Big Ideas for Small Business

Sarah Worsham has written a nice article on using Flickr to create a social community through posting product pictures. If you’re a retailer with a website, give this article a read.

from Practical Ecommerce by Sarah Worsham

Flickr, a photo sharing site, can be a powerful tool for promoting your products. Not only can you upload images of your products, where they can be seen throughout the Flickr website, but you can encourage your customers to participate and socialize with your company and products by uploading and sharing their own images of your products.

Included in the article:

• The Action Shot
• Social Hour
• Tag, You’re It
• Kick Start
• Rewards
• Who Uses Flickr on Their Site?
• Related Articles

Read the full article

from ProBlogger Blog Tips by Darren Rowse
With a new blog being started every second it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. Following are some tips on how to differentiate your blog from the millions of others out there. (more…)

This is the single biggest change in Google search since its creation and as a small business owner, you need to keep your eye on this ball. It’s basically this: Google users can order their search results, delete search results, or add new listings. Other Google users can see what they’ve done and even read notes they’ve left behind. Why should you care? How is this going to effect your hard-won top rankings? How will SEO and web marketing practices change given the boom in social networking site usage? Round up your peeps and start flexing those social network muscles now or you could be lost in the dust.

Here are some articles that give you all the details and a few thoughts:

• Google Launches SearchWiki for Custom-Ordered Search Results
• Google Gets Jiggy
• Google Intros SearchWiki
• Google Makes Major Interface Change to Search: SearchWiki

by Susan Sweeney, CA, CSP, HoF

FacebookIn my last newsletter we talked about social networking. I explained what it was and I gave you a few examples of where you could find it. So, today I would like to take one step closer to this new found beast and see if it has anything to offer in terms of using it to help your business grow.

Of course not all social networks are created equal. There are many different sites out there with very different opportunities. You must first determine what you want to achieve out of social networking online and then find the site that will give you the biggest benefits. Today we will focus on the ever popular Facebook. (more…)

Remember that clique in high school? That group of kids connected by some common interest or belief or personal characteristic? Or how about the Chamber of Commerce, your local church, the Rotary Club, or the Girl Scouts? These are all examples of social networks in our traditional world views. Now in the days of Web 2.0, we have numerous free online services that are allowing connections to be made between people and businesses and it can be hard to know where to begin or how you can use these services to promote your business. Many social networking sites are available and most target specific types of connections.

Here’s a short list of sites to explore and their intended focus: (more…)