You'd think that people would have got the hang of email by now. I mean, hey, it's only been an integral part of most people's professional lives for at least 10 years, right?

Sadly, many people still have absolutely zero clue how to mind their Ps and Qs when sending an email. Here's some tips for them, and (hopefully) some entertainment for you!

Continue reading Email Etiquette...

Last year, I made some predictions for this year. My predictions weren't too bold, but it's always a risky proposition to attempt to forecast the future. Here's a quick summary of them:

1. A worsening economy will shake up the landscape but also offer opportunities
2. Customers will become more choosy
3. Online marketing continues to grow
4. The web becomes truly device independent
5. Social networking becomes mainstream

Let's take a look and see how they turned out.

Continue reading Last Year's Predictions: How Accurate was I?...

Everyone seems to be jumping on the social media band wagon. If you’re like many small business owners, you might be wondering whether you should too.

Perhaps you haven’t explored it at all yet, or maybe you dipped a toe by setting up a Facebook page but aren’t getting much response. What do you do?

Here’s a quick primer on getting started. No, reading it won’t make you the next social media sensation overnight, but you can get a great start in just a few hours and maintain an effective presence with as little as 20 minutes per day.

Continue reading 7 Fundamentals of Business Social Media Strategy...

Are you looking at your website the way your customers are? If you're only viewing and testing your site on computers (i.e. desktops and laptops), the answer is no—and it could spell problems for your business.

Your website's visitors will be increasingly using a variety of devices to access the internet: cell phones, MP3 players, game consoles, televisions, you name it!

If your site doesn't play well with these devices (the industry jargon is "device agnostic"), then you have some work to do.

Continue reading Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?...

Most small business websites suck. There's no getting around it. Whether it's due to a lack of budget, lack of taste, or too much faith in an incompetent development team (your business partner's nephew, perhaps?), most small business websites leave a lot to be desired.

Here's a quick checklist of some simple (and a couple of not-so-simple) points to help you evaluate your website and hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls.

Continue reading Small Business Website Checklist...