Facebook recently made a number of product and platform changes that affect companies and brands that market using the world’s most popular social utility. Here are five of the latest changes you need to be aware of:

1. Privacy settings for sharing: Privacy has long headed the list of concerns expressed by users of Facebook. As a result, Facebook has made a slew of changes that give users more control over who sees the content they create and post.

What this means for your business: Facebook wordsmithed the default sharing prompt that alerts users about who sees what they’re about to post. The default setting “Everyone” was changed to “Public,” and that subtle change taps into the human psyche surrounding issues related to privacy. “Public” clearly demonstrates that the public at large can view your updates, photos and more, whereas “Everyone” is ambiguous, or even folksy. That, of course, worked to the advantage of social media monitoring tools that rely on lots of public-facing content to fill their dashboards and analytic reports. The new “Public” label will likely result in fewer public-facing citations, which means businesses may have less to listen to.

2. Facebook Deals is dead: Facebook’s attempt to get in on the daily deal craze has ended. Facebook Deals, which launched in eight U.S. markets since April, has been discontinued. The company says it learned a lot from testing Deals and will continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses. (Note that Yelp this week announced that it would exit the daily-deals space as well.)

What this means for your business: Facebook Deals was only available to merchants in eight U.S. cities, so unless your business operated in or around one of them, you won’t be impacted by this development. In any event, there’s no shortage of daily deal sites interested in working with you.

3. Ad targeting by Topic: For businesses and brands advertising on Facebook, the company now allows you to target your ads by Topic, not just Precise Interests and keywords. Ad targeting by Topic combines overlapping Precise Interests, which in turn allow for easier targeting. For example, listing the Topic “cooking” will target Facebook users with related interests in “cooking,” “cooking tips” and “cooking and eating.”

What this means for your business: If you know your target audience has a set of interests, ad targeting by Topic eliminates the need to manage a complex list of keywords. The addition of Topic targeting also allows businesses and brands to run A/B testing, or split testing, whereby you run two versions of the same ad — one powered by Topic targeting, the other by Precise Interest targeting — and then determine which one generates a higher return.

4. Advertising restrictions eased: Facebook now allows the promotion of legal gambling operations — including offline casinos — so long as such ads are appropriately targeted. The company also eased restrictions on ads promoting dietary and herbal supplements that do not contain certain ingredients, including ephedra, anabolic steroids and human growth hormones.

What this means for your business: Lifting restrictions on what is often viewed as advertisements for somewhat unsavory offerings may case users to lump all Facebook advertisements into the same distasteful pool. Now, more than ever, truth and authenticity in advertising matters.

5. Places gives way to location tagging: Facebook is phasing out its mobile Places feature, which allowed users to “check in” to locations — including businesses — from their cell phones.

What this means for your business: The impact here is minimal. Users will still be able to check-into a geographical location and take advantage of check-in Deals created by your business. But instead of using Places, they’ll use location tagging to indicate where they are — possibly resulting in even more people tagging your businesses location.

Will these changes to Facebook help or hurt your business? Tell us how in the comments section.

In the age of social media, pop stars aren’t just burning up the song charts. Using social media, personalities the likes of Justin Bieber, 50 Cent, Puff Daddy and Kanye West have evolved beyond the music industry into some of the biggest brands online. Through a combination of social platforms including Twitter and Facebook, they’ve been able to create a conversation around their music and grow their fan base. They’ve also been able to promote their entrepreneurial ventures from fashion and films to sites and apps.

So how does the one and only rap icon Snoop Dogg handle the online game? Read More

If investment banks can break the economy; small businesses can start the healing process. Now that start up costs are lower than ever, thousands of talented and skilled individuals who are frustrated by lack of corporate opportunity will do what they’ve always wanted and become their own boss.

However, many small businesses are using old methods of marketing – leaflet drops, advertising in trade magazines and cold calling. All of these methods are expensive, unfocussed and, ultimately, soul-destroying. Read More

Social Media Marketing Chart

Most people aren’t really sure what social media actually is. In a nutshell, it’s a website that doesn’t just present information or a product, it’s a website that also interacts with the visitors and gives them a community feel. Some social media sites invite active comments and others are almost solely user driven.

Some examples of social media that works for companies would be a corporate blog that invited comments or photos of their product being used. A construction company may invite happy customers to post photos of build outs or repairs to show other potential customers how the service really works. Read More

By offering timely information of value, an email newsletter can be a great way to connect with your customers and business contacts to create an ongoing relationship.  Content is important to your Internet business strategy and eNewsletters give you another type of media to circulate your message.  Here are some of the other benefits of an eNewsletter:

• Keep customers and business partners informed of new products and services.
• Direct contact with people interested in your business.
• Opportunity to build reputation and brand loyalty. Read More

Internet marketing can attract more people to your website, increase customers for your business, and enhance branding of your company and products. If you are just beginning your online marketing strategy the top 10 list below will get you started on a plan that has worked for many.

1. Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy.

2. Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques. Read More

Search Engine Optimization helps your customers successfully find your products and services online faster with less effort.

The bottom line is an increase in motivated and interested customers to your website which means increased sales for your small business, club, school or association.

• Improve your Competitive Edge

• Expand Customer Base and target Audience Read More

Our Newsletter Features

With our E-Newsletter  Solution, you get to have access to reports on your subscriber list growth, campaigns you send, and you even get to send your own campaigns. Here are some of the key report screens in our E-Newsletter Solutions. Click on any screenshot to grab it in full size. Read More

Benefits of E-mail Marketing

It’s the easy, effective, and affordable way to keep your audience coming back!

Email marketing helps you keep customers and prospects coming back—by using attractive, professional-looking email communications to stay in regular touch with them and build strong customer relationships. It’s better and more effective than regular email.

Read More