What is Small Business Saturday?

Small Business Saturday is the Saturday after Thanksgiving that has been dedicated to shopping locally and supporting small businesses. It comes right after Black Friday and before Cyber Monday. The unique thing about Small Business Saturday is that it's meant to draw attention to small businesses in your local community, rather than just the big box operations.

It’s unusually quiet here at The Bubble this week. Our delightful bosses (who we miss!) are visiting their daughter. Even the office dog isn't here to welcome us each morning. Instead she's off gallivanting around the backyard of a friend’s home. Still, there’s a whispered buzz of finger typing, problem solving, and the occasional discussion of why in the world such-and-such is trending on Twitter. It’s unconventional times in the office like this that cause a pause - just long enough to get our brains out of the small business online marketing world for a moment – to reflect. In the spirit of Thanksgiving our staff shares what we’re grateful for.

“Content is king” is not a new concept, but it seems to be one that many marketers easily forget. It shouldn’t be. Quality content is one of the most important aspects in marketing, especially from an inbound perspective. Content is the driving force behind the inbound method of Attract, Convert, Close, and Delight; quality content is what moves a prospect across each step.

As quality becomes more important for hiring within all industries, company culture is also increasing in necessity not only for the employer, but for the job seeker as well. The culture can shift drastically in many cases for the better or the worst. This can include clashes in values or even change in employee morale. But first let’s start with the basics: What is this company culture that we speak of?

You work so hard to make your company great, striving for excellence in even the small things because you know that great companies are made by a thousand little efforts. You know about your company’s passion, quality service, and how you can really benefit your target market. The question is, do your [potential] customers know? It’s always a challenge to make your company known, so to help you out here are a few of the digital marketing services that will help to build your brand awareness.

Facebook has updated its targeting capabilities for advertisers that allow for much more specific targeting than before. If you're running paid ads on Facebook as part of your social media marketing efforts to get traffic to your site, this is great news. Details are below, but a quick note – you have to be using Facebook’s Power Editor presently to access these capabilities.

Are you evaluating your business marketing strategies and planning for the next quarter or the next year? Taking a good look at your current strategies and campaigns is always wise - then it may be time to look at how to further your business with new strategies.

We all do it. We check our Facebook on a regular basis and we are always looking for technology to make our lives easier. So it isn’t surprising that Facebook is making it easier for businesses to sell products online. This week’s business news from Half a Bubble Out is to give an update on social media marketing and to help you decide if your business is up to snuff.

In today’s market, many customers no longer rely on conventional advertising to find solutions to their various needs. The prevalence of search engines like Google has streamlined the process of pre-purchase research, giving users immediate access to the most informative, accurate answers to the questions they ask.

Because search engines have refined their methods of searching so well, marketers have to put their full effort into making sure their online marketing content appears as high as possible on a list of search results. This practice is called search engine optimization, or SEO.

So you want to develop an online marketing presence and get your site noticed. You want customers to start coming to your site in droves. You want to make sales from those website visits too so that you’re not spending all of those marketing dollars for nothing.

All of this sounds nice, but it won’t just happen on its own. If you're trying to build your online marketing presence, a blog is a great place to start. It can take the form of written content, infographics, images, or videos (or a mix of these). It can be “how-to” in nature, a checklist, or any kind of helpful information.

Social media has had a huge impact on marketing and communications since its inception. Over 2 billion people use social media, meaning a significant portion of the world’s opinions, thoughts, and purchases are being influenced by social media.

Google may be smarter than you thought. Next time you search for something, that search might be answered by a machine called RankBrain that can learn and figure out what you are trying to find. Call it creepy, or call it cutting edge and game changing, but it’s here.

This story broke in a recent Bloomberg article, which had the following to say:

"When Google-parent Alphabet Inc. reported eye-popping earnings last week its executives couldn’t stop talking up the company’s investments in machine learning and artificial intelligence.