Great Blog Ideas and Other Online Business Tips

Great ideas have always been important in business and this is even more the case when blogging and other social media become key components of your business strategy. Here are some unique ideas to keep your blog vital and original and some other great tips for online business as well.

Blogging & E-mail Marketing

10 great business blog ideas. (And by great we mean original.) If content is still king online, than great, unique ideas for your business blog should rank pretty highly, shouldn’t they? Here are some ideas you might consider. Word Chef

Tips for improving e-mail marketing. You might not realize it, but your e-mail marketing can be improved by changing just a few simple words. Here’s how making a few simple changes to your subject line can change everything. Step by Step Marketing

Online Security Concerns

Beware, online customers may act differently. Yes, the Internet empowers customers, but, when online behavior becomes inappropriate (as it sometimes does) you need a way to say enough is enough. FixCourse

6 important reasons for cloud computing today. If you haven’t moved your business operations to the cloud, this blog post may be for you. There are definite benefits to the trend, so consider carefully. Smallbiztechnology.com

Tips & Techniques

Great online B2B tips. If you sell to other businesses, or even if you don’t, chances are you’ll find these tips helpful. And best of all they won’t take long to put into place. B2B Marketing Smarts

What’s wrong with my Website? This diagnostic will help you look at a Website and help you discover why it might not be generating the business you expect. How can you make your business site better? You’re the Boss

Latest Trends

So, what exactly is social commerce? It’s certainly not a totally new subject. Using social media to sell products is as old as…well…MySpace. (Yep, that far back!) But understanding the business model is something else again. Noobpreneur

An interesting way to promote your ebooks. If you sell ebooks online, you know there are challenges in marketing them as a product, so promoting two at once is no small accomplishment. Follow these tips when promoting your next project. The Backlight

Digital Frontier

Data security and your online business. While the example used in this post isn’t an online business, the concept of data security shouldn’t be new to anyone who runs one. Be sure you understand the dangers. You’re the Boss

The next step in digital marketing: mobile. Despite some difficulties that might make it seem less than ideal, mobile marketing is definitely the wave of the future in the digital world. Here are some simple reasons why and why your business may want to consider digital marketing today. Smallbiztechnology.com

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Create Your Holiday Online Review Strategy Now

What? Don’t look at me like that. I know it’s not even fully mid-October yet, but do you know what’s right around the corner? Everything! Halloween is just a couple weeks away and serves as the warning shot for the official holiday season. Naturally, as savvy business owners, you want to make sure you’re taking full advantage of the madness that’s about to hit. And that means creating a holiday review strategy that will let you prime your reviews and testimonials for 2012.

Things are about to get super busy, right? Why not put the increased traffic and eyeballs to good use and ramp up your customer reviews and testimonials for 2012?

Here are a few suggestions to help you.

1. Create Holiday Incentives

If you’re not already in the habit of providing incentives to customers who offer you site testimonials or reviews, start now. No, you can’t promise someone a discount if they leave you a positive review on Yelp, but you can throw a comment card in with their purchase and offer a discount or promotional item for filling it out and bringing it back completed. Or, if the incentive part makes you nervous, just add in a note saying you’d appreciate it if they left their feedback for your business on whatever online review site you’re trying to promote. Sure, there’s the potential that they’ll leave a negative review, but it’s more likely that they won’t. And if they do, then you have an opportunity to fix it that you didn’t have before.

2. Conquer Mobile

eMarketer recently referenced a survey performed by PayPal and Ipsos to see what percentage of people planned to use a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) to make a holiday purchase this year. According to their results, 46 percent of users said they would.

That represents a huge increase from the 2010 ForeSee survey which had that number at just 17 percent. As a small business owner, this is something you must consider. It means you want to make it as easy as possible for consumers to make a mobile commerce purchase, but it also means you want to be encouraging customers to leave FourSquare tips, to check in on their devices, to leave reviews on Yelp while they’re still in your store, etc. Not only do you want to capture the people who are already making mobile purchases at your business, but you want to convert the ones still on the fence, as well.

3. Hold a Holiday Event

It’s party season. Why not take advantage of that and hold an in-store get-together where you celebrate your success over the past year, while also providing customers a great opportunity to go public with their love of your company? You can promote the event as a holiday thank-you to your loyal customers and let them know they may also be featured in promotional materials for your website. Once they’re there, ask for their feedback, take photos, get video interviews and ask for permission to use it on your website or in promotional materials. Let them know you’re only asking them because of how much you value them as customers. You may be surprised how eager they are to support your brand.

4. Hold a “Why Do You Love Us?” Contest

Contest marketing is a great way to build some brand buzz and fill the testimonial reservoir by creating an incentive for participation. Again, you can’t give customers free stuff in exchange for good reviews, but you can take advantage of the season’s playfulness by asking customers to participate in some kind of brand-related challenge. Maybe it’s a video contest where you ask customers to explain what they love most about your brand or to submit the best photo of your product in use. Not only are you allowing people to share their love for your brand, but you also get some great content to put on your site and add to your testimonials.

5. Ask

I know it sounds awful, but sometimes the best review strategy of all is simply finding new ways to make asking for a review part of your sales process. Take inventory of everything you’re doing to solicit customer reviews and identify holes. Some places you should be asking but maybe aren’t include:

• Company newsletters
• At the register
• In shipping orders
• On your blog

As business owners, we’re sometimes leery of asking customers to leave reviews because it feels like solicitation. We must remind ourselves that leaving reviews isn’t yet a natural act for most people. And until it is, we need to remind people to do it.

Above are just a few ways small business owners can ramp up their online review process during the holiday season. Will you make reviews a priority this year?

About the Author

Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., an SEO consulting firm that specializes in providing clients with online reputation management, social media services, and other Internet services.

Connect with Lisa Barone:

 

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What Happens Online Stays Online? Not So!

If you get a virus on your computer, you’re not going to start sneezing right there in your bedroom or office (thank goodness). But a ruined reputation online can follow you and your business, just as a successful online reputation can help you get more business. The Internet carries opportunity as well as the risk of digital mayhem.

“This magical world is as fragile and vulnerable as your new car parked on a dark street in a bad part of town,” says John Mariotti in “The End of Your Digital Life as You Know It.” “Come back to it and it might be covered with graffiti or have parts missing.” He adds that “hackers are the modern equivalent of malicious vandals and criminals.”

I agree–our websites are our digital homes, our profiles and conversations are digital extensions of our thoughts and ideas. I don’t want my voice to be hacked. I want it to be protected. In “The Truth About Cyber Threats,” John includes seven tips to help you stay safer online. Below are three of them:

“Do not open attachments that are suspicious or unfamiliar—it’s just not worth the risk.”

Especially if the offer sounds too good to be true, no matter who it’s coming from, let it go. If you don’t trust it, then trash it, delete it and then call the person it came from. Three of my friends and associates have been hacked in the last three months—their email accounts and social networks. Making that phone call alerted them to the situation and protected me and my own networks.

“Change passwords regularly (and mix them up—alpha characters, upper and lowercase, numbers, symbols).”

I used to be lazy with my passwords, but it’s more work to undo a hacker’s mess. So now I change them. And I’ve quit using stupid stuff like the word “password” as a password (I know I’m not the only one who did this, and if you are still doing it, stop. You can come up with a better password that you can remember).

“Trash spam and empty the trash—get it out of your computer.”

I used to leave it on my computer forever. Not any more. Thanks John.

But what about family and friends who hack your privacy with ugly pictures or less than flattering personal moments captured and posted online without your consent? In “Facebook and Privacy: Will It Force Us to Be Better People?” Yvonne DiVita says, “It’s not that hard to be a better person online. It’s not that hard to stop and think, “Would I want my sister/cousin/mom/uncle/brother/dad, whomever, to share this photo/info if it were about me?”

In other words, it’s the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Funny how being online doesn’t excuse us from being thoughtful.

About the Author

Jamillah Warner (Ms.J), a poet with a passion for business, is a Georgia-based writer and speaker and the Marketing Coordinator at Nobuko Solutions. She also provides marketing and communication quick tips in her getCLEAR! MicroNewsletter.

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15 Ways to Avoid Bad Online Reviews

Imagine if there were a handful of things you could do right now to seriously mitigate the chances of your company falling victim to an online reputation management nightmare? Imagine if proactively putting in place a couple of systems would help you hear your customers in a way that is productive to the company, instead of potentially damaging?

Well, there are. And you can.

Below are 15 things you can do today to help prevent an online reputation disaster in the future.

1. Build your reputation by dominating your Google 10. Blog, make videos, sponsor events, create a company Tumblr account, start a podcast, etc. This will help you control what’s ranking for your brand name and keep negative mentions lower on the Google totem pole.
2. Let customers know how you prefer to be contacted. If they’re experiencing issues or concerns, should they reach out to you on Twitter, on Facebook, use your contact form, call you, etc.? Let them know the best way to resolve their issue so that they can use your company-approved method to get a response instead of ranting on Twitter or dissing you on Yelp.
3. Add a complaint area on your website to help give customers guidance on how to get in touch with your company and keep them on the site.
4. Follow up with customers immediately after the sale to collect feedback and tackle any issues head on.
5. Find ways to constantly collect feedback – by holding focus groups, talking to customers at the register, calling loyal customers, etc. Once customers hand you this valuable feedback, use it and implement what they’re asking for.
6. Be awesome at customer service.
7. Be accessible and develop an active social media and online presence. I’m far more likely to angry-tweet about a company I don’t think is listening than someone who is active in the conversation.
8. Use tools like Google Alerts, Twitter Search, Hootsuite and Trackur to help you monitor what’s being said about your brand.
9. If you stumble across a negative mention of your company, become part of that conversation. Let that customer (and everyone watching) know that you want to make things right and offer a plan for how to move forward from this experience.
10. Respond to negative reviews using humility and grace. Listen to what the negative comments really said and address concerns in a straightforward manner. Never get defensive.
11. Avoid making the situation worse (see this Washington Post article for an example).
12. Don’t write fake reviews or create fake accounts to tweet/post nice things about your brand. Your customers will always find out–and it won’t be pretty when they do.
13. Proactively use Facebook and Twitter to build brand evangelists you can count on to defend you when sticky situations arise. It’s always better to have someone come to your rescue than for you to be the lone voice speaking on behalf of your brand.
14. Repeat tip #13 for blog communities, professional sites, local-specific communities and special-interest sites.
15. Develop a crisis plan so that if or when something does go wrong, you have a plan for how you’ll react. You don’t want to be scrambling while emotions are high. Know what steps you’ll take and who’ll do what before a problem arises.

It may look like a lot to do, but you’ll notice that everything on the list is really interconnected. That means doing one thing makes it that much easier for the rest to flow naturally. And really, isn’t your brand worth it?

About the Author

Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., an Internet marketing company that specializes in providing clients with online reputation management, social media services, and other Internet services.

Connect with Lisa Barone:

 

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