One of the most valuable commodities any small business can have is time. When businesses are just starting out, the number of employees may not be able to handle all of the tasks that are necessary to properly market the business. Social media is a great way to save time in this area, but eve then it can still take up a lot of time.

For this reason, some small business neglect social media and assume it’s not very important in getting the word out there. To small business environments that don’t have enough time to run the most basic of tasks, social media and other internet tools can seem like a novelty more than a necessity.

But if you need proof of how much time and money social media can save while also spreading the word about your business, we can look to Hollywood as an example. The speed at which movie news hits the eyes of readers is remarkable.

Many studios have learned that when they can properly leverage social media, they can build more hype around a movie than paid advertisements could ever hope to generate. Why spend thousands of dollars for a full page spread in a popular publication when you can release your own form of marketing online for free? More than that, through social media, studios and their directors can get an incredibly early idea of the sort of feedback their project is going to get from the public.

In 2012, The Dark Knight Rises managed to gain an insane amount of buzz when Christopher Nolan and the Warner Brothers studio released the first two minute trailer, totally unprompted, online. Later, the first few minutes of the film was released online prior to its full theatrical release. The internet went crazy and for several days, most social media platforms were drowning in talk about the movie.

Small businesses can implement these same types of reactions on a smaller level. Sure, you may not have the power and pocketbook of a Hollywood movie studio, but when you learn how to best approach your audience, a simple blog post or video posted on YouTube can go viral in a matter of hours. Never before have small businesses had a better chance to reach a more massive audience.

To neglect social media is a mistake. In fact, organizing your social media strategies and establishing an online presence should be one of the initial steps you take in forming your business. You may not get Batman-like results, but you have to start somewhere.

The popularity of e-readers has seen an influx in what are now being called “indie writers. These are writers that have decided to opt against going the traditional route of agencies and big name New York publishing houses. Instead, they are releasing their titles through outlets such as Amazon’s KDP system and Barnes and Noble’s PubIt system.

Many writers are making a killing at this. In 2011 and 2012 alone, the number of indie authors that made six figures at year’s end grew substantially. And there and more and more going this route.

So what are the tricks to becoming a successful indie writer? Well, while there is no tried and true formula, there seem to be a few common themes among those that have become successful.

1. Make sure your writing is up to par. Have a product people will want to buy and recommend to others. If you aren’t sure about your strengths as a writer, take some workshops and hire a professional editor.
2. Keep a strong Twitter and Facebook presence. Following and unfollowing people can be a hassle and a real waste of time, but if you can manage your time accordingly, you can create a valuable following in both of these outlets, creating a customer base for your writing that will only grow over time.
3. Keep your blog current and up to date.  Post relevant content and above all, make sure that you post about more than your own work and updates. Your reader want to see you as a well-informed source within your industry, so make sure your content reflects that.
4. When you release new books, make an online event out of it. Host giveaways, do a blog tour on other writer’s pages, and get creative. Use your Twitter and Facebook accounts to advertise and get new readers based on these promotions.

Being a writer that tries to build a following online is really not too different from a small business looking for new clients. The approach is the same, right down to branding. This indie writer movement is just another example of how social media is creating avenues for people to advertise themselves and become prosperous in doing so.

While LinkedIn is certainly not as popular as Facebook, many business professionals are still using it as an effective way to network and find jobs new business opportunities. Like any other social media outlet, your profile is essential to using LinkedIn effectively.

Check out the following three items to see if your profile is as strong as it can be.

Keep it Current:  You may have created your LinkedIn profile four years ago, when you had a job that wasn’t quite as alluring as your current position, Make sure your LinkedIn profile is updated regularly to reflect your current job status, availability, interests, and so on. Make sure your current goals and objectives are clear and that your current personality is coming through. While you previous experience is certainly an important factor for your profile, potential leads or clients want to know who you are now and not who you were years ago.

Get Strategic with Keywords: Make sure that your most appropriate and fitting keyword is somewhere in your headline. Try to designate your keyword to something related to your specialty and clearly identifies what niche or focused market you work in. Another great way to incorporate keywords is to go back to your profile; read through it and find any areas where a keyword can work as a descriptive way of substituting language that might otherwise be vague. You can do this in all areas of your profile, from interests to education. Because basic LinkedIn searches scan for these keywords, this is essential in getting noticed on LinkedIn.

Recommendations: Recommendations are a great way to let others know about you without coming off as an ego-maniac. Well-crafted recommendations from others are vital to being noticed on LinkedIn. While a bio section can obviously come off as being full of gloating and bragging, recommendations show others that you have impressed other people by your work ethic and personality. Recommendations are one of the most important ways for potential clients or leads to learn more about you without being skeptic of any biographical information.

Once your profile is up to par, you’ll start to see how much smoother your LinkedIn interactions can become. The trick is to use it as a business outlet and not a typical social media outlet.

Have you ever been on Facebook and got overly annoyed about a post that your mother-in-law wrote? Or maybe you saw o vulgar joke on Twitter that was posted by someone you (used to) admire. We’ve all seen something similar to these two examples somewhere in the field of social media outlets at some point.

This is exactly why many larger companies are being much more selective about the personalities they get to represent them in advertisement and other media. Even employees that are placed behind the control panel of the company’s social media presence are now being investigated with the utmost scrutiny.

And why not? If history has shown us anything, it’s that people sometimes let their mouths (and fingers) run away with them when they hit up Twitter or Facebook. Those that represent large successful companies are no exception.

Proof of this can be seen in two miserable cases from 2012. The first was when comedian and actor Gilbert Gottfried took to Twitter and started telling inappropriate jokes about the tsunami that hit Japan. While this is abhorrent enough activity for anyone, what makes matters worse is that Gottfried was the voice of Aflac at the time. His association with the company put them at risk of losing a large chunk of their client base, particularly in regards to Aflac Japan.

Needless to say, Mr. Gottfried was relieved of his duties as the obnoxious duck in their popular commercials.

A similar event occurred when an employee of the agency that handles Chrysler’s social media accounts made ill-advised comments on Twitter. The comment stated: “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to <expletive> drive.” The agency promptly released the employee and not long after that, Chrysler severed its ties with the agency. One can only guess at how much revenue that agency is now missing over such a ridiculous statement.

The lesson to learn here is that while social media can certainly be a great tol for your business, it can also harm you if you use it incorrectly. You may be able to delete a dumb comment that you wish you had have never penned, but on the internet, things have a way of never disappearing.

 Popular social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter are well known for their accessibility and the fact that they can be a great deal of fun. But underneath eh fin, as we all know, there are amazing business marketing tools. But are you using these tools correctly?

There are various ways to easily utilize Twitter to make sure people learn more about you and your small business. Here are a few no-brainers that some people surprisingly overlook.

Perfect Your Bio: 140 characters isn’t really enough to let people know the kind of person you are. For this reason, you need to make sure your bio is perfect. You don’t have a lot of room to work with, so make sure that you explain who you are and what you do while also showing your personality.

Organize Your Followers: A typical Twitter account will have followers that are business associates, friends, and celebrities. You can organize your followers into groups, saving you time when you are looking to reach out only to businesses associates. You can also ensure that you never miss important Tweets about your industry by organizing your followers.

Follow Strategically: Spammers are getting clever; you might be following a few and not even know it. To make sure you are following actual people, take the time to look at their Twitter feed. If they have been ending the same messages to multiple users, they are likely a bot or spammer. You can also determine this by looking their ration of followers vs. following. If they follow lots of people but have hardly any followers, they are probably just a spammer that will clog up your feed with garbage.

Go Public: Make sure people know you have a Twitter account. You can do this by adding your username to your e-mail signage, business cards, brochures, any signage for your business, and especially on your website.

There’s really no end to the simple ways you can use Twitter to drive new people to your website or business. Once you learn the basics of any social media platform you’ll ave a whole new skill-set to grow your business.

Knowing how to write effective SEO content is one of the key elements to getting your content to the top of a Google search and read by millions. As SEO has become something of an art form in and of itself, there are now numerous approaches to writing SEO content that reads well and communicates a message clearly.

While there is no 100% tried and true approach, there are several strategies that seem to help considerably.

Lists: Try to write your content with an article included. Within that list, be sure to insert keywords appropriately.

Be strategic: Don’t just shove your keywords into a chunk of content to get it in there. Readers are smarter than most SEO “experts” think. Most will glaze over a poorly written article and pay it little attention.

Don’t let keywords restrict your content: Many SEO writers use an approach that doesn’t even involve the SEO aspects until the very end. This method suggests that the writer constructs the content first and works in the keywords at the end. This way, your message isn’t restricted or weakened by your need to automatically drop keywords in. Here, the message comes first—and after all, that’s what means the most to the reader.

Have a strong title: Some writers get trapped in trying to craft a clever or witty title. However, the best thing you can do with a title is to allow it to communicate the body of the article in just a few words. Try to make it sound urgent or full of information.  Getting the keyword in there certainly helps but, like the content of the text itself, don’t limit yourself because of the keyword.

The numbers game: Try to include a number in your title specifically. Typically when a reader sees a number in the title, they know the content is going to get straight to the point; there are few surprises in these types of articles and the reader knows just how much information they will be getting.

Again, there are many other strategies for SEO writing. But if you can master these few basics, you’re on your way to creating compelling SEO content.

Every now and then it helps small business to take a look at some of the major marketing mistakes much larger businesses have made. It’s more than just seeing that even the pros get things wrong from time to time…it’s about learning from history. Here are just three of the biggest marketing blunders from the last 30 years that we could all learn from.

New Coke

 This incident tops nearly every marketing failure list out there. In 1985, Coca Cola company decided that it would out a fresh twist onto Coke in order to complete with Pepsi, a company that was gowing by leaps and bounds. Promising a new “smoother yet bolder taste,” the company put a lot of hype around the release of New Coke, having out about two years’ worth of research and tests behind it.

As we all know, the public essentially hated New Coke. They hated it so much that consumers were buying the traditional coke in droves to stock up. Coke eventually killed New Coke and promptly labeled their traditional and well-loved beverage “Coke Classic.”

Sega Saturn:

In 1995, Sega announced to the public that its new system, the Sega Saturn, would be released in September. The release was to beat the Sony Playstation to the market by a single week. However, in a desperate attempt to be first, several retailers managed to get their hands on the Saturn as early as May, selling it for nearly $400. This was not a move that was clearly thought out; early release meant that there were only six games available for the system, none of which had been properly screened or tested.

Backlash was, of course, drastic and the Sega Saturn never lived down the failure. Playstation, on the other hand, went on to become a major home gaming hit.

McDonald’s and the 1984 Olympics:

Amped up for the Olympics, MacDonald’s kicked off a “USA Wins, You Win” gimmick. Customers were given scratch tickets that awarded them free food based on the US receiving a gold, silver, or bronze. Of course, McDonalds had no way of knowing that the USSR would boycott the Olympics that year, resulting in the US taking home 174 medals. The lesson here is to never run a contest where you have no control over the freebies you’re handing out.

So let history show you what not to do and, most of all, don’t let your mistakes define you. Notice that out of two of these examples, the company survived and are doing just fine.

While social media still continues to be the juggernaut in the marketing world, many people often overlook the many uses that can still be found in simple e-mails. Let’s not forget that although e-mail might not be as much of a hot topic as recent Twitter or Facebook trends, it is still just as immediate and accessible as any other form of marketing.

As a matter of fact, when a marketing e-mail is crafted just the right way, it can still pack the same punch as a timely tweet or a poignant Facebook status. As a refresher, remember that e-mails are effective for a wide range of marketing tasks such as:

Personalization: E-mail allows you to take a more personal approach that social media tools just can’t offer. Not only are you connecting with them on a name-to-name basis, but you can also personalize their experience. For instance, perhaps you can offer them discounts or information on certain products or offers based on past interactions.

Easy Follow-ups: Not only is it easier to follow up with someone via e-mail (rather than doing it on Twitter or Facebook where everyone can see), but you can also start a dialogue about whatever issues or topics are relevant. E-mails allow longer and more well-explained sales pitches or explanations that social media either won’t allow or makes public rather than private and personalized.

Be Visual: In newsletters or just simple mails, you have the ability to include images or designs. Of course, when you place in-depth graphics or logos into your marketing mails, Spam filters may pick them up. To prevent this, you can stick to just your copy and provide links that will take them directly to your website and to the offer or discussion in question.

Please Your Target Audience: On certain social media platforms, anything you post can be Shared, Favorited or Retweeted. While this is certainly great—your message is getting spread—it is also being forced upon an audience that has no interest. With e-mail marketing, your mails are going to only those that have signed up for the mail through your website.

There is still marketing power in sending out e-mails, as long as they are well-timed and not flooding in-boxes. Make sure your message is clear, succinct, and offers some sort of benefit to the reader.

Are you a great marketer? Could you sell a gooey, dripping jelly dons to a woman in a crisp white dress? Do people hound you for your marketing expertise and knowledge?

If so, great! Your marketing swagger is no doubt the envy of your peers.  But before you gloat too much and balance the success of your business on your ability to sell and market, you need to take a good look at how you are presenting yourself. It’s one thing to market yourself like a pro…but it’s quite another to sound like an educated expert within your industry while you’re doing it.

This is why many successful marketers have relied on the services of professional writers. Sure…you’re king of the mountain at the marketing part….but a professional writer polishes off your message so that it really stands out. Not only can a professional writer make you sound like an well-spoken expert, but they can add value to your business in more ways that you might initially think.  Here are a few reasons you might want to consider hiring a writer for your business.

• A professional writer brings a consistent and fresh voice. Sometimes you can be so close to your business and the message you are trying to convey that it takes an outside force to truly connect that message to your audience

• You’ll save a ton of time in trying to fill the role of writer as you attempt to hammer out your marketing messages. Leave the writing to the pros while you spend your time on your next key marketing strategy.

• Think of using a professional writer to improve sales. This may not seem like a logical conclusion at first, but a good pro writer can make changes and improvements to your existing sales copy. Those that know their way around SEO writing can also do wonders for your website traffic and online activity.

• They can churn out more than external messages. A professional writer can also improve the communications within your business. Think about what they can do beyond ads, sales letters and brochures; they can also write up reports, website content, internal company newsletters and so on.

Maybe a professional writer is something you want to think about as a way to attack 2013 from a fresh angle. There are many writers out there that are more than capable of handling the wordsmithing, allowing you more time to grow your business