a new survey from Manta, an online forum for small business, which found that, of the 600 small businesses surveyed, 78% use social media in one form or another. The survey also found 58% say they “struggle to find value in using Facebook to promote their businesses or don’t have a page at all” and that “25% of those surveyed said their company website drives the most business for them.”

Which brings me to this article at MarketingProfs – Four Reasons to Jettison the Traditional Website and Go Social – that says small businesses are “dispensing with the traditional website in favor of integrating the most popular social networks right into the website.” While the article doesn’t advocate complete abandonment of traditional websites, it does recommend that companies opt for the use of social sites.… Read More

Want to Rank Well on Google? Social Media Engagement is Now Standard Practice

Google Panda and Penguin

SEO has changed. It’s not your grandma’s SEO anymore. Gone are the days when a well-optimized website accompanied by whitehat attempts to improve rankings do the trick. Now, it’s all about content and conversation. Who said so? Google!

Veronica FieldingIn her Fastcompany article digital marketing specialist Veronica Fielding explains why recent changes in Google’s algorithm – referred to as Panda and Penguin – dramatically impact how the search engine weights returns.… Read More

The F-Commerce Handbook, New Book by Paul Marsden and Paul Chaney

The F-Commerce Handbook: 10 Secrets to Unlocking the Sales Potential of FacebookIt’s time to let the proverbial cat out of the bag. Along with Dr. Paul Marsden, editor of Social Commerce Today, I’ve just written a new ebook called The F-Commerce Handbook: 10 Secrets for Unlocking the Sales Potential of Facebook, published by McGraw-Hill.… Read More