5 Social Media Tips for Small & Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB)

When stepping into the realm of social media as a small business you should have a plan. I suggest that you take your time and generate clear goals and objectives for your social media marketing strategy before you do anything. Once you have done this; check out our social media optimization and marketing tips for SMB’s.

1. Take Advantage of the Big 3: Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.
2. Blog: Create and Participate
3. Make Sharing and Bookmarking Easy
4. Mobile Social Networks and Local Networks
5. Track and Monitor

Social Media is a great marketing tool for small and medium businesses to use and I hope our tips will help you when implementing social media to your business.

Google Analytics Column Hack-Pivot Tables

One of our clients requested a method to export more data from the Google Analytics pivot tables. The purpose of the export was to tie together Google Analytics with specific URL variables; however, Google Analytics displays a limited number of items on the pivot table. We did some research and we came across this Google Analytics Hack.

What You Will Need:
- Firefox
- Live HTTP header (http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/)

What are we hacking?
We’ll make possible for the analyst in you to download more than 5 columns from Google Analytics’ Pivot Table reports.

Below are the steps to the hack:
1. Go to any report that has the pivot table option and segment the data the way you want to analyze it (for testing purposes you can use the example above: go on Traffic Sources report à then Referring Sites and then pivot by Landing Page and choose Showing Visits)
2. Start Live HTTP header (in Firefox, under Tools) – do not load any other pages between step 2 and 3
3. Make sure you checked the Capture box on live HTTP header
4. Go back to your Google Analytics window and select a new number of page rows on, under Show rows (the footer of the pivot table). At this moment, the table should reload.
5. Open the Live HTTP header window
6. The first line there should be the request sent to Google Analytics in order to reload the pivot table. You should see something similar to Live HTTP Header
7. Copy the link (should be the first if you didn’t load any other page or made other HTTP request – music or video streams) and load it in another tab. You should have something similar to: Pure html table
8. Now look for the &tcols=5 parameter. Change it to &tcols=50 and load the new URL

Here’s a bonus hack for Google Analytics
The URL that exports Google Analytics reports in CSV for Excel (&fmt=5) is:
https://www.google.com/analytics/reporting/export?fmt=5 and some parameters after.
You will have to copy everything starting and including &id=…. from the URL you previously modified (the one with &tcols=50) and append it to Google’s export URL. The export URL will look like:
https://www.google.com/analytics/reporting/export?fmt=5&id=1234567&esig=4&seg0=-8&pdr=20091016-20091115&cmp=visit_segments&trows=25&rpt=ReferringSourcesReport&seg=1&view=4&tchcol=0&tst=0

We have used this several times to export additional pivot table information. A word of caution when using a hack, do it at your own risk. We highly recommend that you use this on a duplicate profile and on a secure network.

Source: You Should Test That!

Our Search Engine Optimization Trends & Vision for Businesses

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will continue to increase in awareness throughout 2009-2010. According to Small Business Trends, businesses will begin to move SEO in-house; however, Search Engine Optimization agencies will also continue to be busier than ever. Let’s not exclude the increasing volume of SEO scams that will continue to frustrate our customers.

The most critical information still reaffirms that relevant content is key. The trend should also include videos, blogs, images, and tweets. The search functionality will evolve due to additional role-over functionality on Bing. Local search and mobile search engine optimization will generate additional changes in the search engine landscape. The evolution of mobile device will have marketers focusing on mobile search and mobile search functionality.

The bottom line is that businesses should start to incorporate search engine optimization into their marketing plans. We don’t recommend that every businesses jump into SEO and hire an agency but we do recommend that every business have the basics covered. Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing will continue to become more challenging for organizations that don’t understand the basics. New wrinkles will continue to appear in mobile search, search engine, and local search. Once you have the basics covered, you can start to tackle the larger challenges!

Search Engine Optimization Basics for Small Business

Search Engine Optimization can be difficult for organizations that do not have the skill set or knowledge to achieve better positioning. The best resource for small businesses would be Google’s Starter Guide for Search Engine Optimization. In addition, Google offers a number of free tools to help track the performance of your website & keywords.

Google is not the only search engine on the block. You should also visit Bing & Yahoo for their webmaster/explorer tools. These search engines can provide valuable insight on your search position. They provide information on inbound links, crawlers, and more.

Small businesses should track the progress of their Search Engine Optimization. In most cases, the search engine optimization should focus on the local markets. You will need to do the keyword/phrase research for your product or services. Remember to think like your customers and keep it simple. If you do not have analytics (Google Analytics) on your website, you should set-up an account to get valuable information on which keywords and sources are sending visitors.

Let us know if you’ve discovered any useful tools.

Small Business Internet Marketing: Identify Local Opportunities

It’s time for local small businesses to get on the internet marketing wagon. Just about every business has a need to identify internet marketing opportunities. It is not only for ecommerce, but also for brand awareness, lead generation, and reducing acquisition cost. It is just as critical for small businesses as any other company to be competitive on the web.

Generally, local customers would prefer to use local service providers or get products from a local store. It is easier for major corporations to compete for online or internet marketing space in major cities like Philadelphia, New York City or Chicago because they have the cash-flow to do it. They usually want little to do with small markets, what a surprise! Is that where small local business reside? Most small businesses operate in a 15-30 miles radius around their office location. This means that if your business is located in Reading, PA, you can curve out a respectable niche within the Berks/Lehigh markets with limited competition for the “major” cities. This is such a great way to increase your business and the internet should be utilized to its fullest potential as a marketing tool.

Not only is internet marketing effective for brand awareness, but it can also help to develop automated processes (efficiency = productivity). An example of this would be a contact form on your website. The contact form could the lead to your email database, completion of the form generates a trigger email (Thank you!), which populates directly to your email service provider tool, and you can continue to market & nurture the leads with a newsletter or promotions!