Even if you’re not a fan of football and your company is in no way, shape, or form related to the sport, you can still find ways for your small business to benefit from the hoopla of the Super Bowl. Sure, the big game is just a few days away and it might be too late to use these ideas, but that gives you a whole year to plan for the 2014 Super Bowl!

 Make Your Own Commercial: You likely don’t have the estimated $3.4 million for a 30 second spot during the Super Bowl, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make one that you can put up on YouTube and market like crazy. Find some way to relate your business to the competitive nature of the Super Bowl. You can use this commercial or ad to tie in the two options below, as well. Keep in mind that if you do go this route, do not use the term “Super Bowl.” The NFL is very protective of their property and if they for some reason catch wind of it, you won’t like the repercussions. Try to use “Big Game” or similar wordage instead.

Promotional Gimmicks: Here is an area where you can get creative and have a bit of fun. Use the Super Bowl to create sales and other deals within your business. Some businesses in past years have given small discounts to any customers wearing apparel of one of the competing teams. Or, if you’re really gutsy, you could get as bold as a certain jewelry store in Maryland; they are offering refunds in full to any customers that purchase an item of up to $5,000 during the entire week before the Super Bowl…if the Ravens can shut out the 49ers. Of course, there has never been a shutout in Super Bowl History, but that’s still a big chance to take.

Attract Post-Game Attention: Hold a promotion based on the score. This could be anything from a discount based on the difference in the score or, as some restaurants have done in the past, free items in the amount of the difference of the score.

As you can see, even for those that are not invested in the Super Bowl, there can be some great ways to have fun with it while also promoting your business.

Monday’s post focused on the elements of a successful Super Bowl ad; so of course, it’s only fair to also analyze what makes a bad one. Rather than speculate on why certain Super Bowl ads fail, let’s take a look at a particularly bad ad that ran during the fourth quarter of the 199 Super Bowl.

Just For Feet, the growing shoe retailer of the time, was ranked 6^th in the fastest growing businesses and was poised to make a huge surge in 1999 – 2000. You can imagine their joy when management discovered that they had managed to nail down an ad in the Super Bowl.

Just for Feet spent a total of nearly $7 million on the ad. According to reports, the breakdown was close to these numbers:

• $3 million for the ad agency
• $1.7 for the purchase of the Super Bowl slot
• $2 million for additional ads in newspapers leading up to the Super Bowl

For those of you familiar with the ad and the backlash that followed, you are likely very familiar with the ad itself. If not, you can watch it here. (Apparently, the video has been removed from YouTube, having been purchased by AdLand).

In short: A Kenyan runner is blasting across the Kenyan landscape, being “hunted” by white men in a Hummer. The catch up to him, drug him and slap a pair of Nikes on his feet before driving away in a cloud of dust.

Almost immediately, newspapers and respected magazines were calling the ad racist and ill-advised.  The New York Times called it “Appallingly insensitive.” And that was among the kindest things said about it.

Just for Feet’s CEO responded to the criticism with an odd sort of denial. He went so far as attempting to sue the ad agency, claiming that the agency had assured them that such a message would translate well to the shoe-buying public.

When asked about the reasoning behind the ad, an agency representative stated:

What we were trying to say subliminally is: here is this athletic shoe retailer, who is either in your community now, or is coming to your community. And at the core of these people is a passion for feet, a passion for getting the right shoes on the right feet. Even to the point where perhaps they might go too far.

Consider this an example of a message stretched too far. The chaos that ensued from this advertising nightmare resulted in this rapidly growing and quickly dominant shoe store chain filing for bankruptcy by the end of the year.

The week of the Super Bowl is here, which means we can expect to be flooded with overly expensive and often overdone commercials. It’s no secret that even non-football fans will watch the game just to catch a glimpse of the huge marketing attack.

These are multi-million dollar commercials for brands that already have a foot planted solidly in their market. So what’s the big deal about getting Super Bowl ad time? Basically, it’s just that brand’s way of further cementing their product into the minds of the masses.

But behind all of the marketing blitz and seemingly limitless company budgets, what does it take to craft a successful Super Bowl ad? Most experts agree that there are a few common staples that any good ad needs to address when being pitched to such a wide audience.

Take the frustrations of the consumer into consideration.  If you can sympathize with their daily struggles and adapt that into your product and message, you’re on the right track.

Think about consumer emotion, particularly anger and worry. Figure out what makes your target audience overly emotional. Given that this is the Super Bowl, you will want to market to emotions like anger, fear, and worry rather than sorrow. Again, try to create your ad around a sense of empathy towards the problems to get the full effect.

What does your audience desire most of all? Scantily clad women work for more reasons than just eye candy; studies have shown that deep down, the majority of male audiences—particularly the younger portion—will indeed lean towards one particular brand if it promotes sex appeal or strength.

What are some trends your target demographic faces? Be realistic in your ads t generate a sense of identity. This is why you see a lot of successful commercials taking place in an office setting or inside a basic home environment. These are settings that your audience is used to and, therefore, can relate to on a more basic level.

Is another company selling a similar product or idea?  If so, ghost them. Find out their strengths and weaknesses and draft your ad to exploit that.

Watch the commercials closely this Sunday and you are guaranteed to find at least three quarters of the commercials working on these premises.

And of course, try to enjoy the game as well.

There’s no doubt that Twitter and Facebook are the most powerful social media tools out there. There Is no better way than to share content and interact with your target audience. However, while both are highly effective in serving the same purpose—growing your audience and getting your brand to the masses—users need to use different strategies to be successful on each one.

For instance, if you are looking to increase the number of your followers n Twitter, you will approach things differently than if you were trying to get more “likes” on Facebook. For starters, Twitter has a lot more cases people following accounts with the very basic strategy of hoping that person will follow them back.

Of course, if you are a big name in the business world already, your main point of attack is simply making sure that your clients know your Twitter handle. But if you’re lower on the totem pole, one strategy you can use is to follow relevant people and then retweet their content to your other followers. This will eventually help broadcast your account, accumulating followers along the way. This strategy shows us that it’s perfectly okay to follow people you don’t know personally. The thought behind this is networking to grow your number of followers.

The approach on Facebook is slightly different. Most of the time, it comes down to knowing someone before friending or following them. The difference here, of course, comes in that people of Facebook are a lot less likely to friend a complete stranger. With Twitter, on the other hand, your account can actually thrive when strangers follow your account.

Of course, Facebook accounts for businesses and celebrities are a bit different. Because these Facebook accounts aren’t overly personal and are a reflection of your company, it is more acceptable to have complete strangers Liking your page.

So, while most outlets for social media do indeed serve the same purpose, each tool has different strategies that need to be implemented in order to make them work for you. Keep this in mind as you incorporate more social media tools into the way your business is run.

Facebook users that have been a little uneasy about their often questionable privacy settings now have something else to worry about.  Actually, there may be more and more people that join this paranoid bandwagon as more light is shed on this new Facebook demographic-sorting tool.

Meet Facebook’s Graph Search. Its creator has claimed that the Graph Search will “transform its user experience….and torment privacy activist.” Not exactly a stellar pitch.

The Graph Search essentially allows users to filter through their friends with more accuracy. This is due to the Graph Search’s ability to reveal information about users that they probably didn’t originally want many of their Facebook friends finding.

Here’s a theoretical real-life example of how Graph Search works. Let’s say you are a man walking down a busy New York street. You are wearing a black shirt and a red hat. With Graph Search, people that pass you will not only be able to identify you as a male wearing a black shirt and red hat, but that you also enjoy reading true-crime thrillers, The Beatles, hot dogs, and your favorite baseball team is the Orioles.

In a more true-to-form example, Graph Search will let users search through not only their friends, but the friends of your friends. You can sort through them with specifics such as “Friends that enjoy classical music” or “Friends that live in Texas that work from home.” Graph Search will return a list of people that meet those exact specifications.

Sure, there is nothing wrong (fundamentally, anyway) about people looking through other pages and accounts that you have “liked.” But when your “likes” and interests have been rounded up as a means of targeted marketing, that’s when the privacy issue becomes shaky. There is a huge difference between meeting a new colleague that later looks you up on Facebook. But for that colleague to be able to target you by relationship status, previous places you have lived and worked, or the sort of TV shows you enjoy can get rather scary.

The key is here is to remain selective about the sort of information you post to Facebook—even when it comes to your user profile. If you don’t want someone knowing your specifics, don’t reveal them.

What say you, internet? What are your feelings on Facebook’s new Graph Search?

To someone that might not be particularly knowledgeable in the way site rankings work, backlinks may not seem like a very big deal. Of course, for anyone who has successfully run a site or tried to implement successful SE content into their site, it is apparent that backlinks pay a huge part in the overall success of your site.

Here’s how backlinks work: If another website quotes content from your site or refers its readers to your site via a link, that’s known as backlinking or, as some people call them, referrers.

Of course, getting free exposure in such a way is great. But do you know why, exactly?

Essentially, it shows that others have found your site and are enjoying it. More than that, they are enjoying it enough to link to your content from their own site. That means that people are staking their reputations on your content. Also, by being linked by a few other sites, your readership has the potential to grow substantially. Over time, if enough reputable sites link back to your site, your site is then seen as a reputable and popular site as well.

Of course, the opposite is true. If your site doesn’t seem to be getting any backlinks, it may mean that you are not generating significant traffic or that the content on your page could use some improvement.

Backlinks also play a huge part in how you website is ranked online. The more you are linked, the more exposure and activity your site is seen to have. Therefore, when people search for terms relevant to your business or specialty, your site will show up further up in Google rankings, making it easier for your target audience to find.

While backlinks aren’t the only thing that will improve your rank, it is certainly one of the most important factors. You can use social media to promote you content, making sure it is seen by potential back linkers. But the most important thing to is to keep a clean site that is packed with interesting content.

If you can do that, you’re already one step ahead of most sites that are eagerly hunting down backlink sources.

Keeping your website up to date with fresh and relevant content is one of the most important things you can do in terms of keeping your small business website looking professional. More than that, you also want your site to pop with a modern and fresh looking layout. Given that, you should keep an eye out for developing trends in the world of web design.

To save you some time, here are several trends in web design that are expected to be dominant throughout 2013. See if any of these apply to you and your business.

Choose a Type: If content is King, then typography certainly also has a place in the court. Finding new ways to lay out typography seems to be growing in popularity as a way to add character and a degree of pop to content-heavy sites.

The Big Picture: Similar to the typography trend above, more and more sites are using large images on their home pages. Some use it as a visual stimulator, some for content accompaniment, and others try to use it as a form of branding. Whichever reason you may have, it is certainly a way to leave a lasting impression in the minds of your readers.

Responsive Design: Most designers are indicating that a better responsive web design will come when designers start basing the design on the flow of the site itself and not based on the endless variety of mobile devices on which to view the site. The trick, of course, is to find a happy medium; try to adapt to all mobile devices and their specs while maintaining the integrity and function of the site.

Softer Colors: A lot of websites have started using more and more white space for their pages, giving a more relaxed and editorial feel. Those that are sticking with colors seem to be going for relaxed and calm color schemes. This is believed to present an easier reading experience and a simpler arena in which to deliver a message.

Take a look at your own site and see if any of these trends would help improve its design. If you’re uncertain, speak with your web designer and discuss the best approach to carry out the rest of the year.

Anyone that is not a writer has likely found the ordeal of incorporating SEO into your site without being obvious about it. The craft of SEO involves a degree of subtlety and, at times, even a bit of trickery.

If you’re having issues with placing SEO content into your site without sacrificing the writing, try incorporating these 3 tactics.

Create Longer Phrases: If your site is selling pet products and you write content where one of the SEO items is “squeak toys,” there are likely going to be countless other sites using this same phrasing. Making your phrase longer—something like “blue mouse squeak toys”—really make your phrasing unique. Making longer and more specific key word phrases ensure that your site will pop up closer to the top of a Google search.

Make Use of Alternative Text: Alternative text can be found within a picture or image used on your site. Because they are used as “alternative text” within an image, they can’t actually be seen by readers to the site. This allows you to add more weight to your SEO without hindering the quality of your writing. Of course, the picture and the alternative text both need to be relevant to your site and the topic you are writing about.

Utilize the Title: You title tag is one of the most overlooked tools when approaching SEO. Making sure you include your keyword phrasing within your title or title tags make sure the title will get caught by search engines. In terms of a search, a title tag can be one of the strongest tools at your disposal. And, because it is the title, the use of your SEO phrasing won’t be as glaringly obvious.

There is a bit of strategy in drafting effective SEO text; you want to make sure your content is picked up by search engines, but don’t want the copy to read awkwardly. Remember that the quality of your copy is the important thing. You can pull in all the readers you want, but if they all find your writing as sloppy and intentionally loaded with SEO keywords, your site can quickly get a bad reputation.

Twitter is perhaps one of the most unique social media platforms out there. With a simplicity and word limit to keep long posts at a minimum, it’s great for sharing links, quick info fixes, and networking. Of course, it’s a great place to meet some people and personalities that you might not have known about otherwise.

From pop culture heroes to social media gurus, here are 6 of the most well rounded and entertaining Twitter accounts you need to be following.

Weird News (@weirdnews): As the handle implies, this account is a great source for weird news from all around the world. This is a great release from when political headlines seem overbearing.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson): Astrophysicist and all around cool guy, Tyson’s account is both humorous and full of insights about science and the world around us.

The Mars Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) Here’s another one for the science geeks. However, this Twitter feed is constantly tweeting links about brand new pictures and updates from the Martian surface. This account is run by NASA but written in first person, as if the Rover is speaking to you.

Liz Heron (@lheron) As the head of social media outlets at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, this is a vital account for those involved in social media to be following. Liz is always having discussions and sharing link in regards to current social media trends.

Wired Magazine (@wired) A Twitter feed from the best-selling tech magazine, this one is full of info on the latest gadgets and social media advancements.

Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) As a best-selling author of fantasy for all ages, Gaiman’s feed is a must for bookworms or anyone with a general interest in pop fiction and quirky insights…all from one of the most unique writers of this generation.

The great thing about Twitter is that some accounts—like Liz Herron’s—provide their followers with comprehensive lists of other accounts to follow pertaining to your interest. So log on now and check out some of these great accounts!

In the past year or so, Pinterest has grown significantly, seeing its membership numbers grow significantly with each month. The allure of Pinterest may be lost on some. At first glance, it is nothing more than a place where people share links to interesting things that pertain to their hobbies or interests.

While you may have no use for numerous recipes (there are tons on Pinterest) or crafty do-it-yourself crafts (there are more than you can count), Pinterest does have a structure and accessibility that you can use for your small business. The fact that it is essentially a link-sharing site can work wonders for any business if you learn how to use it right.

The gist is this: it’s free, it’s social, and it’s growing rapidly. If you aren’t on yet, you need to be.

Still wondering how Pinterest can help your business? Think of it this way: by adding a “Pin It” button to your website, you add one more way to be discovered through social media. This allows easy access for others to discover relevant blog posts, photos or videos that are essential to your business.

Of course, standard social media rules apply. When you start making your boards, keep in mind that you want to create a Pinterest account that reflects your brand and services. Create boards that others will find interesting, but in a way that is relevant and easy to find. You can get an effective Pinterest start by pinning your own company’s content, but be sure not to overdo it; self-promotion is ugly in most social media circles, so you’ll want to include material from other sources as well. As your Pinterest following grows, this will be less of an issue.

Perhaps the best thing about Pinterest is that no one has quite figured out how to use it for their business. While it is essentially a content-sharing site for hobbies and other interests, any social media platform holds the potential to help your business grow by reaching a new audience.

The trick is learning how to utilize it. Maybe you’ll be the one that figures out how to make Pinterest work for small businesses.