If you’re a business owner, your head is probably swimming with numbers right now. You’ve got your 2012 budget to finalize (if it’s not done already), worries about how Q4 is going to turn out, Holiday discounts and sweepstakes, employees putting in for time off to spend the holidays with loved ones, and if you’re in retail… a lot of customers that are in a hurry.
Infographic: What Videos American Workers Admit to Watching on Their Mobile Phones
I don’t think it’s a secret that everyone has moments where they blatantly slack off at work. Maybe we talk on their cell five minutes longer than they should. Maybe we spend a little too much time checking their Facebook or Twitter feed. Maybe we linger on a news website too long under the guise of “research.” Maybe we sneak a glance at our cells and check out a few videos when we think no one is looking. Sneaky? Yes. Breaking some company rules? You bet! However, I think we all do it at some point or another.
Black Friday Madness – Business Style
Every year it seems that major retailers “leak” their Thanksgiving Day ads for Black Friday deals earlier and earlier. Yep, here we are, more than two weeks away from the most wonderful shopping day of the year and you can probably already find most retailers’ ads for it online with a quick search. Unfortunately, ever since posting of “leaked” Black Friday sale ads became a phenomenon a few years back, the stupendous offers and once-in-a-lifetime door buster savings they carry seem to get less and less exciting. That is unless you plan on spending Black Friday shopping for stuff for your micro business.
Smartphones – Connecting With Your Customers
The news about smartphone penetration continues to be incredible. Adoption rates continue to climb and more importantly, your key customer targets, people between the ages of 18-44 are using smartphones more than ever.
8 Simple Ways to Stay Productive at Work
When you’re sitting at your desk in the office (or at your cool in-home office), what day do you find yourself struggling to be productive? What time of the day do you find yourself getting the most distracted, resulting in a plummet in your productivity level?
Infographic: Carbonite Small Business Disasters
What’s one of the worst case scenarios that you and your small business could face? What would you do if someone broke into your office and stole or destroyed all of your computers – the computers that had valuable information and data? Financials, important contacts, contractual agreements, business plans and models etc., all gone. Do you have a way to gain any of it back?
Harry Potter Goes into the Vault – A Vent About Scarcity Marketing
I got some bad news this week. Warner Bros has decided to follow in Disney’s evil footprints (I use the term “evil” in jest. I absolutely love Disney and everything about them.) and declared that as of December 29th, 2011… all of the Harry Potter movies will be put in the “vault.” WHAT?! BACK UP! Warner Bros has a vault?! You mean I won’t be able to get my beloved HP DVDs any time I want?
4 Holiday Promotion Ideas for Service-Oriented Small Businesses
I hear you screaming from here – “Holiday promotions? It’s not even Halloween yet!” and in a way you’re right. It is a little early for Holiday promotions, but that’s also the point; now’s the time to start thinking about what you’re going to do and how you’re not going to get lost amongst all of the multi-million dollar campaigns the big boys are going to run between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Infographic: Anatomy of the Perfect Mobile Email
So we’ve covered email etiquette and words that may potentially toss your email into the spam folder, but let’s venture into a new territory, shall we? One that some people seem hesitant to get into because it’s so open and vast, so fresh and new… but it’s becoming more and more necessary. Mobile email.
Steve’s Corner – Small Businesses: Are You Mobile? PT 2
Smart devices are taking over! Get used to it. What are doing about it? How are you taking advantage of it?
Comscore, a leader in measuring the digital world, just released a mobile usage study stating that 7% of all U.S digital traffic is now coming from smart phones and tablets. This is just an amazing transformation for connecting with your customers.