It’s not an isolated phenomenon. These kinds of “bankable” businesses exist in almost every industry, says Andrew Sobel, co-author along with Jerold Panas of “Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win New Business and Influence Others” (Wiley, 2012).  But business superstars aren’t born, they’re usually self-made. Here are seven keys that can unlock the hidden superstar in any entrepreneur:

1. Deliver something great, over and over. Not easy, sure. But you can’t expect superstardom to occur overnight. You have to build your reputation for delivering results consistently year after year. Entrepreneurs who keep on delivering gain trust and become more “bankable.”
2. Have a high-powered value proposition. It’s vital that you clearly articulate why customers should come to you above everyone else. What unique value do you and your business offer?  Your public value proposition doesn’t have to define everything you do with clients or customers, but it should make clear what you’re best known for. Businesses that don’t have a unique value proposition are just a commodity.
3. Be the one asking the questions. Here’s a good test of where you stand: When you talk to potential clients, are they the ones asking all the questions; grilling you on your credentials?  Or do you also tactfully test them for suitability as one of your clients?  Good news here is that you don’t have to wait until you’re famous to put yourself in this position.  You can do it at any point in the life of your business. When you’re the one asking the thought-provoking, idea-inducing questions in the conversation, people take notice. You quickly move up a notch and take control of the discussion. You no longer are merely a “vendor,” but become a thoughtful advisor who is focused on helping customers achieve their most important goals.
4. Be an industry thought leader. These days, you don’t have to write a bestselling book to be seen as a thought leader. It starts by having deep focus and an abiding curiosity to learn everything there is to know about your industry. Then start passing along that knowledge, by blogging, speaking, consulting, writing articles for industry publications and participating in social media. It’s not a one-and-done proposition. You need to be out their daily.
5. Create a powerful name or brand. In short, you need to become well known. That doesn’t mean worldwide. It might just be in your community or other limited sphere of influence – in your particular niche, marketplace or geographic area. When you are a known name in your specialty, customers think of you when they need something. Name recognition works like a magnet. It’s never too late to start. No matter how known or unknown you are now, plan one activity monthly that will increase your name recognition in some way.
6. Evaluate your scale and select clients carefully. Superstars are scarce and should command the higher fees or prices. Think about how your business model scales.  Can you afford to work for or sell to everyone? Sometimes trying to sell at larger scale only ends up diluting your personal or business brand and your ability to deliver quality goods or services. Business superstars know they can’t – and shouldn’t – spread themselves too thin.
7. Price like a superstar. While you have to achieve at least a semblance of star status before you can charge premium rates, there’s actually more to it. “Research has demonstrated that high prices lead to high perceived value,” says Sobel. “Most people think it’s the other way around – that if you deliver high value, only then can you get high fees.”  Look at it this way. As you become more and more bankable, you enter a virtuous circle of ever-higher perceived value – and fees. Customers know that hiring you lowers their risk, and that’s worth paying for.

 © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

Most business owners accept those business axioms. Unfortunately, they’re wrong. “At best those beliefs are half-truths and at worst they’re pure fiction,” says Ed Hess, a business professor at the University of Virginia and author of the new book Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Entrepreneurial Businesses (Stanford University Press, 2012). “Growth can be good and growth can be bad.”

Basically, Hess argues that everything you know about growth is probably wrong. Yikes! So how can you tell the difference between “good growth” and “bad growth”?

Here are six surprising truths about what growth is really about:

Truth #1: Growth is change (and change isn’t easy). There are limits to how quickly any person or business can deal with change. Growth forces you to install more procedures, controls and measurements which must then be taught to employees. Growth also forces you to change what you do. Sustainable growth requires the right leadership, the right environment (culture) and the right processes.

Truth #2: Growth is evolutionary. Your business model and value proposition must pivot to keep up with change.  Anticipating and responding to constant changes can require making some difficult decisions along the way. For example, businesses that grow rapidly must often change management.

Are you prepared for something like that?  Managers who operate effectively when the business is just starting out might not be able to adjust when things get more complex. The job simply outgrows their skills. This is yet another important factor that you must be prepared to deal with as you think about growing your business.

Truth #3: Growth requires continuous learning and improvement. You and your employees must be constantly open to learning, adapting, experimenting and improving. No matter how big you get or want to get, continuous improvement is required.  “In my research of high growth companies, I found that one factor they all share is a ‘be better’ DNA,” says Hess.

Improving your product or service, how you deliver it to your customers, and every customer touch point is necessary to stay in business and to grow your business. The good news is that continuous improvements lead to more loyal customers who can be your best advertising.

Truth #4: Growth requires focus and setting priorities. Owners of growing businesses must learn to focus on what is most compelling that makes the business different from the competition. But every small business has limited resources and time, so to grow successfully you must identify and spend your time on only the key areas that can drive success.

And keep in mind that in order to set priorities wisely, you need  concrete and useful data about your business, and you must clearly communicate your priorities to others.

Truth #5: Growth may require a new recipe. Growth requires implementing processes, which are like recipes for baking a cake. They are the step-by-step instructions for how to do something and are necessary to minimize mistakes, install quality standards and deliver products and services on time.

“Processes are the ‘how’ part of doing business,” says Hess. “As businesses grow, entrepreneurs lose the ability to be hands-on with everything. There’s simply too much to do. So, the challenge is to increase the probability that others will do what you want done. To accomplish this you need processes.”

Truth #6: Growth creates new risks. Growth stresses people, processes, quality and finances. It can dilute your culture and the value you deliver to customers. Understanding these risks is critical to managing the pace of growth and preventing it from overwhelming you.

“To get a better handle on growth risks, consider how your position in the marketplace will change as you get bigger,” says Hess. You will probably enter a new competitive space, facing bigger and better competitors than before. Those new competitors may be better capitalized than you and able to engage in price competition, driving down your margins.

The good news is that you can minimize risks by planning for growth, pacing growth, and establishing controls and processes ahead of time. By simply thinking about what might go wrong, you’ll be ahead of the growth game. 

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

The good news is this: Strategy is an area where small firms and startup entrepreneurs have  an opportunity to out-think their big business cousins. And it starts by simply grasping what strategy really is – and is not.

While there’s no official “strategy playbook” or universally-accepted definition, my favorite description of strategy comes from Richard Rumelt, a professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management who is considered one of the world’s top authorities on business strategy. “Unlike a stand-alone decision or a goal,” says Rumelt, “a strategy is a coherent set of analyses, concepts, policies, arguments and actions that respond to a high-stakes challenge.”

High stakes indeed.  It’s your business on the line, after all. But if you were to pick just one word to get at the essence of strategy, it would be “action.” Define all the vision, values, goals, customer pain points and revenue opportunities you want.  Those are the “what” of the situation. A strategy is your “how,” and that requires action.  Successful entrepreneurs understand this because they’ve not only seen a need, they’ve articulated a specific, rationale series of activities to satisfy that need and achieve their goals.

Still, the true nature of strategy remains murky in today’s business world. To help clarify, here are six secrets to avoiding common pitfalls and creating a successful strategy for your small business:

Secret #1: Goals are not strategy. This might sound simple, but some of the best and brightest in business fail to recognize this every day. You might, for example, have specific revenue goals for your business, or a desire to be “biggest” or “best” at whatever you do in your area. But how will you make that happen?  You need to know the “pivot points” on which to focus your efforts.

Secret #2: Ya gotta do something different. If your “strategy” is exactly the same as everyone else’s, how do you expect to succeed? The actions that you choose to focus on as part of your strategy must – somehow – involve doing things differently than your competitors. That might involve doing different things; or the same things differently. To beat the competition, you need a sustainable difference.

Secret #3: Strategy also means choosing what not to do.  Strategy is about making choices. In short, you can’t do it all, so you need to pick what’s important. Some business owners find it easier to start the strategy-development process by first deciding what types of activities their business will avoid, either because those activities just don’t fit with the vision and goals, or because others already use them.

Secret #4: Good strategies are rarely obvious. Don’t expect strategy to come easily.  If it’s obvious, others have probably done it already. You may need to summon all of your creativity, insight and innovation in order to find the best strategic fit for your business.  Your differences need not be radical. Even subtle, yet distinctive differences can magnify your actions and lead to success.

Secret #5:  Your strategy is an ecosystem. A strategy isn’t one thing or one activity. It’s many activities – some day-to-day, some less frequent – customized to fit into and implement your strategy. And just as in nature’s ecosystems, each part plays an important role in preserving the system (your strategy) as a whole.

Secret #6: Strategy can be lost – and regained.  Businesses both large and small lose track of their strategies all the time. It happens slowly, as successful companies lose focus and drift into incremental approaches that were never part of the core. That’s when your business needs to regroup and reexamine its strategy to see if it’s still the right one. You may simply want to renew the original, or find a new one. Either way, it’s all about action.

Bonus Secret: “Good Strategy/Bad Strategy” (Crown Business, 2011) by Richard Rumelt is a terrific read on this topic.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

Using Twitter specifically to generate leads is something that works differently for different types of businesses.  You should try out different approaches and see what works best for you. Then go with that.

Here are 10 things you can do on Twitter to attract prospects to your business:

1)   Tweet about special offers you have available at your business. But follow this tactic judiciously. Tweeting too often about business offers can get you labeled as a spammer.  One nice way around this is to weave offers into a blog post or article on your website.  Then simply Tweet a link to your article, with some “teaser” text to spark interest.

2)    Create your own business-branded page on Twitter. This makes it easier to generate leads.  An enhanced business profile page increases your Twitter presence by prominently featuring your most important content and visually branding your page. Your enhanced profile page is completely public — users can view it without joining or logging into Twitter. Twitter is still in the process of rolling out this feature to all businesses. See details at business.twitter.com.

3)    Use “featured tweets.” This is available from your business brand page and lets you display select tweets at the top of your page for an extended time. Normally tweets move down the page as you add more, but these stay put and are a great way to feature special promotions or offers.

4)    Target key products, services and industry terms via Twitter Search. It’s a simple yet powerful tool you can use from inside Twitter to help you identify the people and companies that care about the things that your business does. This will open up a rich vein of potential people to follow who may follow you back.

5)    Look professional and attract more attention by installing your own custom Twitter page background. This can include colors, images, logos and other graphics related to your business. The better your page looks, the more customers you’ll attract.

6)    Make sure your Twitter profile shows up in search. Your Twitter profile can contain a maximum 160 characters so make the most of it by including the top keywords associated with your business or profession. You can’t use all of your keywords, so be sure and pick the best. Be brief and grab attention.

7)    Answer questions.  Two out of three Twitter users say they are more likely to buy something from a local business that answers their questions on Twitter. So while that begs the question of how many of your customers and prospects are actually on Twitter, it’s a safe bet that whatever that number is, it will only get bigger.

8)    Leverage the power of #Hashtags to locate your leads. On Twitter, hashtags are used to organize tweets around specific topics.  They’re the words with the pound sign (#) in front of them. By pargeting your tweets to specific hashtags – or topic streams – you will reach people specifically interested in that topic.

9)    Chime into Twitter “Chat.” On Twitter, “chats” are similar to hashtags except more granular.  There’s a publicly available document posted on Google Docs call “Twitter Chat Schedule” that lists over 600 chats on specific topics. Just search “Twitter chat Schedule” on Google to find it.

10)  Create a customized Twitter visitor welcome page for your business website. Once you have this, you can include the link in your Twitter profile and in your tweets. Anyone who clicks on it will arrive at your special welcome page for people who’ve found you via Twitter. This customizes your message and makes them feel especially welcome. It also opens up the possibility of special offers to Twitter users.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

“QR codes used the right way can be a fantastic marketing tool,” says Wilson. “Wouldn’t it be great to track your web traffic directly back to that beer coaster in the restaurant or the coupon you mass mailed to thousands of homes? That’s vital information for any marketer. The problem is that most companies are missing these opportunities because of basic mistakes.”

Here are the three most common QR code miscues and what to do about them:

Miscue #1: Using cookie-cutter QR code patterns churned out by online generators, which are mistakenly read as direct traffic to a website by Google Analytics.  Solution: Have the QR code send traffic to a URL location where Google’s tracking software can monitor your marketing work and redirect to the desired location.

Miscue #2:  Using long URLs in QR Codes makes complicated codes that are difficult or impossible for consumers to scan. Solution: Keep the URL short so your QR code will be simpler and easier for scanners to read, not to mention easier to fit on a business card.

Miscue #3: Using third-party services, such as bit.ly, to shorten URLs attached to QR codes, leaving them vulnerable to potential technological problems or service changes.  Solution: Host your QR code URL on your own domain so you have full control to quickly fix errors. If a third party URL shortener goes down, so does your entire QR code marketing campaign.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

1)      Planning Ahead:  Small business owners who managed to grow in the face of economic weakness were adept at planning for what might go wrong, rather than simply reacting to trouble. When times were good, these well-prepared biz owners squirreled away cash reserves and opened credit lines that helped them weather tough times without having to make cutbacks.  In contrast, owners with declining revenues found themselves madly rushing to slash expenses as difficulties mounted.

2)      Borrowing Strategically:  Growing businesses understand that borrowing can be a good thing (especially since interest is tax deductible) if the money is put to good business use.  And the use that has paid off best for growth firms is R&D. About 58% of high-growth small business owners report that R&D type investments yielded the most positive returns. On the other hand, borrowing to open new offices, build production facilities or add new capabilities was more likely to correlate with a DROP than an increase in sales. Likewise, borrowing to add staff was generally a money-losing endeavor.

3)      Sharpening Management Skills: Professional development also leads to more income. Business owners who improved their skills at strategic planning and money management, for example, had a better chance of achieving revenue growth than those who didn’t.  But the most compelling results came from those who got better at hiring the right people. Team building skills, it turns out, are great for boosting a bottom line.

4)      Getting Good Advice:  Small biz owners have always relied on advice from friends and fellow business owners. That never changes.  But the best of them also make sure they plug into a savvy accountant or other financial advisors to provide the kind of professional fiscal advice that every business needs, no matter what size.  For example, 68% of businesses with rising revenues sought out financial advisors, while only 51% of those with declining revenues took that step.  

5)      Balancing Business and Life: Revenue-boosting business owners tend not to be all-consumed by their businesses.  They’ve learned to balance involvement with family, friends and their communities.  In short, they run their businesses – not the other way around.  Conversely, business owners whose revenues decline tended to be more fiercely independent and obsessed with their companies at the expense of other parts of their lives.

6)      Sharing Vision:  The Guardian study also found a strong correlation between success (in terms of revenue growth) and business owners who were strong leaders and adept at sharing their vision with employees, colleagues and others.  In addition, it was critical for business owners to demonstrate commitment to the business and inspire teams to perform at their highest level.

If you’re not among the ranks of revenue risers, take these six differentiators to heart as you plan your year ahead. By following in the footsteps of success, you’ll have a better chance of increasing revenues no matter what’s happening in the economy around you.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

What do you do then? Many businesses already have an established yes or no answer. But if your past response to discount requests has been to fire back a firm “no” or simply offer a price break, there’s definitely a better way, says Robert Sobel, a customer loyalty expert and co-author of the book “Power Questions” (Willey, 2012). By simply asking the right questions, you can gain valuable intelligence on why the customer is seeking a discount, and thus have ammunition that helps you preserve your profitability.

There are four types of discount seekers. The first are in genuine financial trouble and really might need a break. Others simply want to negotiate the lowest price on absolutely everything, and some just like to feel like you’ve given them a deal. A fourth type of discount seeker likes to complain about how much things cost, no matter what.

Asking the right questions helps you discover what kind of discount seeker you are dealing with, and how to respond. Here are the 10 key discount-diverting questions, and when to ask them (note the questions are phrased as if you are the one asking):

1. To kick start the conversation: “Before I respond, would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions so I can better understand your request?”
2. To dig deeper: “Occasionally a client requests a discount, and I find I am able to be more helpful if I understand why they’re asking for one. Can you tell me why you think the price is too high and a reduction is warranted?”
3. To size up your competition: “I know you are talking to other service providers about this project. Do you feel my price is dramatically out of line with the market?”
4. To say “no” while identifying possible terms for a positive negotiation: “I am able to reduce the price when the scope and breadth of the proposal are also cut back. Would you like me to prepare an option for you that would do that?”
5. Or you might also say, “We are able to reduce price in exchange for terms and conditions that help lower our risk and long-term cost of doing business. Would you like me to develop a proposal for a long-term supply arrangement with built-in discounts for guaranteed volume levels?”
6. To learn more about your client’s buying process: “Where will the budget come from for this? Who can give this final approval?”
7. To accentuate the value you are offering and clarify what is most important to the client: “I’m not sure we had a thorough discussion about the benefits you expect from this. Can we review those, as you see them?” Or you might ask, “What parts of this proposal are most important to you? Which aspects of it do you find less valuable?”
8. To differentiate yourself from the competition: “Would you mind if I briefly reviewed several aspects of my proposal that I think represent value above and beyond what our competitors offer? I’m not sure I articulated these very well.”
9. To tie your proposal to your client’s higher-level goals: “Can we review one more time what your goals are here? What are you hoping to accomplish?”
10. To go toe to toe: “Do you give your own customers discounts?” And if they say “Yes,” you respond, “That’s why you need me.” And if they say “No,” you respond, “So why should I?”

The goal, of course, is to preserve and strengthen the customer relationship —assuming it’s a customer you’d like to keep. If you’ve priced your services properly, you probably cannot afford to discount. But if you simply say ‘No,’ the customer might leave and never return.

By using a question approach, you can delve deeper into the situation and discover the customer’s true needs. You might find another way to show them the value they want. In the long term that will be viewed much more positively than a one-time discount and is a better option than refusing the request out of hand.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

Pinterest

In fact, the early read on Pinterest is that it’s more effective in some cases than Facebook. And growth on this social sharing site, which is free to use, has been phenomenal. Pinterest has skyrocketed to become the fifth biggest social site, ahead of Google+ and LinkedIn.

Pinterest is a highly visual site, based in large part on sharing images, along with other content.  The platform lets users visually share things they’ve found online by “pinning” an image, article, video or other item to their own “pinboard.”  Users often create collections of “pins” around a theme of some kind. They can either pin things they’ve found on the web, or upload their own images. You’ll also see the Pinterest button showing up on websites as a way for visitors to quickly “pin” an item, which might also be a simple URL.

Some small businesses that rely heavily on website traffic to increase sales are reporting a surge of traffic now coming from Pinterest. Susan Lyne, CEO of the popular shopping site called Gilt.com, which offers designer goods at a discount, says her site has gotten a big boost from Pinterest. In part that’s because Gilt has lots of high quality images of the items it sells, which is the kind of thing people like to pin on Pinterest.

Here are ten tips and tactics for small business success on Pinterest:

1. Although it’s already become the fastest growing social network of all time, Pinterest is still technically in “beta” so when you go to sign up you must request an invitation to join. But don’t worry, it’s all but automatic that you’re in.
2. Pinterest doesn’t yet provide a connection to Facebook business pages, so if your business is on Twitter, be sure to use the same email address you use for your business Twitter account to sign up for Pinterest. You’ll be able to sign in with your same Twitter login.
3. Write a detailed “About” description of your business, using appropriate key words and geographic locations so you’ll show up in search.  Also make sure the button marked “Hide your Pinterest profile from search engines” is OFF.
4. Link your Pinterest account to other social media – especially your Facebook page and Twitter account – and link it to your business website. But keep in mind that Pinterest was designed for individuals, not businesses, so there’s really no such thing yet as a Pinterest “business page.” Just think in terms of using the site as a person, rather than a business.
5. Your main activity on Pinterest will be to set up various “pinboards.”  You’ll gain traction for your business by organizing and naming them according to the types of products and services you sell. You should create these first, before you start trying to build your Pinterest following. As with Facebook “Likes” and Twitter followers, you’ll want to build a loyal follower base on Pinterest by catering to topics that people are passionate about.
6. Once you are on Pinterest, add the Pinterest follow button to your business website, blog, social media pages and even your printed materials. This is a good way to jumpstart your Pinterest presence.
7. Focus first on visual content. Remember, Pinterest is a heavily visual medium, so you’ll want to use your best stuff here. If you have great product shots, that’s one option. Some businesses are pinning photos of their employees and location.
8. So far, Pinterest users have been more heavily female (about 65%), so keep that in mind as well.  If your customer base is mainly men, Pinterest might not be right for you just yet.
9. If you have a blog and are using strong photos there, make a habit of putting them on your pinboard as well. You can also pin charts, graphs and other graphics.
10. 10. Follow the same social media “rules” you’d follow elsewhere. For example, concentrate on making yourself a valuable resource to others rather than trying to overtly sell.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

This shift in consumer behavior has huge upside implications for small businesses. Is your business ready for it? Do you have a mobile-friendly web site? Remember, just because your regular site is visible on a mobile device doesn’t mean it’s mobile-friendly. Mobile sites are designed specifically for the small screen. They are quick, easy to navigate and “thumb friendly,” which means they use large, centered buttons with “breathing room” to prevent accidental clicks.

The best mobile-friendly web sites make the mobile experience local. Since customers are constantly seeking local information on their phones, your mobile site should make it quick and easy for people to find you. That means it should have your address or some kind of locator right on the landing page, with directions and a map.

You should also consider using a “click-to-call” phone number for your business.  Much like a “hotlink” in a piece of text will take the reader somewhere else if clicked, a “linked” phone number will automatically dial your business from the mobile device. 

Recent tests of click-to-call on local business mobile sites conducted by Google and a mobile site provider called Duda Mobile (www.dudamobile.com) show that call rates for click-to-call on mobile are through the roof. For example, nearly half of all consumers who visited a taxi service’s mobile site called the company. About 32% of customers visiting a pizza restaurant mobile site called. And the call rates are high for other categories as well, including car services (28%), auto repair (22%), home repair (20%), medical services (16%), beauty and spa (13%), retail stores (12%) and restaurants (11%).

Compared to so-called “click through rates” for online ads, those call rates are enormous. And phone calls have a much higher rate of converting to actual sales as well.

Still not convinced? Here are three reasons mobile is a must for local business:

1. Mobile-friendly websites create positive customer response. Today’s consumers use their mobile devices more frequently than ever, and have high expectations for the mobile sites they visit. If your mobile site provides a good experience, it will help drive revenue for your business. Research shows that 51% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that has a mobile friendly website.

But there’s also a flip side to that. About one in five mobile users say they have a negative opinion of any business that has a poor mobile site, or no mobile site. If all they find is your regular desktop site and have to squint and zoom their way through it to try and find something, while attempting to fill in a microscopic search box or press a button the size of a pinhead, they’ll move on to someone else.

2. The time to move is now. You’ve been hearing about the potential of mobile for years. Now it’s here. For example, a third of all searches for restaurants now happen on mobile. Smartphones are now a part of people’s daily lives.  Studies commissioned by Google show that 87% of smartphone owners use their devices on the go, or while commuting and walking. And here’s an eye-opener: 93% of consumers now use their smartphones at home.  Local businesses with mobile-friendly sites can take advantage of these new consumer habits and reach customers wherever they are throughout the day.

3. Mobile offers immediate gratification. With a “click-to-call” feature, a “clickable” phone number allows customers to reach your business with one touch. Customers are hungry for the kind of information that makes it easy for them to contact you and get to your business.

What to do Now

            Google has launched a terrific program called GoMo (www.HowToGoMo.com) to help small businesses learn about mobile websites and find help setting one up. You’ll find tips, a tool to rate the quality of an existing mobile site, samples of good mobile site design, and a helpful list of vendors who can help you create a mobile presence.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

Here are 12 of the most popular web-based services that are being used by small businesses to keep the time commitment in check, while leveraging the power of social media. Some have similar features so it’s best to try them out and see what works best for you before deciding which to use.

1)    Shortstack (www.shortstack.com) is a service that helps businesses design a better looking Facebook page and customize it with such things as contests, forms, videos and more.  The service is free for pages that have up to 2,000 “likes.” Beyond that, a tiered pricing system kicks in.

2)    Buffer (www.bufferapp.com) is a great way to schedule your social media activity. The service lets you add posts and tweets to your “buffer” from anywhere and have them automatically distributed throughout the day.  By keeping your buffer topped off with content, you can be assured of having a fresh social media presence for an entire week or more.

3)    Postling (www.postling.com) was designed with small business users in mind and provides easy-to-use tools, alerts and insights that will help you get the most out of social media marketing. Postling lets you publish to all of the major social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Tumblr and Flickr and schedule your posts in advance.  It also pulls comments from all of your social media sites into one place which saves a lot of time and effort for responding.

4)    TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com), which is owned by Twitter, is a “dashboard” from which you can manage a variety of social media. It allows you to monitor and manage unlimited accounts, schedule tweets to suit your audience and filter content to focus on what matters to you the most.

5)    HootSuite (www.hootsuite.com) is similar to TweetDeck and lets you manage all of your social media accounts on a single dashboard.  This is a good solution if more than one person at your business posts to your social media accounts.

6)    MediaFeedia (www.mediafeedia.com) is a free business tool for Facebook (only) that lets you manage multiple fan pages from one dashboard, schedule content, track messages and distribute deals through something called Mediafeedia Offers.

7)    Sprout Social (www.sproutsocial.com) is a popular tool among small businesses to monitor what’s being said about you online, schedule and publish updates to your social media pages with one click, and track your efforts with various reports.

8)    Pagelever (www.pagelever.com) is a highly affordable analytics tool that’s all about measuring your social media marketing results. It produces professional looking charts and graphs showing traffic, fans, users, comments and more, including some demographic data.

9)    If you blog for your business, Disqus (www.disqus.com) is a terrific plugin for getting more marketing mileage out of reader comments. This takes the standard “comments” function that exists on most blogs and turns it into a social media machine that lets users sign in and comment via a variety of platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

10) Constant Contact, a leader in email marketing, offers a service called NutshellMail (www.nutshellmail.com) that’s a social media lifesaver for business owners who prefer to receive updates via email. NutshellMail tracks what’s being said about your business in social media, packages it up in a “nutshell” and sends a summary email to you on whatever schedule you choose.

11) Crowdbooster (www.crowdbooster.com) is a handy way to keep track of your social media accounts and marketing efforts from a single dashboard. It will automatically post to Facebook and Twitter, keeps track of your “likes” and followers and tells you how often your content is being shared.

12) Shoutlet (www.shoutlet.com) is a do-it-yourself platform for managing social media marketing. But it’s a fairly sophisticated service, favored by many larger businesses as well. It offers a wide range of features, including sophisticated data capture, customer relationship management (CRM) and unlimited accounts.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.