This post is by Jeff Esposito, Vistaprint’s Social Media Manager.
We all know that social media can be overwhelming. There are stats and figures that show which network is a hit or a flop with given demographics. As a small business owner, you don’t have the time to be everywhere at once (big companies can’t either) – but what social network is right for you? If you don’t know, answer the multiple choice questions below: Read more…
This post is written by Kristen Johnson, a member of Vistaprint’s social media team who focuses on content marketing.
Facebook has revamped its search engine with the recent launch of Graph Search. The name “Graph Search” refers to the network of friends, or social graph, that Facebook users have created over the years and are now able to rediscover. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg refers to this new piece of functionality as the “third pillar to Facebook’s ecosystem,” in addition to the newsfeed and timeline. This new social search product allows users to sift through years of Facebook content and filter results by likes, check-ins, photo tags, and much more. Read more…
This post is by Jeff Esposito, Vistaprint’s Social Media Manager.
We all know that Facebook and Twitter are the cat’s meow when it comes to social networks. Both networks boast a plethora of users, and most of our customers have an account on one of the two networks. Chances are that you’ve already built out a presence one both of these networks.
While there is no question that these networks hold tremendous power, they should not be the end all, be all for your business. The truth is that social media is constantly evolving and there are new networks that emerge that may be a great opportunity for your small business to get involved with. Below are five that you should give a quick look to. Read more…
This story was originally published on Boston.com’s Small Business Blog.
Most small businesses will go above and beyond to do a great job for their clients. You won’t have too look far for a small business owner who’s going the extra mile – be it ensuring that the meal you had was up to par, the work that was done on the house was done to specifications, or that your taxes were done correctly and you got the refund you deserve. Read more…
This week’s Micro Business Roundup features five articles we think are worth reading this week. A few on the list: How to budget for opening your first office, what every entrepreneur should know about speaking in public, and how to score top talent like Google.
3 Budgeting Tips for Opening Up Your First Office — Are you thinking about opening up your first office? It’s a big step…and one that can be fiscally daunting. This OPEN Forum article has three bits of practical advice that can help with your new-office budget.
7 Tips for Working From Home With Kids — If you’re an entrepreneur who works from home, and has kids who are also home all day, you know how difficult it can be tough to simultaneously juggle childcare and everything that comes with running a business. This article provides seven tips for making working from home with children, well, work for you!
With Passage of JOBS Act, Steve Case, AngelList Founder And Others Look Forward To A Less-Regulated Start-Up World — This Washington Post article details the Jumpstart Our Business Startup (JOBS) Act, and what it might mean for start-ups. Have you been following this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section.
What Every Entrepreneur Needs To Know About Public Speaking — Do you dread speaking in public? If the answer is YES, you might want to read this story from Entrepreneur, which highlights a number of super-useful tips for public speaking. Although, we think you might find it a valuable read even if you love speaking in public. Do you agree with the advice presented in the article? What’s one tip you have for speaking in front of people? Let us know in the comments section.
Hire Like Google: 5 Ways — Sure, you might not be as big as Google, but that doesn’t mean you can’t hire like you are. This Inc. article offers some great advice from Michael B. Junge, a career coach, author and recruiter for Google, on how to hire top talent, no matter your company’s size.
Image: Martin Cathrae
Happy Friday! This week’s Micro Business Roundup looks at the Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index, brings you tips to make your small business green, and highlights pitfalls some small business owners’ fall into when it comes to planning for retirement.
Small Businesses Borrow More, Signaling Growth — A new study from the Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index, shows that borrowing by U.S. small businesses rose in January, another sign that recent stronger economic data may be more durable than thought. That is good news, but it is not exactly the news small business and the economy want to hear. PayNet founder Bill Phelan is quick to point out, “It’s like a lukewarm cup of coffee – it’s not bad, but it’s not great.” Are you ready to borrow to invest in your business, or still waiting for a sign that the economy has recovered?
Another article Small Businesses Cautious As Borrowing Increases also focuses on the findings from Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index. The article further comments on the fears of small business owners to start borrowing again or at a high rate. The article says, “While small business owners are increasing investments in their companies, overall growth in business is still slow.” Do you find this true in your business?
Here is a little background on the Index, which measures loan activity among businesses with less than $1 million in credit, shows increases in year-over-year spending for the past 23 months. January is up 18 percent from a year ago.
Does your small business have a website? No? Well if you live in California Google just launched a program to help you get it up and running. Google helping small businesses get free websites , is part of a Google’s “California Get Your Business Online” project. For the next year, businesses can visit CaliforniaGetOnline.com to create a free website, which includes a domain name and hosting for one year. The site also offers free training resources.
With Spring right around the corner, Rhonda Abrams reporter for USA TODAY has recommendations for making your small business more green. According to Abrams: 7 ways to go green in your small business, its as easy as bringing your lunch, even more green if you bring it in a reusable lunch bag.
An important and reoccurring topic on Micro Business Perspectives is retirement. Many small-business owners aren’t prepared for retirement highlights why small business owner may not be thinking about retire, but why they should and what they can do to start.
This guest post comes from Samuel Johns, who works on the Organic Search team here at Vistaprint.
In our previous post, we highlighted the benefits of using Google Analytics for your small business. In this post, we’ll show you how, in just three simple steps, you can set up your Google Analytics account!
Step 1: Sign up
Go to www.google.com/analytics and sign up for an account. If you already have a Google account, simply log in and click on the blue “Access Analytics” button.
Step 2: Add the tracking code/snippet to your site
Google will provide you with a piece of JavaScript code that looks similar to the code below. Copy and paste the code directly before the <html> tag of each page you want to track on your site. If you’re using WordPress or another custom CMS, it’s easiest to just add the code to the header right above the <html> tag, which will then add it to all the pages on your site. This means you only have to copy and paste the code once for the whole site.
This is an example of what the code will look like; remember this code should be placed before the <html> tag on every page you want to track.
Hint: If you lose the page with the tracking code, click on the settings icon in the top right hand corner of the page, and click on the second tab called “Tracking Code.”
Be sure to save and refresh your site immediately after adding the code to ensure everything has been updated.
Step 3: Log in and review your reports
Keep in mind: the data will take approximately 24 hours to start populating into the reports. Once you’ve confirmed that the analytics code is working on your site, you can start to play around with the reports and data.
If you would like step-by-step instructions with audio, check out this helpful five-minute presentation from Google. If you’re still having trouble adding the code to your site, the best place to start asking for help would be with the developer who built your site.
Look out for our next post, where we’ll set up some reports, and take you through general best practices of Google Analytics.
This guest post comes from Samuel Johns, who works on the Organic Search team here at Vistaprint.
As a small business owner, keeping track of your website performance on top of all your other day-to-day tasks can be a very challenging proposition. No matter how busy you might be, tracking visitors to your site is one of the most important aspects of running a website today. Installing a simple tool like Google Analytics is a great way to get started. It’s easy to install, provides simple dashboards to view the data from your site, and is completely free.
Here are four key areas that Google Analytics can help you manage your website better.
To learn more and get a more in depth introduction on Google Analytics check out this five-minute video titled “Introduction to Google Analytics” from Google.
Be sure to check back next month for the next installment of Google Analytics for Small Business Owners, where we’ll provide you with step-by-step instructions of how to set up your Google Analytics account in the context of tracking your own website.
Over the past few months, you may have heard a lot about Google’s new social networking site Google+, which is set to take on the powerhouse social site Facebook. While you may be hesitant to create another social networking platform that will require you to monitor and engage with, Google+ does offer some unique capabilities. Google+ features include more control over what information you share with Circles, connecting with customers using Hangouts, and because Google+ runs on the powerful Google search network, the platform can help give your business more SEO value.
To help you get your Google+ business page up, follow these few instructions:
1.) Visit Create a Google+ Page to get started (NOTE: You will need a personal Google account to get started). Select the category that best describes your micro business (“Local Business or Place,” “Product or Brand,” or “Company, Institute or Organization” will likely be your best options). If you don’t feel your micro business fits in any of the given categories, you can simply select “Other” where you can enter your page name and website. You will not be required to provide any additional narrowing information of category selection.
2.) Continue through each step filling in all relevant information to your business. You will also be prompted to add a business logo. PRO TIP: Keep your information consistent with your website, Facebook page and other marketing materials to keep that clean, uniformed look.
3.) Once you’ve created your Google+ business page, you’ll be prompted to add additional information to your page to help give visitors a better idea of what your business provides.
4.) Similar to the five photos you can have on your Facebook page, you’ll be prompted to fill in your photostrip. These five photos will be displayed underneath your page’s name and tagline. Be sure you add photos that best represent your micro business. Images of your product or your service in action will likely work best.
5.) That’s it! You’ve created a Google+ page for your micro business that will give your customers another way to connect with you, as well as another location for potential customers to find you within Google search results.
So I’ve created a Google+ business page, now what? You’re probably curious what benefit a Google+ business page has over your existing Facebook business page. One advantage utilized by brands of all sizes is that you can follow your customers back and organize them into different Circles. So you could create a Circle for your loyal/VIP customers to share special deals and other, a Circle for all customers to share general news and promotions. You could even make a Circle for your employees as a way to share news, trends, etc. without others seeing. The ability to create new Circles gives you unlimited possibilities of organization and communication options!
Outside of that, continue to update your Google+ page with content as you would with Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.
Still need assistance? Feel free to check out these helpful Google Learn More videos.
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