Google Offers, a daily deals program engineered by the search engine giant to compete with Groupon, launched in Portland, Oregon last April before expanding to New York City and the San Francisco area. After a successful beta launch in all the requisite tech markets, Google Offers announced that it will launch in five new cities: Austin, Boston, Denver, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. READ MORE
Stephanie Tilenius, Google’s vice president of commerce, visited VentureBeat’s MobileBeat 2011 conference in San Francisco to discuss her company’s plans for mobile and online payments. Tilenius, who is responsible for Google Wallet and Google Offers, the company’s payment system and “daily deals” loyalty program, respectively, believes the company is just getting started. READ MORE
Anybody who uses public transit knows scheduled departure times rarely match up to actual departure times. To improve that situation comes Google to the rescue, which is now providing live transit updates on its Google Maps mobile and desktop platforms, initially in six international cities: Boston, Portland, Ore., San Diego, San Francisco, Madrid, and Turin. FastCompany’s Ariel Schwartz checked in with Google to find out why big cities such as London and New York weren’t included. READ MORE
We reported earlier about Google’s official foray into the mobile payment system with Google Wallet, but that wasn’t the only announcement out of Mountain View today. The company also introduced Google Offers, which will deliver a Groupon-like local “offer of the day” to your inbox—which you’ll be accessing through your NFC-enabled Android phone, naturally. READ MORE
Scott Kurtz was looking for a way to promote his 10-year-old Web cartoon business when he decided to broadcast himself drawing the strip, an ode to video games and the geeks who love them called PvPOnline.com. After some initial experimentation, the 38-year-old Dallas resident hit on a winning formula: he draws the strip directly onto a touch-sensitive computer screen and live streams the video and audio over a website called Ustream.tv so fans can watch him work. At first Kurtz was self conscious about sharing his creative process with the world. But once dozens and then hundreds of fans started logging on at any given time — and sticking around to chat with each other and buy the strip’s merchandise — Kurtz got a lot more comfortable with the concept. “They really are getting to know me, they’re getting invested, and that’s the X factor between a causal viewer and someone who might want to buy something,” he says. Like Kurtz, small business owners are starting to use live streaming in all aspects of their operations, including sales, marketing, and customer service. Broadcasting in real time Live streaming is like podcasting with a few major exceptions. Both consist of an audio or video segment broadcast over the Internet. But while a podcast is recorded for future download and playback, live streaming happens in the here and now. Unlike the solitary experience of listening to a podcast, broadcasters also link live streams to chat rooms and other social networking features so viewers can exchange comments with each other while they’re watching. Live streaming is taking off in and out of business circles because the equipment that’s required has become plentiful and cheap. It’s also been helped by a proliferation of Internet-based broadcasters such as Ustream, Livestream.com, and Justin.tv that small business owners can use to stream their feeds for little or nothing. In many parts of the country, companies that would rather not take on the logistics of live streaming a meeting themselves can now hire a live streaming producer or consultant to do the work for them for hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on the length and complexity what’s being produced. For do-it-yourself types, a basic live stream set up doesn’t cost much. Must-haves include: A reliable high-speed Internet connection and some kind of video input — a high resolution or high-definition video camera is recommended but even a PC’s built-in webcam will do Audio from a video camera or stand alone microphone A computer with enough processing power and memory to handle upload speeds of 500 kilobytes per second for normal broadcasting or 1 megabytes per second for HD pictures Kurtz, the Web cartoonist, uses a free software program called CamTwist to stream what appears on his Mac’s monitor to Ustream, and Audio Hijack Pro, another free program that lets him stream audio from his video camera, Skype, iTunes, or another audio source. Though she can’t quantify exactly how many of Livestream.com’s 450,000 active channels are run by small businesses, the number is growing, says Deborah Kornfilt, the New York City company’s head of content and partnerships. Among them: Network Solutions, which streamed its recent GrowSmartBizConference on the network; Women’s Enterprise Network, an Ohio-based organization that runs a channel devoted to promoting women in business; and a retailer that streamed a fashion show to market its wedding dresses. “They had a contest to win a wedding gown and used live stream as an incentive to bring traffic to their site,” Kornfilt says. Like several other live stream broadcasters, Livestream.com offers a free service that’s supported by advertising, as well as premium plans with lots of extra, including a white-label player companies can put on their own website. At Livestream.com, premium plans cost $350 and $1,250 a month for additional channels and storage as well as HD-quality video. Hiring a live stream producer Businesses that would rather not do their own live streaming can hire Internet broadcasters and live event producers to do the work for them. SLL Productions in Portland, Ore., handles everything related to designing, setting up, and broadcasting an event. The firm, run by husband and wife team Mike and Cami Gebhardt, also provide extras such as conducting interviews at a company’s event and broadcasting them along with the event’s main stream. “It provides a deeper online experience for people who can’t attend” in person, Mike Gebhardt says. Joe Christiansen, owner of Blaze Streaming Media, also of Portland, thinks of himself as a virtual event coordinator, staging a client’s live stream, testing Internet access at a meeting space and capturing e-mail addresses from people who watch the live stream for the client to use for lead generation afterward. He also acts as the liaison between his client and the live stream broadcaster and provides extras that a Livestream.com or Ustream might not offer. Such customization doesn’t come cheap. Christiansen’s fee for live streaming an event runs $1,000 to $10,000. His bill to live stream an Oregon soil company’s three-hour fall meeting, including running multiple cameras and live chat was $3,500. Christiansen’s fee also included statistics on exactly how many minutes each one of the company’s customers tuned in, information sales reps will use in follow-up calls. “Times are tough and their attendance was down” but the live stream gave the company a way to connect to customers anyway, he says.
Last year when Joe Pulizzi got serious about using Twitter to promote his business, he downloaded an add-on application for the social network called TweetDeck and configured it to send an automated greeting every time someone new started following his tweets. Almost instantly, the Cleveland, Ohio, marketing consultant’s connections let him know on Twitter any kind of automatic message is a big no-no, whether it’s an innocuous “Hi, thanks for following, how’re you doing?” or the most blatant self-promotion. “A couple people replied right away to say, Joe, this is lame, it’s basically spam,” says Pulizzi, owner of Junta42. After two weeks he shut the auto-replies off and hasn’t been tempted to use them since. If you’re using Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn in your small business, the last thing you want is to alienate potential customers before they’ve even gotten to know you. So along with avoiding automated replies, industry experts and companies that have successfully navigated potential social media faux pas say it’s best to have a strategy and share it with employees who’ll be representing the business online. Though it’s a new medium, the rules of old-fashioned etiquette and common sense apply. Here are other common social media mistakes small businesses make, and what they can do instead: Posting without a plan — Going on Twitter or Facebook just because it’s there isn’t a good enough reason and could lead to sticky situations if employees post something inappropriate or inadvertently disclose confidential company information. Kent Lewis, a social media marketer and head of Anvil Media, in Portland, Ore., recalls the time an intern at a local hotel he works with was given statistics about the property’s competitors — and immediately shared the info on Twitter. “It made her look stupid,” Lewis says. “We didn’t realize we had to coach her on life, not just social media.” Before you do anything, figure out how Twitter et al fit into your company’s marketing or customer service strategy, then decide how to use social networks to get that message across and make sure employees are on board, he says. Repeating yourself — A tweet or status update to announce the latest post on the company blog, a new customer win or some other good news is okay. But broadcasting the same message over and over is not. Unfortunately some newcomers don’t figure that out and post the same tweet or status update over and over, making them look like the newbies they are, according to Lewis. Selling 24/7 — It’s okay to use social networks to plug whatever your company sells or does. It’s not okay to do it in 100 percent of the time. A one-trick pony is a major turn off. Instead, mix promotional tweets with links to industry news, and retweet interesting things people in your network are saying. Do it long enough and your connections will come to know and trust you as a voice of authority in your industry, and will be more accepting of your promotional tweets, Lewis says. Faking it – Some companies mistakenly think that no matter how many people represent their business online — whether it’s one or 20 — everyone has to tweet or post in a single voice, either through a made-up mascot or persona, or by using a certain tone or language that tows the company’s party line. That works in some cases, but it’s hard to pull off, Lewis says. The better solution is to coach employees on what is and isn’t acceptable, then let them be themselves. Farming it out — Some companies pay “ghost tweeters” or outside experts to run their social media strategy. Wrong, Lewis says. Comcast developed a huge Twitter presence by putting their best people on it for tech support, and making sure they responded quickly to customers’ problems, he says. “It was minimal cost for maximum return,” he says. Of course Lewis believes companies should hire social media consultants — he would or he wouldn’t be in business. But if you do, use them to craft a plan and train your employees, not speak for them, he says. Today all that advice makes sense to Pulizzi, the marketing strategist, who now spends a good chunk of time traveling through the United States and Europe preaching the gospel of social media. Pulizzi also recommends against solely using Twitter or Facebook to re-tweet or repeat what other people say. “To be regarded as a thought leader or solution provider, you need to have your own content,” Pulizzi says. The worst thing small businesses can do is look at Twitter and other social networks as just another sales channel. “Marketers are horrible publishers,” Pulizzi says. “They want to create content about their products and services. There’s a time and place for that, but it’s not social media. You create relationships with social media, so when people are ready to buy they look at you as a trusted resource.”
While the economy limps along, Chris Cunningham’s heating and air conditioning business in suburban Indianapolis is enjoying unprecedented success. Business at Service Plus Heating and Air Conditioning is up 40 percent since Cunningham passed out a new tool to his technicians earlier this year. Moving much of his business to iPhones has transformed his operation, says Cunningham. “It has really set us apart locally, set us light years ahead of my competition,’’ Cunningham says. “It has changed everything. I’ve been able to hire two extra technicians.” Business applications for iPhones are expanding at a mind-boggling pace. You can manage your payroll, bank accounts, transactions, appointments, communications, and more from an appliance small enough to slip in a pocket. But does it make sense to move almost all of your business operations to an iPhone? Is it possible to be too reliant on the iPhone and its many apps? The answers, say the experts, depend much on what type of business you’re running and what sort of functionalities you require. Putting mobility in new hands The ability to conduct business via the iPhone or a smartphone is bringing connectivity to the blue collar workforce — or at least the blue collar workers who toil from location to location, notes Luc Vezina, director of product marketing for Protus, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business communications company. “I’m always amazed at how often it’s the people who aren’t in the office setting who are using this stuff,’’ says Vezina. “Now you can give a smartphone to an employee where it didn’t make sense to give them a computer. You have people who were before doing paper-based tasks and giving them a smartphone isn’t costing you as much as providing a computer and an Internet connection.” For businesses that move functions such as service orders and credit card processing to an iPhone at work sites, the benefits are readily apparent, says Cunningham. He notes these improvements: More efficient customer service. With the flick of a thumb, his technicians can show manufacturers’ websites with furnace specifications. On a standard proposal, each model number links back to the manufacturer’s site. Bills, pricing forms, and estimates are loaded and ready to go. Cunningham, who says wryly, “I’m not a computer programmer,” spent a weekend creating the forms using FormSpring’s Web form builders. He spends just $30 a month for the FormSpring service. “My guys can produce three or four estimates effortlessly,” Cunningham says. Quicker turnaround. Businesses that rely on writing orders in the field can particularly benefit from using iPhone apps. “We used to have to do a paper carbonless copy, and it would take a 24-hour turnaround,’’ says Cunningham. “Now, when a technician hits send, I know instantly what he’s done, what he’s charged. Mitigating human error. Handwriting can be difficult to read. Workers without any great love for completing forms can be sloppy or forgetful. “We had a great office staff before, but the road block was always my technicians,’’ Cunningham says. Cost savings. Cunningham spent $1,200 on six iPhones and pays about $700 a month for AT&T service, less than his phone bill was before. He saves the money he spent printing orders, and he figures the expense is a far cry from the $10,000 to $15,000 he would have spent on other automation systems he considered. Performing so many business apps on iPhones and smartphones clearly works well if you’re not tethered to an office. Vezina sees real estate agents, truck drivers, and construction supervisors taking advantage of the apps. Marc Cantell and his Chinook Materials team use Egnyte, a virtual file server, to pull up architectural drawings or contracts at construction sites in suburban Portland, Ore. The best business apps are single purpose and easy to use without much of a learning curve, Vezina advises. When using an iPhone doesn’t make sense Still, there are times when an iPhone won’t suffice. An iPhone or a smartphone work well when you’re not trying to enter a significant amount of information, points out Vezina. Trying to write a lengthy e-mail? Working on multiple files at once? Manipulate a complicated website? You don’t want to abandon your laptop or PC just yet. For folks who work extensively with spreadsheets, the trend is actually toward bigger monitors, Vezina says. Cunningham still uses an office PC to run Quickbooks. And while some business apps are a revelation and are transforming the way we do business, others are downright buggy, says Mark Kadrich, CEO of The Security Consortium, a business security consulting company. He particularly dislikes the inability to effectively edit documents. “Yes, there are apps that allow you to edit documents, but give me a break!” he says. “They’re buggy and difficult to use. There’s no way for you to see how a doc looks, not to mention being able to print something.” Kadrich and others also caution that they still have security concerns about vulnerabilities in the iPhone platform. Reliability is an issue as well for Tony Nestor, CEO of Progress Technologies, Inc., and a software developer. Enjoy the benefits of connectivity, but remain a bit cautious, he advises. Back up data elsewhere and have an alternative appliance readily available. “As a small business owner, I have found our iPhones and Blackberry devices to be crucial to staying connected while on the move,’’ Nestor says. “Er, that is until they stop working. I would say moving everything over to mobile is a lot like the old saying, ‘Putting all your eggs in one basket.’’’
In the age of Facebook and Twitter, the old-fashioned business card lives on. But there’s nothing out-dated about the next-generation of business cards, most of which are smart phone or Web applications or hardware-software combos that people can use to swap contact information and social network profiles. Here’s a look at some of the newest: Poken It looks like a toy, but the miniature character with the oversized hand hides a USB drive that stores a name, address, phone number, social networking accounts and other traditional business card information in an encrypted personal ID number. Meet another Poken user and swap information by pressing the infrared sensors embedded in the hands together to give each other a “high four.” Plug the USB drive into a computer and it brings up a Web browser and downloads any new contact data into the user’s account on the Poken website. CEO Stephane Doutriaux created the device while finishing MBA school in Switzerland in 2008. Since then he’s raised $2 million, moved the company’s headquarters to Silicon Valley, signed up distributors in 25 countries and struggled to keep up with orders from places like Germany and The Netherlands that have gone gaga over the tiger, geisha, panda, alien and 20-odd other Poken characters. In the United States, Poken was completely out of stock in late May, forcing fans like Kelly Guimont, a Portland, Ore., tech support specialist and avowed lover of all things digital, to wait until sometime in June for new shipments to arrive. “I want a Poken so bad I don’t even know what to do with myself,” Guimont says. “They are so the cutest things ever.” They may be cute, but they serve a real purpose and unlike some smart phone-based business card apps, Pokens don’t need a constant 3G connection to work, Doutriaux says. On the horizon: a Poken convention badge. DropCard To set itself apart from other digital business-card apps, DropCard is retooling itself to appeal to salespeople and other hardcore business types — think of it as the LinkedIn of business-card apps. According to company founder Tal Raviv, once the revamped service goes live later this month, members can log onto the DropCard website to see which parts of their profile information new contacts clicked on, data they can use to do follow up phone calls or e-mails. “We decided to sell not the technology, but the benefits,” says Raviv, who started the company in 2008 with backing from a Philadelphia incubator while an undergraduate engineering student at University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in May. When the new DropCard comes online, three tiers of service will be available: a free, basic level for sending five DropCards a month; a $5 level for up to 25 cards, and a $10 level for unlimited service. Rather than handle marketing and sales itself, DropCard is pairing up with small businesses like print shops to act as resellers. “It adds value to the (print) business cards they provide,” Raviv says. Bump Until she can get her hands on a Poken, Guimont is making due with Bump, a free application on iTunes that lets two iPhone users tap or “bump” their respective mobile phone screens together to swap contact information. Other software developers have used iPhone’s application development platform to create similar business card-like programs, including SnapDat and beamME. EverNote While not specifically a business card substitute, this software application for noting things you find on the Web or taking pictures of them with your mobile phone can act like one. EverNote uses optical character recognition to parse text from an image and store it so it can be retrieved at a later date. Portland tech enthusiast Guimont uses EverNote instead of Bump to swap contact information with people she meets who don’t use an iPhone. “With EverNote on the iPhone I pick up a business card, take a picture and put it back. I can’t remember the last time I picked up and kept a business card,” she says. CardScan The 16-year-old company, now part of Newell-Rubbermaid, helped invent the business card reader business. Since then, CardScan’s product line has grown to encompass a variety of scanners and software applications for individuals and small businesses. One of the newest: a Mac package that includes a scanner and contact management software that debuted last fall. Other business-card applications: twtBizCard – Transmits contact information via Twitter by adding the “#twtbizcard” hashtag to a standard Twitter @reply. Contxt – Transmits social network profiles and contact information via smart phones. iPhone business card apps – A list of additional business-card apps on Mashable, the social media blog.
In four and a half years since Sarah Shaoul started a website for BlackWagon, her children’s boutique in Portland, Oregon’s trendy Mississippi Avenue neighborhood, she’s worked with four search-engine optimization consultants. Believe her when she says a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist that’s a good fit for a small business is hard to find. The first SEO expert Shaoul used was her business partner at the time and didn’t know as much as he claimed. The second SEO consultant did some great work but never really grasped her store’s high-end business concept, and after he raised his rates she couldn’t afford him any more anyway. Then there was the guy who stopped returning phone calls — he checked in eventually to say he’d changed his business’ direction and no longer did SEO work. Shaoul is happy with her current SEO advisor, but only because they spent considerable time up front hammering out exactly what the specialist was going to do. Says Shaoul: “Every time we hire someone we gain a little more insight.” According to Internet marketing experts, Shaoul’s experience is par for the course for small businesses looking to hire outside SEO help to promote an online store or just improve their standing in Google searches. In many cases, small businesses don’t know where to look for SEO specialists, or once they find candidates, don’t ask the right questions to separate the good from the bad. “A lot of people approach it like it’s magic,” says Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land, an SEO industry news website. “But really it’s like finding a dentist or plumber. You’re hiring another service professional, someone to do a very specific job.” Where to find SEO candidates Small businesses like Shaoul’s are barraged by cold calls or e-mails from consultants promising to improve their rankings in organic or paid searches. “99.9 percent of the time you should ignore them,” Sullivan says. “Those kinds of pitches tend to be from low-cost, low-quality people.” Good people are too busy working they don’t need to make cold calls, he says. Instead: Ask business acquaintances who they use, or get referrals from your professional network on LinkedIn, Sullivan says. If they recommend someone who’s too busy or pricey, ask that person to recommend someone. “They may know someone who’s starting to build a client base” who’d be willing to work for less, he says. Look up SEO consultants through a local or national SEO trade group, such as theSearch Engine Marketing Professional Organization. The national group has a searchable database of members on its Website that can be used to find SEO contractors by their specialty. Once you’ve identified prospective candidates, check out testimonials or case studies on their website. If there aren’t any or if they’re very old, stay away, says Kent Lewis, president at Anvil Media, a Portland, Ore. interactive marketing agency. Ask for three references, then ask for three more to get an even broader perspective, Lewis says. Proposals and fees When you find someone who clicks, work up a proposal. SEO and search engine marketing specialists offer a broad range of services, everything from performing website assessments to optimizing sites for keyword searches to undertaking an extensive paid search campaign. It also helps to have a budget in mind going into negotiations, Sullivan says. Being as specific as possible about both will help an advisor come up with a game plan, he says. While overall SEO fees depend on the kind of work that’s done, fee structures can be all over the map. SEO professionals may charge by the website page, hour or project, or ask for a set monthly retainer to cover a pre-determined amount of work. Some even take a small percentage of whatever revenues are generated from their work, according to Lewis, the Anvil Media executive. Other advice from the pros: Beware of guarantees — Anyone who guarantees your website’s position in paid or unpaid search engine keyword rankings. If they make guarantees, they may be using “black hat” methods to bend or break generally accepted SEO practices to get those results, methods businesses should steer clear of, Lewis says. Guarantees “are smoke and mirrors and most of the time if they don’t make it they won’t make good on their promise,” he says. Use a local — Hiring a hometown SEO specialist could be helpful if it makes you comfortable, but it’s not necessary, according to SEO experts. Regardless of where they’re located, it’s smart to check with the Better Business Bureau in the consultant’s home town to see if they’ve received any complaints. Find someone who understands your business – Share what you’ve accomplished so they’re not suggesting things you’ve already done, says BlackWagon’s Shaoul, who learned those lessons the hard way. Have your company’s Webmaster or Website developer sit in on meetings with the SEO consultant to translate jargon, Shaoul says, “so you can focus on what you do well.”
In four and a half years since Sarah Shaoul started a website for BlackWagon, her children’s boutique in Portland, Oregon’s trendy Mississippi Avenue neighborhood, she’s worked with four search-engine optimization consultants. Believe her when she says a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist that’s a good fit for a small business is hard to find. The first SEO expert Shaoul used was her business partner at the time and didn’t know as much as he claimed. The second SEO consultant did some great work but never really grasped her store’s high-end business concept, and after he raised his rates she couldn’t afford him any more anyway. Then there was the guy who stopped returning phone calls — he checked in eventually to say he’d changed his business’ direction and no longer did SEO work. Shaoul is happy with her current SEO advisor, but only because they spent considerable time up front hammering out exactly what the specialist was going to do. Says Shaoul: “Every time we hire someone we gain a little more insight.” According to Internet marketing experts, Shaoul’s experience is par for the course for small businesses looking to hire outside SEO help to promote an online store or just improve their standing in Google searches. In many cases, small businesses don’t know where to look for SEO specialists, or once they find candidates, don’t ask the right questions to separate the good from the bad. “A lot of people approach it like it’s magic,” says Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land, an SEO industry news website. “But really it’s like finding a dentist or plumber. You’re hiring another service professional, someone to do a very specific job.” Where to find SEO candidates Small businesses like Shaoul’s are barraged by cold calls or e-mails from consultants promising to improve their rankings in organic or paid searches. “99.9 percent of the time you should ignore them,” Sullivan says. “Those kinds of pitches tend to be from low-cost, low-quality people.” Good people are too busy working they don’t need to make cold calls, he says. Instead: Ask business acquaintances who they use, or get referrals from your professional network on LinkedIn, Sullivan says. If they recommend someone who’s too busy or pricey, ask that person to recommend someone. “They may know someone who’s starting to build a client base” who’d be willing to work for less, he says. Look up SEO consultants through a local or national SEO trade group, such as theSearch Engine Marketing Professional Organization. The national group has a searchable database of members on its Website that can be used to find SEO contractors by their specialty. Once you’ve identified prospective candidates, check out testimonials or case studies on their website. If there aren’t any or if they’re very old, stay away, says Kent Lewis, president at Anvil Media, a Portland, Ore. interactive marketing agency. Ask for three references, then ask for three more to get an even broader perspective, Lewis says. Proposals and fees When you find someone who clicks, work up a proposal. SEO and search engine marketing specialists offer a broad range of services, everything from performing website assessments to optimizing sites for keyword searches to undertaking an extensive paid search campaign. It also helps to have a budget in mind going into negotiations, Sullivan says. Being as specific as possible about both will help an advisor come up with a game plan, he says. While overall SEO fees depend on the kind of work that’s done, fee structures can be all over the map. SEO professionals may charge by the website page, hour or project, or ask for a set monthly retainer to cover a pre-determined amount of work. Some even take a small percentage of whatever revenues are generated from their work, according to Lewis, the Anvil Media executive. Other advice from the pros: Beware of guarantees — Anyone who guarantees your website’s position in paid or unpaid search engine keyword rankings. If they make guarantees, they may be using “black hat” methods to bend or break generally accepted SEO practices to get those results, methods businesses should steer clear of, Lewis says. Guarantees “are smoke and mirrors and most of the time if they don’t make it they won’t make good on their promise,” he says. Use a local — Hiring a hometown SEO specialist could be helpful if it makes you comfortable, but it’s not necessary, according to SEO experts. Regardless of where they’re located, it’s smart to check with the Better Business Bureau in the consultant’s home town to see if they’ve received any complaints. Find someone who understands your business – Share what you’ve accomplished so they’re not suggesting things you’ve already done, says BlackWagon’s Shaoul, who learned those lessons the hard way. Have your company’s Webmaster or Website developer sit in on meetings with the SEO consultant to translate jargon, Shaoul says, “so you can focus on what you do well.”
