According to Founder & CEO Jaidev Shergill, Bundle was born from the idea that people need real insights and ratings on the places they go, not just subjective opinions. Bundle uses data from the U.S. government, along with aggregated spending transactions from Citibank (all personal information is removed or “anonymized”) and other third party data sources to come up with personalized recommendations on restaurants, bars, bakeries, clothing stores, coffee shops, florists, shoe stores and other local businesses.  With that information, customers can find out what type of people go to a place, how often they actually go back, and can get recommendations on where to go based on places they already like.

In short, Bundle crunches the data from real spending to give consumers the lowdown without the bias.  Since Bundle is backed by Microsoft, Citibank and the investment information firm Morningstar, and representatives of those investor firms sit on the Bundle board, it’s a good bet that Bundle will have the support it needs to scale the model.  So far, Bundle is providing comprehensive coverage of local businesses in about 18 major cities, but expansion plans are underway.  

Keep an eye on Bundle.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved. 140Main™ is a trademark of BizBest Media.

The first small businesses to use the program, however, will be selected through a new partnership between Twitter and American Express, a deal that initially makes it easy for small business owners to advertise on Twitter.  Amex card members and merchants will be invited to try this new advertising solution before anyone else, and American Express will give $100 in free advertising to the first 10,000 eligible businesses to sign up.

If you are an Amex card member or merchant, you can register now to participate in the initial introduction of this new offering via ads.twitter.com/amex.  Twitter will launch this new offering more widely later this year.

Since meeting Twitter CEO Dick Costolo a few weeks ago and hearing about the growth and innovation going on at Twitter, I’m more convinced than ever that this platform has far more social local marketing potential for small businesses than it’s being given credit for. And this move to open things up for advertising will likely put Twitter on the radar for more local businesses.

As the folks at Twitter point out, successful business owners already know how to build good customer relationships.  In fact, local businesses were first to start using Twitter to talk with consumers in real time, which helped demonstrate Twitter’s potential as a marketing platform. Today, some of the most innovative marketing campaigns around come from local businesses. For example, check out the mouth-watering photos of @VanillaMoonBake cupcakes, or the @glennztees Tweet contests meant to promote their latest T-shirt design.

You can sign up here to try this new ad solution on Twitter.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved. 140Main™ is a trademark of BizBest Media.

Here are the others ont he Top 10 list:

• @OPENForum
• @smallbiztrends
• @SmallBizLady
• @ducttape
• @BeckyMcCray
• @ramonray
• @SCOREMentors
• @stevenpdennis
• @CustomerRevolt

Too many tweets are simply trash.  In fact, new research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University, MIT and Georgia Tech (cleverly named “Who Gives a Tweet?”) shows that Twitter users only consider 36% of the tweets they see to be worthwhile.  About 39% are marginal, while a quarter of all tweets are considered totally worthless.

Most people consider mood or location updates to be the tackiest types of tweets.  On the flip side, what people like best are tweets that share valuable, insight tips and information, including links to more extensive content the person tweeting has created and posted elsewhere.  To leverage the appetite for the latter – and avoid tweet trouble at the same time – try taking the teaser tack.

A teaser is a carefully crafted sentence, phrase or headline that “hooks” readers into wanting more. Then provide your link to the location of the content that will satisfy the curiosity you’ve just piqued. The idea is to provide enough substance to attract attention, but not give away the news or the “punch line” in the tweet itself.

Teasers that pose a provocative question are one proven way to go.  @GuyKawasaki, who has almost half a million Twitter followers, is a master at crafting teaser type tweets, including many that are questions. They are usually very short – barely half the allotted 140 characters – and usually include a link (using a URL shortener).

Teasers are powerful when used right, but can also hurt you in the long term if used badly. Avoid overpromising in your teaser.  If the “payoff” for the person who takes your tease is unfulfilling, they are less likely to bite the next time.  But if the content at the other end of the tease is high quality, you’ll get the response you seek.  Also try to tweet about news that’s as fresh as possible (and hasn’t already been tweeted a thousand times by everyone else), provide enough context around your tweet so people understand what it’s about, and don’t over-do the use of #hashtags.

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

And Willy, in fact, is a proxy for millions of local business owners who grasp the importance of social media but simply don’t have time to experiment with using it for business purposes.  As new products and platforms are devised to help business owners use social media effectively, the balance will shift, given social media’s power for cost-effective marketing.  While Twitter remains a mystery to many business owners, its popularity is skyrocketing based in part on how simple it is compared to Facebook or Google+.

Costolo is the man leading Twitter’s charge.  He became CEO in 2010 and previously launched and ran several smaller businesses, so he knows what it’s like to take risks, meet payroll and wear multiple hats.  I just met Costolo at a UCLA/Anderson School of Management leadership seminar, courtesy of Dean Judy Olian (@DeanOlian) and entertainment mogul (not to mention owner of NBA’s GS Warriors) Peter Guber (@PeterGuber).   Costolo is super articulate and has great passion for what he does as well as the confidence to lead Twitter to the Promised Land called IPO.  

What Makes a Tweet Great

Since the price of a seat at the table in Olian and Guber’s seminar is a confidentiality pledge, there’s much that can’t be said here of Costolo’s behind-the-scenes revelations, but a couple of things are up for grabs.  In particular, Costolo’s take on “What makes a great tweet” is something everyone business person should know, as it describes effective communication in general.  Costolo didn’t even need 140 characters to say it:  Here it is in a mere 47 characters:  “A great tweet is a caption for something bigger”

Hmmmmm.  “Something bigger.”  That’s where millions of tweets fail every day to pass the greatness test.  If you only have 140 characters to say something, too many tweeters fall into the trap of saying essentially nothing.  You need a “backstory” as they say in the entertainment biz – something that entices people into thinking or looking further. As we’ve said often here at 140Main (our name, of course, derived from Twitter’s 140 character length limit on tweets), the art of tweeting well is to entice and engage followers with useful information.

By thinking of your tweets as “captions” you can stay focused on the bigger “picture” behind what you are saying.  Is there something else you can offer as a link? An idea, tip or thought that can help others see that bigger picture?  If so, your tweets will rise above the noise and gain more attention.

Embrace the 140 length limit. To Dick Costolo, Twitter’s inner beauty lies in that simple constraint and it’s unlikely that will change. In fact, the latest studies show that slightly shorter tweets in the 120-130 range generate the best response.

Follow us @140Main

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

Busy local business owners don’t have that kind of time to spare, so deciding whether or not Facebook actually makes sense for your particular business is critical.  In other words, is spending the time worth your while? In many cases the answer is a resounding yes. But not always, and taking a realistic look at what it takes to maintain a social presence is one of the first steps small business owners should take. 

A good lesson comes from Sarah Skerik, a vice president and social media expert at PR Newswire, who recently helped a friend with a niche business decide whether or not Facebook was worth the bother.  Skerik helped her friend systematically evaluate the social media marketing opportunity in the context of her business of boarding and training horses for people who actively compete in horse shows.

Sarah believed Facebook would be a great fit for her friend’s business.   It has a good regional footprint, local associations running horse shows are active on social networks, and so are riders and trainers. That quickly answered the first critical question any business owner needs to ask: “Are my customers and prospects present on this particular social network?”

If the answer is yes, proceed to the next square. But in addition to being time-strapped, many business owners are not terribly inclined toward social media generally, and Facebook in particular.  Most are simply not heavy online networkers, so that’s a factor too.  

That’s a disadvantage because in order to get the most out of a social network, you must have a decent, if not proficient understanding of how the network works and how to use it specifically for business purposes.

As you consider these issues, be realistic about your willingness to spend time learning. But also be aware of how spending that time can benefit your business. Those benefits include:

• A way to build awareness among a specific community or group of people who are interested in what you provide.
• Staying ‘top of mind’ with your market through an ongoing stream of messages.
• The ability to rapidly communicate with audiences once you’ve established a good following.
• A way to subtly communicate with potential customers, and spark word-of-mouth recommendations.

Facebook is not a one-way street, notes Skerik, who manages social media for PR Newswire.  “It’s not simply a conduit for marketing messages.  You can’t just post sales pitches and expect to gather any sort of audience.”  Here’s a realistic baseline of what you’ll need to do:

1. Commit to posting content – a mix of text, pictures and video – every few days. Daily would be better.
2. Keep an eye on your Facebook “wall” to ensure that content posted by others is relevant to your business and not spam, and to watch for comments or questions.
3. Respond to any comments. You don’t need to be a slave to Facebook and constantly obsess over comments, says Skerik. But you should check them nightly and respond to anyone who took the time to write on your page. You don’t need to spend a lot of time on it, but you must pay attention.
4. Build social media connections with related businesses and experts on Facebook.  Connecting with these people builds your network over time and increases visibility for both you and your business.

 Too many local businesses get sidetracked on social media by establishing a page that either doesn’t help them or they can’t realistically maintain.  Having a Facebook page might do your business a world of good.  But only if you are ready and willing to do your part. 

[Unlocking Social Media for PR by Sarah Skerik is an excellent ebook and available for free download.]

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

Five Types of Posts to Consider

1)    Bite-sized Business FAQs:  Most businesses get asked the same questions over and over. Develop a list of the things people ask most about your product, service, business or industry – along with some they don’t ask, but you wish they would – and supply brief, informative answers.  Don’t post your list all at one. Instead, offer them up in bite-sized pieces from time to time as helpful tips that provide extra value to people who visit your social media page. If you already have an FAQ section on your business website, avoid simply linking to that.  Doing so forces customers or prospects to make extra effort to click through to your website and find the answer.

2)    Offers and promotions:  If you are having (or planning to have) a sale, run a contest or offer discount coupons, by all means announce and offer them on your Facebook page. But when it comes to promotions, some words attract attention better than others. Good words include: event, offer, new and win. Words that        tend to turn people off include: exclusive, free, discount and limited. 

3)    Photos, graphics or other visuals:  People love eye-catching photos, interesting charts or graphs, illustrations, videos or other content they can grasp at a glance.  Be sure images are decent quality and charts tell a simple story. Poor quality pictures or complicated graphs won’t help.  If you sponsor local events, teams or causes, that’s made-to-order photo material for your Facebook page.

4)    Links to interesting items you’ve seen elsewhere:  This requires the least amount of work on your part. Whenever you see or read something that would help your customers in some way related to what your business does, save the link in a “helpful links” list.  Then share those links with a brief explanation on your Facebook page.  This shows customers you are looking out for their interests beyond simply trying to promote your own business.

5)    Your own helpful tips or articles: If you already have a blog, this is easy since all you have to do is put your blog posts on your Facebook page.  But you can also write articles for your website or write brief updates directly to Facebook.

Five Topics to Avoid

1)    Negative comments:  One of the worst things you can do is talk trash about a competitor or customer.

2)    Unverified information: Even if you are in a rush to share news or other information, take time to get the facts right.  Many business owners have shot themselves in the foot by jumping the gun on announcements that contain incorrect dates, times, prices, phone numbers, addresses, directions or other vital information.

3)    Out-of-the-blue subjects: Stick to topics that have relevance to your business and your customers. When you stray into unrelated topics you quickly alienate your audience.  People take time to visit your page because they see you as an expert in your area of business, so don’t blow.

4)    Overly personal information and opinions:  There’s a fine line between being open, personable and opinionated and going over the line into rants or personal details that should remain personal. Applying the “is it useful to my customers” test will help.

5)     Confidential business or customer information:  This is common sense but still trips up some businesses that post such information innocently or by mistake. Think first, and only hit the publish or submit button when you are confident that what you are about to post is appropriate.

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

The first thing to remember about values is that they don’t change.  Values are part of your business DNA.  Ask yourself: Why does my business exist?  And don’t say something lame like “to serve our customers.”  That’s not a value.  Much as a person’s values define who he or she is, a company’s values define what the business stands for (not merely what it does).  And although many smaller businesses don’t consider themselves to have a “culture” in the sense that larger companies use the term, every business has a culture of some kind, knowingly or not.

Values define your business and how you want the people who work there to interact with others.  Well-articulated value statements use words such as integrity, innovation, accuracy, loyalty, accountability and teamwork, among others.  A business defines its values so everyone has a clear understanding of what they are and can contribute to them as they make decisions and set priorities.  Your established values also guide your hiring decisions.  Values should be a constant that keeps your business on track though the many challenges it will face in the future.

Vision is different.  Your vision is future-focused, and while values are a contributor, vision is about developing clarity and purpose around the most lofty, world- or market-changing goals you have.  This is your great aspiration for the business. It’s where you want to get to in, say 10 or 20 years.  But it’s not about growth rates or revenues, it’s more about what you want your business to create or achieve over time.  That vision won’t be easy to realize and may require constant course changes, hard work and many accumulated successes over time. As you define your vision, shoot for clarity and focus.  It’s tempting to talk in fuzzy terms that are difficult for others to interpret, much less follow.  Employees, partners, investors, vendors, customers and others must be able to grasp your vision for it to work (they don’t have to agree with it, just understand it).

Only now you can talk about strategy.  The most important thing to know about strategy is that it changes all the time – in small steps or radical revisions.  That’s critical because business conditions, markets, competition, consumer preferences and a wide range of other factors are constantly in flux. If your strategy remains fixed, you are doomed.  Strategy is the roadmap you use to achieve your vision and reach your goals, guided by the GPS of your values.

Whatever it is helps put your name and your “brand” (if you have one) in front of potential buyers. The point is that they are sharing something about you, and that’s (almost) like money in the bank. It helps you develop a unique identify for your business, yourself or your brand and creates more opportunities to interact with customers and prospects and develop the all-important relationships that lead to repeat customers and referrals.

Building social currency for your business is one of the most important value-building marketing moves you can make today.  And it doesn’t have to cost you money.

Vivaldi Partners, a large brand management and consulting company, recently conducted a study to identify how the most successful businesses are building social currency. The study identified six crucial factors that determine social media success – the “Social Sixes:”

1. Affiliation: What your business does in social media helps people feel like they are part of a community of some kind.
2. Information: You provide valuable information that people can share with others.
3. Utility: Your social media initiatives help people get more value from what you offer.
4. Conversation:  Your approach gets people talking about your business or brand.
5. Identity: Your efforts help others express part of themselves to others through whatever products, services or brands you offer.
6. Advocacy: Customers and prospects are motivated to speak positively about your business and recommend it to others.

The more of the “social sixes” you accomplish, the more social currency you earn to drive and grow your business.  To earn it, you may find yourself interacting with customers in new ways. For example, granting customers access to special information or inside knowledge is a powerful way to connect. And once you do, you’ve essentially gained permission to interact further with those customers or prospects.

Remember that earning social currency is not an end in itself – you can’t use it to make a payroll. To start earning social currency, develop a social currency strategy for your specific type of business. Consider which of the “social sixes” above might work best for your type of customers. For example, a fitness club might concentrate on providing valuable fitness tips that people can share, while an auto dealer might share photos and videos of new models.

It’s usually not one single factor that earns a business social currency, but a combination of factors in both the online and offline worlds. Vivaldi’s research findings make another crucial point: Social currency CAN be managed. Don’t buy into the trendy notion that customers are totally in charge. The facts show that people embrace businesses that help them solve the problems and challenges of daily life. That’s where you want to be. What customers want is for you to provide meaningful solutions to those needs, and using social media to demonstrate your ability to do that is a fantastic way to earn social currency.

Look for ways to use social media to specifically drive value for your customers, including ways to save money. If you can rally around a single vision and concentrate your efforts there, so much the better. Then replicate that vision in different social media settings, such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. But choose carefully, since your choices need to be the social networks where your customers tend to congregate, not necessarily where you like to go yourself.

Copyright © 2000-2011 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

According to Cassino, social media marketing offers local businesses an easy way to sidestep expensive local media advertising channels and deliver their offers directly to potential customers.

In the latest survey of more than 4,000 small firms conducted by Borrell, local business owners, on average, said they expected to devote about 14 percent of total online ad spending this year to social media.  That’s more than double the 6.6 percent social media allocation by local businesses in 2011.

Put that into dollar terms and it represents a spending increase from about $1.1 billion last year to projected spending on social media this year of over $2.2 billion by local businesses.

And Borrell’s market research experts say local business is still just getting started. They expect Main Street businesses to double spending on social media marketing again by 2013 to over $4 billion.  And over the next five years, spending on social media marketing by local businesses should jump seven-fold, according to Borrell.

In short, the trend means one thing: Social media will continue to play an ever-growing role in the marketing activities of U.S. businesses both large and small for many years to come.

But just what are these “Social Media” the researchers are talking about.  For most small business owners, the dominant player is Facebook. But the social media universe includes many other key players, including Google+ (which launched its business service just a month ago), YouTube and Twitter, along with ethnic networks such as Blackplanet, Latpro Network and Muxlim. Add to that the business-oriented sites such as LinkedIn, Focus, Quora and Ryze, plus thousands of other special interest sites.

Local business owners still split their online ad spending among several different methods. Email marketing – with a 17.4 percent share of spending – is still the largest, although social media is likely to overtake it soon. Search engine marketing (such as Google Adwords) is second with a 15.1 percent share.  Social media is third, while business directory listings occupy fourth place with a 12 percent share of the typical business owner’s ad wallet. Other top categories include banner or display ads, streaming video ads, mobile, sponsorships and audio (podcast) ads.

Here are five success tips for social media:

1)    Don’t wait. Start using social media tools right away. Startups should take their brand into the social sphere from Day One. Having a solid online presence will help professionals and other local business owners quickly gain access to an audience that will read and comment on your products and services. It’s also a great way to listen in on what customers are saying, monitor the competition and stay abreast of trends.

2)    Name your Facebook business page carefully and keep it separate from your personal page.  Changing the name once its set is difficult.  Use an adaptable name, like stylist, hair pro, financial services professional, etc.  

3)    Spotlight others on your Facebook business page.  Give credit to employees and clients.  These people will in turn “Like” your page and share positive reviews – a powerful resource for attracting new clients.

4)    Let everyone know you’re socially connected.  This gives you an advantage over your competitors who might not be as actively involved.

5)    Create content that will engage your audience. Develop a list of topics that will interest your customers and prospects.  For example: Talk about trade show events you’ll be attending (before, during and after). Share business-related photos and videos and tips of the day or week. Showcase events and people from your local or business community.

Copyright © 2000-2011 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.