Cha-ching!!!

  A couple of points for this Friday, just something to think about while you (hopefully) lay back in that hammock enjoying the cool beverage of your choice and thinking deep thoughts about growing your business through business social media.
     Point one.  The purpose of business social media is to market your services, etc. to the targeted masses.  That's great.  Hopefully you're busting those tweets and texts out there.
     Now, you also have to be able to monitor what you are doing and how well you are doing the job.  You may be thinking you need specialized tools to monitor and keep up with the chatter, and it may be beyond you.  Not so!
    You can stay up to the minute with your customers by using some simple tools like RSS feeds and Google Alerts.  Tweetdeck also lets you view many comments at a glance.
     Point Two.  It's time to ask yourself, "am I truly mobile?  Can my customers shop on the go?"   Here's the hard truth:  in just three years, trends say mobile purchases will quadruple.
     Is your website mobile?  You already know your website is a huge part of your business.   Now, make sure it's doing double duty by working through business social media, taking advantage of mobility and the overwhelming smart phone market.  Make sure your website is simple to use on the go and will easily complete a mobile transaction.
     And on the subject of transactions - while Visa and Mastercard remain the old standbys, DON'T ignore the use of PayPal.  Thanks largely to Ebay, more people than ever before are using this simple and safe method of payment.
     How will you know when everything is working the way it should?  Simple -  you'll hear the following sound:
     Cha-ching!!!

It's The Only Way to Fly

    Wow, it was nice to take some time off but now it's back to the blog - and it being summer (or almost) lots of people are thinking about travel - and using interactive media to book it.
    As a refresher, "business social media" means getting your business info out in an easy fashion to the customer base that A) wants to use your services, and B) will use your services if only they knew about them.
     Let's talk about the airlines.  We've been able to book flights online for years thanks to outfits such as   Orbitz and Expedia, but did you know that a lot of individual airlines are tweeting deals?
     The June Consumer Reports magazine says that they did some looking and found these two incredible fares: @FrontierSale and @JetBlueCheeps, both of which were offering a $10 one-way fare from San Francisco to Long Beach, California.  Yep.  Ten bucks.  However:
    Seats are limited, and quick action is needed.  The magazine notes that @UnitedAirlines'Tware fares sell out within two hours.
    What a great idea, tweeting fares!  It gives the customer a great deal, and drives business to the airline!  This is why your business needs to stay linked in to the business social media network.
     It's the only way to fly!