Business blogs are becoming an increasingly common way to expand a company’s online presence. Six months ago I asked does your business blog? According to Hubspot, the number of companies that blog has risen 17% in the last two years to represent 65% of all businesses surveyed. That increase is not at all surprising to me. After all, as well as improving search engine rankings, blogs can be one of the most cost-effective marketing tools available to businesses. With so much competition online, they have become a powerful channel for both developing brands and generating sales.

While blogs continue to mystify many companies who think that they are just for people expressing their personal opinions, more and more businesses are realizing the hidden powers that a business blog can provide to their sales and marketing efforts. Even successful B2B blog case studies are beginning to appear. Continued…

Loyal customers can be an important driver of sustainable business growth. They’re usually much less price-sensitive, can be nearly immune to competitive entreaties, and can become a powerful marketing arm, going out of their way to promote and defend your company online and off — for free.

If you’re looking for ways to foster greater customer loyalty, consider these tips.

1. Anticipate customer wishes.
When a customer’s need is met before it has been expressed, it sends the message that you care about the customer as an individual. It doesn’t require telepathic ability, just paying attention and knowing your customers.

It’s well worth the effort. The cared-for feeling a customer gets when her wishes are anticipated is where you can generate the fierce loyalty. Continued…

There is a tendency when you sit in front of a computer to believe you can do it all. Write a book? Make a movie? Trade options? It’s all at your fingertips. Armed with basic software, a template and access to stock imagery, who among us doubts their ability to create a halfway decent brochure? Drop in your copy, product shot (yes the one from your phone looks fine) and bingo! Congratulations!! You’ve just saved your company thousands of marketing dollars!!!

Who needs that expensive designer with her paper swatches?
Or the ad agency with their strategy documents and account service? You did it yourself. You’re ahead of the game. But here’s the problem: The home-baked piece of marketing you’ve just spent $123.00 printing at Kinkos could lose you business.

This happened to me last week.
I was at a social gathering and met a reasonably pleasant man who worked for a company that I thought matched one of our client’s needs. It’s always good thinking to proactively help a client—however and whenever you can and I immediately thought of referring the man’s company. He seemed smart and likable. I could help them both. Continued…

As mentioned in my previous column, “SEO and Integration With Social Media,” B2B and B2C companies across the globe are beginning to trust social media as a viable strategy and are jumping in head first. There is no doubt that social media has become a global phenomenon. However, in order to achieve its true value within the SEO context, as well as to not outdo yourself in the early stages, there are a number of organizational strategies that should be incorporated early on in the process. The two strategies outlined below will yield a higher ROI sooner rather than later when starting out and may help you avoid scratching your head asking “Why am I not ranking for this keyword?” “Why is there no scrolling window of tweets in the SERPs about the keyword?” or “Does it have anything to do with the fact that my efforts are fragmented across too many channels?” Continued…

Over the past few months, Google and Bing have started to allude that they are beginning to increase the impact of social media content and links on their search results, citing that social networking activity is a strong indicator of what might be most relevant to consumer searches. The impact of these developments is likely to spread far and wide, as the positives and negatives of this new factor begin to reveal themselves and take shape. From the perspective of a digital PR, social media or SEO agency, the changes have the potential to significantly influence key priorities; below are a few aspects of search and social media activity that we may see changes in over the coming months: Continued…

According to SocialMediaToday; Big Opportunities for Small Businesses in Facebook Pages Redesign

Facebook has redesigned the pages which, for most of the small business world, are our business pages. These new changes are similar to the individual pages in the layout, however, there are quite a few other changes that are big opportunities for businesses to take advantage of to make their pages much more interactive and functional. Continued…

I am a student of Rick Fowler’s Kenpo Karate for over twelve years. What I love about the practice of martial arts is the energy and discipline involved, and, of course, the practical aspect of learning about body mechanics and how to apply these body mechanics to the self-defense techniques. But what is most important in self-defense training is that after one has been doing it for a while, the mind begins to change to become more alert, prepared and ready to respond. This cannot be taught, this change comes through practice, the practice can be from class training or simply from living in a stressful environment.

Having lived in NYC for several years (pre-martial arts training), my mind adapted to the daily stress of the subway, people invading my personal space and all the crazies on the street, and my awareness and readiness became sharpened. This did not happen right away, I had to experience some pretty uncomfortable things first. After awhile, even though I did not technically know how to fight, I was sure I could clobber someone if they came near me… it was 100% mental.

It’s not a new concept that martial arts principles and disciplines carry over to leadership in the business world. As Sun Tzu said in “The Art of War”, a gospel for military strategies and tactics, strategy is not planning in the sense of working through an established list, bur rather quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions.

Further, martial artists learn to develop focus and control, maintaining calm and concentration in the throes of stress. Relaxation, breathing, timing of responses, balance, keeping your center and the importance of combining all these skills are necessary for great leaders. So is non-advoidance and confronting what must be confronted. Whether in front of your staff or in front of your Board, the skills we learn in martial arts carry over to make us better, more credible, more decisive leaders. Listen, learn, use the energies of others, know your opponent’s strengths, know yours, pick your battles, and above all…never let ‘em see you sweat.

Sandy Mozur
2nd Degree Black Belt, Kenpo Karate

Savvy marketers and business owners have flocked to Foursquare (Foursquare) to take advantage of their 4.5 million members for one simple reason: Foursquare (foursquare) requires action. Conversations on Twitter (Twitter) and fan engagement on a brand’s Facebook (Facebook) Page can be valuable pieces to a successful social media marketing campaign, but user activity at the point of sale is the ultimate objective for us marketers and business owners. We ultimately want action, and geolocation networks like Foursquare deliver the goods.

The marketing opportunities for retail stores on Foursquare are obvious. Users physically check in to a location and if you offer a special, they can redeem it. But even without a special, Foursquare leads to foot traffic, and foot traffic leads to revenue. Pretty straightforward.

But what if you’re aren’t a retail store? What if you don’t have a physical location at all? Can Foursquare still help you market your business? Absolutely. Foursquare has already partnered with several large brands without traditional locations such as Bravo and the History Channel. These partnerships were heavily publicized and came with specially customized badges, but they also cost big bucks. Continued…