Yelp Will Allow Businesses to Sell Food, Other Services

Small businesses have turned to Yelp to get feedback from enthusiastic customers. They may soon turn to the site to generate sales as well. A new feature from Yelp, Yelp Platform, will allow small business owners to make sales directly from the customer review site.

The company announced roll out of its Yelp Platform recently. In a post on the official Yelp Web Log, Founder Jeremy Stoppelman explained:

Yelp connects people with great local businesses, giving users plenty of information to make spending decisions and allowing them to share those experiences online. What about those times when you discover a great business and want to book it directly on Yelp? Well, great news: today we’re introducing Yelp Platform, a new way to transact on Yelp.

Yelp users were once limited to posting reviews, photos, and other information about a restaurant or some other type of service-based business. Now they’ll be able to take that a step further and actually place orders.

Yelp is currently working with select restaurants across the country beginning with food delivery and pickup services. Check out pages for two restaurants already using the new Yelp delivery and pickup pages: Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar in New York City and Layaly Mediterranean Grill in San Francisco.

The company is also working with delivery.com and Eat24 on the roll out of the new ordering and delivery features.

To use Yelp’s new pages simply select “Enter your deliver address” and then do so. Or select “Pickup” if you plan to visit the restaurant yourself to fetch your food. Then hit “Start Order” and use the simple order page to make your selection The new Yelp feature offers the perfect combination of word of mouth and e-commerce. Browse reviews of each business by fellow customers then order from the business of your choice all on the same page.

Eventually Stoppelman says customers will be able to order delivery from thousands of restaurants in the U.S. The company next plans to introduce other categories of business like dentist offices, yoga studios, spas and salons, he added.

Image: Wikipedia and Yelp Official Blog

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Yelp Will Allow Businesses to Sell Food, Other Services

Small businesses have turned to Yelp to get feedback from enthusiastic customers. They may soon turn to the site to generate sales as well. A new feature from Yelp, Yelp Platform, will allow small business owners to make sales directly from the customer review site.

The company announced roll out of its Yelp Platform recently. In a post on the official Yelp Web Log, Founder Jeremy Stoppelman explained:

Yelp connects people with great local businesses, giving users plenty of information to make spending decisions and allowing them to share those experiences online. What about those times when you discover a great business and want to book it directly on Yelp? Well, great news: today we’re introducing Yelp Platform, a new way to transact on Yelp.

Yelp users were once limited to posting reviews, photos, and other information about a restaurant or some other type of service-based business. Now they’ll be able to take that a step further and actually place orders.

Yelp is currently working with select restaurants across the country beginning with food delivery and pickup services. Check out pages for two restaurants already using the new Yelp delivery and pickup pages: Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar in New York City and Layaly Mediterranean Grill in San Francisco.

The company is also working with delivery.com and Eat24 on the roll out of the new ordering and delivery features.

To use Yelp’s new pages simply select “Enter your deliver address” and then do so. Or select “Pickup” if you plan to visit the restaurant yourself to fetch your food. Then hit “Start Order” and use the simple order page to make your selection The new Yelp feature offers the perfect combination of word of mouth and e-commerce. Browse reviews of each business by fellow customers then order from the business of your choice all on the same page.

Eventually Stoppelman says customers will be able to order delivery from thousands of restaurants in the U.S. The company next plans to introduce other categories of business like dentist offices, yoga studios, spas and salons, he added.

Image: Wikipedia and Yelp Official Blog

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Microsoft profit falls short of expectations

Microsoft Corp's foray into the tablet computer market resulted in a large write-down for the April-June quarter, and a poor reception for Windows 8 contributed to a drop in operating system software revenue.

The missteps in both strategic product lines, reported in quarterly results Thursday, disappointed Wall Street and shares plunged 6 percent to $33.30 in after-hours trading.

The write-down on the Surface RT tablet amounted to $900 million. Even without it, Microsoft's results would have fallen short of expectations.

The results came a week after the company announced a major reorganization to help transform into a "devices and services" company that is less reliant on providing software for personal computers. The earnings miss raised new questions as to whether the transition will succeed.

"It doesn't inspire a lot of confidence," said Nomura Securities analyst Rick Sherlund. "You're in the hardware business now, and pretty shortly after entering it you have a pretty big rite down. That's embarrassing."

Both Windows 8 and the Surface tablet represent Microsoft's big bets on the tablet computer market as PC sales continue to decline. Acknowledging the company's difficulties with the change, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood told investors on a conference call that "this journey will take time."

"We know we have to do better," she said. "We are confident we are moving in the right direction."

Microsoft cut the price of Surface RT from $499 to $349 on Sunday, a move designed to spur sales amid sluggish demand.

Microsoft began selling Surface tablets in October. The company shipped about a million tablets in the first three months of 2013, according to research firm IDC. That includes about 260,000 of the slimmed-down RT version and 750,000 of the Pro version of Surface, which is compatible with older Windows programs.

Research firm IDC says Microsoft shipped about a million tablets in the first quarter of 2013, for a meager 2! percent share of the market. Apple Inc. remained the leader with 39.1 percent and was followed by Samsung Electronics Co., AsusTek Computer Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Acer Inc.

Microsoft also saw revenue from its flagship Windows operating system decline 6 percent in the recent quarter after excluding the late recognition of revenue from last year, when it offered discounted upgrades to users of older versions of Windows.

Consumers haven't responded well to Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 8, and the results reflect the poor reception. Analysts believe the new operating system is contributing to the longest slump in personal computer sales.

Revenue and profitability improved in Microsoft's other lines of business, including enterprise software, servers and tools, the Xbox video game division and the Bing search unit, but those results also fell short of analysts' forecasts.

Net income in the April-June quarter came to $4.97 billion, or 59 cents per share, reversing a oss of $492 million a year ago when it wrote down almost the entire value of its 2007 purchase of online ad service aQuantive.

Excluding the Surface charge, earnings were 66 cents per share, short of the 75 cents per share expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue grew 10 percent to $19.90 billion, also below the $20.72 million expected.

Google stumbles on slump in ad rates

Google views the computing shift to smartphones and tablets as a golden opportunity, but the Internet search leader's second-quarter performance served as an unsettling reminder that it poses a nagging financial challenge, too.

The report released Thursday showed Google's average ad rate fell from the previous year for the seventh consecutive quarter. In an unexpected turn, the decline deepened for the first time in a year.

The average ad rate, or "cost per click," fell 6 percent during the three months ending in June. The magnitude of the declines had eased in each of the previous three quarters, raising hopes that the worse was over. Instead, things deteriorated from the 4 percent decline in ad rates during the first three months of the year.

The regression undercut earnings and revenue. Both fell below analyst forecasts, spooking some investors. Google's shares fell $34.68, or nearly 4 percent, to $876 in extended trading after the results came out.

Other unwelcomed developmnts also loomed over the quarter.

Excluding the costs of stock given to employees, Google's operating expenses climbed 27 percent from last year to $4.25 billion. That increase renewed concerns that Google is pouring too much money on far-flung projects, such as the development of driverless cars and balloons equipped with Internet-beaming antennas, instead of focusing on its main business of Internet search and advertising.

Motorola Mobility, a slumping cellphone maker that Google bought for $12.4 billion 14 months ago, also remains a headache. The subsidiary lost $342 million in the latest quarter, widening from $199 million when Google owned Motorola for only part of the reporting period. Motorola now has lost a total of $1.7 billion under Google's ownership, despite layoffs and divestitures that have whittled Motorola's workforce to 4,600 people, down from 20,300 at the same time last year.

Although he wouldn't forecast when Motorola might start making money, Google CEO Larr! y Page told analysts on a Thursday conference call that he was excited about the upcoming release of a new phone called Moto X. Page provided no further details about the phone, which he and other Google employees have been testing.

Mobile ads, though, were the biggest issue on investors' minds.

Although the problem isn't as severe as at other companies, including computer makers such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., Google is still having trouble navigating a technological transition driving more online activity on to smartphones and tablets. Those devices pose a financial challenge for Google Inc. because their smaller screen sizes fetch lower ad rates than the marketing pitches made on traditional desktop and laptop computers.

Google is in a far better position to prosper from mobile computing because it makes Android, the most widely used operating system on smartphones. The software also is gaining traction on tablets challenging Apple's pace-setting iPad. Google is expected t unveil the next generation of its Nexus tablets running on Android next week.

Android typically features Google's search engine and other services, such as maps and Gmail, giving the Mountain View, California, company more opportunities to show ads.

Now, Google is taking steps to persuade advertisers to pay higher prices to connect with consumers on mobile devices at times when they appear to be mulling a purchase or may be in a merchant's neighborhood.

Google is trying to drive up prices more quickly by changing the way it sells ads to prod more marketers into buying spots on mobile devices at the same time they plan campaigns aimed at PCs. About 6 million advertisers have already switched to Google's new pricing system. All marketers will be forced to adopt the new approach, known as "enhanced campaigns," by the end of the month.

In Thursday's conference call, Page described the switch to enhanced campaigns as the biggest change that Google has ever made to an online ad! vertising! platform launched more than a decade ago.

"I think we're still in the very, very early stages of that," Page said. "We changed a tremendous amount for how our teams operate, how our advertisers operate, how everyone buys those ads, what the users see, and we've done it pretty well."

Google earned $3.2 billion, or $9.54 per share, up 16 percent from $2.8 billion, or $8.42 per share, a year earlier.

If not for the costs of employee stock compensation and charges tied to Motorola, Google said it would have earned $9.56 per share. That missed the average target of $10.80 per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Revenue rose 19 percent to $14.1 billion, from $11.8 billion.

After subtracting Google's ad commissions, revenue stood at $11.1 billion about $275 million below analyst projections.

Tech Thursday (7/18): News From Weebly, Sam’s Club, PageWoo and MailChimp

It’s Tech Thursday from Smallbiztechnology.com. Each week we take a quick look at business and technology news and updates for the small business community and share them with you in a quick and simple round-up.

 

 

 

 

The All New Weebly Has Arrived!

Weebly updates features to enhance the user experience.

Weebly, a DIY website creator, has recently made enhancements to it’s offering, based on insights they gained from their customers, to create a nuique, high-quality site that meets it’s users needs.

Changes to the site include:

The All New Site Creator: Weebly completely rebuilt their Site Creator from the ground up to give you a more modern, powerful and intuitive way to create and update your site. Many improvements were made both to the design and the user interface, but at the core, it’s the same Weebly you know and love.

The Mobile Editor: Now you can see how your mobile site looks on iPhone and Android, choose a unique mobile theme and edit your mobile site directly from your computer. Whether you make updates to your main site or to your mobile site, they make sure both sites are always in sync.

The Site Planner: Get ideas and inspiration to help you create a high-quality site or even to have fun refreshing your current one. Site Planner shows you how to organize your information, layout your pages, choose your site address and grow your traffic. And, best of all, it can be easily accessed at anytime while you are working on your site.

You can try the all new Weebly by visiting their website here.

 

Sam’s Club Launches 25-City Small Business “Boot Camp” Series

 

CEO Rosalind Brewer announces community small business commitment at annual Shareholders’ Meeting

 

Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer announced the launch of a collaborative program supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs in 25 cities - the Grow Your Business Boot Camp series. The hands-on training seminars are backed by a funding commitment of $500,000 from Sam’s Club.

The Boot Camp series allows local Sam’s Club leaders to collaborate with community non-profits and organizations to provide small business training seminars. These regional collaborations will empower local business ownersâ€"including those owned by women, minorities and veteransâ€"to learn new skills and ideas that can help their businesses thrive.

“I’m excited to kick off our Small Business Boot Camp in 25 markets across the country,” announced Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.’s 2013 Shareholder’s meeting. “Associates [can] provide small business owners with valuable training and give these businesses the support to really succeed. [Together we are] making a difference community by community.”

You can read more about the “Boot Camp” series here.

 

PageWoo Offers New Mobile Advertising Solution with Launch of NearWoo for Small Businesses to Target and Acquire New Customers

NearWoo Enables Business Owner To Target Defined Locations With Hyper-Relevant, Dynamic Mobile Ads

PageWoo, a mobile advertising solution provider, today launched NearWoo, the only local solution for identifying, targeting and acquiring new customers with the power of mobile advertising. NearWoo layers consumer psychographics on top of big data solutions that uses hyper-local, geofences and big data to efficiently target interested consumers with personalized or custom ads and messages. 

“It’s hard to make money with local commerce because it’s difficult to get to scale. By launching NearWoo, we helped solve an extremely complicated problem with an engineered solution that combined a lot of pieces of one puzzle to make it appealing to big brands and smaller companies.” says Jason Crilly, Founder & CEO of PageWoo. “Mobile advertising doesn’t work without location. Location is the new cookie in mobile ads and PageWoo is currently seeing the pay off upward of 50% growth since we’ve launched.”

NearWoo is one of the easiest and ubiquitous tools on the market that gives you all the necessities to create and deliver the ads you want. PageWoo gives users access to simple web apps to create content, target an audience and view campaign results. In addition, the easy-to use platform allows businesses the option to choose how much they want to spend based on how far they want their message to travel. Prices range from free to $500/month respectively. The free option lets any business owner try NearWoo by advertising to their own neighborhood for free by going to http://nearwoo.com/sampler?code=standard There are also advanced targeting options for the more sophisticated advertiser or brand looking to target demographics within a given area.

You can see more about PageWoo’s new mobile offering here.

Have You Seen The All New MailChimp?

 

MailChimp introduces a new and improved version of their e-mail marketing program.

 

MailChimp has a motto that hands on their wall: Listen Hard, Change Fast.  They’ve been listening and have spent countless hours visiting their customers, learning about how they work, and have used that research to create a new and improved version of MailChimp. The new version is more efficien, more flexible and makes for a more collaborative experience.

Here what you’ll find in the new MailChimp:

Responsive Design - They’ve introduced a responsive design that’s been optimized for tablets, so you can get your work done from wherever you are.

Simplified Navigation and Subscriber Profiles - Account notifications are now displayed in the navigation, so you won’t miss out on any important info about your campaigns. Switch to Pro mode to simplify the layout, or collapse and expand menus on the iPhone to create more space when you need it. Search for subscriber details, campaigns, lists, and reports from anywhere in the app. We also made some big improvements to the layout and functionality of subscriber profiles. You can scroll horizontally to reveal all your fields and hide columns you don’t need to see, leaving more room for the content that matters.

Comments Inside the Editor - We talked to a lot of our customers and learned that for most of you, email newsletters are a group effort. New MailChimp makes it easier for teams to collaborate. You can exchange feedback right inside the editor, view comments in real time, and respond whenever you’re ready.

You can check out the new MailChimp by visiting their website here.

Tech Thursday (7/18): News From Weebly, Sam’s Club, PageWoo and MailChimp

It’s Tech Thursday from Smallbiztechnology.com. Each week we take a quick look at business and technology news and updates for the small business community and share them with you in a quick and simple round-up.

 

 

 

 

The All New Weebly Has Arrived!

Weebly updates features to enhance the user experience.

Weebly, a DIY website creator, has recently made enhancements to it’s offering, based on insights they gained from their customers, to create a nuique, high-quality site that meets it’s users needs.

Changes to the site include:

The All New Site Creator: Weebly completely rebuilt their Site Creator from the ground up to give you a more modern, powerful and intuitive way to create and update your site. Many improvements were made both to the design and the user interface, but at the core, it’s the same Weebly you know and love.

The Mobile Editor: Now you can see how your mobile site looks on iPhone and Android, choose a unique mobile theme and edit your mobile site directly from your computer. Whether you make updates to your main site or to your mobile site, they make sure both sites are always in sync.

The Site Planner: Get ideas and inspiration to help you create a high-quality site or even to have fun refreshing your current one. Site Planner shows you how to organize your information, layout your pages, choose your site address and grow your traffic. And, best of all, it can be easily accessed at anytime while you are working on your site.

You can try the all new Weebly by visiting their website here.

 

Sam’s Club Launches 25-City Small Business “Boot Camp” Series

 

CEO Rosalind Brewer announces community small business commitment at annual Shareholders’ Meeting

 

Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer announced the launch of a collaborative program supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs in 25 cities - the Grow Your Business Boot Camp series. The hands-on training seminars are backed by a funding commitment of $500,000 from Sam’s Club.

The Boot Camp series allows local Sam’s Club leaders to collaborate with community non-profits and organizations to provide small business training seminars. These regional collaborations will empower local business ownersâ€"including those owned by women, minorities and veteransâ€"to learn new skills and ideas that can help their businesses thrive.

“I’m excited to kick off our Small Business Boot Camp in 25 markets across the country,” announced Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.’s 2013 Shareholder’s meeting. “Associates [can] provide small business owners with valuable training and give these businesses the support to really succeed. [Together we are] making a difference community by community.”

You can read more about the “Boot Camp” series here.

 

PageWoo Offers New Mobile Advertising Solution with Launch of NearWoo for Small Businesses to Target and Acquire New Customers

NearWoo Enables Business Owner To Target Defined Locations With Hyper-Relevant, Dynamic Mobile Ads

PageWoo, a mobile advertising solution provider, today launched NearWoo, the only local solution for identifying, targeting and acquiring new customers with the power of mobile advertising. NearWoo layers consumer psychographics on top of big data solutions that uses hyper-local, geofences and big data to efficiently target interested consumers with personalized or custom ads and messages. 

“It’s hard to make money with local commerce because it’s difficult to get to scale. By launching NearWoo, we helped solve an extremely complicated problem with an engineered solution that combined a lot of pieces of one puzzle to make it appealing to big brands and smaller companies.” says Jason Crilly, Founder & CEO of PageWoo. “Mobile advertising doesn’t work without location. Location is the new cookie in mobile ads and PageWoo is currently seeing the pay off upward of 50% growth since we’ve launched.”

NearWoo is one of the easiest and ubiquitous tools on the market that gives you all the necessities to create and deliver the ads you want. PageWoo gives users access to simple web apps to create content, target an audience and view campaign results. In addition, the easy-to use platform allows businesses the option to choose how much they want to spend based on how far they want their message to travel. Prices range from free to $500/month respectively. The free option lets any business owner try NearWoo by advertising to their own neighborhood for free by going to http://nearwoo.com/sampler?code=standard There are also advanced targeting options for the more sophisticated advertiser or brand looking to target demographics within a given area.

You can see more about PageWoo’s new mobile offering here.

Have You Seen The All New MailChimp?

 

MailChimp introduces a new and improved version of their e-mail marketing program.

 

MailChimp has a motto that hands on their wall: Listen Hard, Change Fast.  They’ve been listening and have spent countless hours visiting their customers, learning about how they work, and have used that research to create a new and improved version of MailChimp. The new version is more efficien, more flexible and makes for a more collaborative experience.

Here what you’ll find in the new MailChimp:

Responsive Design - They’ve introduced a responsive design that’s been optimized for tablets, so you can get your work done from wherever you are.

Simplified Navigation and Subscriber Profiles - Account notifications are now displayed in the navigation, so you won’t miss out on any important info about your campaigns. Switch to Pro mode to simplify the layout, or collapse and expand menus on the iPhone to create more space when you need it. Search for subscriber details, campaigns, lists, and reports from anywhere in the app. We also made some big improvements to the layout and functionality of subscriber profiles. You can scroll horizontally to reveal all your fields and hide columns you don’t need to see, leaving more room for the content that matters.

Comments Inside the Editor - We talked to a lot of our customers and learned that for most of you, email newsletters are a group effort. New MailChimp makes it easier for teams to collaborate. You can exchange feedback right inside the editor, view comments in real time, and respond whenever you’re ready.

You can check out the new MailChimp by visiting their website here.

The 5 Essential Elements of an Optimized and Useful LinkedIn Profile

If you’re in business, chances are you’re on LinkedIn, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in May, 2013, and now has over 225 members worldwide. Known as the most “business-y” of social media sites, LinkedIn is considered a critical place to connect with others in business. And while it’s likely that you already have a LinkedIn Profile, it’s unlikely that it’s optimized to provide the best business opportunities for you.

An important reason to review your profile now is the fact that, in late 2012, LinkedIn began rolling out new features and functionality within LinkedIn Profiles.

1. A Complete Profile

The good news is that completing your profile isn’t just busy work. It’s actually the ONLY way you will be able to be found effectively within LinkedIn. That’s because the LinkedIn search algorithm first looks for 100% completed profiles.  If yours is not complete, you will probably end up at the bottom of search rankings.

In addition, a completed LinkedIn Profile means that someone searching for you on Google will almost always find your LinkedIn Profile near the top of the first page. Google loves LinkedIn and LinkedIn ranks higher on Google than all other social media profiles, according to a study by Brand Yourself, in an article on Mashable.

All-Star Status

Your goal should be to reach “All-Star” Status or a 100% completed Profile. Your status will show on the right-hand side of your profile:

Although the graphic shows a circle not entirely filled out, in actuality, it means that your profile is complete.

Here is a list of areas that must be filled in to reach All-Star status:

1. Your industry and location
2. Your current position (with a description)
3. Two past positions
4. Your education
5. Your skills (minimum of 3)
6. A profile photo
7. At least 50 connections

2. A Headline with a Call to Action

A great headline is like the subject line of an email.  You need an amazing subject line to hook people in enough to read the rest of the message.

The headline is the first line of text people see in a search and it’s the first thing they see when they get to your profile page.   Oh, and by the way, one of the new LinkedIn profile features rolled out in late 2012 is increased text size in the headline area.

What Makes a Great Headline

Let’s start with what doesn’t make a great headline:  Your company name and title.

Start by considering that there are only 120 characters available in your Linked profile headline.  That means you’ll need to great creative.

Here are some tips:

• Keywords count in headlines (see item #4, below), so include them when appropriate.
• Use words that will appeal to your ideal clients.
• Include a free call-to-action (consult, newsletter, seminar, report).

Here is a headline example:

Don’t be afraid to change and test different headlines to see which ones generate the best activity for you.

3. Professional Photo

Did you know that a LinkedIn Profile with a professional headshot is 7 times more likely to be viewed than a profile without one?

Plus, a profile photo is required in order to obtain 100% LinkedIn profile completeness. To further emphasize its importance, one of the new features rolled out in the late 2012 profile functionality is an enlarged, more prominent area for your photo.

The current specs are as follows:

• You can upload JPG, GIF or PNG files.
• File size - 4MB maximum.
• Pixel size: 200 x 200 minimum and 500 x 500 maximum.
• Your photo should be square

4. Keywords in Certain Sections of Your Profile

The last thing you want to do to your profile is make it annoying to viewers by keyword stuffing. That said, the strategic use of keywords in your LinkedIn profile is important.

It’s important to know that LinkedIn’s search algorithm values keywords in certain sections more than others. Those sections include:

• Headline
• Summary
• Current work experience
• Past work experience
• Skills & expertise

Here’s how it works in real life:

I went into a client’s account and did a search for “Small Business P.R.” At the moment I’m not using the term “Small Business P.R.” in my headline, but I still showed up on the first page of my client’s search because those words are included in some of the other five sections.

Here’s what showed up on my client’s screen:

In addition to keywords, the LinkedIn search algorithm looks at profile completeness, connections in common, level of connection (1st and 2nd degree and groups show up before 3rd) and groups in common.

5. Terrific Recommendations

We tend to give more credibility to a third party saying something is great than to a person or business saying that he/she or the business is great.  That’s why recommendations on LinkedIn are so important.

When it comes to LinkedIn recommendations, you know the old adage: It’s better to give than to receive.

In addition to all the great karma and solidifying the relationship benefits you get from giving them, it’s always easier to get a recommendation from someone after you’ve given one.

Here are some general tips on giving great recommendations on LinkedIn:  

1. Short and sweet is fine.  A couple of lines are great.  People have shorter attention spans today.
2. Include specifics that quantify the results the person helped you achieve:  10 media placements that led to an additional $20,000 in sales; saved our company $1,000 per month; installed a process that saved 10 hours a week in time.
3. Don’t forget the sizzle (and sometimes the sizzle trumps specific results). Which is more impactful:

“Margie is great at what she does” or this:

The bottom line:  If you’re interested in maximizing your relationships and business opportunities, make these updates to your LinkedIn profile today.

Image: LinkedIn

The 5 Essential Elements of an Optimized and Useful LinkedIn Profile

If you’re in business, chances are you’re on LinkedIn, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in May, 2013, and now has over 225 members worldwide. Known as the most “business-y” of social media sites, LinkedIn is considered a critical place to connect with others in business. And while it’s likely that you already have a LinkedIn Profile, it’s unlikely that it’s optimized to provide the best business opportunities for you.

An important reason to review your profile now is the fact that, in late 2012, LinkedIn began rolling out new features and functionality within LinkedIn Profiles.

1. A Complete Profile

The good news is that completing your profile isn’t just busy work. It’s actually the ONLY way you will be able to be found effectively within LinkedIn. That’s because the LinkedIn search algorithm first looks for 100% completed profiles.  If yours is not complete, you will probably end up at the bottom of search rankings.

In addition, a completed LinkedIn Profile means that someone searching for you on Google will almost always find your LinkedIn Profile near the top of the first page. Google loves LinkedIn and LinkedIn ranks higher on Google than all other social media profiles, according to a study by Brand Yourself, in an article on Mashable.

All-Star Status

Your goal should be to reach “All-Star” Status or a 100% completed Profile. Your status will show on the right-hand side of your profile:

Although the graphic shows a circle not entirely filled out, in actuality, it means that your profile is complete.

Here is a list of areas that must be filled in to reach All-Star status:

1. Your industry and location
2. Your current position (with a description)
3. Two past positions
4. Your education
5. Your skills (minimum of 3)
6. A profile photo
7. At least 50 connections

2. A Headline with a Call to Action

A great headline is like the subject line of an email.  You need an amazing subject line to hook people in enough to read the rest of the message.

The headline is the first line of text people see in a search and it’s the first thing they see when they get to your profile page.   Oh, and by the way, one of the new LinkedIn profile features rolled out in late 2012 is increased text size in the headline area.

What Makes a Great Headline

Let’s start with what doesn’t make a great headline:  Your company name and title.

Start by considering that there are only 120 characters available in your Linked profile headline.  That means you’ll need to great creative.

Here are some tips:

• Keywords count in headlines (see item #4, below), so include them when appropriate.
• Use words that will appeal to your ideal clients.
• Include a free call-to-action (consult, newsletter, seminar, report).

Here is a headline example:

Don’t be afraid to change and test different headlines to see which ones generate the best activity for you.

3. Professional Photo

Did you know that a LinkedIn Profile with a professional headshot is 7 times more likely to be viewed than a profile without one?

Plus, a profile photo is required in order to obtain 100% LinkedIn profile completeness. To further emphasize its importance, one of the new features rolled out in the late 2012 profile functionality is an enlarged, more prominent area for your photo.

The current specs are as follows:

• You can upload JPG, GIF or PNG files.
• File size - 4MB maximum.
• Pixel size: 200 x 200 minimum and 500 x 500 maximum.
• Your photo should be square

4. Keywords in Certain Sections of Your Profile

The last thing you want to do to your profile is make it annoying to viewers by keyword stuffing. That said, the strategic use of keywords in your LinkedIn profile is important.

It’s important to know that LinkedIn’s search algorithm values keywords in certain sections more than others. Those sections include:

• Headline
• Summary
• Current work experience
• Past work experience
• Skills & expertise

Here’s how it works in real life:

I went into a client’s account and did a search for “Small Business P.R.” At the moment I’m not using the term “Small Business P.R.” in my headline, but I still showed up on the first page of my client’s search because those words are included in some of the other five sections.

Here’s what showed up on my client’s screen:

In addition to keywords, the LinkedIn search algorithm looks at profile completeness, connections in common, level of connection (1st and 2nd degree and groups show up before 3rd) and groups in common.

5. Terrific Recommendations

We tend to give more credibility to a third party saying something is great than to a person or business saying that he/she or the business is great.  That’s why recommendations on LinkedIn are so important.

When it comes to LinkedIn recommendations, you know the old adage: It’s better to give than to receive.

In addition to all the great karma and solidifying the relationship benefits you get from giving them, it’s always easier to get a recommendation from someone after you’ve given one.

Here are some general tips on giving great recommendations on LinkedIn:  

1. Short and sweet is fine.  A couple of lines are great.  People have shorter attention spans today.
2. Include specifics that quantify the results the person helped you achieve:  10 media placements that led to an additional $20,000 in sales; saved our company $1,000 per month; installed a process that saved 10 hours a week in time.
3. Don’t forget the sizzle (and sometimes the sizzle trumps specific results). Which is more impactful:

“Margie is great at what she does” or this:

The bottom line:  If you’re interested in maximizing your relationships and business opportunities, make these updates to your LinkedIn profile today.

Image: LinkedIn

NYC Event: BOOM Your Business and Network Quarterly Networking Event

Boom Your Business and Network is a quarterly networking reception for growing businesses and is an evening filled with great networking, food and fun!  Join us on:

Date: Tuesday, July 23rd

Time: 6pm to 9pm

Place: Public House, 140 E. 41st St., New York, NY 10017

Join hosts Steve Percudani (Presti & Naegele Accounting Offices),and Ramon Ray (Infusionsoft & Smallbiztechnology.com) as well as featured guest Adrian Miller (Adrian’s Network) and event sponsor BNI Manhattan Chapter 49.

Mingle with leaders in the Greater NYC business community and gather and share valuable nuggets of knowledge with those you meet.  Participate in the ‘Speed Networking‘ session and take the opportunity to share your business information and learn about other businesses participating. It’s a great way to connect and meet others who can help you to grow your business in 2013. Add in some great food and drinks and it’s an evening you won’t want to miss.

I have a few complimentary tickets to offer by using the code RAMONVIP during registration. Tickets will go fast, so register today!

Your Hosts

Steve Percudani, Presti & Naegele Accounting

Ramon Ray, Infusionsoft & Smallbiztechnology.com

Featured Guests

Adrian Miller, Adrian’s Network

Event Sponsor

BNI, Manhattan Chapter 49

ICT sector expanding, skilled workers missing

Firms in New Zealand's information and communications technology (ICT) sector are pouring money into both expansion and research and development, according to a major report.

Attracting highly-skilled graduates remains a persistent problem for the industry though.

The Government today released the Information and Communications Technology Report, which looks at the health of ICT manufacturing, telecommunications, and information technology services.

It shows that a third of all firms undertook research and development last year - four times the average in other sectors - at an average spend of $1.1 million.

Nearly half of companies in the sector invested in expansion, which was almost twice the national average.

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said the ICT sector contributed 5 per cent of the country's GDP.

One of the sub-sectors, IT services, had achieved export growth of 10 per cent per annum since 2002, he said.

One of the biggest challenges facing the sector was the international shortage of highly skilled IT professionals, Joyce said.

"Around half of computer system design firms report moderate or severe difficulty in recruiting managers and professionals, and more than half report moderate or severe difficulty in recruiting technicians and associated professionals."

The number of degree graduates with IT specialties is predicted to increase from 1200 in 2011 to between 1600 and 1900 annually by 2014.

"That sort of growth will need to continue in the years ahead," Joyce said.

The ICT report also showed strong job growth and that wages and salaries paid in the sector were twice the New Zealand average.

In the computer system design sub-sector, about extra 1,630 jobs were created last year alone.

Another trend in the industry was increased funding from angel and venture investors.

Firms such as SLI Systems and Optimizer HQ have lis ted on the local sharemarket this year, and Wynyard Group is set to follow suit later this week.

The government is this year releasing reports on seven sectors - including high-technology manufacturing, construction, petroleum and minerals, tourism, knowledge-intensive services - and today's ICT report is the first.

"These reports by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment provide detailed information about each sector and will be valuable for informing the debate about our economic future," Joyce said.

"They show the change that is occurring in the New Zealand's economy with the emergence of sectors like information technology alongside our traditional export sectors of food and beverage, forestry and tourism."

ICT manufacturing, telecommunications, and information technology services collectively employed 73,392 New Zealanders last year, representing 3.2 per cent of the national workforce.

By Ben Chapman-Smith Email Ben

How to Re-Package Quotes Into Viral Content

Quotes are powerful. They pass the test of time, surpass the expectations of those who said them and even survive the fall of empires. One statement made by a figure in history, regardless of who they are, can resonate just as strongly hundreds or even thousands of years later. Well into the future, you can be sure that a good quote will still be circulating, both from antiquity and from what is today modern.

How can you use this to your advantage?

If you have a social media presence, you will notice that content containing quotes are quick to go viral. But even better, they have a timelessness that allows them to stay there. While relevant to a current event, the entire point behind one of these sayings is that it is applicable well after the events they are applied to pass.

Know Your Market

Who are you aiming to market this content to? Not knowing who your chosen demographic is will be a quick path to failure. Viral content has been shared and reshared, capturing the attention of a group so they feel they just have to spread it. If you don't even know who that group should be, how will they know they were the intended audience in the first place?

Once you know your market, you will also be able to catch their eye through direct reference. One great way is by using modern experts in your field for the quotes. Not only will this stroke the ego a bit and give you a line into a possible connection, but it will make the quote recognizable to others in the industry. Helping to solidify who the message was for and who should be passing your content on.

Repackage With Fresh Media

Viral Image

If there are quotes on your site already, perhaps from interviews or even reader comments, you can repackage it into new content for a fresh perspective. For example, if you asked for opinions from your readers on a certain issue, you could cherry pick the best. Then take those quotes and make them a text-over-image for easy sharing and appeal to social networks like Facebook and Pinterest.

Quotes look fabulous on the image. Look at how Quoto makes its quotes flye with its picture quotes feature, for example.

Tool: Quotes Cover + pick sources of free blog images for the awesome backgrounds.

Infographics

Another way is by creating an infographic with the details you quote from a past piece of work. Statistics take on a whole new and effective meaning when presented more visually. The same goes for slideshows, videos and other visual media.

Tools: Piktochart and Infogr.am.

PowerPoint Presentations

If you have a series of quotes, they can be easily re-packaged into inspirational presentations.

Tool: Haiku Deck (free).

Videos

PowerPoint presentations are easy to convert into a video and will some nice music, you have a great piece of content to enrich your Youtuve Channel.

Expand Your Reach

Once you have repackaged your content, it is time to expand the reach of that content. Social media is going to be your best friend in this regard. Both Pinterest and Facebook have been mentioned already and they will be your primary networks for gaining visibility thanks to their popularity and frequent use of image sharing. But don't discount the help that sites like Google+, Reddit and even LinkedIn can provide, depending on your demographic. Then there are other media sharing sites, such as Youtube and Vimeo.

Share all content often and in many places at once. There are tools out there that will let you post to all of your social networks from a single dashboard, such as Hootsuite. While not necessary, it can be helpful and more productive than doing each one manually.

Be sure to encourage your followers to ‘like and share' your content. Sometimes that little call to action can make all the difference.

Collect and Curate

Start sharing other quoted content. You can do this on most sites, but Pinterest is going to be your main source. Since you are pinning images from other sources, you will be gaining attention each time. People will be more likely to follow your boards when you collect and curate content â€" and quotes are especially big there.

Do you have any tips for repackaging quotes for viral content?

Confucius Photo via Shutterstock

Image: Quoto

Reach Photo via Shutterstock

4 Ways Your Business Can Get Personal Online

So you've got an outstanding business and you're beginning to develop an online presence? Keep in mind that when you move forward in cyberspace, you'll need to follow a few rules.

One of those rules is not to let the electronic barrier between you and your prospective customers prevent you from becoming more personable in your marketing efforts. You want everyone in your target market to feel like you are reaching out to each one of them individually, rather than constructing an online presence meant to appeal to the proverbial masses.

1. Responsive Web design

Marching forward in the 21st century, you'll find that responsive Web design is no longer an option. It's an absolute necessity if you want your business to stay competitive.

Responsive Web design refers to the principle that the website is easily viewed and used on a screen of any size. It uses a technique known as a “media query” to determine the screen resolution of the device on which the viewer has called up your site. Then it renders the output appropriate to the screen size, so every user sees a visually appealing and easy-to-navigate Web page on his or her device, no matter how big or small.

As you might have guessed, responsive Web design is implemented primarily so people using mobile devices can view websites without “paying a price” because they are not on a traditional PC or Mac.

Given the overwhelming growth of the mobile market, your website absolutely has to feature responsive Web design.

2. Customized User Preferences

Enabling customized user preferences is a great idea. It's especially useful if your website is meant to cater to differing target markets. For example, your Web presence might be an online auction site for various types of fine art.

Some bidders might only be interested in paintings while others are primarily seeking finely decorated pieces. People with disparate tastes should be able to configure their preferences on the site so that when they log in, they see only the kinds of art they are interested in purchasing.

You can also go the extra mile with this principle and allow people to change the actual look and feel of your website to suit their own tastes, at least to some extent. The important thing is that you market to customers in a way that they find easy to customize. That's a very good thing.

3. Use Social Media

Social media goes by that name for a very good reason. It's an online means of becoming more social. This provides no small amount of benefit to businesses that wish to cast aside the corporate persona and opt for a more approachable “personality” in their online marketing efforts.

You might be surprised by how many of your customers take to social media with customer service inquiries. Make sure that you monitor your various social media channels consistently, so that you respond to those inquiries. If visitors see that you're perform responsive customer service on social media, they will swiftly accept you as a business person.

4. Personalized Birthday Gifts

Perhaps you have an online business that asks for people's date of birth when they register with your site. If that's the case, then use that information to boost online interaction.

How?

You can provide personalized birthday gifts. This is a great way to say “I care” to someone who is interested in your products or services. It will pleasantly surprise the recipient, because the odds are great that your competitors aren't doing the same.

You're giving your prospects a warm, fuzzy feeling about you as an individual and that will likely pay off for your business.

Online Gift Photo via Shutterstock

7 Reasons Why Video is Now the Fastest Growing Online Ad Format

If you Google the phrase “fastest growing online ad format” you'll see there's not much debate about the answer. It's video.

As an online ad format, video is now more popular than search, more popular than email marketing, more popular than blogs and more popular than Facebook. The facts related to that growth are staggering.

For example, in 2011 the Internet Advertising Bureau reported that in the UK alone, the online video spend was up 90%.

When you think about it, it's not that surprising. Online video has always been popular. And with the growth of smart phones and tablets and the ease of creating and sending video content, it makes sense that Web video is only becoming more popular.

If you're a small business owner or manager, there are tons of facts to support adding more video to your website and marketing efforts. Below I've listed what I consider to be the top 7. After reading them, please feel free to add more reasons of your own.

1)  People Retain More With a Visual and Auditory Combination

People retain 58% more with both visual and auditory stimulation according to Forrester Research.

2)  Video is Now More Searchable

Via Google AdWords for video, video is now more searchable by search engines. In fact, a video in Google's index is 53 times more likely to appear on first page search results according to Forrester Research.

3)  Video Has More Potential

Versus other media, video has more potential to be shared and go viral.

4)  People Take Notice

65% of senior executives have visited a vendor's website after watching a video according to Forbe's Video in the C-Suite report (PDF).

5) People Prefer Video Over Text

According to the same Forbe's report, 59% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text and 80% are watching more online video today than they were a year ago.

6)  Video Increases the Likelihood of Purchasing

People who view a Web video are 64% more likely to purchase than those who don't according to Comscore.

7)  Video Provides Purchasing Confidence

According to Internet Retailer, 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in their online purchase decisions. When a video is information-intensive, 66% of consumers will watch the video two or more times.

In a 2012 keynote address at CES, YouTube's VP of Global Content, Robert Kyncl, predicted that video would soon be 90% of Internet traffic. While Mr. Kyncl may be slightly biased, I wouldn't bet against him. In the next decade, Web TV will be a game changer contributing to even more explosive video growth.

No wonder why Social Media Examiner reported that 76% of marketers say they plan to add more video (PDF) to their marketing effort.

Are you?

Video Photo via Shutterstock

How Do Consumers Buy Online?

[Click for full infographic]

So how do consumers buy online?

From showrooming worries to mcommerce trends, small retailers and e-tailers have a lot of issues to keep up with these days. A new study from Shopzilla that polled Internet users about their online shopping habits has some useful insights. Below is some of what they found.

What Inspires Purchasing?

In terms of advertising and marketing outreach, store emails were the top driver of online sales (11 percent), beating out magazine ads (8 percent), blogs or online content sites (4 percent), and Facebook (2 percent) in this regard.

However, impulse buys are a bigger factor than any type of advertising or marketing. Nearly one-third of customers say they ran across their most recent purchase while surfing the Web,25 percent say they found it after they went looking for a specific item, and 8 percent say they saw it while “out and about” shopping.

Where Are They Buying?

One place employees aren't shopping is at work-just 17 percent of purchases were made from the office, while 70 percent were made at home.

In terms of device, the vast majority of online sales (85 percent) still take place on a desktop computer. iPads ranked second, with 11 percent of overall purchases taking place on an iPad (fewer than 1 percent of sales were made on any other type of tablet). For those with household incomes of $150K and above, 20 percent of purchases were made on an iPad.

Despite lots of mcommerce hype, mobile phones are still just minimal contributors to online salesâ€"less than 5 percent of sales were made on any type of smartphone. (I've seen other surveys that show much higher usage of mobile phones for shopping.)

What Are They Spending?

The good news for retailers is that more than 50 percent of consumers feel confident about spending. Overall, 28 percent feel free to spend, and 31 percent expect to spend more than they did in the previous month.

That doesn't mean consumers are throwing money around, however. Price remains a huge factor, with 75 percent of shoppers saying price influenced their purchases, and 79 percent reporting they bought from the site offering the best price. Six in 10 bought items on sale, more than half (54 percent) ordered from sites that offer free shipping, and 33 percent used coupons.

Are They Really Showrooming?

Showrooming (looking at a product in-store, then buying it from a competitor online) isn't an issue for most online shoppers since the majority (78 percent) never bother to look at the product in a store before buying.

Only 12 percent see a product in a store, then buy from that store or its website. Just 10 percent look at the product in-store before if someplace else.

Serendipity is Still a Huge Factor in Online Purchases

Since shoppers are often influenced by something they see online while looking for something else, consider adding suggestions to your ecommerce site (such as displaying related or complementary items in the sidebar while customers are shopping), making suggestions for additional purchases during the checkout process, or serving ads related to shoppers' past browsing history when they leave your site.

iPads Are Growing Strong

Clearly, the iPad is a major contender when it comes to mobile shopping. Particularly if you target upscale consumers, it's crucial to develop a tablet-optimized ecommerce site.

If you have a retail store without an ecommerce component, look into ways to use tablets in your store, such as by providing additional information about your inventory to shoppers or enabling mobile payments to speed checkout.

Time Your Emails Right

Among the marketing strategies you can use, email marketing matters the most. However, with shoppers rarely surfing shopping sites during work hours, timing your emails for evenings and weekends, or right before the lunch hour, is most likely to yield maximum results.

Small Businesses Created 45 Percent of the New Jobs in June

Small businesses continue to spur U.S. job growth. Companies with fewer than 50 employees created 45 percent of the 188,000 new jobs in June, a recently released ADP National Employment Report said.

The 84,000 jobs created by small firms represent nearly half of the jobs created by U.S. businesses and the percentage of jobs created by small companies continues to grow.

This is the second consecutive month for growth in job creation among smaller firms. In May, small businesses created 63,000 jobs, up from 57,000 in April. That month saw a major decline from March's 72,000 jobs added by smaller companies.

Smallest of the Small Carry the Load

Also, as in previous months, the smallest of the small represented the majority of small business job creation, the ADP Small Business Report said. Between May and June, 54,000 jobs were created by businesses with less than 20 employees. By comparison, businesses with 20-49 employees added 31,000 jobs during the same period.

The results are part of an ongoing trend. In May, companies with between 1 and 20 employees created 37,000 of the 58,000 jobs credited to small businesses. And in April, businesses in the same category created 34,000 of the 50,000 jobs added by small businesses as a whole.

Where Job Growth Occurred

As usual the largest job growth occurred in the service sector with small businesses creating about 70,000 of these jobs. The sector includes jobs pouring lattes but there are many other kinds of jobs and businesses represented as well.

The service sector includes financial, professional and business services, but also includes employees like restaurant workers, housekeepers, teachers, health care workers and retail sales workers too.

June also saw the largest increase of jobs in the goods producing sector in four months with 27,000 new jobs added, 14,000 among smaller companies. For small businesses, this sector includes mainly construction and manufacturing.

Obamacare Not Affecting Job Growth … Yet

It's obvious that companies with fewer than 50 employees continue to represent a growing percentage of jobs being created. Fifty full-time employees is the number at which businesses will be required under the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to provide medical benefits or pay a penalty per employee for not offering them by Jan. 1, 2015.

Still, in a prepared statement issued with the report (PDF), Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, insisted:

Health Care Reform does not appear to be significantly hampering job growth, at least not so far.

Has your small business added any jobs in the last few months?  Do you have any plans to do so in the near future?

Job Growth Photo via Shutterstock

Mobile Payments are Exploding: What You Need to Know as a Retailer

Accepting payments via mobile device is becoming more and more mainstream. Right now, we are in the midst of a growth spurt that will see mobile payments in the U.S. hit $90 billion by 2017, according to a Forrester Research report released earlier this year. That's up from $12.8 billion spent in 2012, the report states.

It's also easier than ever to join the party, and retailers have an almost overwhelming number of options. There are several companies that cater to each type of mobile payment. Some companies (like Square) you are likely familiar with, but there are new faces popping up all the time.

It pays to check with your bank or merchant service provider to see what they have to offer. Organizations, like Community Merchants USA, also have resources on mobile payments and acceptance in order to help businesses understand this growing and rapidly changing method of payment.

To help you find the best fit for your business, here are a few things to consider when choosing your mobile payment processor:

What Type of Mobile Payment Works for You?

If you are not ready to let go of swiping a physical credit or debit card, there are a number of companies that allow you to use a card reader inserted right into your smartphone or tablet, including:

If you're looking for something that doesn't necessarily require a card, you have options there as well:

LevelUp allows customers to present a QR code (linked to their credit or debit card) from their smartphones for payment. The retailer then uses a LevelUp terminal to scan the code to complete the transaction.

Similarly, MasterCard's PayPass and Visa's payWave use near field communication (NFC) technology to accept payments. Customers with NFC-enabled smartphones just tap or hover their phone over the terminal to make a payment. Both PayPass and payWave accept NFC-enabled credit cards as well, and PayPass also accepts payments from Google Wallet.

How Much Will it Cost?

Transaction fees for mobile payments are relatively cheap and simple to understand. Many companies advertise a flat rate per transaction with no hidden fees or monthly charges, but most also charge a higher rate for cards that are manually entered or keyed in.

Advertised fees typically hover around 2 to 3% of the total payment per swipe. Groupon's Breadcrumb is on the low end of that range, advertising 1.8% plus $0.15 per swipe, while Square and GoPayment advertise 2.75% per swipe. Some companies offer a lower per-swipe rate for an additional monthly fee. For example, GoPayment offers an option to pay $12.95 per month for a 1.75% per swipe fee.

LevelUp is unique in offering completely free credit card processing if you participate in their Interchange Zero program. The program requires you to run a marketing campaign with LevelUp and for every dollar your customer spends as a result of that campaign, $0.40 goes to LevelUp.

Will it Work With What You Already Have?

The majority of card readers and apps will work with both iOS and Android devices, but it's more difficult to find those that support BlackBerry.

PayAnywhere and ROAMpay are two companies that have something for all three.

What Are the Perks?

All mobile payment processors offer credit card transactions that are convenient and quick, so what else can they do for you? There are many different features available from various companies.

Intuit's GoPayment will sync information with your QuickBooks program. Groupon's Breadcrumb Payments offers a plan with features specifically tailored to restaurants and bars. PayPal Here also accepts checks and PayPal payments.

Find the company that gives you the most value for your needs.

Stay Open-Minded

There are a lot of possibilities out there, and this article is in no way a complete list. No matter what approach you consider, keep in mind that the mobile payments industry is growing and evolving. It's a good idea to remain flexible and be wary of committing to a mobile payment method or company that restricts you from future options.

Don't Forget to Ask Them to Show You the Money

Make sure you are aware of the program requirements as to when you will get paid. Here are two important questions to ask:

1. When are your funds available?

Groupon's Breadcrumb advertises next business day deposits into your bank, but with PayPal Here, funds are available in your PayPal account within minutes.

2. Are there any limits?

Square, for example, has a weekly deposit limit on manually-entered card transactions.

Motorola\'s Moto X Expects to Rival iPhone 5, Galaxy S4

If you're planning to buy new smartphones for your business this summer, better hang on. Motorola is expected to introduce four new phones soon including its new “flagship,” the Motorola Moto X, and three Droid phones specifically for Verizon Wireless. All four phones represent a significant milestone. They are the first phones to be introduced by the mobile pioneer since it was acquired by Google last year.

The new smartphones are led by the Moto X expected to compete directly with the Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4. The device could retail for about $599, reports the Wall Street Journal. However, another source, TheVerge.com, speculates a much lower price around $199 to give Motorola a foothold in the affordable smartphone market.

First Glimpse of Moto X Shows Google Now, More

One of the first glimpses of the new Moto X is offered through a promotional ad from Rogers Communications, a Canadian telecommunications company.

The ad shows a phone available in simple black or white and equipped with Google Now, an intelligent personal assistant app designed by Google to listen and respond to questions. Without ever needing to touch the screen, the user can get directions, set alarms and more simply by speaking.

The new phone also includes “active updates” which let you know about information like incoming e-mails with silent on-screen notifications allowing you to decide what demands your immediate attention.

Moto X also boasts a simple to use camera. Two twists of your wrist with phone in hand activates the camera feature and simply touching the screen allows you to snap photos. See the full ad in the video below.

Variety of Colors, Customized Wallpaper

Another report earlier this month from ABC News suggested the Moto X would also be available in a pallet of colors, with custom wallpaper and custom engraving, a feature initially introduced by Apple with the iPhone.

The devices are also expected to be made in the U.S. at a new 500,000-foot factory in Texas.

The Wall Street Journal reports Motorola will be limiting the amount of software and other apps, sometimes called “bloatware,” installed by carriers selling the device.

New Droids Also Coming Soon

Several media sources also announce the imminent arrival of three new Droid phones for Verizon Wireless, a longtime partner with Motorola. The devices include the Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx, and Droid Mini replacing the Droid RAZR HD, RAZR Maxx HD, and RAZR M introduced last summer.

A recent tweet from EVLeaks shows a glimpse of the three new phones.

 

Specifications for all three devices remain a mystery but a report from TheVerge.com suggests they will be available in a variety of colors and will be durable being described by one website as being “tough as steel.”

The Droid Ultra  may be priced in the $199 range when purchased under contract with the carrier while the Maxx is expected to cost a bit more due to its longer battery life. All three phones, like the Moto X, are expected to be introduced later this summer.

When Bigger Isn\'t Better: How Small Companies Can Win at PPC

A while back, my colleague, Elisa Gabbert, discussed why SEO is harder for small businesses and came up with 10 reasons that big companies with their larger budgets can more easily succeed at organic search marketing.

You'd think the same would be true for paid search: huge PPC budgets. More hiring freedom, etc. Well, maybe it should be easy for big brands to kill at PPC, but they certainly don't as a rule.

Below, I'll explain why so many businesses of all sizes are failing at PPC, and how you can buck the trend.

The Single Biggest Cause of Failure in PPC

Recently, during a webinar, we asked a non-scientific poll of approximately 200 AdWords advertisers the following question:

How much time do you spend doing PPC work every week?

Respondents painted a very rosy picture. The overwhelming majority (87%) reported doing some activity every week:

But what PPC marketers say they do and what they really do are two different things.

To verify whether it's really true that most marketers do some work in their PPC accounts every week, I used the Change History log in AdWords to manually check the account activity levels for 200+ businesses that recently became WordStream customers. For the date range, I looked at activity in the 30 days prior to signing on with the WordStream software. Here's what I found:

The “Activity Index” on the Y-axis is a measurement of how active an advertiser is in terms of doing PPC account optimization, with more intensive optimizations (like creating a new campaign) given more weight than less significant optimizations (like changing a single keyword bid).

As you can see, even from this rough graph:

• About 1 in 5 advertisers don't even touch their accounts over the course of a month.
• Only 1 in 10 advertisers consistently do work in their account over a 3-month period.
• Bigger spenders are more likely to be regularly optimizing their accounts â€" but many companies spending hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars are doing nothing at all on a monthly basis.

Leaving your account on autopilot is how even huge companies like eBay end up making fools of themselves in paid search.

How Small Companies Can Win at PPC

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

I believe the single most significant predictor of PPC success is not budget, but time put in. We've analyzed thousands of AdWords accounts, representing well over a billion in collective advertising spend, and found that the companies with the best results almost invariably spend more time working on their campaigns.

But wait, you say, PPC isn't my full-time job. I've got other responsibilities on my plate.

The good news is, you don't have to devote 40, 30, 20 or even 10 hours a week to PPC to be doing better than most of your competitors. Just logging into AdWords once a week and spending half an hour to an hour doing some optimization will put you in the upper echelon when it comes to account activity.

So what do you do with that half hour?

You do stuff like:

• Splitting ad groups down into smaller, tighter ad groups to help improve Quality Score.
• Pausing poorly performing keywords that are spending your budget without good ROI.
• Adding new keywords from your search query report to the appropriate ad groups/campaigns.
• Setting negatives to reduce spend on irrelevant terms that Google broad matches you against.
• Raising bids on your best keywords, lowering bids on weaker terms.
• Optimize for Mobile by creating mobile preferred ads and click-to-call extensions.
• Trying out new ad extensions like offers, sitelinks and other features than can increase clicks and conversions.

Little by little, this stuff makes a difference. So don't get discouraged.

Even small companies can make paid search work for them with a little elbow grease.

Email Programs: A Best Practice to End Shopping Cart Abandonment

Have you left something behind? Every year, millions of online shoppers add items to their shopping cart but walk away. Let's face it, shopping cart abandonment is just like a broken promise.

A website conversion service reported that shopping cart abandonment has grown immensely. For the merchants, it is a lost sale and unclaimed revenue and for the shopper, there is an unfulfilled need. Shopping cart abandonment is a significant aspect of the normal buying cycle for the majority of customers.

So what is your plan of action when you see those orphaned carts floating around? How do you intend to recover the lost revenue from shopping cart abandonment?

Well, there is good news for online merchants. Email programs can renew the broken promise, therefore helping both the customers and the eTailers. Research says that around 67.35% of eCommerce shopping carts are abandoned. As you know, shopping cart abandonment can happen for several reasons. The most consistent being shipping and handling costs. As a result, below are some email tactics to help you prevent shopping cart abandonment.

Plan a Chain of Emails

Many experts recommend three series of emails to be sent at scheduled intervals:

• Your first email should ask the shopper whether they need any help to complete their shopping transaction, in case there is a technical issue.
• The second email informs the shopper that his/her items are on hold. Your email should be effective enough to assure them that if they do not confirm their purchase, those items will sell out quickly, therefore, they should place their order soon.
• The final email should make a follow up offer. This may include offering discounts or free shipping. For instance, you can offer free two-day shipping if they confirm their purchase within the next five hours.

Purchase Confirmation Email

Put a new lease on life to the system-generated email. Optimized emails are incredibly effective in getting visitors back to your site. However, make sure that your customer perceives your emails as a great service and not as an aggressive sales approach. Your service should include:

• Hyperlinks to view back their orders
• Recommendation of complementary products
• Branding
• Best selling products in your site
• Reconfirming phone numbers and email address

Get Your Customer's Email Address on Priority

Unless you have a valid email, you have no chance to reclaim the lost sale. So make sure that you ask for your customer's email address or you possess a valid email to send messages.

Moreover, make sure that the email address is either saved after the shopper is done with the first step in the checkout process or saved automatically in the shopping cart. Send transaction-related emails which will help to build a healthy relationship with the customers.

Send Re-Marketing Emails Post Purchase

Your next crucial step to drive a repeat purchase is to send post purchase re-marketing emails to reconnect with your customers when they abandon their cart. So if you have not thought about it yet, now is the time as it can drive incremental revenue. Your re-marketing service should include the following:

• Images, name and description of the product the customer had abandoned.
• Do not distract customers with cross-sell offers but rather, focus your message on abandoned products.
• Include a link that reconnects back to the customer's cart.

With re-marketing in mind, you have to stay in-sync with your customers. This is particularly important for abandoned items, especially for those customers who come back to check on their orders or check the product details again.

Nevertheless, be careful not to potentially damage your brand reputation and perform re-marketing correctly to recapture your customers back.

Reactivate Email Campaign

It has been observed that the majority of new customers, despite confirming their purchase, do not return to the site. So how do you get them back to your website? The simple tactics of an email campaign work well in such a situation.

Just drop your new customers into your mailing campaign. This tactic of reactivating email campaign helps to pick up from where your transaction confirmation has left off. A sequence of focused emails can bring back those customers. However, there are a few important factors you should keep in mind:

• Be focused and deliver good service.
• Keep your emails as relevant as possible.
• Use incentives to encourage a second purchase.
• Use recommendations and top selling items.

Monitor, Relate and Acclimate

Does adding images to the items in the abandoned cart help? Does modifying subject lines affect conversion?

Monitor these changes and adjust accordingly. As you make these changes and adjustments, compare the outcome to see whether it has any positive impact on the abandoned cart.

Email strategies can be lucrative in terms of revenue as soon as they are launched and they help to prevent shopping cart abandonment.

Shopping Cart Photo via Shutterstock

Business Desktops Need Security, Too! 10 Tips To Staying Safe and Virus Free!

Brought to you by AVG Technologies, the provider of Internet and mobile security, privacy and optimization to 150 million active users. There's nothing small about small business in our eyes. Get more information on how AVG can help your small business stay protected â€" go to http://www.avg.com/us-en/internet-security-business. 

 

Business Desktops Need Security, Too!
10 Tips To Staying Safe and Virus Free!

 

In an era when technology has evolved to the point where we're depending more on mobile and portable devices, we've come to rely on the desktop computer as a solid block that's impenetrable. In fact, the focus of malware (malicious software) developers has shifted significantly towards the mobile sphere. However, this doesn't mean that they're going to pipe down on attempting to infect desktop computers. The war over your desktop isn't over.

Even if your business relies entirely on laptops, it's still running software made chiefly for desktops. The threats that knock on their doors are the same ones that can infect desktops. Even worse, some malware could infect entire networks, and all they need to do is land on an employee's computer.

So, what do you do to prevent this?

• Keep an up-to-date antivirus program on each computer. This is a no-brainer, but it always helps to make sure that all virus databases are up to date everywhere, which will help keep those pesky viruses out of your precious network.
• Use the “principle of least privilege.” This principle engages against security problems in a system by implementing the practice of avoiding administrative user accounts when they are unnecessary. Do not give employees administrative access to their computers. Create a separate user account with enough privileges to get work done. Administrative accounts are for system administration, not daily use.
• Keep Windows/Mac/Linux up to date. Even if it may seem unnecessary and sometimes inconvenient, keeping a computer's operating system up to date will put a lid on some vulnerabilities. Windows XP once had a vulnerability where hackers could tap into the remote access protocol and take control of a computer. These kinds of problems exist even in the latest operating systems. Viruses shouldn't be your only worry!
• Never allow employees to share passwords with each other. Avoid sharing one account for anything.
• Work computers are for work. While you may want to let employees browse around their social networks and check personal emails in their leisure time, you must not allow them to open any attachments or download anything to their respective computers.

• When storing sensitive data, make sure it's in a password-protected directory and, if possible, encrypted!
• Establish and enforce a policy in which employees will lock their computers or log out of them when leaving, even if they're leaving for a sip of coffee.
• If possible, disable any remote access. Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance are big vulnerabilities! The “if possible” is there for File and Printer Sharing. If you need these to function, then by all means keep them active.
• In Windows computers, restrict user accounts' abilities to use the registry editor (regedit.exe) and the command line (cmd.exe). Both of these can lead to accidental mismanagement of the operating system, which can cause catastrophic failure.
• Don't forget to install and configure a firewall. A proper firewall will prevent most malware that gets access to a computer from connecting to the network and doing more harm.

After you've reviewed these policies and best practices, sit down with your employees and discuss them. They must know that you're serious about running a tight ship. And to ensure that no one forgets how to stay safe, here's a good idea: Get mouse pads with your computer use guidelines printed on them. This way, your employees will always have a reminder!