Not Sure if Social Media is of any benefit to a Small Buainess??

Take a look at some of the stats taken from various sources in an effort to help break social media down into easy-to-understand pieces, so you can make sense of and make use of this powerful resource in a way that grows your business.

• 86% of B2B firms are using social, compared to 82% of B2C. (Source)

• B2B firms aren’t as active in their social media activity with only 32% engaging on a daily basis compared with 52% of B2C firms. (Source)

• More than half (53.5%) of marketers surveyed said they currently use social media as part of their marketing strategy. This is up from 2009, when 45.0% of marketers said they used social media for marketing. (Source)

• The top three social networks—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn collectively received more than 2.5 billion visits in the month of September 2009 alone. Twitter grew by more than 600% in 2009, while Facebook grew by 210% and LinkedIn by 85%.

• A recent report revealed that, on average, 900,000 blog posts are created within a single 24-hour period.

• The online photo sharing site Flickr now hosts more than 3.6 billion user images.

• The online bookmarking service Delicious has more than 5 million users and more than 150 million unique bookmarked URLs.
So, perhaps this social media thing is going to catch on after all !!

Basic Tips for Promoting Your Business on facebook

1. Use Facebook pages as hubs — use your Facebook page to launch different campaigns. Promote it and include it in other marketing activates. Remember, Google indexes fan pages as these are public, whereas personal pages are not.

2. Be exclusive — Use your Fan page as the hub for social activities. Run offers exclusive to Facebook. Once the word gets out, others will want to join. “Being ‘in’ is a key emotional driver for Facebook users. The more exclusive, the more likely people will flock to join. But it has to be compelling.

3. Use coupons — Customers respond to coupons, regardless of the medium in which it appears. For example, a photographer can easily post an offer on Facebook that gives free sessions for large parties or make it time sensitive.

4. Integrate Facebook into your overall marketing plan — Don’t work on Facebook in isolation.

5. Make sure taht your Branding is consistent across all Marketing media.

Futura Software announce the Launch of our Auto Dealer Software

Futura Software's Auto Dealer software is an all-in-one Dealer Management Software System that allows the dealer full control over their inventory at an affordable price. Call us today on 01 2606886 or email emurray@futurasoft.com to arrange an Online Demo.

Digital Marketing News

Google is rolling out its customised search function to all of the search engine's users, affecting anyone involved in SEO.

Previously only Google users who had signed-in and had enabled their web history on their account have found their search results customised. Now all users will find that if they favour a certain site Google will feature it higher in its search results.

Google says the aim of the move is to provide better search results to its customers. It will also be able to target ads more precisely by building a profile of its users web activity.

As search results will vary from user to user it will make it harder for SEO specialists and marketers to convince Google's algorithms to push a site higher up its search ranking.

A website's position in a Google results page will also be harder to analyse as it will vary from user to user.

"Now when you search using Google, we will be able to better provide you with the most relevant results possible", said software engineer Bryan Horling and product manager Matthew Kulick in a blogpost announcing the change.

Users can turn the personalisation off it remains an opt-out rather than an opt-in service, alarming privacy campaigners.

Ways to Promote your Company on Facebook

Why Do You Need a Facebook Fan Page? You may ask, “Why do I even need a Facebook fan page?” Here’s why: Right now Facebook has an Alexa ranking of 2. They are the 2nd most trafficked website next only to Google!

This means your Facebook page will get indexed faster on Google and other search engines, so if you don’t have a fan page, be sure to create one and promote it.
Here are some ways to grow your Facebook fans:

#1: Invite People From Your Facebook Friends List
You can invite these lists as groups to your Facebook fan page rather than sending individual invites. This is the easiest and fastest way to jump-start your fan base.
As you add more people to your network, remember to go back to your same lists and send the invite to the new people you have added. The names of those who have already been invited will be “grayed out” and the invite will only be sent to your new contacts.


#2: Find People With Facebook Search
The updated Facebook Search feature (see the Search bar at the top of Facebook) gives you a view into conversations of your friends and status updates that may even show you who may be looking for the services you offer.


#3: Attract People With Facebook Social Ads
Facebook Ads provide advertisements alongside your Facebook sidebar which show related actions your friends have taken on the site. These actions may be things like “Leah is now a fan of The Offspring. Would you like to become a fan too?” It is possible to tailor ads to your friends and their interests, which makes it more appealing for them to take action because you are interested as well.
This strategy requires a small budget, but can be very effective in finding your target market. It is very important to do a Facebook search with specific keywords in your particular niche to find out if it’s being talked about on Facebook (see #2 above).
If you click on “Promote With an Ad” on your fan page, you can start a campaign. You can set a daily spending limit of as little as €1.00 or other appropriate amount.

It’s possible to run your Facebook ads for only 4 to 5 days with a (say) €25 per day budget. Then stop the ad for a few weeks if you like and run the same ad again.

#4: Facebook Fan Page Twitter App
The Facebook Fan Page Twitter application is a great tool that brings your Twitter following back to your fan page. When you post a status update, a link or a photo (you can choose) on your Facebook fan page, there will be an update to Twitter with a shortened link back to your fan page. This is just pure genius to drive traffic from another source right to your page.
There are other Facebook and Twitter integration applications; however, this is the one that leads people directly back to your page. This gives them an option to become a fan of your page right at that moment if they click on the link from Twitter.

#5: Facebook Fan Box Widget
The Facebook Fan Box Widget http://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/fanbox.php is a great feature to add to your blog or website. This widget allows you to show your fan base and allows others to become fans instantly. This is just one way to promote your page across several social media sites. It is important to cross-reference all of your social media sites so others can find you and your websites on other networks.

http://www.commoncraft.com/socialmedia
An excellent Video to Watch. Gives a great explanaition of Social Media.

Having Problems opening a Microsoft Ofice Word 2007 Docx File in an Earlier Version of Office?

To open Microsoft Office Word 2007 .docx or .docm files with Microsoft Office Word 2003, Word 2002, or Word 2000, you need to install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for 2007 Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint File Formats and any necessary Office updates. By using the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system, you can open, edit some items, and save Office Word 2007 documents in previous versions of Word.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/ha100444731033.aspx