Struggling to master social media for your business? That’s why we’re here! Social media is an important part of translating your business's personality, plus it can seriously boost traffic to your website. One small business that has used social media to get its brand in the spotlight is Coconut Bliss. Coconut Bliss is an organic dessert company based in Eugene, Oregon. Its ice cream now graces the shelves of Raleys and many other stores, partly due to its social media skills.

Have you ever heard of the term Best Practices?  If you’ve ever read a business book or an improvement book then you probably have. It seems like the term comes up all the time. One book says “best practices are amazing” and the other says “best practices are horrible,” but they never seem to define them. And it always seems to refer to big companies on the stock exchange and rarely about small business leaders like you and me.

Looking forward to going to work every day is a luxury not everyone has, but sometimes just a little bit of employee recognition can make a big difference in making your company a happier place to be. It doesn’t have to be a big extravaganza. It’s actually the little things day in and day out that will have the most impact to help create a happy culture in your company and make it a place your employees look forward to coming to each day.

Let’s face it, your marketing stinks. You know it, and so do your customers. This is partly because you are trying to do all of your marketing on the cheap and in house. Sure that might work for awhile, but if you're really serious about generating more business then it’s time to change.

There are many “life lessons” I have learned through the years and one of them is that some things are worth the money, while others are not. We usually learn this one of two ways: from our own experience, or if we are wise, we watch and listen to others’ experiences and learn from them.  I suggest the 2^nd route, but most of us learn by doing and experiencing.

This past Friday I had the privilege of being part of a group of “experts” at an event that ChicoStart put together called “Spring Training.” It was a bit like speed dating for entrepreneurs and startup companies. There were seven stations with experts in business pitch, funding, strategic planning, human resources, technical, legal and HR/Payroll, and marketing for startups. Each company or individual got 7 minutes to pitch their idea at each station and ask advice or get input. True to the baseball analogy, there were 7 innings, then a 7 inning stretch, followed by 3 more innings where they could go back to a station where they hoped for more input. By that 10^th inning of “overtime” we were all glassy eyed and tired, but what a great time! The participants I interacted with were enthusiastic and engaged, teachable and hopeful!

A new year brings new things to expect for how SEO services for small business will affect you. Here are three things you need to be aware of to keep your business website up to date with the new SEO trends. 

Whether it is your own personal reputation or the reputation of your business, social media is an important aspect of monitoring and maintaining it in the online world. When someone hears of a business or a brand and wants to know more or connect with them they search in the various social networks. So, why is social media important for your online reputation? Keep reading to find out.

“The Cloud” has become somewhat of a household term over the course of just the past few years, and for good reason - it has changed everything. The way we store, share and access data today is remarkably different than it was years ago, thanks in large part to cloud computing, a term first coined by executives at Compaq in 1996. It wasn’t until 2006, however, when Google and Amazon began to use the term frequently and the technology became a huge part of how the Internet operates.

In today’s world social media marketing is extremely important for your business. We know you’ve heard this before, it’s no secret. However, the most difficult part is knowing what social networks your business should actually be on. This blog will help you to decide if Pinterest is the right social network for you to promote your business on and if so, how to go about doing it.