Over 2.5 billion emails were sent.
Florists sold 6 foot tall roses grown 10,000 feet above sea level.
Pet owners in the US spent $815M on little PhePhe.
2.16 million lovers tied the knot.
212,946 babies were born.
And while all that was going on, a small company in Vancouver had their biggest day ever.
(Yup, it was Spokal’s busiest day of 2013!)
Since it was the holiday of love, it got me thinking…
So, you need to write a blog post. And you’re here because you don’t know what to say.
Let’s fix that, shall we?
Here are 3 blog post ideas for your small business that you can do right now.
How often do you chat with a customer? How many questions do you answer when you’re with them? 10, 20, maybe even 100?
There are a ton of posts on “how often to post.” I think there are more posts than lost puppies in the USA.
But few give you a straight answer, especially if you’re a small business owner. Most hum and haw and say, “post between 0 and a Google times and you’ll be set.”
Oh thanks, that’s helpful!
There are many ways to skin a cat. There are many ways to do social media. But you need clarity. So we’re giving you an answer by showing you what works using simple math.
Do you think about this when you blog, tweet or Facebook?
How long will it last? Aka how long will your post be visible, and how long will it be current.
Good morning Vancouver, Canada, USA and the rest of the world!
We’re excited to share that we just got featured in Canada’s biggest tech blog, as you can see below, which is pretty exciting.
But Spokal isn’t about us – it’s about small businesses everywhere. Which is why we’re sharing this with you.
We’re really looking forward to empowering small business owners to make it easier to market their companies online, so they can spend more time doing what they’re good at, whether that’s teaching yoga, doing their clients’ books or selling houses.
“There is a growing trend towards more micro-commerce, real craftsmanship, and people actively supporting local and community businesses. Demand is growing and there’s more value being placed on purchasing or sharing unique products and experiences. Spokal’s approach to delivering an automated online marketing tool is about giving people a chance to make their small business succeed….”
You’ve all heard it – you need to keeping work harder. It will pay off.
Nope, I disagree.
Seriously, when was the last time you took a break and had a little fun?
Last night I went for drinks with some entrepreneurs, and they reminded me how important it is to get outside and do something different, even if you’re tired or busy or you just don’t feel like it. We all have excuses, what sets us apart is what we do with them – do they win, or do you?
Here are some of the top tweets that caught our eye last week. As you can seem, most of them are focused on inbound marketing for small businesses.
So there’s a reality show for just about everything. And now, CNBC is launching another show just for small businesses! This one’s focused on helping those of us who are in a rut – it’s called “The Big Fix.”
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Entrepreneur @EntMagazine | Jan 19 |
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Casting call for a new reality TV show “The Big Fix” where small businesses will receive makeovers. t.co/b3v9fE0o
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Small business is big business.
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Buy Local ilm @buylocalilm | Jan 20 |
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Small businesses are most likely to generate jobs for young workers, older workers and women, provide 67 percent of first jobs.
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Great article on how small businesses are using YouTube to market themselves online.
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Bengaluru Social @bengalurusocial | Jan 16 |
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Inbound Marketing: Small business builds YouTube channel t.co/Rxtk01m8
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DwightMiller @DwightMiller | Jan 16 |
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What Is Inbound Marketing and Why Should I Use It? – Spokal t.co/31rXtT7Q
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So it’s my birthday today. (Haha, thanks!)
And among all the wishes, cards and fabulous chats with friends and family, I started thinking about milestones. I think it’s only natural to stop on your birthday and think about where you’re going, and what you want to accomplish over the next 365 days.
Even though it has only been 2 weeks since NYE, the hype of goal setting has died down. I bet by February most of us will have “lost” “misplaced” or “conveniently forgotten” our resolutions, if we made them at all.
So instead of taking a holiday we all love and trying to make it count for more than that, let’s celebrate those milestones and make goals on other days when we’re more focused. For many of you, that could be today.
Well, what are they?
Want to improve how you market your business online? Since it’s 2013, I’ll let you in on a little secret.
While perseverance is admirable and often rewarded, blind persistence can lead you down a rabbit hole you’ll never get out.
You only have 24 hours a day, less the time you choose to sleep, eat and spend with your loved ones. So choose wisely. If you’re not enjoying how you market your business online or your general experience online, instead of forcing it, adapt. Ask yourself – what don’t I like about it?
When I meet business owners who tell me they don’t like social media or they don’t want to use it, what they’re really saying is that they haven’t found a way to share the stories they love to share in person, but online.
Maybe you’re more visual, and Pinterest would be perfect, but that expensive consultant said that if you didn’t tweet 7 times a day you wouldn’t make it. Maybe you love to write blogs, but a friend suggested you spend your time finding and sharing “good content” to increase the reach of your Facebook page. And really, who reads blogs anyways. Maybe…
We thought so too!
The blogging experience for small business owners is broken. It’s not fun or easy to share their story online. Which is sad, because almost every small business owner we meet has a remarkable story to tell.
We want small businesses to love sharing their story online as much as they do in person, so we created a fun Drag & Drop editor in Spokal. It allows you to easily create stories in a short period of time. You can add big and beautiful photographs right from the editor and see what people are saying on the web about a topic and drag that into your post.
This is only the beginning. We’ll be adding drag and drop YouTube, the ability to modify the messages that you post to Facebook and Twitter, and more!
Let us know what you’d like to see.
We were praised in high school for getting straight As. It was all about dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s, and following instructions to nth degree.You’d get penalties for spelling mistakes and not formatting your paper right. For not handing in a paper on time or being late to class. The school system is designed to streamline you to be as “perfect” as you can.
So it’s no wonder many of us are afraid of blogging. It’s not that we don’t know what to write, or that it will take us too long, we’re worried that it won’t be good enough. That it won’t be perfect. That someone will call us up and say, “
I can’t believe you wrote that. What were you thinking
?”That fear is enough to put the “do a blog post” on the back burn, eternally.And who’s to blame?
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