Social media can sometimes be a popularity contest. Everyone is screaming for attention and there is strength in numbers. The influence of a social media profile can be measured by its number of followers. A huge number of followers implies credibility and certain social media “Influencers” even make money from their popularity via product endorsements. There has been a race to build followers and some people have found a shortcut, but at what cost?

Facebook has over 2 billion users worldwide. It’s where you go to catch up on the latest news from your friends and family, but it has also been an integral place for businesses and advertisers to show relevant content to you. On January 11, 2018, Facebook announced that they plan to change their algorithm to focus more on friends and family interactions. Their goal is to increase the quality of your time spent on facebook, and reduce the quantity.

You may have seen the issue of ‘Net Neutrality’ back in the news this week. On Thursday, December 14, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed the internet neutrality rules that were put in place in 2015. 

If you could be a fly on the wall in one of our Half a Bubble Out staff meetings over the past several months, you might hear phrases being thrown around the table like lean and classic survey results, or hyper-responsives, SMIQs and DDS. It might sound like we are speaking in code, but this fun new vocabulary all stems from learning a powerful marketing strategy known as the Ask Method®.  Are you scratching your head wondering what could be so revolutionary about ‘asking,’ or curious how it is growing businesses? In this interview, Michael Redman, Half a Bubble Out CEO, shares his personal journey of becoming a certified partner of the Ask Method^® and how it’s transforming the marketing industry.

When you walk through the doors at the Bubble, three things become very clear...

1. Environment

The first is that you have entered the workplace of visionaries, who decorate with drum sets and antique candy dispensers, (which I might add, are surprisingly comforting to the nervous interview candidate). The creatively charged environment speaks seamlessly to the culture of a Passion and Provision^® company. One that aims to engage anybody who walks through the door to dream big, pay attention to detail, and to think outside the bubble. Here, there is the inevitable promise that work can be fun, stories can be told, and businesses can grow.

Anyone who ever said email is dead is crazy! Email marketing is a powerful tool these days – and if you do it right, it can set your small business apart from your competitors. How? Timing, segmentation, personalization, and automation are just some of the ways email can be used to reach your target market and customers at the right place, at the right time. Did you know that 91% of internet users check email at least once a day on their smart phones? We’re willing to bet you fall into the category.

If you climbed on the internet this morning (of course you did!) you may have noticed your favorite sites weren’t accessible or working properly. Popular sites like Twitter, Netflix and PayPal, among others, were affected by a wide-scale attack on a major hosting server.

There have been multiple reports that the outages and problems have been fixed, but a quick trip to some of the affected sites reveal that many websites are still facing issues.

We found a great article from Gizmodo on the subject. They have been keeping track of the updates and have a very good pulse on the situation. Here’s a bit of their coverage from this morning:

Did you know it’s National Boss’s Day? We sent our two amazing head honchos to Hawaii! Well – kind of. They actually told us they had the opportunity to visit Hawaii and they were seizing that opportunity, so we sent them with our blessings – and that’s kind of the same thing. And you know what? They deserve it! Aloha! So in honor of National Boss’s Day, I asked our staff what they love most about Michael and Kathryn. Their words say it so much better than I ever could. Read what they said below!

You’ve probably heard of Pokémon Go -- it would be hard to miss news of this popular new social app. In fact, you’ve probably noticed a strange trend recently of people walking with a sense of purpose all around you while glued to their smartphones. I have seen this in my own neighborhood, where suddenly neighbors I’ve never even seen before are out walking and staring at their phones, almost like they're in a trance.

If you’re not familiar with Pokémon Go, it's basically an app for your smartphone that allows you to “see” Pokémon in the real world (your local streets based on your location), capture them, and train them to battle against other people’s Pokémon.

Pokémon Go and Your Marketing

So how does this relate to small business marketing? Clearly this game is the craze of the moment, but in my opinion it is always good to watch trends and see what people are interested in, especially with the rapid speed of technological change.

In a recent Adweek article, Tod Loofbourrow and Eva Barbier give us 5 things to learn from the success of Pokémon go: