5 Essential Apps for Your Business's Facebook Fan Page. This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. If you've already searched for some Fan Page inspiration and undertaken the task of building a custom landing page for your business's Facebook presence, you may now be in the market for some features that will further engage your fans. A nice feature of the modern social web is that it's modular. You can plug in and customize pre-made pieces of software (often created by other users or companies), and mix and match what works best for you without a lot of technical know-how. Facebook works the same way with apps.
Many Facebook apps are built for casual use, like the social games and quizzes you may see your friends using in their personal feeds. 1. We've already discussed how the Static FBML app can be used to make your Fan Page a unique destination. 2. 3. 4. Sometimes you just need a little feedback. 5. HOW TO: Become an Expert in Your Industry. Susan Payton is the Managing Partner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an internet marketing firm specializing in blogger outreach, social media, and PR. She blogs at The Marketing Eggspert Blog, and teaches marketing courses at Marketing EggSchool. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.
Today it seems that no matter what industry you're in, your competition is stronger than ever. How do you stand out and get that sale when people aren't as loyal to brands as they used to be? How do you get their attention in an ever growing sea of noise when they're so often swayed by price rather than quality? One answer is to become recognized as an expert in your industry, someone other people seek out for information. The most important part to becoming known as an expert, of course, is that you know a lot about whatever it is you do. Benefits of Being an Expert Being an expert in your field makes you the go-to person for your industry. Being an expert helps you: Keep Up-to-Date Imparting Your Wisdom. How-To: Influence Influencers- Bloggers, Tweeters & Others. Are you using content marketing as part of your digital strategy to grow your business? If so, you're not alone. According to the Content Marketing Institute, the lion's share of marketers (some 92%) report using content marketing.
In the fast moving world of digital strategy, things are always changing. What should you expect in 2014 to change in the world of content marketing? Hana Abaza of Uberflip has put together an infographic detailing five key content marekting trends for the coming year. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Five Killer Press Release tips for Small Businesses. Let me tell this to you straight: most journalists will never write about your company or product. Why not? You are not newsworthy! When I say newsworthy, I mean something new in your business that someone besides you (and your team) cares about. So you know what I recommend?
Coming up with a great story, essentially pre-write the story. You’ve done most of the work for the writer, be they a journalist or a blogger. Another thing: most press releases that news organizations receive are deleted or thrown away. Top Five Press Release Ideas Publish Case Studies, Data and Surveys If you have research to share, a press release is a great way to do it. Hopefully this inspires you to write your own press releases. Use these tips and write your own killer press releases – and you’ll get media biting. About the Author: Janet Meiners Thaeler is an Evangelist for OrangeSoda Inc. and the principal blogger for their corporate blog and Twitter account. 10 Powerful Success Strategies - Stepcase Lifehack. If you’re serious about creating lasting and significant change in your world – as opposed to merely thinking and talking about it for another year – there are a few things you might want to do in order to help make those intentions a reality… 1.
Know what success is. If you don’t know what success is (for you), how can you possibly create it? Success is different things for different people and one person’s success (a pregnancy for example) might be another person’s catastrophe. That’s because success (or failure) is not so much about the situation, circumstance, event or outcome as it is about what that “thing” means to the person in the middle of it. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Watch out for the pigeons. Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive « alex.moskalyuk. 10 Ways to Build a Cult-Like Following. By JK Ellis Author of Mind Control 101 Recently I was contacted by a very successful Internet marketer who asked me what I would suggest to someone who wanted to create a cult-like following.
This is right down my ally so I gave him some very good advice that he couldn't wait to put into action but the question got me thinking. What steps are there for anyone who wants people to want his/her attention and wisdom? The result are 10 ways to build a cult-like following. Of course each one of them could be a book in itself but here goes. 1.
There is a marked difference between learning by instruction and learning by initiation. Most people give instruction. Learning by initiation is about creating an experience that makes the learning personal and visceral to the student. There are many things that you could simply tell someone and they would intellectually understand but they wouldn't “get it” as an insight. 2. There is an ingenious compromise. 3. 4. 5. 6. Here rapport is vital. 7. 8. 9. 10. How to Write a Business Plan - Mahalo. Writing a business plan is an easy way to help create a focus for your business and educate others about it. A well composed business plan can be used to procure a loan and get investors. If you don't know how to write a business plan, then this page will help guide you through the process, step by step.
A business plan is best described as a resume for your business. It provides a description of your business as well as identifying goals and providing a road map for the future. It can be used to help you get a loan or investors and can be a way of informing your personnel, suppliers and others about your company. This page gives information on the most essential elements of a business plan including the Executive Summary, Company Overview, Market Analysis, Marketing and Sales Strategy, Operations Plan, Management Plan, and Financial Data. The Personal MBA: DIY Business Education - Mastering Business Without B-School. Free Excel Spreadsheets. Customized Templates | Financial Templates | High Quality Templates | Project Management | Able Bits | Addin Directory | Analyze It | Brush Tools | Business Rules | Custom Add Ins | Database Manager | Dashboards | Decision Analysis | Derivative Analysis | EZ Analyze | EZ Forecaster | FinCad-Derivatives | Free Economic Add On's | Free Navigation Tool Bar | Model Builder | Monte Carlo Simulation | Monte Carlo - Easy | Monte Carlo-Tukhi | NumXL | Portfolio Optimization | Risk Modeling | Sensitivity Toolkit | Simul-Stats | Spreadsheet ML | Statistical Analysis | Recover Corrupted Files | Tree Plan | Utilities | Value at Risk | XL Modeler | XL Sim | XL Stats | ASQ Tools | Baran-Systems | John Zorich | SPC for Excel | SPC XL | Robert Dallman | Six Sigma Project Files Analyzing Business Data | Balanced Scorecards in Excel | Best Practices | Business Analysis | Data Analysis | Excel Hacks | Financial Analysis | Financial Modeling | Finance with Excel | Managing Money | Spreadsheet Modeling |
36 Startup Tips: From Software Engineering to PR and More! - ReadWriteWeb. This is a collection of startup tips covering software engineering, infrastructure, PR, conferences, legal and finance. They describe best practices for an early-stage startup. We hope that you will find these tips useful, but also please remember that they are based on subjective experiences and not all of them will be applicable to your company.
These tips originally appeared as separate posts on the BlueBlog, the blog of AdaptiveBlue. [Ed: Alex Iskold is founder and CEO of AdaptiveBlue, as well as being a feature writer for RWW.] Since the posts were quite popular, we decided to share them with the ReadWriteWeb audience during the holiday season. 8 Software Engineering Tips for Startups Since software is at the heart of every modern startup it needs to be elegant, simple and agile. Tip 0: You must have code Working code proves that a system is possible, and it also proves that the team can build the system. Tip 1: You must have a technical co-founder Tip 6: Cultivate an agile culture.
The Social Enterprise - What Works, and What Doesn't. Last week in Reston, Virginia, the New New Internet conference took place, and the spotlight was on the adoption of new social technologies in the enterprise. One morning panel was moderated by Ryan Carson and featured Brad Feld, the Managing Director at the Foundry Group, Hans Hwang, VP Advanced Services, Cisco, and myself.
During the course of our discussion, Ryan brought up a set of interesting questions: Should enterprises embrace blogging? What is the impact of Google Docs on the enterprises? Do corporations need social networks? Can enterprises benefit from social bookmarking and wikis? The discussion eventually brought us to an even broader question: Why should enterprises go social, and what are the compelling reasons for adoption?
The Need For Agile Enterprise As a rule, what is good for individuals is not good for companies and the other way around. Take the software vertical, for example. Self-Organization in the Enterprise So how can companies become agile? Wikis in the Enterprise. How Not to Die (as an internet startup) August 2007 (This is a talk I gave at the last Y Combinator dinner of the summer. Usually we don't have a speaker at the last dinner; it's more of a party. But it seemed worth spoiling the atmosphere if I could save some of the startups from preventable deaths.
So at the last minute I cooked up this rather grim talk. A couple days ago I told a reporter that we expected about a third of the companies we funded to succeed. Another way of saying that is that half of you are going to die. If you can just avoid dying, you get rich. It was really close, too. You may have heard that quote about luck consisting of opportunity meeting preparation. We've done this five times now, and we've seen a bunch of startups die.
For us the main indication of impending doom is when we don't hear from you. Whereas if a startup regularly does new deals and releases and either sends us mail or shows up at YC events, they're probably going to live. That may not be so naive as it sounds. Fire your Boss! The Successful Home Freelancer's Guide. Most people, at one time or another, have a job that rewards their time and effort with wages or salaries. An increasing number of people, however, are becoming dissatisfied with that time-and-effort economy and seek the greater rewards that a results economy can provide. Indeed, more and more managers are abandoning the safety of company careers to become consultants in their chosen fields. They cite a number of reasons — a need to pursue their vision, a desire for increased independence, the lack of a meaningful future in a large organisation, or the reality of redundancy. This change inevitably means establishing their own businesses, working for themselves, and — if necessary — employing others.
Making the decision to start your own freelance business or consultancy from home is not an easy one. Here’s what we’ll consider: Are you ready to start your own business? Let’s get started! Are you Ready to Start your own Business? — (Sun Tzu, The Art of War, 400 BC.) Are you a self-starter? 1.